Abu Klea and others by John Jenkins Design at the London Toy Soldier Show

John Jenkins Design have been around for a while but I don't recall seeing them at the London Show before, maybe they were there but tucked away in a dark corner.  Anyway last month they had a stand in a big bright area where I had expected to find my old friends from White Tower Miniatures and I have to say I was quite taken with some of their dioramas.

I assume this to be the Battle of Abu Klea because it depicts Mahdists rushing the Gardner gun manned by the Naval Brigade at the corner of the British square...........

.........but taking a closer look at the gun I think it looks more like a Gatling.  Still, a very nice piece of work which deserves better than a bit of nit picking from an old fogey like me.

Still in the Sudan we find this rather fine little vignette of Gen. Gordon's last moments at Khartoum.

And finally, the Highlanders storm the French lines somewhere in North America.

I don't collect modern white metal models like these but there are plenty of people who do so these few pics are for the benefit of those unable to travel to the shows, but also for those like me who need inspiration for conversion ideas and wargame scenarios.

Wagon Train in 20mm from 1960

Tying up the last few odds and ends that I came across at the London Toy Soldier show last month, among which were this rather dinky plastic Wagon Train set tied in to the Universal TV show which ran from 1957 to 1965.

Helpfully the backing card carries the copyright date of 1960, which can be seen in the bottom right hand corner.  It amused me that the manufacturer used such a large package to emphasise the media tie in for three such tiny little wagons.

This close up of one of the wagons also catches the manufacturer Morestone's (Morris and Stone) brand mark BUDGIE.  Morestone's were the firm that employed Roy Selwyn-Smith and Charlie Biggs to make the moulds for the old Timpo hollowcast figures, Selwyn-Smith was the sculptor and Biggs engraved the detail into the brass moulds.  Later they both went off to work for ZANG on the Herald range and when that company was bought out by Britains they both ended up as Directors of the company.  I vaguely recall that Morestone's made quite a range of diecast vehicles back in the day.

Skirmish Wargame Group - Toussaint L'Ouverture game in 54mm

The Skirmish Wargames Group are well known for picking some unusual scenarios but at the London Toy Soldier Show in June I think they surpassed themselves with a game set around the slave revolt of 1792 in Saint Domingue (Haiti).  A very confused affair in which plantation slaves rose against the French colonists and were armed by the Spanish (who occupied the eastern end of the island) and the British, who mounted an amphibious landing.  They then rallied to the French when the Revolutionaries abolished slavery and, led by the very able freed slave Francois Toussaint L'Ouverture, they ousted the Anglo Spanish garrisons and set up their own government.  Subsequently Toussanit found himself fighting the French again when Napoleon became First Consul and sent an expedition to reclaim the Island and reinstate the slave trade.

An overview of the table, in the centre a plantation building surrounded by bush and cane fields, at the far end the slaves are rousing themselves with voodoo incantations.  The fun thing about the SWG is their inventive use of scenery and accessories, the bushland is made from teddy bear fur while the plantation building has seen service as a Russian dacha for various periods.

The insurgents led by Toussaint L'Ouverture advance through the bush, the great man himself is in the left foreground sporting a bicorne with red and white plume, a band of armed Mulattos move forward on their right flank.  Toussaint and his men are new metal figures made by Beau Geste of Argentina.

Among the troops sent by Napoleon to retake the island in 1802 were these Polish regulars, also made by Beau Geste, and led by an officer from Replicants

When the French expedition arrived Toussaint led his men into the interior and fought a guerrilla campaign, which is the scenario for this game.  Although Toussaint surrendered early on and the country was soon pacified after that, the withdrawal of freedom and equal rights soon led to further insurrection and mutiny against the French, whose biggest enemy was now yellow fever.

I'm not sure where this chap fits in the story but he's a nice character figure and in period costume so why not?

The French colonists, figures from various sources and in sizes from 54mm up to 70mm it just shows that you can get away with mixing scales if you just don't stand the figures too close together!

The free mulattos were given equal rights with white and creole colonists after the storming of the Bastille but this was also revoked by Napoleon when he became First Consul. I think the mulattos above are conversions but I'm not sure from what.

