the best ww2 troops

a nice pose here from the deetail officer but badly painted as regards detail

better paint jobs on the super deetail but the poses are lacking vitality i think

i think we have here a mixture of matchbox and airfix but i'm not sure

atlantic vechile , they always got stuff wrong but always stamped their personality

 early american troops but who did them

were the deetail figures that good, yeah here they are

unknown soviet maker

ahona afrika korps , wooden.

i think these are speedwell japs,great vitality, imagine if they were painted better

not bad these deetail but not great

guilbert

the same soldier done differently

 this is how you can change what looks like a crappy ordinary badly painted plastic soldier into something more satisfying..I gave the piece a new metal bayonet and added a couple of ammo pouches and a new kit bag,then i painted it better. the result is a great piece compared to the original. the crescent piece was very well sculpted and that helped.

real alamo

 , below

lamo location: Brackettville, Texas

 .Theres not much of anything left really because as soon as the alamo was over the US army altered it beyond distinction,you can see what it looked like.. Above alamo 1850

This rare image of the Alamo chapel, is the earliest known extant photograph taken in Texas. This image of the internationally recognized Alamo facade is of particular historical importance because it is the only known photograph of the Alamo taken before it was repaired and rebuilt by the U.S. Army in 1850. At that time the army altered the appearance of the Alamo in several ways, including adding the distinctive curved gable at the top of the church facade, which is perhaps its best known feature. Little is known of the daguerreotype's history, but there is evidence that it may have been given to the Batterson family of New England by Edward Miles, a local official in Bexar County during the late 1840s and 1850s. It was recently purchased at an estate auction in New England by William S. Reese, a rare book dealer in New Haven, Connecticut. The Center for American History bought the daguerreotype from Reese with funds donated for that purpose by former Texas governor Dolph Briscoe Jr. and his wife, former University of Texas System regent Janey Briscoe.

was the costliest movie made at the time. The production was closed down and restarted at Brackettville on Highway 90, about 100 miles west of San Antonio toward Del Rio, West Texas, where Wayne leased 400 acres of a 22,000 acre ranch belonging to one JT ‘Happy’ Shahan, and the Alamo was rebuilt.

                                                                                   Even so, at $7,500,000, The Alamo 

was too expensive. The full-sized facsimile, which took two years to complete, used the original plans, the traditional adobe techniques and – without any apparent irony – a largely Mexican workforce of 5,000. It was claimed at the time to be the biggest movie set outside above from 1850-70 used as a supply depot
 Hollywood.

And it stayed there, as a tourist attraction as well as a location for many subsequent movies. Extensions acquired over the years include a section of San Antonio which metamorphoses over its length to become Fort Worth of the 1880s. Alamo Villagecan be found just north of Brackettville itself, on Route 674.

Mr Shahan’s widow died in 2009 and the village was closed down to the public. It opened, in a reduced form, during Summer 2010, but its future is uncertain.

Wayne’s mentor, John Ford, proved unable to resist giving advice to his old pal until Wayne packed him off to film second unit shots. Ford’s scenes include the wide shot of Santa Ana’s initial approach on the Alamo and the Mexican soldiers crossing the river.

The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas

The real Alamo, in San Antonio,
w

was founded as the Mission San Antonio de Valero in 1718, the first in a chain of missions built along the San Antonio River to extend the frontier of the Spanish empire and convert the Native Americans to Catholicism.

It was closed down in 1793 and its lands given to the 39 mission Indians, then occupied on and off by the various forces in control of Texas until it achieved immortality in 1836 when 1,888 Texan volunteers were massacred by Santa Ana’s troops.

Among those who perished in the massacre were American folk heroes Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett, hence Hollywood’s fascination with this bit of US history. The only survivor of the massacre was a black servant found hiding in the chapel and played, memorably, by blonde Joan O’Brian in The Alamo
.

Although the town of San Antonio is shaded by alamo (cottonwood) trees, the name actually comes from a Spanish Cavalry unit from the pueblo of El Alamo de Parras who occupied the old mission in 1801.

The chapel, built in 1756, and the Long Barrack are virtually all that remain of the fortified complex, though the site now also contains the extensive Alamo Memorial Museum, which occupies a 4.2 acre site on Alamo Plaza.

Entry is free, but watch your dress and behaviour here – the place has taken on the status of a shrine. Bare chests and loud shirts are out, hushed voices and solemn patriotism very much in. Remember Ozzy e.

atlantic fast attack boat

my collection us infantry

i got this box of soldiers through the post from this bloke who couldn't pay for his soldiers, he'd ordered five metal napoleonics in unpainted form and said he wanted to see them before he paid so as it was a small, very small order, i sent them.Instead of sending me money he sent me about 200 plastic soldiers in lieu, the geezer is a big name in toy soldier world so this was odd.But within the package there were enough gems amongst the crap that more than paid for my trouble but that bloke just lost a supplier as I don't like piss takers and believe me theres plenty around.
Heres three old American plastic infantry, bet you can't spot the makers.in the post above you can see the near finished airfix piece

my collection us infantry

i got this box of soldiers through the post from this bloke who couldn't pay for his soldiers, he'd ordered five metal napoleonics in unpainted form and said he wanted to see them before he paid so as it was a small, very small order, i sent them.Instead of sending me money he sent me about 200 plastic soldiers in lieu, the geezer is a big name in toy soldier world so this was odd.But within the package there were enough gems amongst the crap that more than paid for my trouble but that bloke just lost a supplier as I don't like piss takers and believe me theres plenty around.
Heres three old American plastic infantry, bet you can't spot the makers.

