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HomeWelcome to drumandflag.com, the companion website to the Drum & Flag eBay toy soldier shop. On this home page you will find details of the latest updates I have made to my toy soldier hobby info & gallery site. The main sections of the website can be accessed using the tabs at the top of each page as well as via links in the text. More information about this hobby site and about Drum & Flag in general can be found under the About tab. If you have arrived here looking for my online shop and wish to go straight there click the link below:
WHAT'S NEW ?
RECENT SITE UPDATES / PAINTING BENCH PROGRESS REPORTS / BLOG etc...
03/11/08 Painting Bench - Italeri Union cannons and Imex Civil supply wagons painted with first green coat (Vallejo Game Color Cayman Green #67). Union artillery crew - flesh applied (VGC #41 Dwarf Flesh). Airfix Waterloo accessories - black undercoat drybrushed with first brown coat (VGC #45 Charred Brown). Revell ACW pioneers and accessories also coming along.
I have come close to thinking I have finished my ACW armies on several occassions but then some idea or other crops up to delay completion again. The latest development being that I want each of my 12 stand units to have their own dedicated full accompaniment of markers. These comprising coin based disorder / breakthrough / low ammo / destroyed / hold / panic / making breastworks markers. Some totally unnecessary really and I certainly could make do with a shared pool of markers but I like doing markers so they get on the painting bench!
Add to that each infantry unit now has it's own artillery stand with limber / destroyed battery / damaged battery marker / low ammo marker. Plus supply wagon and team.
29/10/08 Drum & Flag Mousemats - In an attempt to pretend there is no economic downturn I decided to invest in a bit of promotional material! Click here to find out more: Mousemats
26/10/08 Italeri Bridge. Click following link for a couple of pics of the assembled and painted 1/72 Italeri bridge kit. Bridge Pics
26/10/08 Painting Bench. Waterloo accessories now undercoated. Italeri Union heavy artillery men and rifled cannons likewise. Also hope to upload a few more ACW gaming marker ideas - panic (running away figures) / making breastworks (pioneers with pick axes from Revell set) / hold (stacked muskets from the Revell Napoleonic British Artillery set). Should finish my ACW collection this year so I can start on Napoleonics and LOTR properly in 2009.
26/10/08 Exchange Rates. Only a few months ago the Pound:Dollar rate was 2:1. Today it's heading for 1.5:1 which is quite a fall in a quick space of time. Unfortunately and inevitably this means that some items sourced from outside the UK will be quite a bit more expensive for me to buy and therefore the prices in the store will have to rise too I am afraid. The only good news is that I bought in good quantities of many items before the rate fell off a cliff so you can still get some products at what are now the "old" lower prices whilst stocks last.
12/10/08. Airfix Battle of Waterloo Set. As a kid in the 1970's I remember receiving the Airfix Battle of Waterloo Assault Set as one of the best Christmas presents I ever had. Some 30 or more years later Airfix have repackaged it and re-released it including the farmhouse, all 9 sets of Napoleonic figures they produced, a diorama base, paints and...the legendary accessory set! And all for £29.99! Needless to say I had to have a set for my personal use and will be painting up the accessory sprue in the coming weeks and will post pics on this site as usual.
07/10/08. Have finished the Mortars - now for the crew and then onto the Heavy Rifled Artillery. Mortars were a bit fiddly to assemble but are pretty good models when all comes together. Mixing Vallejo Game Color black and gunmetal seemed to do the trick for the right colour paint. Should have painted the insides black as you can see the original blue plastic showing through. I would not want to be in the besieged Rebel trench lines when these guys open up! (Revell figure shown for scale).
04/10/08. Started painting some Italeri 1/72 scale Civil War Union siege mortars.
03/10/08. www.terragenesis.co.uk Latest link added to Links page. The site tags itself as "the place for model terrain" and you will see why when you visit.
