Mt favorite Strelets set would be their first, Napoleonic French Army Camp, which brought a touch of humanity to this era in 1/72. My favorite set overall remains Airfix French WWI infantry. The number and creativity of the poses amazed me when I first pulled the set out of the box almost 40 years ago and still does today. I was also confused why Airfix did early war British and Germans but later war French, and remain so to this day.

1) Medival Britain
2) French Field Camp
3) Boers, 100 years war GB + F, Staff-sets, Vikings vs Franks + 003 + Artilleries (GNW + crimea war)

fantastic!!!!

My compliment!

I love them soooo much!!!!!

Would like to see in mini more for napoleon area:
eg.
1) Austrian Inf. 1804 before Battle
2) Austrian Inf. after battle
3) Austrian Inf in advance
4) Austrian Inf. marsching

etc. in `normal standard format`:

Field Camps, Support Wagons, Staff Sets. New periods like: Königgrätz, Solferino, 1453, 1529 Vienna (wow eg. Turkish field camp + Staff etc.

oh sorry I´m dreaming

Martin Macalka

Dear Andy Hart the three airfix sets you mention are contemporary the french had helmets earlier then the other nations... september 1915 or so and mounths before the Germans or British introduced theirs...
the British gear is consistant with Kitcheners army rather then the BEF which would date them to late 1915 to early 1916 or just prior to the "Battle of the Somme"...shortly after the start helmets were issued, changing the heads for brodie helmets would make them usable later, the main problem is their missing a lot of kit and the pouches are a little small for 1914 pattern webbing.....
The Germans really represent 1915 troops the pouches again are a wartime expediant not necesarily the earlier form, spikes on helmets however should be mostly removed, steel helmets first again being issued during the battle...
While the British and Germans were fighting the Somme, the French and Germans were fighting Verdun( the Somme was started early to help relieve pressure on the French at verdun) as these were potentially the two greatest battles of WW1 and probarbly the bloodiest its not suprising that Airfix should base these sets on that part of the war.....
In both cases replacing helmets is valid as the rest of the clothing etc was used throughout the war...

The Americans are however an inigma....and more suitable for chasing bandits around Mexico...this would make them contemporary with the other figures as well....

Oh yes my favourite set of all time Airfix French Foreign Legion first issue.. crap I know but someones got to love them

Cheers

Thanks, Ironside. The amount of knowledge of the guys on this forum is amazing. I always used all those sets together anyway, even though I thought it was wrong. Now I don't feel guilty!

Great story, David!

I use the Robin Hood Merry Men for villagers. Don't forget the Sheriff of Nottingham set. I use the most recent release of them in silver colour as is, plus for conversions with my Giant copies of Swoppets Knights (Wars of the Roses). Someday I'll build the nice MiniArt Castle I bought for these guys.

I think I just saw a new movie t.v. advertisement with Russell Crowe as Robinhood this weekend?

Happy 2010

Dear David
Thanks. I still have an original Airfix Sheriff of Nottingham box.
I shook hands with the Sheriff as he gave out the prizes at my school prize giving. He worked with my brother and we went to football matches together so I knew him as Percy. It was strange to see him dressed in all his robes. He was also the Lord Mayor as well but never Robin Hood.
There is a trailer for the movie on Youtube. Ridley Scott is the director and it looks good. It will probably spawn miniature figures like Gladiator did. A good long term bet would be- will Zvezda do a Robin Hood set?
Some very nice larger (5 inch?) figures were produced by Vivid Imaginations of the BBC TV Robin Hood series.
David

Thank you, David!

And when can we hope to see more of your painting work or conversions?

Oh, BTW, most MGB's in the U.S. now on the market are "buckets of rolling rust." Durn! Outlived my non-toy soldier wishes - :-( Who'd have thought soft plastic toy soldiers could out-last the car industry?

:-)

Hold up GC,MGB doing good in california tehre is a whole pod of tehm in this tri county area . Climate here is so good even aircraft live for teh ever.
Too small or me i need teh sedan car..


best non STreets set well that must be zVEZDA Napoleonique russian artilley ,best airfix wagon train.

this robin hood is worse than gilligan island. and dr who is a terrible. who would use money to make these bad programs why do we need to see another version of a boring story. why did robin hood get into 1/72 mst be airfix biggest mistake.

i think usa should send back to europe with teh best soap of all time greenacres.Makae them suffer what we have.

Dudes, I love the sets Caeser are producing at the moment, especially the modern US forces.

Dear Hank

Even though I was younger I was still able to recognise that these Airfix sets were generic medieval sets and the first in 1/72nd( actually OO/HO )scale. Airfix's many mistakes are well documented in the books on the history of the company and this set is not, to the best of my knowledge, cited as one of them.

David

Dear Hank
Airfix was a British Company and often produced models in response to what was popular in Britain at the time hence the Airfix "Robin Hood" based on the TV show with Richard Green , "Tarzan" another TV show played by Ron Ely, "The High Chapparal" Western TV Show with Linda Crystal Lief Ericson, Cameron Mitchel, Mark Slade and Henry Darrow, all modelled in the set the main disapointment for me at the time was no mexicans were included..... all good fun shows and very popular with me as were the airfix sets that they spawned...
It should be remembered this is all fantasy and the figures were actually intended as TOYS......

other TV related Airfix models include "Supercar", "Fireball XL5","Captain Scarlet" Angel Interceptor... all classics from Gerry Anderson TV shows....

