Arnhem Jim: A Final Addendum (Last Post) to the Photographic Catalog - Operation Market-Garden Series by King and Country Military Miniatures

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

A Final Addendum (Last Post) to the Photographic Catalog - Operation Market-Garden Series by King and Country Military Miniatures

At a point in the resurrected series (March 2014), it seems to the author that King and Country's founder and owner Andy Neilson was approaching a dry well with regard to new figures and ideas. There was a seeming last hurrah in a group of sets that can be divided in two themes, which this author has chosen to call "Defiance at Arnhem" and "Defeat at Arnhem". Usually on the anniversary of the battle (17 - 25 September) he had introduced new figures. It would appear, however popular, that because of the introduction of new themes, and the absence of any new Market Garden figures as of the immediate passing of that date (September 2017), that the series has ended in defeat, just as the real battle did 73 years ago this month.

It was this author's personal choice to only collect those additional sets that depicted defiance rather than defeat. This decision was not only aversion to the tenor of a valiant force defeated, but based upon several other factors, including a substantial price increase on already very expensive figures, a noticeable decline in the accuracy of painting (particularly the Denison smocks), and the glaring inaccuracy (due to extremely sloppy and erroneous research and/or cost cutting) of the alleged "Airborne 6 pounder Anti-Tank Gun" which accompanied the figure of LSgt John D. Baskeyfield VC, in what could have been a magnificent set. A truly pathetic shame, and even more unfortunate, the second major debacle occurring with the very same gun that had been issued earlier in the series.

For the sake of a complete historical record, all of the remaining sets will be depicted herein using the sequence of ascending catalog numbers, with the exception of two sets, namely LSgt John D. Baskeyfield VC, and the dead and wounded British paratroops.

The following sets are considered by the author to depict "Arnhem Defiant".

MG074(P)

LSGT JOHN D BASKEYFIELD VC
2ND BN S. STAFFS (AIRLANDING)
1ST AIRBORNE DIVISION, ARNHEM, 1944

The following image is of a correct Ordnance, Q.F. 6 Pdr Anti-Tank Gun Mk IV on Carriage Mk III (Airborne), albeit in 1:35 scale. Compare the significantly narrowed width of wheel base to provide physical accessibility into a Horsa glider (the guns would not have been at Arnhem, or in much lesser numbers, without this modification), the removal of all vestiges of the lower front splinter shield, the hinged trail legs on the carriage, inclusion of front towing eye, and the correct absence of the non-existent dolly wheel on the right trail (This came from a completely erroneous misinterpretation of a positioning hawser (rope) in an iconic contemporary photograph).

For those readers who may be interested in more details please see; http://arnhemjim.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-6-pounder-anti-tank-guns-at_10.html .

MG075(P)

DEAD AND WOUNDED PARAS

1ST AIRBORNE DIVISION, ARNHEM, !944

The remaining sets, with the exception of the little road sign, are personally considered by the author to depict "Arnhem Defeated". The "toy soldiers" reflecting the reality of history.