🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 US Paratroopers With Modern Wooden Armour (Part 2)

ESCI 1/35 Modern U.S. Paratroopers (Italy) and  Chinese-made plywood vehicles models — the “Fierce Horse” Humvee-style model and the "Infantry Chariot" armoured vehicle.

 

🇺🇸 Vintage US Paratroopers Meet Modern Wooden Armour

A quick 1980s throwback with ESCI 1/35 Modern U.S. Paratroopers (Italy) with a subtle Desert Storm-inspired feel, paired with Chinese-made plywood vehicles models — the “Fierce Horse” Humvee-style model and a distinctive tracked Infantry Chariot. The contrast between classic plastic figures and handcrafted wooden armour creates a unique, slightly experimental look, with the tracked vehicle taking inspiration from compact IFV designs—somewhere between BMP-style proportions and a Bradley-like concept.

WW2 Red Army Composition Figures 🚩🚩🚩

A small field vignette built around composition figures: tank crew produced by PGH Effelder (DDR, 1960s) combined with infantry figures designed by Reiner Krock.

🚩 Soviet WW2 Steel in the Field! 🚩

Sharing some shots of this great Chinese plywood KV-2, photographed outdoors today. The figures are a brilliant vintage mix — tank crew by PGH Effelder (DDR, 1960s) and Red Army infantry composition figures designed by Reiner Krock (Germany). Old figures, new kit, timeless scene!

Cast in Time: The Gebr. Schneider Mould Catalogue, c. 1920 📖📖📖

Published by Gebrüder Schneider around 1920, this sixteen-page German catalogue sold not tin soldiers but the iron Giessformen — casting moulds — to make them yourself: melt old lead, pour, paint, sell to neighbours on the side. Over 240 form numbers span a staggering range, from Prussian infantry in spiked helmets and cavalry lancers mid-charge to Native American warriors on horseback, Arab camel caravans, a full nativity, farmyard animals, football players, a giraffe, a moose, and a New Year lucky-charm set (pig, horseshoe, four-leaf clover). The catalogue captures its historical moment precisely — soldier moulds were offered in both the old Pickelhaube and the new Stahlhelm, American flag-bearers make an appearance, and Form No. 215 is nothing less than a WW1 Zeppelin. Most infantry moulds cost Mk. 3.30; casting lead was Mk. 0.85 a kilo. For collectors today it is a primary source of the first order — the full vocabulary of early Weimar-era flat-figure design, compressed into a single remarkable pamphlet.

Source catalogue: Gebrüder Schneider Giessformen-Katalog, c. 1920 PDF (16 pages) available at:

A Little Bit of British Plastic History 🎺🥁🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

These charming red figures are part of a British military band set produced by Charbens, a classic English toy manufacturer founded in the 1920s. Starting out with lead and metal figures, Charbens transitioned to "unbreakable" plastic toys during the 1960s-70s, producing delightful 1/32 scale sets like these guardsmen and bandsmen complete with bearskin hats, bagpipes, drums, and a drum major's mace. The company was eventually taken over and its plastics capability repurposed for packaging — but the legacy lives on, as modern recasts of these iconic little figures are still available on the market today for collectors who want to add them to their display.

JRD Composition Tirailleurs Algériens with White AM Armoured Car 🇫🇷🇩🇿

A set of French JRD composition soldiers from the 1930s–40s, depicting Tirailleurs Algériens (Algerian riflemen) in their characteristic horizon bleu greatcoats and red chéchia fez caps, accompanied by a French Army officer.They are paired here with a 1946 French wooden model of a White AM armoured car — the American-built vehicle widely used by French forces — complete with its unit roundel on the hull.