Copyright 2008 T. Sheil & A. Sheil All Rights Reserved
Painted in standard colors for British Paratroopers in World War II
This is the Army Men Homepage, so it is natural that we would make Army Men. When I got back into homecasting, the first batch of molds I bought were classic guardsmen in busbies and Scots. Next came some knights and Civil War guys. Our first mold of 20th Century army men was this one. It contains copies of paratroopers by the English firm Lone Star. They were originally sculpted in the early 1950s, about the time the United kingdom's forces were experimenting with a bullpup type assault rifle. It looked as if the rifle might be accepted, so toymakers equipped their British troops with it. In the end, the bullpup was superseded by the SLR rifle. Call it a sideways anachronism, but many 1950s eras British Army figures have the oddball weapon. Lone Star was joined by Herald, Cherilea, Crescent and others in this faux pas.
True to Army Men fans everywhere, we decided to see just how much we could get from this delightful mold. The pieces are crude. We cannot even tell what type firearm the one man is firing, except that it looks like some type of submachine gun. Despite that, the poses are exciting. With a change of paint and a little filing here and there, we assembled a variety of troops using just this one mold.
By the way, fine green mosquito netting can be cut and used as helmet camouflage nets.
Another set in British colors
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Painted as Fallschirmjager |
Painted as US style GIs |
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Dark green uniforms |
Khaki Tan uniforms |
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Green "leopard" camouflage |
WW2 Italian Paratroopers in North Africa and Sicily |
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Painted in WW2 U.S. tan "leopard" camouflage |
Painted as guards for spy game |
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Painted to resemble Communist type enemy troops, inspired by the old "Mission Impossible" TV series |
Painted to resemble Italian paratroopers in Europe prior to 1945 |
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Painted to resemble Fallschirmjager in green camouflage smocks |
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Painted in brown uniforms as Communist troops. 1940 - 1955 |
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Painted in khaki / mustard uniforms for desert combat |
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