28/09/08. Italeri 1/72 Confederates - Now finished and some pics uploaded in the Gallery 72 Rebel page. Click here to view: Italeri Confederates . Next on the agenda is to tidy up my Union units before moving on to some Napoleonic and Lord of the Rings projects.
19/09/08 New hobby guide added to Guides section. This is: A Guide to Basing Wargames Figures. Click here to view: Basing Wargames Figures . I have used some of the Italeri 1/72 scale Confederates I have painted up to illustrate this guide. I just have to varnish the 100+ stands I have produced and then will be uploading photos into the Gallery 72 section of the site.
19/09/08 www.redskorpio.com.ar Latest link added to Links page. Redskorpio are a company located in Argentina dedicated to selling mainly 1/32 scale plastic toy soldiers made in Argentina by DSG from the molds provided by Britains and from DSG's own molds. Also sells other toy soldiers and collectibles too. They have hundreds of historically accurate flags for use with your figures.
19/09/08 Economic Downturn. I get asked quite a bit how the ongoing turmoil in the global financial markets will affect (my) business. The answer is I don't know for sure but it will certainly make currency exchange rates more volatile and encourage manufacturers to even more carefully consider their production and pricing strategies. Both these factors will manifest themselves in the quantity and price of new releases I guess. Beyond that I am cautiously optimistic - certainly for the majority of the products I sell. Why? Well....there cannot be many hobbies where the basic cost of products such as 1/72 and 1/32 plastics are still relatively low and yet the time they are enjoyed for is so lengthy. For example most boxes of 1/72 figures remain around £5 for 50 figures (ie just 10p each) and so if painted and then gamed with that initial investment will pay back handsomely in the form of hours and hours of pleasure. As many folk look to tighten their financial belts somewhat I think this aspect of the toy soldier / wargaming hobby at least is in good shape to weather any storm.
15/09/08 Runnymede. Despite having lived in Berks & Bucks all my life (with the exception of some good years in Amsterdam and Staffs) I had never been to nearby Runnymede. I put that right this weekend. The river, meadows and wooded hillside make it a lovely setting but the three memorials / monuments give it something more special. Firstly there is the JFK Memorial set on the wooded hillside up a flight of cobbled stones and a bit further along and lower down is the Magna Carta area celebrating the birth of modern democracy. The real unexpected highpoint (literally as well as figuratively) however for me after the long and steep climb up through the woods was the Airforces Memorial. As usual the site is beautifully maintained by the Commonwealth Wargraves Commission and is set on heights offering fabulous views over towards London. This magnificent and moving memorial complex commerorates the 20,000+ lost in WW2 in operations from bases in the UK and W. Europe. Fortunately we discovered there is a road leading up the other way so it's easy to get to if the walk is not for you. Find out more from the CWGC website: www.cwgc.org
15/09/08. New hobby guide added to Guides section. This is: Wargames Figures - A Storage Solution. Click her to view: Storage Solutions
12/09/08 Italeri 1/72 scale Confederates - may take a bit longer to complete than planned as loads of deliveries for the eBay store arrived this week. Have based them though which was fun - now need to add flag stands, apply sand, ink wash, flock and varnish. Bases are 3cm square plastic card. If you are new to this material it's easy to make these bases from A4 size sheets using a metal rule, scribe and craft knife. Much can be done by scoring and carefully bending to break rather than cutting all the way through which is harder work.
12/09/08 TSSD have recently released their new 1/32 scale plastic set #11 - WW2 Late War Elite German Troops. An interesting set with 2 mounted poses included. Available for sale in my eBay store. www.stores.ebay.co.uk/drumandflag
08/09/08 Italeri 1/72 scale Confederates now all painted. This week will see them based, flocked and photographed for uploading here.
08/09/08 War Movies Guide updated. See Guides tab.
03/09/08 Conte have recently released their new plastic spartans. Great figures featuring a unique poseability meaning you can change the many poses Conte produce (23 spread over 9 packs) into an almost infiinite variety to suit yourself. Available for sale in my eBay store. www.stores.ebay.co.uk/drumandflag
03/09/08 www.Astronomican.comComprehensive site for the Warhammer Community featuring news, articles, role playing, fiction, modelling & painting etc...Added to Links page.
