Request for help from Australian collector

[Bunyip]

Hi everyone.

Long time reader, very rare poster here

I am looking for suggestions/help with a not so small collecting issue I have.

I have decided to give focus to my ridiculously large Playmobil pirate collection and build a 1-for-1 scale (in terms of ship numbers, not actual ships size size!) of the Battle of Trafalgar. So far I have about 35 of the 60 ships I need (combination of pirate ships and schooners).

I have started making custom sails to replace all the ones covered in skulls and crossbones. A friend is going to help me customise the stickers decorations, make flags etc. I will also be painting some of the hulls, so if anyone has suggestions about paints that will work on Playmobil hulls I would be very grateful.

The main thing I am missing at this stage is crew, particularly for the British ships. I have about 8 sets of the crew from the Schooner (6348/3055) and need at least another 12 sets. I have got some from eBay but was wondering whether those figures are something I could get from the Playmobil spare parts department. I just read a thread where someone was talking about problems with the Playmobil USA spare parts department, so was wondering what people thought might be my best way forward. Are the UK or German departments a better option?

As an aside, for the rest of my fleets' crew I am using:

French/Spanish sailors - any pirate who is not covered in obvious pirate insignia (would look to get more of the the least pirate-y looking ones)
Spanish marines - the dark blue coated Napoleonic era soldiers (looking for more too)
French marines- waiting for the new lighter blue ones to come out in Germany soon
British marines - lots and lots of red coats
ships captains - either the captain from the 3055 crew or assorted captains/admirals from previous iterations of the pirate theme, plus occasional customised figures off eBay

For my actual fleet:

For the large 3-deckers (90-100 guns) I am using a mix of 4290 and 3940

For the French/Spanish 2 deckers I am using a mix of 5618, 5238, 5135, various "red corsairs" (whose numbers escape me) and other assorted medium sized ships.
For the British 2 deckers I am using the Schooner (3055/6348) and some 5135 etc. I still need about 10 of them.

For the smaller ships (frigates etc) - I am using a mix of 5298 and 5140.

I am have seen some amazing customisations on eBay where people have added an extra deck to 3940 but they are very expensive!

Anyway, I would really appreciate any help or suggestions.

Cheers,

Andrew

[Tiermann]

That is a massive project to undertake, especially for someone in a seriously underserved part of the world for Playmobil. If you are going for parts orders I wouldn't bother with the US or other export markets but go directly to the German parts department.  I'm in the US and go to Germany through collecting friends every couple of years to fill gaps that I can't find otherwise.

One person you might try talking to about your project is Macgayver. Michael lives in Germany, is a brilliant ship customizer, and has a tendency to create crazy massive dioramas like all of Versailles for instance. I think he would be really interested in your project and could be of real help to you. He is a member here so you could try a PM though he isn't by all that often these days. Likewise he is at PCC and could be contacted there. I would recommend though going directly to his website http://www.macgayverplaymobil.be/ and contacting him from there. Tell him what you are planning and feel free to say that Tiermann recommended you contact him about it.

[cachalote]

hello andrew,
i would suggest, for accuracy, that you try to get some of osprey's books:
- https://ospreypublishing.com/french-warship-crews-1789-1805
- https://ospreypublishing.com/nelson-s-sailors-pb
- https://ospreypublishing.com/nelson-039-s-navy
- https://ospreypublishing.com/nelson-s-officers-and-midshipmen
- https://ospreypublishing.com/trafalgar-1805-pb
this last one is dedicated only to trafalgar.
in the meantime i have hust a suggestion - no redcoats all over the british ships.
redcoats are infantry uniforms.
in the navy, lobsters (as they were called on board) were marines, not sailors, and they were a minority.

[Bunyip]

Hi Tiermann,

Thanks for the information about MacGyver. His ships are amazing.  At this stage I am not in a position to try and customise any of my ships beyond cosmetics. My aim is to build the fleets and any structural customising I can mange would be a bonus. Though I might try and make the key ships - Victory, Redoubtable etc - a bit fancier.
First step is get all the ships and crew!

That is a massive project to undertake, especially for someone in a seriously underserved part of the world for Playmobil. If you are going for parts orders I wouldn't bother with the US or other export markets but go directly to the German parts department.  I'm in the US and go to Germany through collecting friends every couple of years to fill gaps that I can't find otherwise.

