Tradition of London: Highland Light Infantry on Sale

I'd hardly call it a fetish. Nostalgia, certainly, even though I wasn't born in 1900. (Though I'm sure some of our members were…)

I collect 54mm toy soldiers, but I paint them myself – I buy castings from Dorset Soldiers, grab Humbrol gloss tins, and away I go, exactly as one would with a 28 or 15mm army.

The big difference for me is how relaxing painting toy soldiers – as opposed to wargaming figures – is. That lack of detail is actually part of the appeal! Is your soldier missing a crossbelt? Paint it on! That's exactly haw Britains did it in the past.

And there is some real, innocent joy in seeing a figure come to life when he gets his pink cheeks and black-dot eyes, two steps I always keep for last.

Also, as a visual spectacle, the size of massed ranks of 54's cannot be beat.

I confess, I cannot understand collectors who pay fortunes for some figures – the lifeless brutes Thomas Gunn produces, for example, leave me cold.

Tradition's figures have the 'right look' for traditional toy soldiers, although they are a little on the big side. Some collectors won't touch them. They want maximum realism, and chase products by First Legion, and other ultra-realistic makers.

In other words, to each his own – I know toy soldier collectors who are totally incapable of understanding the appeal of wargaming; all those rules you have to buy, then buy again when they're updated, players shouting, arguments about facings, hours and hours of spine-killing painting… :D