

A tiny Royal Wedding cavalry escort …
In a previous post I wrote about beginning repairs on some 54mm Broken Britain’s figures kindly donated by toy soldier collector John Forman.
First I repaired the two Khaki Yeomanry Cavalry by pinning hooves back onto legs and repairing a missing leg with a wire armature and masking tape leg.
https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2018/05/03/the-remount-section-gets-a-visit-from-the-lead-vet/
I have now stoutly repaired the other Household Cavalry Life Guard horse, which was missing a lower leg and two hooves, so could not stand up.
Drilling into the missing lower leg, again a 1mm thick wire was inserted at the right sort of angle. Masking tape was then wound round in strips and glued as I went.
Finally Fimo polymer clay (Sculpey in the USA) was moulded to make stout, stable and secure hooves for the three legs.

Once baked for half an hour in the oven, I fixed each of these Fimo hooves on with superglue. It is still possible to carve Fimo after firing or baking, so I trimmed these slightly to keep them stable but bring out a slightly more slender hoof shape. Not too slender though as they need to be stout enough for use in tabletop or garden gaming, H.G. Wells Little Wars style.
Further Acrylic Gloss paint seals and hides the joins.
These horses will then sit well on a thin balsa base each for stability whilst gaming.
Once a recast arm has arrived from Dorset Soldiers next week (they emailed to say they had had production delays), I will finish repainting the Life Guard. This looked like it had been overpainted long ago but thankfully the original face is in good condition.
The fourth horse, a Life Guard officer’s rearing horse, needs a recast arm and head but at least the tail repair was simple using Fimo, then repainted gloss black. I also repaired a missing Zulu foot with Fimo while I was about it as well.
Work is underway on repairing the jigsaw of limbs that are some Broken Britain’s Zulus that I bought last year, along with some broken rifles of John Forman’s Broken Britain’s Infantry donation and also of the metal detectorist’s finds that were in a pretty bashed and buried condition when I bought them.
More posts on Broken 54mm figures as they are completed.
Blogposted by Mark, Man of TIN on Royal Wedding Day 19 May 2018
I’ve just been drafting a future blog post of my own which features Britain’s Swoppets, one of the foundation blocks on which my own modelling interest was built many years ago when your latest post came through. Great repair work and I love the idea of keeping these classics alive.
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I shall keep a look out for your post or contact me when it’s out. I have a few Britains and Timpo swoppets from childhood and found a tiny horde of them in a plastic soldier bag at a steam fair bric a brac stall last August that I again should put online. Bit fragile now but good for the display shelves …
It’s very relaxing making “gameable or playable restorations” of the toy soldier casualties I pick up. No Lead Man Left Behind, that’s my motto!
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Great motto. Will keep you posted but probably won’t be for a couple of weeks. It’s a memoirs piece rather than one of my vignettes or diorama models and articles but I like a little nostalgia. It’s an age thing!
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Really enjoying looking through your website gallery and dioramas – your painting style is far more detailed and very different to my toy soldier style. Looking at your ACW and Wild West section / buildings etc I think you would really like the Forgotten Georgia website all about old American buildings, covered bridges and everyday buildings not just heritage sites. Enjoy!
https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/27/forgotten-georgia-blog/
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Very interesting. Some food for thought in those images that’s for sure. Thank you
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Great work Mark.
Broken Britain – sounds like a place that needs a big distraction, like a wedding…
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I shall watch the parade bits later without all the padding and pundit stuff. Good for the UK bunting industry! Interesting snippets online of rehearsal for the troops in their blue and Khaki second best parade uniforms. I’m sure all our blogger colleagues wish the couple well.
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Great work! Very satisfying to see your progress.
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