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For a while I'd been feeling different. I could  still admire detailed beautifully painted  historical miniatures and realistically  modelled terrain, but I just didn't find them  exciting or evocative any longer. I realised I  was suffering from Pseudo-Nostalgia; I could  see in my mind's eye something that might  have existed, but never had. The only cure, I  realised, was a bit of Neo-Retro wargaming.  In the real world Airfix 1/72nd figures were  my first wargaming obsession: from the first  pink plastic guardsmen onwards I waited  excitedly for the next release. I converted  them using razor blades, hot pins and  Plasticene (though I never found any of the  mysterious banana oil that the Airfix  Magazine wrote about).  I loved them then,  but I'm not remotely nostalgic about them  now.  Instead I'm pseudo-nostalgic about  some toy soldiers that never existed.  Since I obviously couldn't find them on Ebay  (or anywhere else) I decided to make them. I  knew what I wanted. They had to be around  30mm tall, slim, simple (with very limited  detail), easy to paint and have integral bases  big enough to stop them falling over.  They  had to have a touch of Tintin, a good helping  of pre-WW2 Elastolin, a bit of Britains and a  spoonful or two of Swedish African  Engineers.  But they weren't going to be a  copy or a pastiche, they were going to be my  Neo-Retro Little Soldiers.  The first releases will be the Interwar armies  of three imaginary countries: Slovsko,  Panovia and Bergland.  If you check out my Instagram  (marks_little_soldiers) you'll find a lot more  pictures, a glimpse into the wargaming life of  Major Harwood-Smith and an invigorating  shot of pseudo-nostalgia.  Mark Copplestone.
North Star Magazine home page Mark Copplestone's Little Soldiers. A bit of pseudo-nostalgia: this one is from a game involving a Berglander attack with air and armoured support.  the tanks are slightly modified Fiat 3000's from Anyscale Models and the plane is scratchbuilt based on those cheap flat balsawood gliders. Mark Copplestone's Little Soldiers. Mark Copplestone's Little Soldiers. Mark Copplestone's Little Soldiers. Mark Copplestone's Little Soldiers. Mark Copplestone's Little Soldiers. Mark's Neo-Retro Little Soldiers