A Knight's Tale

As with all tales there must be a beginning ......

The inspiration for this post is shown in the photo above of the splendid 'standard bearing' knight from Roy Selwyn Smiths 'Knights of Agincourt' range. The range of five mounted and five dismounted knights were sculpted in 1950 for Selwyn Smiths own venture, which failed when his American backer died in 1951. Original 'Selwyn Smith' figures command huge sums of money, due to the high quality of the paintwork and their very limited production run of a few months. Fortunately he sold the moulds to Britains in 1954 and they were kept in continuous production until 1966. 

I acquired this example at the last Stafford toy fair for £20 which was a fair price considering the condition. These mounted Knights are expensive, and my other three examples were very much 'indulgent' single buys over two or three years at an average of about £35 each. As regular readers know, I am a toy soldier enthusiast but a gamer first and collector second. I rarely acquire items just for display and indeed these expensive veteran Knights are used in my games. This example is the fourth of the series of five, leaving me one more to buy when opportunity and finance coincide.

It was £20 because it had definite signs of wear. The standard arm was detached and there was paint missing from the horses legs and elsewhere. I decided to buy it and 'touch up' the paint and add it to my medieval armies. You see the finished article which looks fine (in my eyes at least) and he looks good alongside his three fellow knights (all of whom are close to mint condition hence their cost).

They are in my humble opinion, the best toy knights ever made for mass commercial consumption, at least in metal....Britains Swoppet Knights must win the argument in plastic!

The five foot figures are not quite as nice as the mounted ones in my eyes, although still lovely figures. I just cannot understand why two of the five are charging an opponent with a couched lance! A spear maybe, but a lance? An odd choice. At present, I have examples of four of the foot figures and you may notice that I have attached them to mdf bases for stability. Heresy I hear you say , but they could be removed without damage and gaming practicality comes first here at Apperley Towers!

Speaking of which, four knights is no good as my preferred rules demand six or twelve in a unit. Well  a very badly damaged fifth figure was repaired and painted beautifully for me by my good friend John and I have since happened upon a sixth duplicate pose for two or three pounds which will do until I acquire an example of the missing fifth figure pose.

This brings me neatly to a mystery which I doubt I will ever get to the bottom of. A few years back I was lucky enough to acquire from another great friend and toy soldier enthusiast, John Begg, four unpainted castings of the mounted knights. I cannot be 100% certain, but John had acquired a few auction lots from the estate of Roy Selwyn Smith and I think these may have come from that auction. All four are stamped Britains under the base, but three of them are solid cast (and weigh double the weight of the Britains hollow cast versions) with only the fourth being a hollow cast figure. They have all been expertly 'tinkered with' in small ways, ie a tuft of grass under a raised hoof, a new banner, lance pennants added, and the sword carrying figure has a lance arm instead. In the original Selwyn Smith range the lance arm was an alternative version to the sword arm but this was never replicated by Britains. Finally, some of the bases are soldered on in different places, but still look factory finished. So what is the origin and story of these four knights?

The fact that three of them are solid cast, would suggest home recasts. This is a perfectly reasonable option but they just don't 'feel' home cast. For a start, they are identical in size to my Britains originals, ie no mould shrinkage. Secondly, the soldering of the bases looks identical to my factory Britains. Also, why recast figures that were not expensive years ago? Additionally, the modifications have a very professional 'old school' feel to them, ie done by someone with skill and experience. The lance arm on the usual sword carrying pose also raises its own questions. 

I asked James Opie for his opinion but he was unable to proffer a theory either. I am inclined to think these may be test casts retained by Selwyn Smith which he was 'tinkering around with', but its unlikely I will ever get to the truth. Either way, they are splendid figures and I am looking forward to attempting the painting when the stars align.

I want to paint them in a more detailed and complex heraldry etc, in the manner of the original Selwyn Smiths or the work of Courtney or Ping. Whether I am skilful enough (and hampered by my eyesight issues) remains to be seen. I shall start with the banner bearer who is going to carry the banner of Henry the 5th to accompany my Britains version of him.