The slaves practising voodoo are made from Marx Daktari set natives and some Hong Kong Tarzan figures.

Clairet Eskimos at the London Toy Soldier Show

I'm always on the lookout for something unusual when I go to the shows and here is something I was really pleased to find, it's the Clairet Arctic set.  I say Arctic set because it's got Inuit people and Polar Bears but commits the universal sin of including Penguins which are only found in the Antarctic.  Marx, Britains and Timpo all made Polar/Exploration sets but I don't think anything quite compares to Clairet, in fact of all the French manufacturers I rate them the best, being on a par with Elastolin for quality but with the advantage of being 54mm.

I was really taken with the ice flows and the sleighs pulled by reindeer, they're a nice touch to a very original set.

A close up of the figures, note the chap who has caught a fish in his two pronged trident, the one standing beside him with an oar looks as if he's frosted with ice but in fact this is a chemical reaction in the acetate plastic which will degenerate further over time causing crystals to form all over the figure.  There are some other poses which are not included here - two men carrying a polar bear slung from a staff between them and a man with a hunting eagle tethered to a pole. 

Final shot shows the sleigh pulled by huskies which I couldn't get into the main picture, also a better view of the huntsman with rifle who has a dead walrus at his feet

W. Britain new Zulu War unveiled at the London Toy Soldier Show June 2012

Unveiled by W. Britain at the London Toy soldier Show last weekend was this rather dramatic model of a British artillery limber team racing to cut their way through the Zulu hordes and rescue their 7lb gun.  The set has been titled "Desperate Escape"

A nice piece of eye candy which I'm sure will appeal to modern W. Britain collectors but why oh why did they mount it on what looks like a slab of rough cut MDF board?   And having crafted such folly why not extend it to the gun instead of cutting it off at the limber and leaving the gun looking like an after thought from another set?  Having said that I've looked at the set on the W Britain website and the base appears much thinner and extends to include the gun so perhaps this is just a prototype.

Due to be available in September it will be a limited edition of 600 sets and should you choose to order one you will get the grand sum of 1p change from five hundred quid.

Some further posts on the London Show to come when I get time, some nice French plastic and the latest offering from the Skirmish Wargames Group.

Niblett Vintage 20mm - so small and just exquisite

I went along to the London Toy Soldier Show on Saturday and among the sights were these rather lovely 20mm masterpieces by John Niblett, they really are hard to find and in fact these are the first I have ever seen in the flesh.........so to speak.

John Niblett is probably best known for his work on the Airfix HO/OO figures but apart from his own 20mm range shown here he also sculpted 54mm figures for Malleable Mouldings and a range of historical figures in armour under his Modelmakers brand which were sold through the Tower of London. 

Malleable Mouldings are best known for their early plastic figures made from designs by Holger Eriksson at the Treeforest Mouldings works in Wales around 1946 but when this didn't take off they moved to Deal in Kent where they started making metal figures for the collectors market, still using Eriksson designs but now also some by Niblett who was based just up the road in Sidcup.  Their catalogue boasted that they could make figures of any regiment to order and the Christmas 1952 edition of the Illustrated London News carried a full colour article showing 25 of their figures depicting the evolution of the Coldstream Guards from 1650 to 1950.  In 1957 they were still on sale at Hamleys, the famous London toy store, alongside collectors models by Carman, Argosy (whoever they were) and Greenwood.

Niblett was still advertising his design and casting services (now moved to Herne Bay) in Military Modelling magazine up to the end of 1978, there is a picture of the figure of Robert the Bruce that he produced through Modelmakers on my old website (now dormant) HERE

A selection of 20mm Romans, Normans and Medievals, at top right is a 30mm figure (also by Niblett) of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, the bodyguards to the British Monarch.

The picture belies the fact that the foot figures are little bigger than the size of my thumbnail and given that they were originally sold through Hummels of Burlington Arcade (where you can buy all kinds of stuff you never knew you needed at prices that will have you clutching at your chest and gasping for breath), alongside Courtneys and Pings, it does make me wonder if they were ever actually meant to be wargaming figures?   Well Niblett also sold them unpainted and after he died in 1980 they continued to be sold under the Tribute Figures brand, for more detail about Niblett visit the Vintage 20Mil website

The figures were on the table of dealer Adrian Little who trades as Mercator Trading priced at £10 foot and £25 mounted.  Adrian told me that he usually takes Nibletts to the shows in the US, where there is a healthy appetite for them, because they give a good return relative to the weight and room they take up.  A bit like smuggling diamonds then.

