Nottinghill Soldier gets a Sword Scabbard & Repaint & New Traditional Toy British WW1 Soldier Painted & an old friend remembered.

 The Nottinghill soldier has had his face largely repainted and a scabbard added from a split pin.

The other figure is made from bits and pieces in my metal home castings spares box. Most of these were cast years ago by my friend David Bryant (not his real name as he changed it to fit in when he came to Australia). He has been deceased a number of years). Dave was a fair bit older than me. I miss David for we cheerfully shared the hobby and a friendship, although coming at it from different angles. His main interests were traditional metal toy soldiers and bandsmen. He was well informed about the correct way different nationalities' soldiers shouldered their rifles what and how many instruments were in a brass band and so on. He did not have much time for keeping and collecting figures in pristine condition; he painted everything. My primary interests were plastic figures and wargames. Dave never war-gamed although he found the idea interesting. We both preferred 54mm figures.

I also had a small collection of traditional metal toy soldiers, so I appreciated the castings and molds Dave sent my way. I would also bring Dave various plastic figures and he would make rubber molds of them using his secret formula (which, unlike his castings, he never shared). Everything, to be rally worthwhile for Dave had to be in metal, usually from melted down lead roofing and pewter cups. This was a way for me to make some metal regiments for my wargames as Dave would later lend me the molds.

     

A few years ago, I posted on my blog about Dave's collection so you can find out more if you do a search.

  The large number of spare parts, I still have, have been invaluable for conversions The WW1 Tommy has a semi-traditional toy soldier finish. I used a little black lining as the detail is unclear in places. I have not yet varnished the figure, and it will have a semi-gloss finish.