The figure at left is Crescent. The middle one I don't know. The one at right is Britains with moveable arms and shovel. I made a new end to the shovel.
I added some extra equipment to the figures. The thick card bases, around 3 by 4 cm, are so they don't fall over. Even if I occasionally shoot at them with cotton buds or matchsticks fired from spring cannons I don't need to knock figures over but just to measure around where the stick hits or falls to decide casualties. The sticks don't do any damage, unlike some metal ammunition which people used to use.
This is what the two figures looked like as I was repairing them. They had broken rifles and the figure with peaked cap had a hole in his chest. I used wire, Green Stuff, Super Glue and Baking Soda. (As I mentioned in an earlier post, I read that baking soda is not good to use with lead so next time I'll try adding graphite to Super Glue instead. I am also investing in a new soldering iron so maybe I'll try soldering bits and pieces. The original broken rifles were cut back to the butts and holes drilled for the wire replacements. The hands had to be remade and the wire thickened.
The figure on the right is WW2 and has a completely new head from the spares box.
I really like figures with gas masks - it must be the S.F. feel to them. I'll probably give him a repaint.
To repair and repaint or not? There is one school of thought that altering such figures is removing the quaintness of the original and even reducing its value. Usually the value is not reduced if the figures are already very battered. Run of the mill figures that are damaged can often be bought for a dollar or two. It is true people even collect old stuff like corroded figures dug out of the ground and place them with their old bottles and dolls; I am thinking of mudlarkers.
However, as someone who enjoys looking at toy soldiers as representing some historical uniform or even an imaginary one I like my figures to have proper paintjobs and all their parts, even if not their original parts. I also intend to play with them, as the gods intended.
Also, as I am not always trying to completely restore them to look like the originals I add extra detail not present on them. This is nothing new. In the era when children were still playing with lead toy soldiers, up to the early 1960s, adult collectors like Roy Dilley were converting and repainting them in a kind of combi toy soldier and model soldier style. I like that style and spirit.
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