Three cheers for............Heraldic Miniature Knights!

For anyone interested in toy Knights and heraldry, this book is an amazing and invaluable resource. I acquired the copy in my library by chance during the 1990's when I found it in a small bookshop in the town of Bewdley. It wasn't cheap....£20 or so, but as soon as I saw the wealth of colour photos of amazing toy and model knights by Courtney, Ping and a host of others I knew I needed to own it. A decision which I have never regretted and I never tire of revisiting it for inspiration and information. 

 As I hope you can see from the photos above, the quality of photography in the book is first class. Highly recommended!

Tara a bit!

 Those Daring Young Men In Their Flying Machines!

Some time ago, I promised to show a bit more of this beautiful wooden aeroplane. Well today is the day and I thought I would make it an 'Aero Special' and write about all of the air fleet currently flying from Apperley Towers.

This biplane was given to me by my very generous friend John Begg, after I commented on how nicely it would compliment hollowcast toy soldiers. John insisted that I give it a home here at Apperley Towers with my growing collection of old figures.

There is absolutely nothing to give us a clue about its origin. It is an expertly made model made from various hardwoods and metal components. Nothing about it suggests a mass made commercially produced model. The workmanship is meticulously precise and the result of many hours work. If I had to place a bet, it would be on a skilled craftsman producing it as a one off hobby project. There is little to date it apart from possibly the commercially produced plastic pilot, but its not new! My guess is 1960's to 1970's. 

 I will be only too pleased to give it a hanger to rest in, until its someone else's turn to look after it!

Here we see the oldest plane in the fleet. I can't recall where I recruited this one from but it seemed like a nice piece to add to my hollowcast collection. It is a fairly crude tin plate model made I would guess in the last 20 years. No pilot, no makers name, but I'm thinking China or the far East? 

Here aircrew are making some repairs or checks before flight. As with the wooden model,  have no way to actually put this one up in the air. Its construction makes it too heavy unless I build a really hefty flight stand. The alternative is to use a smaller 'stand in' during games, but I'm happy to use it as a scenario piece or just as a display piece in the cabinets.

This brings us to the newest ariel acquisition and in some ways my favourite of my little air fleet. This is the tinplate plane that I acquired at this years Plastic Warrior. 

This simply made tin plate model cost me £2 including the original Britains hollowcast pilot. Its a simple attempted copy of the Britains monoplane (?) made in the last 20 years, maker unknown. Its much lighter than the previous two planes and I decided early on that it would be put on a flight stand.

Now flight stands are an interesting proposition. A stick with a base into the underbody of the aircraft, is the normal way of doing them. In this case, I finally got to use a telescopic magnetic pen that I had bought many years ago with just such a use in mind. It cost a pound. It is a stainless steel, telescopic, pen sized device with a magnet on the end. It was sold to make your life easier when trying to pick up a small metallic object like a dropped screw. You took the 'pen' from your pocket, extended it to the required length and then picked up the screw with the magnet. Brilliant! Except how many years would you carry the damn thing around before the right opportunity to use it arose? 

As soon as I saw it, I thought of it as an extendable flight stick for a model aircraft. Well we wargamers are an inventive lot and can often see potential in all sorts of junk! I dug it out and found it attached really firmly to my new monoplane, so the die was cast!

Attaching it to a heavy base was the real challenge. It was then that I recalled that I had a Britains hollowcast tree in the spares box, which really was hollow! I opened up the top of the tree and found that the pen fitted almost perfectly inside the trunk. This mean that the 'pen' would not be visible. Additionally,  the tree would glue nicely to a base and being metal would make the base heavier and hence more stable. 

I then found other pieces of metal foliage and a lying tree trunk to add to the base, making it even heavier but also more attractive visually. The Plane was flying over a scenic woodland base which would look great on the table top.

More importantly the telescopic device meant I could alter the height the plane was flying to anywhere between about 6 to 18 inches. Result! I will admit to being more pleased than I should be with this little modelling project, but sometimes the fruition of a vision from several years ago, will have that effect. What do you think?

Tara a bit!