One person you might try talking to about your project is Macgayver. Michael lives in Germany, is a brilliant ship customizer, and has a tendency to create crazy massive dioramas like all of Versailles for instance. I think he would be really interested in your project and could be of real help to you. He is a member here so you could try a PM though he isn't by all that often these days. Likewise he is at PCC and could be contacted there. I would recommend though going directly to his website http://www.macgayverplaymobil.be/ and contacting him from there. Tell him what you are planning and feel free to say that Tiermann recommended you contact him about it.

[Bunyip]

Thanks Cachalote. Those books would be very helpful. I am not planning at this stage to customise the physical ships but would like to get the flags, ship paint etc as accurate as possible.

I'm not planing to go overboard with the red coats - it's just that I have more of them than sailors and French and Spanish marines.  I have been collecting red and blue coats for a long time in anticipation of one day doing a Waterloo diorama of some kind. But being in Australia it is very expensive getting add-on figures.

hello andrew,
i would suggest, for accuracy, that you try to get some of osprey's books:
- https://ospreypublishing.com/french-warship-crews-1789-1805
- https://ospreypublishing.com/nelson-s-sailors-pb
- https://ospreypublishing.com/nelson-039-s-navy
- https://ospreypublishing.com/nelson-s-officers-and-midshipmen
- https://ospreypublishing.com/trafalgar-1805-pb
this last one is dedicated only to trafalgar.
in the meantime i have hust a suggestion - no redcoats all over the british ships.
redcoats are infantry uniforms.
in the navy, lobsters (as they were called on board) were marines, not sailors, and they were a minority.

[cachalote]

victory vs redoutable ? 
https://ospreypublishing.com/victory-vs-redoutable-pb

[macgayver]

Thank you Tim for the compliments

For painting hulls and deck you can use ordinary spraycans
Best is to use acryl based ones

I don't know the quality of the paint in the canns inAustralia
I used to paint with professional carpaint

Since I moved to Germany I have to help myself with spraycans
My expierience is not to buy the cheapest canns but neighter the most expensive ones

The color oft makes the price,

As for the sails, over the years I used several material
Cardboardpaper sprayed with hairspray for ex
At the moment we use wallpaper
Google for "fliestapeten"
That material comes very close to the original playmosails and is waterresistant

For the crew , in your case I would try and order everything from DS Germany
The schoonercrew is still available
Write them a mail, explaining your situation where you live and documentate with pictures from your collection
If that doesn't work , take the phone and call them

Good luck

Macgayver

[Bunyip]

Thanks for the tips macgayver.

Real life has caught up with me lately and I haven't been able to do much work on my project. Though 14 x 5810 ships BNIB just arrived so I might have a shipbuilding weekend

I have also found someone who is sending me 12 x Schooner crews, plus I have been buying other figures on eBay so my collection of sailors and marines is growing nicely.

I plan to contact PM Germany DS shortly and see how I go.

Cheers,

Andrew

Thank you Tim for the compliments

For painting hulls and deck you can use ordinary spraycans
Best is to use acryl based ones

I don't know the quality of the paint in the canns inAustralia
I used to paint with professional carpaint

Since I moved to Germany I have to help myself with spraycans
My expierience is not to buy the cheapest canns but neighter the most expensive ones

The color oft makes the price,

As for the sails, over the years I used several material
Cardboardpaper sprayed with hairspray for ex
At the moment we use wallpaper
Google for "fliestapeten"
That material comes very close to the original playmosails and is waterresistant

For the crew , in your case I would try and order everything from DS Germany
The schoonercrew is still available
Write them a mail, explaining your situation where you live and documentate with pictures from your collection
If that doesn't work , take the phone and call them

Good luck

Macgayver

[Bunyip]

Hi MacGyver,

I just got a response from DS at Playmobil Germany.  They are happy to send me one of each of the four Schooner crew members.  The price is pretty good - roughly $5 per figure, but 4 figures is not going to make a dent in my requirements.

Does anyone have any suggestions or know anyone who might have more luck ordering more on my behalf?

I've attached a photo of what I have to date - about 60 sailors, petty officers and officers. I haven't started swapping around heads and hair to make them all look a bit different.

For the crew , in your case I would try and order everything from DS Germany
The schoonercrew is still available
Write them a mail, explaining your situation where you live and documentate with pictures from your collection
If that doesn't work , take the phone and call them

Good luck

Macgayver

[Bunyip]

and here is the rest of what I have collected to date - no customising done so far.

One image has all the assorted blue coated soldiers I'll use for French and Spanish marines and a couple of figures that will be the basis for some admirals.  I can't wait until the light blue soldiers are available in the German DS next month.

The other image has all my redcoats and the yellow shirted guys I'll use for Spanish sailors.

Still a long way to go.....