03/09/08 Book Just finished reading "The Terror" by Dan Simmons. Historical / horror novel about the ill-fated Franklin Expedition to find the fabled North West Passage. When I am not reading military history or Tolkien or Football I turn to Polar adventure - although must say can't think of anything I'd rather not do myself! "The Terror" weighs in at over 900 pages and is well worth the effort.
29/08/08 Painting Bench This week has seen much work on my 200 or so 1/72 Italeri Confederates and I hope to complete them, photo them and upload them pretty soonish.
29/08/08 Price Rises & Exchange Rates. Now may be a good time to pick up certain sets you have been watching for a while as for some product lines prices are likely to rise in the near future. This is for two reasons. Firstly several manufacturers have put their prices up or are about to soon. This is mainly because their costs have risen to a point where they have to pass at least some of the pain down the line. Some makers increase prices every year but others rarely do and it's the latter I am picking up on the radar. Secondly Sterling has been steady at around two US Dollars for quite some time but it is on it's way down and some analysts predict it is likely to fall to 1.7 or lower. Whilst this makes UK purchases cheaper for US customers it is not so good for UK customers as it means products of US origin are likely to have to rise even if some of the increase is absorbed by sellers such as Drum & Flag. Those in the Euro zone have had a good rate vs Sterling for months and this seems likely to continue for a while although this apparently may not be the case in the medium to long term (UK early to recognise economic downturn and maybe first to pick up compared to Continental Europe?). Generally I tend to filter rises in as I get new stock, rather than increase all affected stock at one time, so you may see similar products at old and new prices for a while until the older stock sells through. Obviously things can change quickly depending on all sorts of factors but this is how I see things as of now having made myself sit through a couple of business/economic tv programmes recently!
29/08/08 Favourite tunes keeping me company - and no doubt annoying the neighbours - whilst working away on the painting bench this month included: Santogold, The Music, Foo Fighters, Black Stone Cherry, Stone Gods and Journey. I saw the Foos at Wembley and Journey at Hammersmith earlier this summer and loved them both. I was also tempted to nip up the road to the Reading Festival for the first time in years having once upon a time been a serial attendee. Never made it but saw some good stuff on the TV. Audience were about half my age!
26/08/08 New link added. Soldatinionline http://lnx.soldatinionline.it/index.php?lang=english
Italian 1/72 scale plastics site with Galleries, Forum, News etc.. Added to Links page.
18/08/08 Portuguese modeller Nuno M. Cabecadas has started a blog at http://soldadosminiatura.blogspot.com which will be of interest to hobbyists. It is in his native language but pictures are also shown of some of his excellent work. Added to Links page.
16/08/08 My experiment with using a container of brown ink wash worked well. These "magic baths" are a really easy way of shading figures quickly and effectively. I will now permanently keep it next to my long established black ink bath. If you fancy a go it's easy to make your own dip - just add a bottle or two of Vallejo ink to about half a pint to a pint of water, keep in a sealed tupperware container for easy dunking and hey presto you have your wash.
16/08/08 Despite it (supposedly) being high summer here in the UK and therefore quieter it has been really busy in the eBay shop. Great for business, less so for painting time but I am not complaining - many thanks to all my customers! It always interests me where folk are from and some of the locations recently have been far flung indeed with parcels sent off to destinations such as Reunion, The Falklands and Brunei.
16/08/08 Film guide updated with "Napoleon - An Epic Life" added. Films
11/08/08 Several painting projects were completed recently and I have uploaded pics accordingly. Italeri 1/72 Confederate Infantry wargames units should be the next lot to be posted in a few weeks time.