In hindsight I should have bought some, well one at least.  Maybe I will, next time. Perhaps.

Ancient Wargame - how does that work then?

Some years ago I came to the conclusion that painting 54mm Napoleonics and ACW for wargaming was a bit like cleaning out the Augean stables, the mountain of plastic never diminished and my hobby had become a chore instead of a pleasure.  To break the cycle I began searching for prepainted figures and bought up a clearance lot of the Timpo Romans made by Toyway (not to be confused with the original Timpo Swoppet Romans which would have required a remortgage on the house), these chaps are made of PVC so the weapons are a bit wangy and they plug in to a truly dreadful base which looks like a big orange dome.  Neither problem is insurmountable, dip the weapons in boiling water then straighten them and run under the cold tap - all sorted.  For the bases I reverted to my old favourite the tu'penny bit, the figures being PVC they stick to metal like barnacles on a boat hull, okay it's a bit of faffing about but it's not as tedious as having to paint 100 figures.

The Toyway/Timpo Romans, well detailed and nicely animated, I think the armour is quite accurate too.

I have never played an ancient wargame (not even with the Airfix figures I had as a lad) and my knowledge of the period extends little further than the Romans/Britons and Greeks/Persians but I have flicked through various Great Battles of ... and Great Commanders of .... type books so I know I am missing a trick and with that in mind I reached for the copy of Xenophon's "The Persian Expedition", which has been yellowing on my bookshelf these past two decades and headed for the local pub.

Britains Trojans, not the nice early Herald series figures but the later Hong Kong versions made of PVC (so I have no qualms about mounting them on new bases).  Will they pass muster as Carthaginians?  They'll have to because I haven't got anything else!

Xenophon's history of the Ten Thousand has provided me numerous scenarios which require few cavalry and no chariots or elephants, which is a good place to start as I only have infantry at the moment.  I have a reasonable number of Britains Trojans which will get the tu'penny treatment and be pressed into service as Carthaginians, supplemented by various African natives as ........ well Africans.

Rules?

I recently happened across some old copies of "The Bulletin" the magazine of the British Model Soldier Society but they were priced ridiculously high so I just bought one issue, July 1956 - the month I was born.  Flicking through I found a set of very basic Ancient/Medieval wargame rules written by a T L Bath, which appeared to be written for 54mm figures.  Enquiries on the Old School Wargames Yahoo Group showed that they were the first known rules written by Tony Bath who had founded the Society of Ancients and they were designed to be played with 30mm flat figures.

to be continued

Vosper MTB102

For the past 12 months, Mrs C and I have been walking the dog for an elderly neighbour who has been unwell, this morning we decided to walk him along the river where we came across this MTB gently bobbing against the quay at Eel Pie Island.

To be precise it's the Vosper Motor Torpedo Boat 102, an experimental craft launched in 1937 and just over a week ago it participated in the Jubilee River Pageant.

When I was a schoolboy I was an avid reader of the Victor comic and one of my favourite series was called "Under Two Flags" (not to be confused with the Foreign Legion novel by Ouida) which was about a Royal Navy squadron consisting of a MTB and a captured German E Boat which constantly surprised and outwitted old Jerry, I've always had a bit of a thing for MTB's since then.

It's always fun to discover something unexpectedly!

What really struck me was how small the torpedo tubes looked, perhaps because it was an experimental craft?

Winged Hussar Standard Bearer by PZG

PZG the Polish Union for the Deaf produced a lot of original and unique figures in their workshops to provide employment for deaf people.  Most were made a toys for children but some of the better ones were gilded, set on plinths and sold as ornaments for the tourist market.  The most spectacular set, to my mind, was based on the Polish army during the Great Turkish War of the late 17th Century, so far I have identified seven mounted figures: King Jan Sobieski, officer, standard bearer, trumpeter, kettle drummer, winged lancer and dragoon.

