Box No1. Damaged horses and cavalryCowboy turning in the saddle to fire, nice poseBox No. 1 Zoo animals and oddities – an elephant and a giraffe each with a broken leg.Box. No. 1 Damaged foot figures and infantry – bits of Zulu, footballer, cowboys and soldiers and some stray heads and horse legs.
One of the delights of slowly unpacking presents after Christmas is to look in these wreckage and repair boxes. I bought these cheaply online over the least few months to store away, bought as part of my Christmas present in advance, paid for using my Christmas gift money.
Box No. 1 contained some interesting zoo animals, lots of cowboys and cavalry along with some battered foot figures.
Box No. 2 contained an equally eclectic mixture of damaged and destroyed figures to be repaired and converted. None have reached the stage of melting down.
Box No. 2 colourful Cowboys and Indian figures.Some spirited Cowboy and Indian poses to repair.Box No. 2 bronzed American Indian on horseback, nice pose
Box No. 3 contained another eclectic mix of makers and figures from cowboys to redcoats.
Box No. 2 – Aluminium Yeoman of the Guard by Quiralu or Wendal?
Box No. 3 had an interesting mix of much less damaged figures. I photographed these fast against fading natural light.
Box No. 3 – An interesting mix of figures and makers. The cavalryman is a fine figure!Box No. 3 – Some more serious “military miniature” figures 1805 Austrian Infantry by Prokop, and in Blue a damaged Fine Art Castings. Willie Figures horse at top.Who could resist this cheeky wee chappie, whoever made him. See comment below – Zinnmeister 40mm moulding. Box No. 3 Useful infantry figures for repair including a stretcher case with feet embedded in plasticine to make him stand and play again.
Box No. 4 – a shoebox of delight – still remains to be explored and photographed.
It is always a delight to explore these joblot boxes and work out what to repair first.
Some ragtag motley regiments may be possible, once repaired and repainted where necessary, figures made suitable again for garden or floor games in the spirit of H.G. Wells.
Using some wonderful illustrated toy soldier books by Norman Joplin, Andrew Rose and James Opie, I should be able to work out who made some of the less familiar figures. This gives me clues towards whether to repair, restore or convert.
Another order for Dorset Soldiers spare arms and heads may be due later in the year, once my current batch of Broken Britain’s figure repairs from 2018 are finally off the repair bench.
Blogposted by Mark, Man of TIN January 2019.
2018 blogposts on Broken Britains and broken lead toy soldiers include:
Some more old broken lead hollow cast Britain’s figures that needed repair including Check Shirt Cowboy by Benbros (1953) who originally had a whole arrow in his side.
Man of TIN Advent Calendar Day 4 – Check these out!
Some more broken lead hollow cast figures that need repair. Despite miss8ng feet, spears and bases, two of these still have great originalcheckedshirt or checkpatternpainting as fresh as the day they were painted back in the 1950s and early 1960s.
New bases, new feet and a new spear created (in place of a fragile knobkerry or club). Ready for battle on the gaming table again!
Snazzy but Bizarre Check Shield Pattern on this repaired 1950s John Hill Johillco Zulu or Maori
If you want to know how I did some of these basic simple figure repairs, you can read many of my blogposts on the topic going back throughout 2018. Enjoy!
Blogposted by Mark Man of TIN on Advent Calendar Day 4, Tuesday 4th December 2018