Post Script

Whilst researching the origins of a figure for my friend Michael, I spotted a plane which looked remarkably similar to my 'Britains copy'. The plane in question was by the French maker CBG Mignot. The cast engine and propeller is identical. I believe a new production run of this plane was produced in 1983 and I am beginning to wonder if this was indeed manufactured by them. I am still researching this and will update later! 

New Blog - Ratspike and Renegades

I have launched my new sci-fi and fantasy blog today.  I hope it will be of some interest to some of my regular readers. It covers a wide range of subject from art to books, lots of figures, games and  associated memories. All of it will fall under the general heading of Science Fiction and Fantasy. You will find that the products of Games Workshop feature heavily, but my Games Workshop interests are more what could be called 'Oldhammer' rather than the current, or even recent, production. I stopped buying new product almost a decade ago and focus mainly on pre 1990 figures and games. Click here Ratspike and Renegades to see the first post. I will post a second entry within 48 hours to give a better flavour of the somewhat eclectic mix that I have planned.

Hope to see you over on the other side!

Tara a bit! 

Plastic Warrior plunder !

The photo above is of a mule handler and his mule, a new figure set from Peter Cole at Replicants. This was one of three new sets Peter had for sale at Plastic Warrior . It is a fairly generic figure that could find use pretty well in any 18th and 19th century American conflict and I was happy to add one to my stash.

The second set is a venture into a new period for Replicants, with a set of  (French) resistance fighters. The set of 8 figures are not all new, the radio operator having been released last year. I believe it was an homage to Roy Selwyn Smiths father who was a radio operator in the merchant navy. Regardless it makes a splendid radio operator for a group of resistance fighters.  The two prone figures are a clever re use of two climbing figures which Peter made several years ago. The addition of rifles on their backs transforms them into two stealthy fighters.

The remaining five figures are totally new sculpts and a fine set they are. There is a man throwing a Molotov cocktail, a woman firing a rifle and a kneeling man firing a sten gun. The other two are my favourite figures, a man pressing a plunger on a detonator and best of all ,a woman holding a baby and pulling out a pistol from the babies wrap. All of these figures are in poses that we have seen in Hollywood films where the brave resistance fighters are ambushing a German patrol. 

Unfortunately the 2nd world war is not a period I wargame, so I bought two sets ! I see these  figures as the basis of either resistance fighters in my Royalist/Socialist civil war, or as a bunch of anarchists. Yes the weapons need a little tinkering with, particularly the sten gun, but they will pass otherwise for early 20th century fighters. 

Alternatively, they could be used as resistance fighters against a Dalek invasion! I just need a guy in a wheelchair to throw satchel bombs that don't work! 

The third release is my favourite! Peter has reworked his splendid mediaeval cart to update it to the 17th Century and the English Civil War. New wheels and a new carter figure and voila!

This is an extremely useful scenario piece and I bought two sets without hesitating. After the problems Peter had with making more copies of the mediaeval cart, I wasn't going to take any chances with this one. Highly recommended.

The mule handler was £4.50, the resistance set £16 and the cart £20. Very fair prices for great figures. Oh and Peter ,if you read this, please consider some Thirty Years War figures which would compliment your ECW range so well!

As a complete contrast, I picked up these splendid fellows for £3 each! Not sure of the maker but they are beautiful sculpts. They are to be 'Oliphants' in my 25mm Middle Earth collection. Large but not as stupidly large as the Mumakil in the film trilogy!

 Here we see three members of 'Jacks Jazz Band' recasts but nicely painted with two of the chairs that come with this set. I just need to find the rest but in the meantime, they will work as a trio to entertain my citizens! As a jazz fan myself, these appealed (£5 for the five pieces). 

The odd looking fellow at the back has a western string tie and a beer bottle in his hand. He will either join my western set up or become another citizen of the Empire and spend his days in the beer garden of the Flying Swan. The first of my 50p purchases!

