An Era Ends - Fall 2018

I have been blessed to live in a 5 bedroom home with a large basement for the last 18 years. It's amazing how my Toy Soldier Collection grew to fill that basement space.  For most of that time, I would set up one or two scenes at a time and photograph them and then tear the scenes down and set up a scene from a different era. Then, when I retired in 2016, I worked to set up everything at once on different shelves and tables around the basement.  This is a last photo tour of the basement before everything got tore down, binned up and moved.

We'll start with an overview. The basement consists of two rooms. One is larger and 'finished' and the other is narrower but longer and 'unfinished'. This is the view along the south wall of the finished part of the basement by the bottom of the stairs.

This was the northeast portion of the larger room.

This is the view looking west from next to the Conte Church in the last photo.

This is the view looking east from the entry area of the back, unfinished part.

This is the view looking toward the west along the south wall of the back room.

This is the northwest side of the back room.

This is the southwest corner. Now we will go back to the starting point at the foot of the stairs and show the displays one by one.

This is an amazing "Caravansary" built by Dick Mayhew.  I never really got this piece into an action scene.

This is an Arabic Bazaar made by Dick flanked by some Dep't 56 buildings.

The next set of shelves holds my Medieval Collection.

TSSD Roman Fort

Next up...The Civil War

The Civil War Confederate Metal shelf was one of my favorites.

The Civil War Union Shelf Conte Scale

The ACW Plastic Shelf Marx Scale

Troy - Mostly by LOD Enterprises 

Miscellaneous Figures 

Some Playsets

Next is a set of larger shelves featuring Rourke's Drift, a 60mm painted Western Town featuring Austin and B and T buildings, and a Confederate assault.

We're now down to the west wall of the front room of the basement.   This is the very southwest corner of the room.

As we turn the corner at the northwest corner of the front room, we come to the two biggest displays.  First up, my Ultimate Dreamwish Marx Western Town.

Next up - WW2

This "Set" was so big, I couldn't get it all in one picture. The Conte Church is to the left. The B & T church is to the right.

The view from the right by the stairs.

This is the right side...

This is the left side...

Along the canal...

The right side again.

The central square...

That's the end of the front room.  Now we continue into the back part of the basement.

In front of the entry to the back room was my painted plastic Confederate collection.

My 54mm painted plastic civil War troops not in action elsewhere in the basement.

These are the larger 60mm painted plastic guys

Moving east along the north wall...Barzso's Robin Hood.

Accross the aisle, just to the east of the entry, the Barzso Pirate Ship.

Moving east along the south wall of the back area...Lexington.

WW2 in the Pacific.

Back accross the aisle to the north wall is the German tank shelf.

And then there is this set of shelves...

The Conte Pirates and other 60mm Buccaneers.

Romans! Lots of TSSD, Conte and others.

My painted Ben Hur set Up.

The Romans and Barbarians Battle shelf featuring Conte, The Collector's Showcase and a few First Legion guys.

I didn't take any good pictures of the Conte ships there in the basement. Here are their classic shots.

This is a handmade Viking ship made by an inmate in Arizona.  I got it on eBay. 

My Dep't 56 Little Town Of Bethlehem buildings and figures.

In the far northeast...more painted WW2

This is mainly just a staging area for troops not deployed in battle.

Now we're going back to the entry way and heading west.

Now we're heading west down the south wall of the back room.

This display is probably my favorite...DDay!

This is an unedited picture of the shelf...

Buildings by Barzso and Weston.

Next up is the unpainted DDay set Up.

Steve Weston's Cattle Drive

We're getting near the end...

Two more displays and we're done...

And finally...

And this is the end of the tour.  Once I'm settled in the new place, I'll take some pictures of my new situation.  I'll have room for one big set up at a time.  I'd love to hear your suggestions as to where to start. Medieval?  Western?  Civil War?  Romans?  If you're not following my Facebook page, please look me up as The Playset Addict.  Facebook makes interacting so much easier.  Take care.

Joe

Spring 2020...A new Beginning

We've moved again! And this time I should have enough basement space to both play and make displays.

Looking East from West wall. These pictures were taken after the first pod arrived. Another pod and a 20 foot Uhaul would follow.

This is looking east to west in the main section of the basement.

This is from the same spot looking looking southwest.

This is from partway down the Northwall looking southwest

This the paint/computer/conversion area seen in the distance in the last picture.

So this is the blank slate I have to work with.  There are about 45 bins and 55 moving boxes plus 20 playset style boxes plus numerous flats to organize.

It's going to take a while.