Wow Thanks for posting that GrumpyOldMan that brought back so many happy memories , My lunacy started too with these sets, was great to see them again
All the best
Sean

Quote from: seano1815 on 08 February 2014, 09:44:51 AM
Wow Thanks for posting that GrumpyOldMan that brought back so many happy memories , My lunacy started too with these sets, was great to see them again
All the best
Sean

Indeed. The ACW cavalry were in high demand with us - you could convert them into almost anything. Anything on horseback, that is.

Was it just me or were prone toy soldiers the best?

Oh those Combat Group and Germans brought back a few memories.  The Combat Group was 1950s era  though.   WW2 Brits did not appear until the 1970s.   These first edition Airfix were very fine - more 1/87 H0 scale - the Airfix tanks were too large at 1/72.  I finally purchased Roco minitanks which were very good models.


Never understood why Airfix did not mould in hard plastic - the same as their kits. So many conversions would have been possible.

Ah - but you could. When I still used the Combat group I had Bren Guns, done by chopping the rifle out of the charging figure and taking the bren from the 8Th army set.

IanS

Quote from: Sunray on 08 February 2014, 07:30:53 PM
Never understood why Airfix did not mould in hard plastic - the same as their kits. So many conversions would have been possible.

Iron, rather than steel, dressmaker's pins for spears. Iron ones could be hammered to produce a proper spear head.

Plasticene and banana oil cloaks.

Drawing pin shields.

Horses, legs and torsos pinned together (steel pins this time) to make mounted versions.

So many conversion options!

Bees' wax was the conversion material of choice for us. Mind you, you had to ensure they were well and truly varnished in the summer. 

Found this in a local museum display at the weekend:

I think I had that. 

I certainly had this ...

I certainly had the Battle of the Little Big Horn, I'd completely forgotten about that!

Hello Leon

Quote from: Leon on 03 March 2014, 06:13:06 PM
Found this in a local museum display at the weekend:

Yes I had this, the horses were in a waxy plastic (resin?) that broke easily, have a few unbroken ones left.

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

cool

Quote from: Fenton on 04 February 2014, 01:40:08 PM
I was about 3-4 foot long and about 2 feet wide...

You were a pretty stout fellow, weren't you Fenton?

Sorry, couldn't resist that since I had to laugh about it all the way through the rest of the comments... 

Cheers!
Rob

I still have a box with the tanks, SP guns and aircraft from Combat! Though the board and the vinyl terrain are long since lost.

My introduction to board wargames was a game the local vicar had back in the early sixties. Hard to believe now, but in those days I was a choirboy in the local church. After choir practice the vicar and his wife were kind/ foolish enough to invite all the boy choristers back to the vicarage where we were allowed to run riot for an hour or two. They had a game not unlike Combat! but with cardboard counters of infantry, tanks and artillery and a printed map board.

Hadn't thought about it for years (possibly decades) and then last year I was at the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow for a talk about their collection of WW2 stuff and there was a modern reproduction of the game, done about 50% bigger for display purposes, on show in the section on children's wartime games.

Of course never thought to take a note of what it was called or who produced it

Also, on the German and British Airfix sets. Took me ages to find out why some Germans troops had been issued with pogo sticks 

Quote from: Ithoriel on 04 March 2014, 03:34:28 PM
Also, on the German and British Airfix sets. Took me ages to find out why some Germans troops had been issued with pogo sticks 

I remember that one: weird looking weapon.  Was it accurate?

Up to about 100m I think.