You never know what will turn up at the PW Show each year, it's a perfect mélange of toy soldiers, all scales large and small, collectable rarities rub shoulders with terrible tat, it's anybody's game and it's always a lot of fun. I never go with any expectation of what I might find, mostly I'm looking out for figures to flesh out my 54mm toy soldier wargame armies and this year there was a bumper crop of Medievals:
I'm always in the market to buy knights converted by Vince Mattocks, these ones were commissioned from him by an old friend of mine, Dave McKenna, who sold his entire toy soldier collection last year and I have been picking up tranches of them as they have become available. I mention this just to give the provenance to these fine figures for whoever might own them in the future.
Much of the collection has been shown here in the previous posts covering our Lionheart wargames (see link in the Labels column on the right), the personalities are all conversions and painted in the correct liveries, the men at arms shown here are mostly unconverted.
I'd already had the pick of the collection last year then the seller found another box unexpectedly and offered them to me as a clearance lot, they worked out at about 40p each which was well worth it for the amount of time I saved in painting and research.
Vince marks all of his conversions with a stylised Vm and adds the date he made them, he also gives the name of the personage portrayed and marks them E or F to indicate English or French. They are mostly 100 Years War but some are Wars of the Roses, there was bound to be some overlap, so now I need to list them and see who I've got!
Another converter who's work I always look out for is Eric Kemp, and his figures have graced many a post on this blog. Several of Eric's collections were on offer and I picked examples from three of them to help rekindle inspiration and kickstart a couple of my own projects which have gone off the rails recently.
I always enjoy working out what the donor figures were for conversions and seeing how they've been reconfigured, I particularly liked the two slingers in the picture above, a common troop type but sadly neglected by the toy soldier manufacturers.
For some time I've been quietly squirrelling away the raw material for a Renaissance period collection, Eric's painting style is very distinctive and make his conversions instantly recognisable, which is helpful as he doesn't sign his work.
Another three of Eric's Normans will be joining my Dark Ages armies which are nearing completion now.
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