The standard bearer, showing the engraved detail of the flag, frankly I'm amazed this has remained intact through the years.

The horse is well sculpted in a rather elegant pose, the original plinth it was mounted on has been removed, I rather prefer it this way.

The armour and composite bow have a distinctly Mongol style to them.

Detail showing the armament, 2 pistols, long broadsword strapped to flank of horse, shorter sabre, shield and composite bow

I have only ever seen the King and the Lancer fully painted, the rest are always coated in gilt as shown above, I think this chap will be a contender for a repaint.  Such a shame they never made the Turks to oppose them.

New book - The One Inch Army II by Vic Ridik

As I looked around the hall at the PW Show my eye settled on a young couple struggling to get through the doors with two of the biggest suitcases on wheels I have ever seen.  They could have been refugees, just off the boat carrying all their worldly possessions, but they weren't, they were Victor Rudik with his sister Patte Rosebank from Canada and the suitcases contained copies of his new book. 

I recall meeting Vic about ten years ago when he came to the PW Show with his first book, my impression of him was a young man who positively boiled over with enthusiasm for HO scale figures, he's put on a bit of weight since then but little else has changed.  His book has put on a bit of weight too, it's 600% bigger than the first volume.

The One Inch Army II - The definitive guide to small scale plastic soldiers and accessories.

ISBN 978-0-9730517-1-1  Author Victor Rudik, published by 2206209 Ontario Incorporated.

To say there is a lot of information in this book is a bit of an understatement, it weighs in at two kilogrammes and with 850 pages there is an awful lot in there. Set out in similar format to Richard O'Brien's books it lists manufacturers alphabetically, gives a brief company history where known and then lists the figures they made. There are numerous black and white pictures on nearly every page and a colour section in the middle.  Small scale figures are very much the domain of the wargamer, many of whom I suspect are also becoming collectors, consciously or otherwise.  After all collecting, converting and wargaming are the Holy Trinity of the toy soldier experience irrespective of the size you prefer.

Let me state for the record that I do not collect small scale plastic figures (of course I have some, but I don't seek them out) so what possessed me to shell out £35 for this book? Well in part it was the sales pitch from Patte who appealed to the miser in me by pointing out that if I wanted to buy it later the shipping cost from Canada would be an extra £32, you can't argue with logic like that!  The main reason is that there's so much information here you simply have to have it, it's a great book to just dip into then you just keep looking at more and more and more.....................

St. Cyr Cadets by Britains???????

You never know what will turn up at the Plastic Warrior Show, a curious item that caught my attention was this Britains "Eyes Right" series box of French St. Cyr Cadets.

The wording and style of print have been lifted from original Britains packaging but the box colour and the way it opens by lifting the cellophane fronted lid are all wrong.

Inside the box there is a printed insert which looks to be a French Chateau, the figures look to me to be copies of Starlux and they are held in place by wings cut into the insert.  The figures are a good 60mm high and made in hard plastic, painted to a good standard.

Underneath the box the wording is once again copied from original Britains packaging.

So what is it - a rare Britains set made in France or a fake made to catch the unsuspecting collector?

The answer is neither it was made in Poland, and the quality looks very good, I think any serious Britains or Starlux collector (which I am not) should include something like this in their collection for a bit of fun.

New Armies in Plastic at Plastic Warrior Show - May 2012

Showcased at the Plastic Warior Show were some new items from Armies in Plastic, artillery for the American Revolution and War of 1812 ranges.  The figures are not new but the guns are, a howitzer and a mortar plus a bonus - there was some spare room on the mould so they have made a small "dragon head" barrel which can be fixed to either of these guns to turn them into Chinese Boxer Rebellion cannon. 

Also on show were the Camel Corps artillery with figures in red plastic, I was just about to embark on the conversion of some camel borne artillery for my Funny Little Wars Turkish army so these will save me the bother.  In the bottom right of the picture you can also just aboout make out the new trench sections AIP plan to produce, they are made of foam and come in modular form so you can make a line of trenches as long as you like.