"Dr Who" originally played by William Hartnell quite simply a SF Classic, first aired as a "live" show Dr Who was immensly popular in the sixtys and rightly remains so today....

Films...

Dr Who and the Daleks 1965
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEsYYj9FzRo

Invasion Earth 1966
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPBKkvuR2zg

Andrew Keir who features in invasion earth also played Quartermass another popular TV offshoot..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V304l3hm8JA

Classic British Sci-fi

Cheers

ANYTHING BY STRELETS!!!

THEIR FIGURES ARE UGLIER THAN A TURKISH BRIDE.

Dear Ironside

That ferret seems to get everywhere.

I still have episode 2 to watch of the latest Dr Who. Thank goodness for Iplayer.
I seem to remember going to an exhibition of the stuff (props and costumes)in Blackpool (closed Nov 2009) and Lands End a long time ago(Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy days?) but the exhibition web site is almost unrecognisable as they have flourished beyond belief.
http://www.doctorwhoexhibitions.com

The action figures and accessories sell very well too.

David

Stane, That is low ball.What bring this on. You attack me IS fair enough, but do not attack Strelets they have done so much for this hobby.You do nothing ever.

Pity to you. You are only teh jealous you have 1 wife.the only ugliness i see is your self destructive attitude which you call humor.I think we all laugh at you and not with you...

You hide in a false name in false ip but a word of advice ...

if you look in teh message detail of receiving transmissions you ALWAYS find teh X-Originiating IP address....Go look before you keep shooting your feet and mouth off again....

After buying their 1812 Russians and GNW Curassiers (to convert to SYW) I agreed, but I just got the Medieval Levy set 2 and am very happy to say these figures are really good! I won't be ashamed to paint them and field them alongside my Italeri Revell and Zvezda troops. The ACW Union Staff set is also very well done.

As for Airfix and Robin Hood, this set is invaluable for anyone fielding a medieval army where hordes of revolting peasants - especially archers are needed. They are finely sculpted too, much better than some of the other early sets and miles ahead of the butt-ugly Troll-like "Waterloo" range

people were not so pretty in those days, poor diet and very little health care medicines except local apothecary , much disease present.so i would say the figures are aesthetically correct from that perspective.if you look at period art in depth you look at the portraits and even rich look sick.

do not forget the medici's italy and the mass population deaths in renaissance time. scurvy cholera pox ledt their marks.

STRELETS FIGURES ROCK ,NO CISSY BOY FIGURE HERE .

Dear Hank

There are no absolutes in human beauty or prettiness that will stand the test of all time and all peoples. In 500 years time people will be so stunningly beautiful and homogenised that concepts of cosmetic surgery will be a laughable, degenerate feature of the 21st century. Maybe?. Drink, smoking, over indulgence etc also ravage the human body as much as any disease. The fit peasant stock of medieval Europe, muscular and lean would probably suit 20th/21st century concepts of an outdoor, tanned, skinny ideal beauty. The Medieval wealthy and privileged, of course, cultivated a different appearance to show their ascendancy.
Small pox scars would not show up on a 1/72nd scale figure. Leprosy certainly would, though I am not sure how this affects an ideal of beauty. More tolerant? less tolerant? Michelangelo's David represents an ideal borrowed from the Ancient Greeks and gives few clues as to the appearance of the average disease ravaged, poxy, haggard Florentine bods if that was the norm.

Some of the figures in Strelets 904,905 sets look effeminate and foppish but entirely appropriate for 18th century gents and court life.

David

My vote is for the Airfix Ancient Britons (known as "Gauls" in France and as "Barbarians" in Germany...)

Of course the cart wheels spoil the authenticity, but otherwise the set holds up very well today, unlike their Roman opponents.

The new Doctor Who is very hit-and-miss. Some episodes are terrible, some of the worst writing ever.

But 4 or 5 stories so far have been brilliant, and the writer of most of these has just taken over as producer of the whole show, so expect the quality to improve significantly.

Keep an eye out for "Blink" and "Human Nature", the best two stories so far.

http://danowen.blogspot.com/2010/01/doctor-who-russell-t-davies-years.html

I have no time for the new Robin Hood shows.

By the way, Robin Hood was from Sheffield (like me!) He lived in the 14th, not the 12th century, and there never was a "Sheriff of Nottingham". The actual title was "Sheriff of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire".

Dear Flashman

Yes I knew Robin Hood was credited with being born in Loxley, etc. My understanding is that the Sheriff is a fictional character in the legends and stories though the Sheriff of Nottingham was instituted in 1449-so he was real as was the person I knew. The High Sheriff of Notts, Derbys and the Royal Forests is another office (from the Norman conquest onward) though most again came from Nottingham or Notts including the Clifton* family with a family seat about 4 miles south west of Nottingham.

David

* I belonged to the Clifton cub pack and we had services in the Clifton St Marys church which has monuments, memorials to the Cliftons and is near Clifton Hall.

Okay gothic hairstyles like this Bayern Munchen French superstar soccer player and more shaved head figures .Lady fogures with big foreghead and Portly guys with potbellies/Throw in some lepracy and teh mad munks.

No doubt hollywood will projecyt Russel Crow as Robin Hood and Will scarlett as jsut good friends like they make Sherlock Holmes and Doctior Watson ....um brothers.enjoy. i wont.