One such is Matt of White Tower Miniatures, who started with a range of character figures of Robin the hooded and other denizens of the fortified towns and woods of Nottinghamshire, he then switched to a range of Wild West characters, and is now building fine ranges of Dark Age Normans, Saxons and Far-Eastern armies.
There is a link to his website to the right of the page and I'd urge you to have a visit, and browse, last I knew he was still painting all the figures himself, and as you can see above unpainted castings are also available.
Huns on the run, or running someone out-of-shot down! These were taken as the old camera died last year so they are not the best shots I've published...and er...they're actually Mongols!
A command group, these will all be out again - I hope - on Sunday at Dave McKenna's show in Birmingham, there is a half-marathon on the same day so if you're driving, be early.
Saxon shield-wall, they would have held the bloody country if they hadn't all run down the hill in an over-exuberant (and probably mead-fuelled!) dash to de-horse the Norman Knights!
This is the original sales picture, it is clear from the photograph that both the front corners are split top-to-bottom, OK; 'Caveat Emptor', I can see the damage, but it's not in the description, so...polite note to seller along the lines of; "It looks like/Are the corners split, is there any other damage?"
The first thing to do was get the tape off without damaging the paintwork or underlying cardboard. A hot-air paint stripper is the answer, but turned down to the point where you can almost use it as a hair dryer - suggesting that a hair dryer turned up will probably do an equally good job?
Shots showing the dog-ears you'd, expect even if the deal had otherwise gone right, along with the multiple layers of brown paper tape. He's done a good job, and a few years ago I'd have done the same, but having done the inside like this I would never tape the outside? I guess he taped the outside first to get the shape, but you can do that with string or rubber bands...
So - next step; dampen the paper tape and peel carefully, a layer at a time, I use warm water as it seems to penetrate quicker, and a fine mister. Stop peeling every time a tear/peel extends into dry paper or you need to pull harder, go back to the mister, this phase is all about patience. If you over-mist, soak up the residue with kitchen paper.
Once the paper tape is off; undo the box and lay some hardboard on the floor, then carefully, gently using a clean butchers rag (not a duster - it'll dye the whole thing yellow...don't ask, but renovation is a learning curve!) or cotton-wool, and some distilled water (from an auto-parts place) proceed to wipe the whole thing, changing wool/cloths frequently until either of the following happen;
Front of the box with one side and a little red Noddy, who is also filling most of the cover, was he the Ricicles mascot for some time or just the length of the promotion? I can't remember despite recognising the box!
The reverse of the box with the other side/edge, showing the full set, as far as I know they were never issued in brown, but it was a standard Crescent colour (suppliers of the figures) and the Kellogg's American Indians were issued in brown.
Best thought of as a rival for Tootsietoy, I know little about the firm, but these are around the right size for 25mm figures and so sum-up the designs of the future that were so current in the past! I've seen the blue 'balloon-car' before but the sedan is new on me, and while it is a bit paint-chipped is still in overall good condition for its age.
Bottom right shows the two larger scale Banner trucks, I've looked at before, they were also produced in the UK by Kleeware (from borrowed moulds), next to them is the small scale Pyro/Kleeware lorry.
Alongside them ran metal vehicles of similar design and these are all from a Mettoy Playcraft (later; Corgi) catalogue of unknown age. The lower engines look very 'Denis' in execution, my local Lorry builder, they used to test-drive the chassis round Fleet when we were kids.
One of the loose ends; the upper shot shows the Triang Mettoy Breakdown Lorry, it is as you can tell the same vehicle as the two military ones in the original Littlewoods ad. Below it is the Lone*Star Cab Design.
The Matchbox take on the Humber lacked the sentry-holes and detail of the Dinky version and was not a copy, while the Dinky Lorry begot all the others!! I think?
The three 'best quality versions of the 'Mini-truck'. Kleeware originals which we have seen before here, and the better Hong Kong pirates, these early (or 'first generation') copies try to reproduce the undercarriage and Kleeware mounting method.
Type 1 - Kleeware (and Pyro?) - originals
Type 1A – direct copies of Kleeware originals
Type 1B
The Line-up, missing is the 2D colour variant and the 2E by ABC
Type 2A (seems to have been replaced by 2/3 hybrid B see Part 4; below)
Type 2C
Type 2D
Type 2D - colour variant
The line-up again, the Type 3 is not quite as much of a step smaller than the 2/3's than the picture suggests.
Type 3
Another line-up, these are really very similar to look at, the differences being either on the underside, as markings or in the number of grill-bars to the radiators (something I haven't documented as it's a step beyond the level of fartiness I've already taken this to!!
Type 4A
Type 4A - sets - continued;
Type 4B Fire engine ladder-truck and sketch of underside
Type 4C
Type 4D
Type 4E
The final line-up of these little trucks, for which - as if you haven't guessed - I have a real soft-spot for, they were everywhere when I was a kid...and you can still get them!
Type 5
If you take the bridge off the ferry, it can instantly become a larger-scale vehicle raft, to take your twin PzIV ray-gun across the great grey-green greasy Limpopo!
Type 6A
Type 6B (green - above)