And here's the man who makes them, Tony Ciccorello (hope I've spelt that right) of Armies in Plastic.

Seen at the Plastic Warrior Show - May 2012

Now that I feel suitably recovered from the exertions of the day here are a few of the photos I took at the Plastic Warrior Show last weekend:

This rather fine mounted Saracen made in France by JIM was on the stall of Belgian collector Daniel Lepers, shame about the horse's tail though.

The joy of attending a show is the plethora of boxes to rummage through.

Even bigger boxes, plenty of raw materiel for collectors building armies or making conversions.

And then some good stuff

At the start of the show these shelves were full, you can see from the gaps that by the time I got my camera out nearly half had been sold by collector Joe Bellis.  Click on the picture to enlarge then click again and you will see:

Top row - bartender and gambler with derringer pistol from the Cherilea Western Bar Brawl set.

Second row - Large scale (65/70mm) Lone Star Indians, these have swoppet heads, looks like the whole set here.

Third row - The Cherilea Great Helm Knight, originally made in hollow cast lead as part of the Baronial Series, the mould for the horse was modified for the plastic version to make it a rearing rather than charging pose, also I have never seen the plastic version with the knights helm so I suspect they dispensed with it.

Fourth row - Four Monarch Highlanders (two each with double handed sword and claymore and buckler shield) which I mentioned recently in the post about Monarch Conquistadors, a Speedwell FFL, a Trojan WW2 Australian and at the end a Britains ECW roundhead.

Fifth row - A couple of the rare Crescent 65mm Mohicans, a Cherilea Davy Crockett, seven Timpo Cossacks - very hard to find these undamaged, Charbens FFL officer and another of the Trojan Australians.

Bottom row - Crescent mounted Arabs, FFL and First World War British Cavalry, the foot figures are two Cherilea Nubians, a prone Japanese machine gunner from Trojan (hard to see), a very rare Cherilea Indian firing a bow - previously made in hollow cast lead and finally a Cherilea Davy Crockett.

New Replicants figures at the Plastic Warrior Show - May 2012

Well that's the Plastic Warrior Show over for another year, did I buy very much?  No not really, there was plenty of stuff there but I had made out a shopping list (nothing special - mostly stuff for conversions) and for once was determined not to deviate from it.........Big Mistake, note to self next year don't make list.

The thing about this show is that it's always been rather more of a social event than anything else and I invariably find mysself spending most of my time talking to people rather than buying.  Over the next few days I'll post up more entries about the show but to kick off there were some new figures from Replicants:

Bonnie Prince Charlie who led the Jacobite Rising of 1745.

It has become a bit of a tradition now that Replicants launch new products either at the London PW show or the Chicago show, this year there were two personality figures for the Jacobite Rising series.

The Duke of Cumberland, son of George 11 and victor at the Battle of Culloden.

Below are the English infantry led by the Duke of Cumberland, these were launched at the PW Show in 2011 but the picture I took at that time was pretty poor quality so here is a better one...........

.......and here is the man who makes them, Peter Cole sculpts the figures (same size, just like they used to in the 1960's rather than 3X the size of the final product like they do today) and makes the moulds himself.

Peter Cole of Replicants at the 27th Plasstic Warrior Show - 5th May 2012

Plastic Warrior Show - 5th May 2012.

The 27th Annual Plastic Warrior show will be held on 5th May 2012 at:

The Queen Charlotte Hall, Richmond Adult and Community College, Parkshot, Richmond, TW9 2RE (the usual venue)

Doors open 11.00

The Plastic Warrior anniversary souvenir figures.

Can we really have been doing this for 27 years?  I have attended every one and remember the first one like it was only yesterday, it was so bad that there very nearly wasn't a second one.  The Show was the brainchild of Peter Evans who booked the hall, arranged tables, did the advertising and roped in the dealers, his Mum made sandwiches and tea for the refreshment stall. 

There were only four dealers but they were big names on the London collectors scene at the time: Seamus Wade, Peter Flataus, Bill Kingsman and Roy Lemon, they all normally dealt in old lead but acquired some plastics when they bought up collections, it was good of them to take the time out to support us.  They sold the plastics very cheap and by the end Seamus was begging people to take them for nothing so he didn't have to carry anything home.