indians against the japs by atlantic

circus maximus by marx

commando ww2

I have a lot of airfix ones to paint so what i do is download as many images as i can  to paint better . I prefer king and  country style 
British Commando operations during the Second World War were very dangerous , the British Commandos  were a force formed by the United Kingdom during the Second World War, following an order from the British Prime minister Winston Churchill in June 1940 for a force that could carry out raids against German occupied Europe.
Commandos were all volunteers for special service and originally came from the British Army but volunteers would eventually come from all branches of the United Kingdoms armed forces and foreign volunteers from countries occupied by the Germans.These volunteers formed over 30 individual units and four assault brigades.

1941
The first Commando raid was Operation Collar 23 June 1940. The raid was not carried out by a Commando unit, but by one of their predecessors No.11 Independent Company. Under the command of Major Ronnie Tod it was an offensive reconnaissance on the French coast south of Boulogne-sur-Mer and Le Touquet.
The operation was a limited success and the only British injury was a bullet graze to Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Clarke (Clarke was there as an observer), while at least two German soldiers were killed.
 A second and similarly inconsequential attack, Operation Ambassador, was launched on the German occupied island of Guernsey on the night of 14 July 1940, by men drawn from H Troop of No. 3 Commando under command of John Durnford-Slater and No. 11 Independent Company. One unit landed on the wrong island, another disembarked from its launch into water that came over their heads.
Intelligence had indicated that there was a large German barracks on the island but the Commandos only discovered empty buildings. On their return to the beach they discovered that heavy seas had forced their launch off shore and they then had to swim out to sea to get picked up.

 a force of Commandos under Colonel Robert Laycock were sent to the Middle East to carry out raids in the eastern Mediterranean. This force became known as 'Layforce' after their commander and initially they were drawn from 'A' Troop from No. 3 Commando, No. 7 Commando, No. 8 (Guards) Commando, and No. 11 (Scottish) Commando.

The next raid of any consequence from the United Kingdom was Operation Claymore in March 1941, by No. 3 and No. 4 Commandos. This was the first large scale raid from the United Kingdom during the war. Their objective was the undefended Norwegian Lofoten Islands. They successfully destroyed the fish-oil factories, petrol dumps, and 11 ships, capturing 216 Germans, encryption equipment and codebooks.

In April Layforce received orders to begin carrying out a raids on the Afrika Korps lines of communication along the North African coast.
 On 12 April they carried out a preliminary move to Alexandria and three days later they received orders to carry out a raid on Bardia and another on Bomba.The attacks had to be abandoned, however, due to high seas which would have made disembarking and re-embarking too dangerous.[The appearance of the Commandos behind their lines forced the Germans to divert the main part of an armoured brigade from where they had previously been undertaking offensive action around Sollum, in order to defend against further raids.

Layforce less No. 11 (Scottish) Commando was next involved in the Battle of Crete in May. They were deployed to the island to carry out raids on the German lines of communications with a view to either turning back the invasion or enabling an evacuation to take place.
 By 31 May the evacuation from Crete was drawing to a close and the Commandos, running low on ammunition, rations and water, fell back towards Sphakia. Laycock and some of his headquarters, including his intelligence officer Evelyn Waugh managed to get out on the last ship to depart, however the vast majority of the Commandos were left behind. Of the 800 Commandos that had been sent to Crete, by the end of the operation about 600 were listed as killed, missing or wounded and only 23 officers and 156 others managed to get off the island.

In June the Allies invaded Vichy French controlled Syria and Lebanon, Operation Exporter. As a part of this operation, No. 11 (Scottish) Commando were tasked with seizing a crossing over the Litani River. The action cost the Commando over 120 casualties, which equated to nearly a quarter of their strength.

By July the operations that Layforce had undertaken had severely reduced their strength and in the circumstances reinforcements were unlikely.
 The operational difficulties that had been exposed during the Bardia raid, combined with the strategic imperatives that had developed as the situation in the Middle East had evolved, and the overarching inability of the high command to fully embrace the commando concept had largely served to make the force ineffective and as a result the decision was made to disband Layforce.On the airfix pieces try and get the finish below Many of the men went back to their previous regiments following the decision, while others chose to remain in the Middle East and subsequently joined the Special Air Service and the Special Boat Squadron.

The Commandos would serve in all the theatres of war from the Arctic circle, to Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific. Their operations ranged from small groups of men landing from the sea or by parachute to a brigade of assault troops spearheading the Allied invasions of Europe and Asia.

After the Second World War most of the Commands were disbanded leaving just the Royal Marine 3 Commando Brigade but their legacy is the present day Royal Marine Commandos, the Parachute Regiment, Special Air Service and the Special Boat Service who can all trace their origins to the Commandos. Their legacy also extends to mainland Europe, the French Naval commandos, the Dutch Korps Commandotroepen and the Belgian Paracommando Brigade can all trace their origins to men who volunteered to serve with the British Commandos.