Tuesday 10 April 2012

Funny Little Wars armies but who made them?

Okay they aren't made specifically for playing Little Wars........but they should be!  I was told they were made by Hiriart who are a current manufacturer of white metal figures in the old toy soldier style, based in Uruguay,  I don't know very much about this firm but they have been manufacturing since 1972 which must make them one of the oldest makers of modern collectors figures and  I'm not aware of Uruguay having much of a toy soldier tradition but I could be very wrong there.  These are are not Hiriart but are sculpted very much in the style of old Britains hollow casts, are exceedingly well painted and tick all the boxes for me so I must make more enquires at the next London Show at the end of June.

Japanese artillery crew

Japanese infantry, I think the officer with the standard is rather nice.

Turkish infantry standing at the ready, very much in the Wm Britains style.

In the foreground an Austrian artillery limber, behind them a Turkish one.

I have now more or less completed my Turkish wargames army, made entirely from conversions (as seen in the post on the Battle of Astrakhan), and I'm about half way through doing the Japanese, I'm very tempted to add some of these to the establishment but in the meantime they provide plenty of inspiration.  Austrians are on the "to do" list!

17 comments:

  1. Splendid sort of Chaps ! They look good ... Jeff

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    1. These figures are not Hiriart , they are Marcel Vergeyden from Belgiue. A retiedtank officer

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  2. Look forward to seeing the new Army - and Austrians would be great as well

    As ever

    Paul

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  3. Hi Brian - Try this chap - he's currently listing 22 blog-posts on Uruguayan figures

    http://soldaditossudamericanos.blogspot.co.uk/

    He's very approachable and answers in English

    Hugh

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  4. Hiart does make lovely figures. For some reason I thought they had gone out of business in the late 90's.

    -Ross

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  5. The Treefrog toy soldier forum has a very active Hiriart section, lots of pictures and info. http://www.treefrogtreasures.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?101-Hiriart

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    1. On second glance, what you have pictured above don't look like Hiriart figures at all.... The bases are all wrong, and he's never done straight Britain's knock-offs. These all look like homecasts. Are they marked as Hiriart under the bases?

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  6. Jeff, splendid indeed! to my eye they are just right.

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  7. Paul, Initially the Japanese were going to do service against Chinese pirates, en route they were diverted to Port Arthur/Tsingtao, by the time they're done I thnk they will be putting down the Satsuma Rebelion. You see that's the trouble with wargaming, toy soldiers are just so versatile.

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  8. Hugh, I had already picked this link up from your blog and it is now one of my favorite sites on t'interweb. Many thanks for that.

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  9. Ross, Hiriart do indeed make nice figures sadly I am in error as pointed out to me by Mike Niederman and these are not theirs! Apparently the company is still in business and has been since 1972 which must make them one of the longest running new "old toy soldier style" manufacturers.

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  10. Mike, thanks for your comments, I think you are right. I was told they were Hiriart, didn't look under the base and because I don't follow current production didn't check it out. Hiriart are not well known in the UK but a lot of their stuff has started to turn up at the London Shows recently, on reflection their figures are nearly always in marching rather than action poses and, as your say they have quite distinctive bases which do not match with these. I have changed the post to avoid misinformation but now I am left wondering who made them because I realy like them!

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    1. Well, I'd say they are mostly Britain's recasts and conversions. The standing firing figure looks like a Johillco pose. The Japaneses' heads could be one of the Prince August toy soldier line's heads; they've had chin straps added. And very expressive faces! (The painting is really top notch on all these guys.) I'd look at Dorset Soldiers castings list. Their figures have the oval bases and they do a "Britain's Revisited" line as well as a huge variety of trad-toy-style figures of their own. And if he doesn't have it already, Giles'll make it!

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  11. My best shot is Dorset figures

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  12. I thought the Japs were from The Virtual Armchair General - similar style. I couldn't stop smiling at their very toothy mouths.

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    1. Hi James, the artillerymen certainly have the same style as the Chris Ferree/TVAG figures but I'm fairly sure they're not theirs.

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  13. Hi 👋 I just say the Japanese are very good erm they look like their from the boxer rebellion also trophy miniatures made these and their hard to get hold of also expensive to . Very nice I must say .

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