Several of us put on displays of our collections, a big feature of the early PW shows were wargames and "the fight".  Ross Perry (whose Dad had written two books on 54mm wargaming) put on a massive medieval castle siege game, it looked magnificent but took so long to set up there was no time to play it.  "The fight" was a reenactment, usually some sort of duel or personal combat. in this first one Peter and a chap called Bob Chitson dressed up in chainmail and helmets then went at each other with broadswords.  Their ferocity was actually quite frightening to watch, when Peter bludgeoned Bob around the head we all just stared on in a terrified mesmeric awe.......... an ambulance was called and Bob was taken to hospital with concussion.

My contribution was to man the door and take the entry fees, not too onerous a task as only four people turned up, I had taken my new rather enthusiastic young girlfriend along with me for the day, she dumped me shortly after this.  One of the exhibitors had brought along models which had featured in Don Featherstone's book "Skirmish Wargames" there was an amazing two storey western saloon, a pirate ship and a Peninsular War Spanish town, at the end of the show he didn't want to take them home, Ross took the first two but couldn't squeeze the town into his car and convinced me to take it rather than see it go on a skip. 

When the curtain came down we divied up Peter's Mum's unsold sandwiches and headed out into the dank North London dusk only to find that half the cars had been vandalised.

It had not been a success, we all agreed that, but Peter assured us this always happened with a first show and next year would be better and, of course, he was right.  With a highly sceptical team in tow Peter went ahead and arranged the second show, he managed to get some prime time coverage on Danny Baker's TV show and PW has never looked back.

The Figures

By the tenth show we had already imported remoulds of Marx figures from Mexico and Dulcop's from Italy so had some feel for the collectors retail market.  Peter Cole had been making figures in resin for some time but the process was slow and the materials made them too costly, he thought he had found a way to make short runs of plastic figures that would be reasonably affordable and we agreed to back him.  As an experiment we commisioned him to make a figure to celbrate the 10th PW show.  Herald had made a set of four infantrymen standing at attenetion, a highlander in glengary, sikh, guardsman and modern infantry in beret, we felt there should also have been a boer war infantryman in khaki and putees so that's what we went for.  The experiment worked, in fact it was a great success and from the techniques learned the firm of Replicants was born, we were so excited about it none of us noticed that we'd made the figure with his rifle in the wrong hand.

By the time the 20th show came around Peter Cole's firm Replicants was firmly established and didn't need us to sponsor a figure but he made one anyway, a war correspondent from the American Civil War, quite fitting really.  Last year Ron Barzo came over from the US and brought with him a supply of his own souvenier figure, a lady pirate brandishing a cutlass and quite fetching she looks too!  Will there be more such figures to follow?  Who knows, my next post will be after the show so we'll see what turns up.

Latest Plastic Warrior and Figuren Magazines out now

The postman recently brought me the latest issues of Plastic Warrior and figuren magazines.

Plastic Warror issue number 147 has articles on: Marx Guardsmen, Cherilea Diddy Men, Expeditionary Force - a new manufacturer of 40mm dark ages plastic figures for wargaming, Cherilea Commandos, Canadian Timpo boxes, Elastolin copies, Herald ballet dancers, Readers letters and adverts, New product review, Horses and horsepower, Test shots, Stad's Stuff and poplar Plastics update.

There's a lot in there and it's all in colour now, also you can now subscribe thrugh Paypal.  The Plastic Warrior show will be on 5th May, more details in my next post.

Figuren Magazin issue number 1/2012 has articles on: Military inflatable boats, Elastolin tinplate machine gun, Marklin artilery and limber, Kampfpanzerwagen V111 Maus, Lisanto - King Michael of Rumania, Franz Seitz and Helmut Ruckert - sculptors for Froha and Leyla, Roskopf Historic Miniature Models, Exploding tinplate panzerauto (armoured car), Zinc cast vehicles, Searching for early native American toys, Emil Pfeiffer's succesor: Tipple Topple, Unknown papiermache zoo animals, True and false Lineol rabbits, Medieval dioramas with Elastolin figures, Review of DSG Romans and Vikings, Barzo pirate figure, Book reviews: Durso book 1 and 2, Marklin Military Toys 1895 - 1939.

