Monday, July 29, 2013

Zombies at the Gates!!!!


Given pop culture's obsession with all things living dead, it was only a matter of time before the zombie scourge seeped its way to Supersized Fort Apache. At the right of this exclusive photo, Geronimo pumps .45 slugs into a pair of undead corpses stumbling toward him through the fort's pumpkin patch. (The zombie figures are produced by a company called 'Gentle Giant." I bought a 14-figure set through Ebay.)

 
Horrifically, the only thing a zombie craves more than live brain is YOUNG live brain. Having wandered off from her brother and sister, this tender-lobed little settler is in quite a fix after a quartet of ghouls box her in while on a food run. 
 
 

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Improvised ruined building

A battle-pounded, three-story German outpost somewhere in rural France. I Franksteined this by disassembling a 1/18th scale European barn (thank you, Basil, Jr.!) and placing the quite realistic-looking weathered planking sections atop sundry destroyed brick mounds that come with many Forces of  Valor vehicles. The sandbags, iron fencing, boxes, 55-gallon drums and other incidentals likewise came in FOV sets. From the look of things, the Huns occupying this building are under assault on both flanks AND their center.
 
 
 

Monday, July 22, 2013

Timpo's "Beachhead Invasion" playset


Aurora/Timpo's wonderful "Beachhood Invasion" playset was - along with my Marx "Blockhouse" Fort Apache - the last of my childhood toy soldier acquisitions. This is the original box, which I excavated out of the closet of my childhood bedroom my last trip home. Although a berserking tsunami of hormones was overwhelming my toy soldier fever at the time, I loved this set, and still have many of the figures and equipment. (Up to this point, my exposure to Timpo figures was extremely limited. I was fascinated by these inter-changeable little men.) Miraculously, this box still held/holds the set's original instructions - the only such playset document to have survived my childhood.

In hindsight, the presence of a thoroughly British Bren gun carrier in the set's all-American combat group was peculiar - but I was the only kid in my circle who had one.



The American bazooka team was practically a pre-made diorama vignette, complete with a small pile of debris, spare rockets and a terrain base. I've always been very partial to these two tank-busters. (Behind them, a 21st Century Sherman (commanded by a Forces of Valor officer) moves forward with a squad of Toy Soldiers of San Diego and Classic Toy Soldiers G.I.s.)
 
The Germans counter with a mortar crew, also plugged into its own base. (If one were so inclined, the German figures can be removed and Americans put in their place.)
 
 
Timpo issued each "army" with a howitzer with which to infuse their martial entanglements with a bit of dignity. (Paraphrasing here; can't recall the exact line, and it's Monday morning.) Save for their colors, the long guns were identical.