I had a massive collection of books that I used to copy and draw soldiers from. I'm not that good at drawing but used to love it. I also, probably like most of you reading this, had a rather large collection of Airfix 1/32 scale WWII figures.
Me and my brother Lee, used to spend hours setting all the soldiers up, behind Lego barricades
and a home made wooden fort our Dad made for us, then we'd take turns to throw marbles at each others troops.
and a home made wooden fort our Dad made for us, then we'd take turns to throw marbles at each others troops.
Any you knocked over became casualties of war. We'd always end up with the heavy machine gun
figures left. Or the "Laying downers" as we used called them. Trying to turn them over
using a marble from 4 feet away is very hard!
My favourite troops were the DAK, or as I used to call them the German Africa Corps
(Corps as in corpes)
I was fascinated with them, (still am I suppose) especially the German army uniform, but mainly the German helmet and field cap.
They were always my first choice when picking out an army, while my brother loved the British Commandos.
I used to own a FOW DAK army, which I very stupidly sold at a show 1 year, bloody idiot!!
I do still have my collection of old bendy Airfix figures, but decided not to paint them, instead I bought 20 odd figures from ebay for the colossal sum of 99p and chose my two favourite figures to paint up for this round.
Not sure what I'll do with these?
Maybe paint the rest up??
My favourite ever pic of the DAK.
Drooool!
Ohhhh! Mu childhood too :) One of my first plastic heroine ;)))
ReplyDeleteMy favourite ever toys when I was a kid. Even though I'm still a kid now!
DeleteWonderful, nostalgic stuff. I had a hand gun that fired those small discs that were the size of our modern penny and lego bombs made from a weak brick frame and rubber tyres squashed into the middle. On impact the rubber tyres would bounce back out to their normal shape and scatter the brick frame everywhere ... not sure a Lego frag would be a P.C. thing these days!
ReplyDeleteI remember those guns. We had them. I think they had little red counters with a serated edge didn't they?
DeleteThe DAK vs the British fought many a battle in the sandbox in my back yard. The combination of Airfix HO figures and Rocco Minitanks was hard to beat.
ReplyDeleteJim
And now look at us? Eh Jim?
DeleteAh yes.. they were among my favourites...nice job there Ray
ReplyDeleteCheers Dave!
DeleteAwesome stuff Ray. I literally have just put those very figures away in a box, as I'm doing a bit of a tidy-up in the hobby room. Marvellous stuff :-)
ReplyDeleteExcellent!
DeleteLovely and nostalgic, Ray! I too reminisce about my childhood toys...one being a 1:35 Tamiya kit...the Panzer II with Afrika Korps infantry.
ReplyDeleteJust what is it about the DAK?
DeleteBrilliant work!! This was my favourite set of figures as a kid. Excellent poses so realistic.
ReplyDeleteJust love these two poses.
DeleteI used to own plenty of the 1/32 Figures and spent hours of fun with them. Very nostalgic
ReplyDeleteWe all started the same way didn't we.
DeleteA great set of fig's from my past too. Nice one Ray!
ReplyDeleteCheers Rodger.
DeleteOooh very nice.. paint the rest.. skirmish games in the desert, so you'll need 8th army too... :o) PS. Front cover of the Pan Ballantyne book on the Afrika Korps?? Still have it in the loft somewhere...
ReplyDeleteHmmmm? Can you get 1/32 scale tanks?
DeleteA good excuse to collect another DAK I think !
ReplyDeleteCould be?
DeleteLobbing marbles at them - ah, fun times as a kid, huh? One of those memories you'll treasure.
ReplyDeleteIndeed Alex indeed.
DeleteNice one... IMHO, the Airfix DAK set is excellent, the grenade thrower is my favourite pose. I also had a few 1/32nd airfix ..4 thousand or so. Worth a bloody fortune now but sadly all Long gone :-(
ReplyDeleteI had loads, but not many. I so so surprised at just how big the figures were though. Not sure why?
DeleteAwesome post. I think we all had similar childhoods. I loved playing with my toys soldiers out on the beach and in rock pools.
ReplyDeleteThe good old days!
DeleteVery nice work Ray!
ReplyDeleteCheers Rod!
DeleteBrings back great memories Ray you have done a cracking job on those.
ReplyDeleteBest
Willie
Cheers Willie!
DeleteLovely job on these chunks of plastic nostalgia! Are monogram still going? They did 1/32 tanks, nice post.
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Not heard of Monogram??
DeleteUS model kit maker so their kit's were in imperial sizes, 1/32 not metric 1/35, they've been taken over by Revell who still stock a small range.
DeleteBest Iain
Great stuff Ray! I like the extended bases!
ReplyDeleteThis set is on my plan for repainting this year!
Very nice!!
I look forward to seeing your DAK.
DeleteAh the memories!
ReplyDeleteYep!
DeleteGreat job, great memory!
ReplyDeleteReminiscing's a great thing Jay.
DeleteBlimey! You turn your nose up painting 28mms and here's you turning out superb 54mms!
ReplyDelete(so where's the real Ray?)
Where's the real Ray? Somewhere in the Bahamas soaking up the sun, while some other twats painting all his figures for him. ;0)
DeleteI used to have a box of airfix DAK also! They fought against my British paras...
ReplyDeleteOr my Americans from another company (don't know which one) which were in a slighty smaller scale, but who cares? It was fun!
I also had loads of Atlantic ancient Greeks which were even larger then the Airfix WW2 I owned.
Wow, so many souvenirs, and a great job on the brown shades...
ReplyDelete