A successful bid on an online auction site around New Year brought a kilo box of lead figures for spares or scrap for recasting, all for £10.
Among them I thought I had spotted some 15mm Peter Laing figures in the single photo of a mass of random lead. Now that Peter Laing figures are no longer made, finding new ones is exciting.
So throughout the last two weeks in odd moments I have been sorting through this random mix of Napoleonic troops of many nations, a few ancients and even the odd space figure.
It’s like a gamer’s owl pellet, ready for dissection. Mostly painted, with few broken figures.
Two weeks on and off spent flocking and basing and I am still not through this kilo of this scrap lead mountain. Almost all will return to active service, few will end up in the casting ladle.
Most are 15mm to 20mm with many different manufacturers, with some good matches for Peter Laing 15mm figures and others of the gnome type of chunky 15mm that I thankfully bought very few of in my early gaming years.
I was right that there were Peter Laing figures in that kilo of lead – sadly less than I thought – but I really like the randomness of the other figures.
The Peter Laing figures match quite well with some of the other figures.
Some of the figures I recognised from the amazing collection of Peter Laing figures by John Patriquin the Wargame Hermit blogger.
http://wargamehermit.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/15mm-peter-laing-ottoman-turks.html
The rest of the kilo of mostly Napoleonic era troops in their distinctive shakos, bicornes and helmets will be organised with minimal repainting into Gondal, Gaaldine, Glasstown and Angria forces for my Bronte juvenilia inspired skirmishes later this year.
They all look battle-hardened figures with battered bayonets and muskets to be carefully straightened.
Just one interestingly shaped Peter Laing horse – not sure what – distinctively shaped even amongst a jumble of figures.
Posted by Mark, Man of TIN blog, January 2017.
Great Score! In always look for grab bags on eBay, but I usually get outbid.
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Doug
It is always interesting how a grab bag / job lot sends your conversion mind off in many directions. I had equal joy a few years ago with a £2 scrap bag of painted mixed OO/HO plastics from a local collectibles shop that I will post pics of another time. More flocking and basing to do!
Mark, Man of TIN blog
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Congradulations on a nice haul! The ancients warriors have become some of my favorites. Are those all the Peter Laings, or did you get multiples of each?
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John
Sadly this six or seven figures was all the Laing figures I found, not all yet identified by catalogue number. In the words of Forrest Gump, You never know what you gonna get. That’s the joy of the job lot. I was hoping for more Laing figures but can make good use of the other figures.
Mark, Man of TIN blog.
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Well done for winning such a treasure.I look forward to seeing more of them.
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Tradgardmastre
I will post more photos once I have organised the rest of the kilo into some semblance of order singly flocked and based for skirmish games for my Bronte forces. Lots of mid to late 18th Century / Waterloo era French and British and mixed European nation troop types. A little repainting and flag creations required …
I can then to adopt them into my version of the Brontes imaginary version of their recent Napoleonic / early 19C. Colonial world.
Several layers of “imagine-nations” going on here!
The Bronte’s imaginary tropical island of Gondal is split into four kingdoms and apparently based on the Yorkshire moors. It fits nicely into a map of Yorkshire’s four Ridings, scaled up a bit to make each riding into a separate country.
Mark, Man of TIN blog.
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