D is for Walpamur....no, W is for Duradio...Doh! P is for Paint it Yourself!

Adrian Little (of Mercator Trading) let me photograph these from his stall at Plastic Warrior's 31st show, back in May, and they (PW) have covered them to a greater depth with other sets in their Hilco Special - available from the usual source.

Hilco plastics as made for plastic production, i.e. not ex-Johillco lead-casting sculpts but new mouldings, being three poses each of guardsmen and cavalry, with paint tins of what was then 'household' enamel allowing for Life Guards only (no blue!) and the Guardsmen to be painted-up in a gloss finish, like there commercial brethren, matt-painting came later with Herald and co.!

The six poses: Three of which (household cavalry) seem to have been lifted from Marx, with the guards bearing some resemblance to Crescent's 60mm figures, although date wise, I suspect the trail is actually Marx-Hill-Crescent?

We've seen the lower image before (Marx originals and a Crescent bugler), but I shot the upper, commercially painted Hilco figure this year sometime; I don't know if he came into the collection (and is upstairs) or if I shot him on someone's (probably Adrian's) table? I think he was in the mixed-lot with the Crescent Romans and Cherilea saloon table? If he is here, I'll dig him and a Marx one out again and do a close-comparison as they look pretty-much identical bar the base?

The paint . . . it's, errr, painty! You can do painting with it, you know - colour stuff in! It's in a little tin, call it a 'tinlet' if you like, it comes with a lid, and a label!

A much better set from the point of view of painting as you get red, yellow and blue, so can mix any other colour you fancy, but only three poses, even though the lid shows six from the old hollow-cast lead range.

However . . . I thought they were metal when I got them out - carefully - to photograph, the tray seemed much heavier and when my thumb caught one of the swords I thought there was no 'give' in it. Adrian assures me they are plastic though, so it must have been the extra tin of paint adding weight to my imagination!

 

There are another three or four sets shown in the aforementioned PW 'Special'. And . . . why didn't I do these on TLAPD! Doh (Double Doh!)