Odemars Hougoumont Buildings. See here for more pics: Scenery - Gallery 72
Zvezda Borodino Redoubt. See here for more pics: Scenery - Gallery 72
Barzso Robin Hood's men. See here for more pics: Anc & Med - Gallery 32
11/08/08 Two new sites added to Links page.
http://www.alwaysmodel.com/en/gallery_en.htm . Bryan's Model store based in Taiwan. Sells lots of figures and kits and also features customer gallery etc...
http://pub19.bravenet.com/forum/1619281253 This is the HaT forum - all things 1/72 & 1/32 plastic
11/08/08 I am half way through watching A&E's 2003 "Napoleon" film / tv mini-series. Interesting enough so far and I will add more when all is viewed.
02/08/08 Film guide updated with Goya's Ghosts and Julius Caesar (2002) added. Films
31/07/08 http://www.treefrogtreasures.com/forum/index.php added to Links page. This is a great toy soldier forum if you want to read what fellow hobbyists have to say and have info of your own to contribute.
31/07/08 Painting progress has been slowed by 1.) a sunny day or two! 2.) a massive load of deliveries to be processed for the eBay shop.
27/07/08 www.plasticrush.com added to Links page. Similar to www.plasticsoldierreview.com. Interesting French site to visit for 1/72 plastic fans.
26/07/08. www.soldierssoldiers.com added to Links page. This is John Tunstill's comprehensive site covering lead & plastic soldiers, books, militaria, badges, medals, magazines and postcards.
26/07/08. Started painting some 1/72 Hougoumont buildings from Odemars. About 50% through the Barzso Robin Hood set and 25% through the Italeri Confederates. After only previously using a black ink wash solution I have added a container of brown ink wash to my painting desk and will see what this comes out like - I usually immerse the whole figure in these "magic baths" as opposed to applying the solution by brush.
18/07/08. Will start this week on painting some Barzso 1/32 Robin Hood figures and Italeri 1/72 Confederates.
18/07/08. Technical. It appears some pictures show up fine when I look at the site on my PC but not on anyones elses! Hopefully I have rectified this so that no blanks or crosses appear where a pic should be. Going forward if anybody spots any problems / gliches and is kind enough to take the time to let me know I can be emailed at rupert@drumandflag.com. I also hope to find out if it is possible using this website package to display small pics that load easily that can be clicked to enlarge.
18/07/08. Dragons finally completed. See LOTR Monsters page.
18/07/08. Mordor Drummer Troll added. See LOTR Monsters page.
18/07/08. http://www.revistasprofesionales.com/principal.php?id_revista=24 Spanish wargames magazine also available in English: Wargames - Soliders & Strategy. I have found it in WH Smith this summer (2008). Added to links page.
18/07/08. Horse & Hound (!) Bizarre where this strange hobby leads you from time to time. I was sitting waiting for my Dad in the Doctor's surgery yesterday and picked up the nearest magazine to read. It being the country this happened to be Horse & Hound magazine which is not a publication I can say I have ever read before. To my growing interest I found it was packed with loads of pictures of all sorts and colours of horses (didn't see any hounds!) which are great reference material for painting the numerous equine mounts my figures require from time to time. Was community spirited enough (!) not to pocket the waiting room copy and eventually found the "horse" magazine section in WH Smith and snapped up a copy. Won't ever need more than one I doubt and a bargain for just £2.30.
11/07/08. 1/32 Scenery Customised Barzso Native American Longhouses and Battle of New Orleans 1815 Breastworks uploaded.
11/07/08. 1/72 ECW A Call to Arms Royalist Artillery uploaded.
11/07/08. LOTR Monsters Gulavhar "The Terror of Arnor" uploaded.
11/07/08. Games Workshop drummer troll has been assembled, undercoated and first two coats applied. Dragons should finally be completed and uploaded in a week or so all being well.
05/07/08. www.toycollector.com added to Links page. As name suggests a site for collectors of various kinds of toys.
