American Museum of Natural History Part 2

American Museum of Natural History

Toy Soliders of San Deigo American Civil War Figures

Expeditionary Force 1/32 Wars of the Middle Ages A.D. 1066-1494: 14th Century English Army

This box from Expeditionary Force is slightly more expensive than Italeri boxes, but the figures are of a higher quality.  As the above picture shows, the figures from this box require some assembling.  The parts of the knight are made of a hard plastic and the parts of the horse are of a softer kind. The parts fit very well, but they do require glues to secure them.  I used super glue and the parts reacted very well with it. The reins of the horse is made of a softer plastic and gluing it to the horse took a bit more time.

The details on the figures are sharp. Excellent poses have been achieved with multiple-parts. They have some flashes, but are hardly noticeable and can be easily sanded away or scrapped off using an Xacto knife.

The size of the figures is noticeably larger than Italeri ones.  Here is a picture for comparison. The figure on the left is from Expeditionary Force and the one on the right is from Italeri.

Here is one of the assembled figure.

Here is the same figure from another angle. 

William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke

The mounted knight is from the box of Italeri's 1/32 No. 6853 Crusades: The Knights,  with a new left arm sculpted from Green-Stuff, a new shield made from card board, and a new lance made from Evergreen stripe styrene.

The straps for the shield were cut from foils from a wine bottle. They are a bit too wide.

International Adoptions by Americans

Where do Americans get their overseas adoptions? According to the U.S. Department of State's Chart on Significant Source Countries of International Adoptions, in the fiscal year of 2013-2014, 2,040 adoptions came from China, which ranks as the country that sent most adoptions to the U.S.  This is actually a significant decline in numbers from 7,906 adoptions in the fiscal year of 2005.  However, at 2,040 adoptions, it is still significant when compared to 717 adoptions from Ethiopia which ranks as the number 2 country on the list for the fiscal year 2014.  Also of note is Russia, which had 4,639 adoption cases in 2005, but only 11 cases in the fiscal year 2014.  This is probably due to the one-year adoption ban imposed on the U.S. in 2012.  Equally interesting is that adoptions from Guatemala have similarly declined in numbers from the height of 4,728 in 2007 down to 29 cases in the fiscal year of 2014.  These data reflect a declining trend of international adoptions by Americans, from 22,739 in 2005 to 6,408 in 2014. Nevertheless, more than 30% of international adoptions are still coming from China.

Work in Progress: Plains Indian Defiant - Toy Soldiers of San Deigo

 There is still more work to be done before it is finished.