Elastolin Bundeswehr from the car boot sale.

 Among the finds at the car boot sale last weekend were these post war composition figures of the German Bundeswehr made by Elastolin, which warrant a post of their own.

The immediate post war production of Elastolin was something of a hybrid, utilising the same "sawdust and glue" composition mixture for the bodies but introducing a new pattern of head made in plastic and wearing an American style M1 helmet.  Elastolin used the same composition bodies with this plastic head and just different painting schemes to depict both Bundeswehr (as shown above) and American GI's for the export market.  Previously the pre war American infantry were made entirely in composition material and wore the British Army style Brodie helmet.  

Elastolin had been using the bodies of their German infantry with separate plug in heads and different painting schemes to depict various contemporary armies since the early 1930's but this was the first instance of them utilising plastic parts.  The flag was the same pattern of tinplate standard that they had been using pre war but was painted in the black, red and gold colours of the national flag of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Fleamarket finds from the weekend.

 It always seems to be feast or famine at the local car boot sale but last weekend I managed a reasonable haul:

This lot set me back £20, which I thought was very fair, there's nothing rare or special but it's quite a nice mix and they will add to several of my existing projects.

A few more Conte Normans are always welcome, my existing ones have been painted up as they came so I can afford to use some of these ones for conversions.  They are made from a firm rubber which leaves the weapons prone to bending, after straightening by hot water treatment I give the bendy parts a coat of wood glue (which is an industrial strength PVA used by carpenters) to keep them from reverting to their previous shape.

The four Timpo Vikings all need repair so I will have no qualms about basing them for wargaming, the two AWI have been added to a display shelf and I have suitable mounts for all the others.  The Marx reissue of Paul Revere in white is very versatile for conversion to many periods.

REAMSA remoulds from the Willian Tell set, I think the figure of Landburgher Gessler is particularly well sculpted, he looks just like the character played by Willoughby Goddard in the 1950's "Adventures of William Tell" TV series.

The more collectable items: a Franciscan monk and Mousquetaire du Roi made by Starlux, the grenadier drummer made by Cavendish is rarely found in white plastic so is probably an early example. The Cherilea Numidian, Lone Star African Native and Crescent Sheriff of Nottingham on the bottom row are all destined to be converted.

Medieval Lord and Lady - but who made them?

 After the success I had on facebook with the identification of the Galloglass made by Oojah-Cum-Pivvy I thought I'd try the same approach to find the origin of these rather fine figures. I believe they were made in England, 54mm tall, they are made from some sort of composition material, they may have been made for a toy theatre or something like that.

My thoughts that they might have been made for a toy theatre prompted suggestions that they may have been Shakespearean characters such as Petruchio and Kate from Taming of the Shrew, they certainly have the arrogant stance for that couple.  The period costumes have been well researched and carefully painted, I have seen examples of them before so I think they were produced commercially but not in large numbers.

Two more figures from the same series, a boy/Prince and a Monk, they are not the usual wood/glue composition or the plaster of Italian figures, perhaps more like the Blanc de Medun of some French types which is very hard, there is no armature. The base on the Prince is lead and not original but was added by a previous owner.

On the figure of the Boy it says "Courtier temp. Ric II Earl of March" on the man it says "Courtier temp. Edw IV" these were stickers added by the previous owner to notate who the figures represented in his personal collection, sadly he give no indication of their manufacturer, he uses the word temp. to abbreviate "time of". 

I acquired them in one of James Opie's auctions for Phillips back in the 80's the seller had been a student of heraldry and his entire medieval collection along with his research archive were up for sale. The lots were all high end connoisseur figures, Courtenay, Ping etc which sold for serious money but these were in a lot of plastics, most of which were conversions to represent personalities in their heraldry, luckily nobody else wanted them so I was the only bidder. Being conversions, all of the figures had these paper stickers on the base to show who they represented.

To date their manufacturer has not been identified so if you recognise them please leave a comment to let us all know.