Boy Scouts and Horses

Many Americans own and ride horses even today.

There are over 7 million horses in the USA and over a million of them are kept as pets.

In the years before 1940 that number would have been much larger.

Boy Scouts riding horses in those days would have been common.

 Meanwhile, a little more range time.

Boy Scout Camp

 

Boy Scouts at camp.  Semaphore flags and horseback writing.

Camp fires.

Bugler.

Flag bearer.

Idyllic camp life.

Range Time

Boy Scout camp.

Marksmanship day.

Rifle fire.

In the early 20th Century nearly every boy had access to rifles.

Boy Scouts taught firearms safety and marksmanship.

On the firing line.
 

Boy Scouts Flag

 

Boy Scout camp with bugler.

Hat Zulu War British Command flag transferred to WWI American.

Flag will be painted as a US flag eventually.

An easy conversion.

Boy Scouts often have flags in camp.

Instruments

Hat British Zulu War Command arm on the Airfix figure.

His rifle removed and the arm of the wounded guy replacing his other arm.

Making a Boy Scout with bugle.

Wagon Train from Airfix with a new hat and a guitar.

WWI Airfix American with accordion as Boy Scout.

Two musical Boy Scouts.

 

Boy Scouts

Airfix WWI Americans.

Airfix Cowboys with new hats and one figure with a new upper body.

They will be Boy Scouts. 

Signalmen and binoculars.  WWI British and WWII Germans as Boy Scouts with new heads.

Camp fire time for the Boy Scouts.

WWI Americans and WWI British modified as Boy Scout marksmen.  New hats for the British, and bayonets removed.
 

Boy Scouts That's All for Now

It's hard to see but this guy who was originally hitting someone with the butt of his rifle, has been transformed into a man waving a flagpole.  Flag to be applied later.

You can go to the camp out but you have to take your little brother with you.

Out West it was common, even today for kids to have horses and pack animals.

Former member of the Airfix Wagon Train set sits with a boy scout and his rifle.

Chaplain figure from the Pegasus Pilgrims.

Here is the whole group so far.  I have plans for a few more figures and some more gear and accessories.
 

Boy Scouts and Gettysburg

This time a prone WWI British Airfix figure with a new head.

This gives me six rifle firing figures all different.

No boy scout camp is complete without signal flags.

Sitting around the campfire.

Until the last few years I have always respected the boy scouts and the work they did, my figures are not intended to represent any specific scouting organization but rather to encompass the period from about 1898, a couple years before the Boy Scouts of America were formed, and about 1958.  I think they will be useful for my War of the Words scenarios for 1898, 1918, 1938 and 1958.  

The Boy scouts participated in a Civil War veterans reunion at Gettysburg in 1913 marking the 50th anniversary of the battle, over 400 boy scouts were there.  In 1938 there was a 75th anniversary reunion at the Gettysburg battlefield.  In 1913 over 100,000 people attended.  In 1938 nearly two thousand Civil War veterans attended.  Both reunions invited all American Civil War veterans, from either side.

Gettysburg was used for military training in the years between WWI and WWII.

This figure is an Airfix WWI American who originally was bayoneting a fallen foe.  I figure boy scouts would have few opportunities for that so I gave him a shovel.

New Boy Scouts

This figure is from one of the Pegasus sets, I think the Pilgrims.  I wanted a lot of variety of size and clothing but with a general outdoor look to the figures.

Big campfires and a tent from Fujimi.

Here is some of the group.  These are Airfix WWI Americans.  I am not using all the poses, nor am I using them in the same variety of poses as the sets provide.  Boy Scouts did marksmanship and so had guns, particularly in rural America where it was not uncommon for boys to carry a gun.  I have removed all the bayonets from the guns since those were not likely in use by Boy Scouts.

This figure is a WWI British soldier by Airfix and he has had his head swapped for one with the Montana Peak hat.  I think his pack makes a nice Boy Scout pack.

Another British figure with a new head.
 

Foot Scout

I have been modifying a large number of my WWI Airfix American Army figures by providing them with new heads.

So I have a number of the heads wearing the Montana Peak hat or Smokey the Bear hat left over.

So some of them are going to become boy scout heads.

Here a mixture of Airfix High Chaparral and Cowboys figures have had their heads replaced with Smoky the Bear hats.

 This guy started as a WWII German but now he is as American as apple pie in his new boy scout hat.  Many scouts, particularly in the first 50 years or so of the organization wore home made uniforms or only partial uniforms.  So they often did not look all that uniform.  By using a number of different kinds of figures as the basis for the scouts I hoped to get more variety of appearance.