I was sent these four odd crude homecast figures with very chunky lead rifles as part of a job lot by Alan the Tradgardmastre of the Duchy of Tradgardland blog.
Rather than painting them as the more obvious Victorian colonial troops, I thought they had a look of armed Sydney Street Siege era Edwardian police with rifles.
The Siege of Sidney Street of January 1911, also known as the Battle of Stepney, was a gunfight in the East End of London between a combined British police and army force and two Latvian revolutionaries. Home Secretary young Winston Churchill witnessed the event at close hand as did Pathe Newsreel.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sidney_Street
There is some fascinating British Pathe footage https://streaming.britishpathe.com/hls-vod/flash/00000000/00093000/00093523.mp4.m3u8
All I need now are some armed anarchist figures, a young Winston Churchill and a built up area.
One needed a new Prince August head, another needed a replacement rifle (wire insert wrapped with masking tape).
Blog posted by Mark Man of TIN 5 December 2019 – Advent Day 5.
Man of Tin blog 
I saw, in Plastic Warrior magazine, some conversions of AIP figures. It is a fascinating theme although a little unbalanced in favour of the authorities.
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Again as you say, a historic event like this is an interesting scenario. Interesting to see the historic film footage.
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I think there was a free board game of this in one of the old Miniature Wargames summer specials, l will have a hunt for it today…
The figures have painted up well and look the part. I imagine one could do figures for the Guards relatively simply in lead or plastic. I was really interested to see the footage of the incident, really makes the past present in a powerful way. The fire brigade stand out in their helmets. I was fascinated by the crowds watching as the horses galloped by. In my twenties I had a football season ticket and remember the mounted police controlling the crowds. Even moving slowly there were large and to be kept out of ones way. Fascinating reading too Mark,another super Advent Calendar window opened for us.
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