I bowed to my own created pressure and separated out my 60mm ACW guys. I did some minor converting to create more poses. They are mostly Marx WOW, with some Andy Gard, Lido and MPC.
Some stuff thought came out good:
- Fed mounted flag bearer is now a ring hand. Some have pistols, some carbines, some swords.
- Rinty LT damaged figures were made into dismounted cavalry on both sides. One has a Kepi on.
- Marx 60mm cowboy with separate rifle is both infantry and dismounted cavalry on the Reb side.
- Marx 60mm cowboys as Raiders.
- Andygard kneeling firing pose – for Federals, he has a Kepi. Confederates have him in about 4 different hats. Love that pose!
- Lots of Confederate head gear swapped out.
- Infantry flag bearers are MPC with flags made from Marx parts and olive spears as flag staffs.
- Marx bucking horses are artillery casualties. No conversion needed. They just look like they are in pain!
Thank for looking, guys.
I especially like that double line of Confederates defending the bridge (third picture from top, I believe), and those 2 Union firing lines at the bottom, one standing on flat land, and the other placed up on the ridge.
The Rebs at the bridge are dismounted cavalry as are the guys on the ridge. Thanks.
Are all those 60mm cavalry painted?
No. Some are cast in metallic blue or tan. The tan ones are all repaired, though. I wasn’t sure if you were referring to the Federal or Confederate Cavalry and if you meant mounted or dismounted.
Great setup. I’ve always believed the Andy Gard figures were among the best ACW figures made – even if they were giants compared to my Marx guys. I still used them – one of my few concessions on scale. I really like your conversions, too – makes them look even better.
I liked their cowboys and Indian, too – and they were IN scale; just wish there were more poses.
Thanks, buddy. I had placed all the Andygard guys to the side about a year ago because of the size. Now, with all 60mm compadres, even if they are a bit taller, they don’t really much stick out. Having them all the same color helps, too.
Where do those large vacu-formed terrain pieces come from? They look like Marx type hard plastic, not foam, but I don’t remember seeing any terrain that large from Marx or MPC. I’d like to get them if they are currently available anywhere.
They are actually DFC terrain pieces from, I think, the Anzio set. They had a horrible paint job. I painted them Marx brown with green striations. I guess I did a credible job. Thanks! They are vacuform and decently sturdy. About like the Moon Base terrain.
Mark, if you google “Dimensions For Children”, one of their products is “Invasion of Anzio: A Military Action Playset”. The terrain piece with the nice ridge for placing figures, one on a lower level and one on a higher level, is depicted. I agree, it makes a pretty good accessory piece for all sorts of time periods.
Oh, I was asking about the Rin Tin Tin guys.
You can pretty much tell which ones are painted out of the metallic blue Rin Tin Tin guys except for a few that I ‘aged’. I gave up on doing that, even though it’s a 2 minute process. The guy all the way in the back with sword in front of him has a kepi added (formerly hatless). He matches the unpainted guys, but all it took to make the paint that matte was to take the figure when it’s still tacky and put him in a zip lock bag with some baby powder and shake it up a bit.
I had never seen a picture of the Anzio set before. I saw some other DFC sets on Sprecher’s. Greg, your paint job made it look just like it came from Marx. Now that I look closer, I see the base is much thinner than Marx. Is it made of that very fragile blow-molded light plastic?
As a kid I had a Timpo/Aurora WW2 playset that had a sandbag trench system consisting of several nice pieces made from that. Unfortunately I was not able to keep them intact and they got crushed pretty quick. What can I say? I was 11.
I wish someone would recast the DFC ridge in hard or soft plastic. It would be great for the classic line of Indian or Zulu warriors to appear on before the raid.
Mark, if you will google the exact title of the set —-“Invasion of Anzio: A Military Action Playset” —- several current sets for sale on ebay will come up, along with some good photos.
I see there is a DFC Anzio set on eBay right now. The only thing I would want is the mountain but $80 is far too much.
I have a problem with seeing those 1980s DFC sets as anything more than poor next generation knock offs of the 1970s and earlier Marx and others playsets, as they are loaded with cheapo Hong Kong clone figures and junk-bag vehicles like the ones I got for a dime in the 70s at the drug store.
I guess you have to be an 80s kid to attach any collector value to them. Even the 70s MPC playsets look good by comparison to me. The mountain is nice, though… With a new paint job like Greg’s necessary, of course.
I agree with you, Mark. I couldn’t see anything worthwhile about the set except for that nice mountain that had well-sculped flat places for placing lines of troops. Gregg was using it for U.S. Cavalry, firing down from a high spot. I thought it would also be a perfect place for the Paragon Apaches, sort of like in the Henry Fonda/John Wayne/Shirley Temple movie, “Fort Apache”.
Like you, other than the nice vacuform hill, I was somewhat taken aback by the ebay asking price for what appeared to me to be one of those hopelessly cheap post-Marx sets that I didn’t think anybody really wanted — at least, that nobody from the Marx golden age of playsets would want. But it was a nice hill, and if I ever ran into it at some flea market or show, I’d be inclined to acquire it. Like Gregg, I’d give it a nice spray paint job.
Upon closer inspection, it appears it was not a “spray” paint job, but a nice brush stroke that gave the rock surfaces some texture.
DFC become more price with the fantasy original set that had original great figures and accessories ; the modern/ww2 and Korea sets are less value ,just that some sellers think they could make a big out of then because made in the 80’s. The Pork Hill playset is another with different hill/mountain type in same material, it has a cave in one size. It is the only good piece out of it. You can see it some time often on eBay, shows too
Also Google under military playset, army playset generic. Some sellers sale it with out name it some times or in mix job lot.
There have to be plans out there somewhere for a DIY VacuForming machine! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Custom-made-vacuformer-Up-to-4ftx2ft-forming-material-/201408315992?hash=item2ee4df0258#ht_82wt_1153
The plastic is actually pretty thick. Not as sturdy as a Marx ‘flat rock’ , but at least as sturdy as the big terrain piece from the Operation Moon Base playset. You have to be careful with the DFC sets. You could end up with the big mountain like this or 3 smaller ones. I ended up finding 2 of these mountains and one set of the 3 smaller ones in various laces. I never bought a set, but several fellow collectors had and ‘warned’ me that an unopened set might be disappointing. I’ve not run across this mountain with a cave. Got to look that up. Sounds like something I’ll be looking for.
Check out a “Family Christian ” store for a piece that represents Jesus’s tomb,moulded in sand coloured hard plastic has a “stone” that can be rolled open and shut over a cave opening.Also has 3 crosses on the top that are easily removed,Repainted a Jungle Green makes for a good Japanese machine gun nest.There are also Biblical bldgs that fit right into an Alamo set up with no problems.