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!

King & Country Charge of the Australian Light Horse.

King & Country are a current manufacturer of white metal model soldiers, I'm not sure if they would prefer me to describe them as toy soldiers but they're not in the toy style so I won't.  Since last December K&C no longer sponsor the London Show but they still have a large presence at it, taking up the best part of one hall where they display their wares in mini dioramas like the one below

I don't really go in for K&C figures personally as they are a tad too large and too expensive for me but they do enjoy a large folowing among todays collectors and produce some unusual ranges so I feel they should regularly get a mention in any show report.  Also I find they often give me inspiration for some of my own conversions.

New book on Greek Plastic Toy Soldiers from the 50's and 60's

Another book about toy soldiers is always welcome in my house, this one written by collector Markos Plytos covers the stories and products of the two main Greek toy soldier manufacturers, PAL and their better known rival Athena (AOHNA) who eventually took them (PAL) over.  ISBN 978-960-7661-91-3.  It has 235 pages, illustrated throughout in full colour, the author has done a lot of original research and shows that these two companies did a lot more than just the Hoplites and Evzones for which they are best known.

40mm semi-flats by Holger Eriksson for Authenticast - confirmed

Hidden in the bottom of the junk box I bought at the London Show last weekend were more of the 40mm semi-flat Authenticast figures that I recently blogged about, and here they are:

There are three of each pose shown above but sadly no box, I'm not usually bothered about boxes and frankly the whole concept of something being better or more valuable because it's mint and boxed just grinds my gears but in this case the absence of a box leaves me with more questions than answers.  With the previous sets of 7YW infantry and Arabs all the places in the boxes are filled so I know that they are the full set complete with individual portrait figures of standard bearers etc.  In the case of these new figures I'm left wondering if they are both from the same set or separate sets of WW2 British infantry and Sikhs, also were there any other poses?  However what I do know this time is that they were definitely sculpted by Holger Eriksson, apart from the unmistakable poses and chiseled finish they are marked HE under the base.  Semi flat figures are not every bodies cup of tea (not mine either really) but discovering these unexpectedly in a box of junk gave me a moment of pure serendipity.

Homecast Toy Soldiers at the London Show March 2012

An assortment of 56mm Prussian infantry castings

Various old homecasting moulds

This two part mould for a Prussian Hussar on prancing horse is marked JDEAL, a German company actually called IDEAL, which made copies of Gebr. Schneider moulds.

New to the London Show was a chap called Mark Shilam who had a table full of old homecasting moulds and various castings for sale.  Mostly they were old Schneider Brothers hand clamp moulds but there were also quite a few rubber Prince August moulds for 54mm figures.  What interested me was that Mark told me his father used to make toy soldiers from the moulds and sell them commercially, I had heard that people used to do this but this was the first time I'd met someone who actually diid it.  Usually in the run up to Christmas his father would go into the garden shed for days at a time pouring the moulds and cleaning the castings, Mark was then a schoolboy and would spend all of his spare time in the evenings and weekends painting them, they would sell them in markets and anywhere else that people would take them.  Mark was selling everything up on behalf of his father who is now too old and unwell to continue the business.

On another stall I found a junk box with a variety of homecast figures going cheap:

Two Turks but I don't know what the paint scheme is meant to represent, I think they will be taking a bath in paint stripper farily soon.

A French? bugler and British infantryman

Finally an Uhlan and a Cossack.