03/07/08. Warhammer Historical - The Great War. I have just ordered a copy of these new WW1 rules as they looked interesting. As ever I shall most likely read them and then auction them off on eBay. They should be adaptable for 1/72 and 1/32 plastic figure gaming. For the former Emhar, HaT and Strelets provide a wealth of infantry, artillery, cavalry and tank sets and for the latter larger scale Emhar and Armies in Plastic offer some great figures and vehicles. I can see trench raids being planned in many a gamer's home!
03/07/08. Battlefield tour links added to Links page. There are several UK firms offering battlefield tours at varied price points - all of which I am sure are good value for the money you pay. I have been on two organised by Leger which were excellent value and most interesting - these were the Somme in 2006 and the D-Day landings in 2005.
01/07/08. Barzso Indian Long Houses and Battle of New Orleans 1812 Breast Works. These are coming along nicely. I have now textured the replacement back ends of the long houses and built up with hard foam and filler the sides of the breast works. All then allowed to dry and coated with black undercoat. Next stage brown drybrushing and detailing. I have also decided to add some pointed stakes to the breast works to make them more formidable obstacles to storm!
27/06/08. Barzso Indian Long Houses and Battle of New Orleans 1812 Breast Works. I bought some of these excellent 1/32 scale scenic pieces to sell in their unpainted state in my eBay store. However upon receipt I realised that their length could make it tricky to conform to box size limits for some of the postal services I use. So I decided to cut them up, base them and paint them. The pics below illustrate current progress. I have stuck the cut up pieces to MDF base boards using Copydex glue which does the job well. The open ends of the now not so long Longhouses have been filled with cut to shape plastic building card - held in place by elastic bands which are a useful hobby tool in my experience. The breast works pieces need a good going over with filler. Next these terrain items will be undercoated black, painted, textured, matt varnished and sold off on eBay.
Barzso 1/32 Scale Indian Long Houses
Barzso 1/32 Scale Battle of New Orleans Breast Works
26/06/08. Dragons not too far off finished now. Most highlights applied and base colours done for claws, teeth, eyes, horns etc. Rock base and wings still to be done etc...
Although I have done a lot of painting I have not used Milliput or Green Stuff very often. If I were to start again with these dragons I would find a way to texture the Milliput properly before it dried - I found it difficult to do this and keep the shape I wanted - particularly on the black Dragon. The solution no doubt lies with building a metal or plastic frame and overlaying the Milliput on that. See further down for earlier pics.
Smaug the Magnificent Glaurung
Ancalagon the Black Scatha the Wurm
26/06/08: Gulavhar nearing completion although looking a bit too gray perhaps, likewise ACTA 1/72 scale Royalist Artillery also on the home straight. I will be tackling the new plastic Games Workshop Mordor Drummer Troll soon which looks fab!
Gulavhar - The Terror of Arnor ACTA 1/72 Scale ECW Royalist Artillery
25/06/08: Pictures of painted A Call to Arms 1/72 scale Zulu Wars British added to new Colonial tab under Gallery 72. Colonial (1/72)
The eBay shop continues to be v. busy (a very big thank you to all my customers - keep those orders coming!) so I haven't had the chance to update this site too much. However with the summer here and things a little less hectic unlike the rest of the Northern Hemisphere it will be painting season for me for the next few months!
25/05/08: Benno de Groot's excellent hobby gallery and forum added to links page. http://www.bennosfigures.com .
15/05/08: A few more pictures added to Battlefields page.
05/05/08: New site added to "LINKS" page: www.valiantminiatures.co.uk. This is the site for the makers of the new range of WW2 1/72 hard plastic figures. Also contains painting guides and other additional information.
19/04/08: New site added to "LINKS" page: www.baccus6mm.com I don't sell Baccus 6mm figures or use them but have put this link in as I enjoyed exploring the site. Peter Berry's articles promoting the benefits of 6mm struck a resonant chord (I like to fly the flag for 1/72 and 1/32 scale plastics) and the site also contains useful painting guides, galleries etc...
