Project Kaiser - The Plastic Alternative

PLASTIC is the modern affordable substitute for metal for 54mm toy soldiers, and luckily for me the Franco-Prussian War is not completely unrepresented in this scale.
Scouring the internet soon drew me to the site of Armies In Plastic, based in Wappingers Falls, New York, which has an extensive range of 54mm toy soldiers.
The company does not accept orders outside of North America, but I was able to use a UK outlet, Preston's Transport Models, to buy a selection that should get Project Kaiser off to a good start.
I need to emphasise that Project Kaiser is very much about toy soldiers, rather than more historically accurate model soldiers.

My order from Transport Models

That is why in the photo you can see figures, including Crimean War British hussars, that might not immediately spring to mind as being suitable for the Franco-Prussian War.
But the fact is that while military fashion changes, albeit not as frequently as fashion in civvy street, hussars from the Charge of the Light Brigade bore a strong resemblance to their French counterparts two decades later.
Similarly, my order included Napoleonic French Dragoons by HäT and Napoleonic British Life Guards by A Call to Arms - both sets will have their uses.
The total cost of my figures, including postage, was £53.96, and Transport Models turned out to have a very efficient mail-order service.
Undoubtedly the best value for money was an Armies In Plastic "special set" on the Franco-Prussian War. For £15 I got a box containing 16 Prussian infantry, 16 French Foreign Legion infantry, 20 zouaves and two Krupp guns. That works out at under 30p a model.
However it is certainly just as well this is a toy-soldier project - some of the Prussian infantry have stick grenades attached to their belts!
This is because they were designed as World War One soldiers, later repackaged by Armies In Plastic as 1870 Prussians.
Massachusetts blogger Scott B Lesch (ilikethethingsilike.blogspot.com) has pointed out this sleight-of-hand, while noting Armies In Plastic had the decency to "remove the grenade throwing figure of the WWI sets."
He adds: "Rather than 'call' AIP on this, I have been using their WWI  pickelhaube-helmet figures in blue as 1870-71 Prussians for some time."
I plan to do the same, albeit I will be painting mine rather than leaving them as is, which seems to be Scott's preference. And that brings me to the all-important topic: How do you paint plastic toy soldiers?