The text is in German but nothing that Google translate can't handle and it's worth subscribing just for the pictures.

Converting Monarch Conquistadors

Back around about 1960 toy manufacturer Cherilea acquired parts of it's competitor Hilco (Johillco) which was more or less imploding.  Among these assets were a small range of toy soldiers being marketed under the brand name Monarch, there were some modern marching Highland bandsmen, a set of three "Rob Roy" type Highland clansmen and this set of six Conquistadors which were designed by sculptor George Erik, a prolific talent probably best known for his work at the Spanish firm of REAMSA (Resinas Artificiales Moldeadas S.A. )

The pikeman (back left) in cream plastic is an earlier figure which carries the distinctive Hilco lozenge shaped indentation under the base, in this case it simply says ENGLAND, probably because it was made after the moulds were acquired by Cherilea.  I don't know if Hilco ever produced these figures and I don't think I have ever seen one actually marked Hilco.  The remaining five in black plastic are the more common Cherilea products sold in vast quantities through Woolworth's stores, they all have the simple blank circular indentation under the base common to Cherilea figures.

Above: the distinctive Hilco style indentation under the base.

In the summer of 1990 the brass moulds for all the Cherilea figures were owned by Triang and were due to be sold for scrap.  Giles Brown of Dorset Toy Soldiers got wind of this and in company with toy soldier enthusiast and author Andrew Rose set off with a truck for the Triang factory at Droylsden near Manchester to rescue as many as possible.  They loaded up as many bolsters as the truck's suspension could take, including the one for these Conquistadors and took them safely back to Dorset (a bolster is the steel plate that the individual brass moulds are mounted on for fitting to a plastic injection moulding machine, each bolster would typically hold six individual moulds and weigh as much as a large truck battery).  Giles phoned me to say he'd had to leave a lot of the moulds behind if I wanted to try and save them from the scrap merchants, I had just been made redundant so with time on my hands and money in my pocket I set off for the North, but that's another story for another day.

The three poses above were all made from the same standing swordsman with just a change of head or arms.

Back in Dorset Giles discovered that the bolsters would need a lot of work and investment before they could be brought back into production, fortunately he found a "white knight" in the form of Jamie Delson of The Toy Soldier Company who ordered sufficient of each range to justify the cost of the renovation work.  So that is how these fine toy soldiers came to be available to us once more as remoulds, and the great thing about remoulds is that you can convert them to your hearts content without feeling any guilt that you are destroying something old and original. 

More simple conversions, the bases have been extended with Miliput to make them more stable, a laborious process which is not recommended. 

Which brings me to the point of this post, I collect toy soldiers to play wargames with and for this purpose it's fine to have lots all in the same position but sometimes you want a little bit of variety and that's where converting comes in.  The examples in the two pics above are my own humble efforts and in each case are little more than an adjustment of head and arms.  The two pics below show the work of others more skillful than myself, some were made by the late George Weygand (who founded Maros Models) and others by Mike Ellis (who produced a range of figures under the Marksman Models name).

Sadly I can no longer remember who made what but I picked these up many years ago at a Plastic Warrior show and they have been languishing in a drawer until now awaiting completion.  You can never have too many pikemen for this period and it's amazing how much variety you can create when you start cutting figures at the waist and swapping the bits about as has happened here, note the use of a sash to hide the joins.  When it comes to conversions I have never had any qualms about copying other peoples ideas and am always flattered when others improve on my own.

My only contribution to the process has been to mount them on Tu'penny bits for stability, the original slim bases being annoyingly unfit for purpose.  Now gentle reader before you reach for the comment button to tell me that defacing the coin of the realm is a criminal offence let me assure that it is not, or at least not any more.  Some years ago I wrote to H.M. Treasury seeking clarification of this very point but in the time honoured practise of the Civil Service and perhaps a spirit of Non Culpa they chose to simply ignore me.  Undaunted I researched further (you can see this matter was causing me some vexation) and discovered that new legislation was passed in 1982 overturning the old rules and I am much relieved to know that I am not committing a felony.