I made these home-cast 54mm parade figures using the traditional toy soldier moulds by Prince August back in 2005/7.
https://shop.princeaugust.ie/54mm-traditional-toy-soldiers-moulds/
The first group are ImagiNations armed Guild of Gelati or ice cream sellers on parade with their Neapolitan Ice cream based flag.
The second are armed traffic wardens on parade. No arguing with these over your parking fines with these fine well-armed fellows, keeping the local streets clear, safe and responsibly parked for democracy.
These are obviously based on the old fashioned British traffic wardens. I love the black uniform contrasting with the yellow stripes.
If you want them to be Italian / ImagiNations to match the Gelati, they would be called Vigili Urbani. I have no idea really what Italian traffic / parking Wardens look like other than those white gloved ones in 1980s Cornetto adverts and the 60s film The Italian Job. At least there is a spurious Italian link between parking enforcement and ice cream.
The Traffic Wardens do not yet have a standard or flag. Polite suggestions only please.
Very VBCW!
These were painted when I still used Humbrol Gloss enamel paints or Gloss Varnish over Humbrol enamels. I like this ‘Tintin’ old shiny toy soldier style painting still, although today I use Revell Aquacolor Acrylic gloss and gloss varnish. I have noticed that they need the final gloss spray Varnish as the flesh paint is matt, not gloss.
The two standing figures at ease (at the back, left) are not yet Traffic Wardens. They are inspired by 1860s British Customs Officers in Polperro based on a photograph by Lewis Harding of Polperro (taken from the book Lewis Harding Cornwall’s Pioneer Photographer by Phillip M. Correll, Polperro Heritage Press, 2000 polperro.press@polperro.org)
This came from the excellent small local museum of Smuggling at Polperro in Cornwall. Well worth a visit.
A few more random Prince August home cast figures from the same 2007 recently rediscovered box 
Mixed Patrol
Some of these figures were displayed to other’s bemusement at a local arts and crafts exhibition in my local village church / church hall about ten years ago as they scandalously had little or no boycraft or mancraft of any kind.
A blast from the home-cast past posted by Mark Man of TIN 14 November 2020.
Next post: back to the 54mm Spanish Armada 1588 / Aztecs and Mixtecs
Man of Tin blog 
Great figures and splendid imagineering. They really look the part and are extremely smart. I do like the the photo from 1860, great inspiration. I am very tempted by the Dorset Postal figures but that is for another day.
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Thank you Alan. I have some Dorset postal figures (shown in past Christmas and other posts https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2019/01/18/toy-soldier-postmen-and-the-bath-postal-museum/) I bought them ready gloss shiny painted at Bath’s tiny but interesting Postal Museum. Lovely figures. I will have another go at the slightly varied uniform and facial hair of the the 1860s Coast Guard one day.
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Mark, they are nicely painted, and they are fun units to have on the wargames table, I fear I’m too conservative in my thinking when I see these!
Michael
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Thanks Michael – This is the joy of ImagiNations – and of having rather too many uniform books in these scruffy casual uniform fleece wearing days
https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/09/uniforms-uniforms/
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Excellent figures! Between you and seeing some other gamers imagination armies using the Prince August Traditional Toy soldier molds, I am now regretting getting rid of my set. I look forward to see what other units you create.
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Hello John – good to hear from you! I wonder if the slow trend back towards 54mm figures is partly that our collective eyesight as a hobby is slowly getting worse? I don’t do much casting over the British winter as I would like, as I prefer to cast outside. Hopefully you will be able to pick up another set of the 54mm P A toy soldier moulds on eBay. Usually quite few of their smaller moulds for sale.
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Great figures and painting Mark – I particularly like the Colonial chap.
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Thanks MJT – I made a few more of the Colonials, did an Officer with swoRd etc but they were oddly not in this box of my painted home casts that I have rediscovered.
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Possible flag idea for the wardens – grey background with diagonal double yellow lines with a ‘no entry’ red roundel superimposed?
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An excellent and creative suggestion – I like the double yellow line idea! Thanks.
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Nice figures Mark. Tell me, I know this is a serious subject, but if the Gelati were to fight the Wardens, do you think they’d be easily licked?
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Aha! But not before the clever wardens put parking fines and wheel clamps on the ice cream tricycles … the Gelati’s flying column defeated.
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Lovely classic-feel figures. I’ve heard a rumor that a brand of ice cream called 99 Flake was named for the 1899 “generation” of soldiers raised by the Italian army towards the end of WWI – it sounds far-fetched.
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https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/99-flake-name-origin-ice-cream-cadburys-italy-kings-guard-a8342916.html
And also
https://www.cadbury.co.uk/your-question-answered?q=where-do-product-names-come-from
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Certainly sounds like a good excuse for another flag with Roman numerals for 99 and the ice cream cone with flake obviously. Not to be confused with the Scottish gangster “Ice Cream Wars” of the 1980s …
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Some of the nicest figures in your collection, I should reckon. A really nice idea and very well painted. The Neapolitan flag made me laugh, very clever. The Guild of Gelati made me think of the title of a William Boyd book I read once called “An Ice Cream War”, the cover of which looks a little like your khaki red coat. I hope they were all appropriately recognised and well-placed at the craft fair! 🙂
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Thanks Marvin. Thankfully there were no prizes as it was a “display of works” (how Victorian and morally improving does that sound).
I found your book cover here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Ice-Cream_War
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