These fine gentlemen also joined my collection for 50 pence each! A Lancer Officer and a special forces operative. Both will find a place in the barracks! These figures had all come out of  a box provided by Adrian Little. I had phoned him the week before Plastic Warrior and asked if he had any hollowcast and other lead bits he wanted to get rid of.  He did and bought a box of huge variety. 50p a bit he announced as I avidly scrambled through the potential treasures within! I eventually handed over more than £20 for a selection as varied as one could imagine. Some pieces were in great condition (as above) whilst others were damaged or devoid of paint....just how I like them. I have already passed on several pieces to friends but the following photos show the pieces still on my table.

Who wouldn't want a regimental mascot for 50P!

Hello sailor! Or in one case goodbye sailor as its destined for a boat in Michael Butterfields fleet.

Five mounted recruits. The Civil war officer just needs a tail on his horse and a repaint. A side project of mine is a hollowcast ACW collection. The other four figures will be stripped and await conversion/painting/recruitment into whichever new cavalry regiment needs them. Britains cavalry are so very versatile with often just a head swap needed!

Two fine and nice condition RAF chaps! The RAF features heavily in this post as you will see later.

More gas mask recruits for my early 20th century version of U.N.I.T from Dr Who. These chaps just about give me enough of the metal ones.

The smaller scale Hussar is a little bit of a mystery. I don't think its Britains but who knows! The scale is tricky, 45mm maybe? Its shown next to a gift from my good mate Brian Carrick of a French Cuirassier ( I now only need one more for my full regiment)

Here we see the best find and possibly the rarest Britains figure I own. This is a Britains pilot form their extremely rare aeroplane series. The Planes are very rare and expensive so there can't be many of the pilot figures about either. I shall still repaint him but love this piece.

Also in the box in three separate pieces, was this wonderful tin plate (actually aluminium I think) monoplane. I duly paid 50p for each part and have now reassembled the plane. Finding the pilot in the box was the icing on this cake as the previous owner had used the pilot in this little plane. (blue tac on pilots bum and the seat of the plane being the clue!) 

Before anyone says its a Britains plane I can assure you it most definitely isn't! A close examination identifies it as a model made maybe in the last 10 years. The stuck on paper roundels etc look very modern. It is a very simple design made of folded metal for the fuselage with wings just glued on! The engine and propellor are cast metal and there are nice little wheels for undercarriage. 

So two pounds for this extremely attractive, classic design toy plane, which will definitely be flying over a battlefield near me in the very near future. As I type I am in the process of making a flying stand to match and will post about it soon. I would like to thank Adrian for bringing this box of treasures along for me to choose from. He made an old man very happy!

These two figures came from another friend, Eric, at a pound each. Both useful.

Here we see three of my favourite acquisitions of the day. The Bishop of Hereford to go with my Robin Hood collection. This is a Benbros figure from the 1950's and had eluded me for some time. £5 and he will be put on a base but left in his original paint as its pretty well undamaged.

The lady is the very attractive Mrs Selwyn Smith as sculpted by her husband for the Timpo railway passenger set. I now have two copies of this figure in different paint schemes. Both are solid cast when they should be hollow, but do appear to have original paint finishes, suggesting they are not recasts. A little mystery costing £7.

The garden gate set is also one that has eluded me and I was very pleased to pick it up for £10 for the three pieces. This will feature in an all pre war lead front garden for one of the houses in my property portfolio! A delightful period piece full of English pre war charm!

I bought the Bishop and the gate from Colin Penn, but my spending at his stall didn't stop there!

I saw these beautiful Britains conversions and at a fiver each had to bring them home. Now technically these are Russian Cavalry. But in my 'Little Wars' world they and the banner look close enough to Prussian to join the command group of my growing faux  Prussian army. I shall repair a few chips and base them up.

I also picked up this French cavalry standard bearer for the same price. He will again join the faux French command group.

These figures were a gift from Brian Carrick. Fine recruits for my civilian population!

Last but not least, I was given a boxful of late first world war British Infantry by a generous Paul Wright, for which I have a cunning plan!

Well that's it folks! A splendid haul from another successful Plastic Warrior show. I hope to feature some of these acquisitions in a battle game report in the near future!

Tara a bit!