18/04/08: New hobby guide added Guides tab. This is: Military History Books - Some Suggestions.
17/04/08: http://www.fieldofglory.com/introduction.html. Osprey/Slitherine's new ancient wargames rules added to "LINKS" page.
16/04/08: New hobby guide added Guides tab - A Beginners Guide to Wargamming
16/04/08: www.touchinghistory.co.uk site added to "LINKS" page. Lots of pics and info on Paul Darnell's wargames terrain here.
15/04/08: B.U.M. (Barcelona Universal Models) 1/72 scale Napoleonic resin French Cannon and British Limber wreckage bases uploaded to "GALLERY 72" FR & GB pages.
13/04/08: Footballers - England 1966 - added to "GALLERY 32".
11/04/08: Four new websites added to the "LINKS" page.
10/04/08: New Tab added "BATTLEFIELDS". I have now populated this with pictures I have taken of various battlefields, museums and places of interest that I have visited.
10/04/08: Some old and temporary wargame pics added to "GAME PICS" ACW and NAP pages. These will be deleted when the new pics with up to date figures and scenery are added.
09/04/08: "PAINTS" and "SERVICES" Tabs now incorporated under "PRODUCTS" Tab to make more space.
06/04/08: Museums & Places of Interest added to "LINKS" page.
05/04/08: "NEWS" page moved here to make it easier to find!
05/04/08: A few wargaming scenery tips added to "GAME PICS" page.
03/04/08: Wargaming rules links added on "LINKS" page.
03/04/08: Website structure planned and set up for my (very) long term project of uploading pictures of my wargames. These will cover the American Civil War, Napoleonic Wars and Lord of the Rings. First pictures should go up within a month or so and then slowly and steadily after that for a very long time to come.
31/03/08: 1/72 scale Zvezda Napoleonic Russian Artillery Limbers and Caisson pics added to "NAP RU" Gallery.
31/03/08: 1/32 scale BMC redoubt added to 1/32 Scenery gallery.
23/03/08: 1/32 scale Boers added to Colonial Gallery. (Converted ACTA Confederates).
23/03/08: 1/72 scale handpainted Russian Cottages now for sale.
20/03/08: Paint set list updated.
13/04/08 - Gold, Red and Black main colours now applied to Dragons.
21/03/08 "Here be Dragons". Hachette have released a new partwork called "Beasts and Beings". A surprisingly excellent resin dragon is included with issue 1 for only £2.99. I bought several for use with my 28mm Games Workshop Lord of the Rings armies and am in the process of converting them with the help of much Milliput into Smaug (will be Gold), Glaurung (green), Scatha (will stay Red) and Ancalagon (will be black). Needless to say this is yet another unplanned but enjoyable distraction. Will update when progressed.
19/02/08: Two new hobby guides added. Solo Wargaming and Why Plastics?
05/02/08: www.valdemarminiatures.com added to links page.
04/02/08: Collecting Del Prado hobby guide updated to include news that Del Prado look set to offer their American Civil War collection for subscription in the UK as well as the US. Will include 50 issues split equally between the Union and the Confederacy.
19/01/08: www.odemars.com added to links page.
14/01/08: Paints page updated - Zulu and Celts sets added.
12/0108: www.acalltoarms.co.uk added to links. "Being Painted" list revised (as above).
11/01/08: A couple of pics added to About and WWII pages. AWI American Militia put on sale.
07/01/08: A few figures made available for purchase on this site.
06/01/08: Hobby Mags Guide added.
05/01/08: 100's of new pictures added to galleries. Manufacturers links added.
03/01/08: Galleries split into 1/72, 1/32 and 28mm.
01/01/08: New pictures added to ACW / AWI / Colonial Galleries
01/01/08: Vallejo Game Color Paint order details added - see PAINTS tab.
14/11/07. New photos added to LOTR, WW2, Napoleonic and ACW galleries.
Entries deleted from this page after 1 year.
15/09/07. Drumandflag.com first uploaded!
