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Sunday, January 15, 2017

U is for Unknown Medieval Knights, Men at Arms and the odd Camp-follower

Moving along from the Ancients, we arrive at the medieval period with another bunch of unknowns, any help gratefully received.

A couple of Normans; painted and based, but not a brilliant shot given that the hoses may need to be separately ID'd, people did tend to swap them around! The lance could have done with a clipping I think, it's about14 scale-feet long, or about 25 of the rider's feet!

I think these are all the same maker, if fact I'm so sure I haven't numbered them separately, except the horse-parts and rider who lacking the same exact bases, could be from another source?

Five odds; the horse may be from the same maker as figures in the image 2, while the next two (Crusaders?) look a bit Garrison? But are marked only lightly, and not in the italic font the rest of my Garrison's are? [I think - they're all in storage!]

This chap, from all four sides ('cos I have four!) may also be from the same maker as the previous ' image 2' lot?

Again one or two of these have similar codes, but others are definitely from different makes. The ECW 31s is a smaller figure and the pirates (if that's what they are) look monkish!

The more European-looking chap at 5J, may go with the lot at 6H but his base is a tad heavier and his clothing sufficiently different to earn him a separate bag at some point? Indeed 5H has a similar base, but is from a different line/set being less 'Euro-renaissance' and more 'Sealed Knot'!

51 looks a bit Stadden-like in pose and execution of sculpting, but is unmarked?

The aforementioned set along the bottom row with a few more odds-and-sods. A nice 15mm mounted knight and an Aztek (?) are te best of the bunch, but I'd like to ID them all eventually?

Home-cast piracies? Interesting though, despite seeing better-days and I know some people did advertise err.... 'derivative' figures in the modelling press back in the day, anyone know if someone put their name to these knock-offs? They seem to have used the US Cavalry version of the horse (without the heavy reins) - for ease of casting?

A lovely Janissary painted-well by my regular painter - Mr. Anonymous! Was it you? He's been stood onto a cut-up Airfix camel's base, but I haven't the heart to de-base him and see if he's marked, so hopefully someone will recognise him? He's also one of the larger figures in this lot; closer to 28mm.

7 comments:

  1. The kniggits (pic second from top)all Minifigs. The horse I´m not sure

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  2. and I forgot. I´ve got a heap of the same nags. The two part horse Rose or lamming. The one in pic three could be minifigs as could the bod in pic 4.

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  3. Apparently I can't refer to the pictures while commenting which makes this either trickier or more work.

    The HYC, HYA are early 79's Minifigs Hundred Years War Crecy, and Agincourt ranges respectively. I think there was a Poitiers range as well and a small generic HY range also. (All about armour fashion). The WR are Wars of the Roses including the armoured horses. AX are late 70's Minifigs from the Alexander Nevsky range. There's a contemporary running minifig medieval horse in one of the top pictures as well.

    In I think the last picture in the upper right, there are what look to possibly be 2 Hinchliffe Arab camel riders from either the Palmyran or Successor ranges but I'm not sure.

    The lads at the vintage wargame blog might be of help.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's plenty of help from you both! Thanks! I'm on a free Internet trip tomorrow so I will collate all the answers so far and have a labelling session at the weekend!

    H

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  5. Tim eMailed:

    Picture 1 Minifigs
    First horse is later sculpt, second horse is middle-era sculpt (after S range)

    Picture 2 Foot figures Minifigs.
    Cavalry and horse Lamming

    Picture 3
    Minifigs Horse (2 unknown to me) Hinton-Hunt 20mm, Minifigs Crossbowman

    4 Minifigs Hundred Years War

    5
    5A 5B - IM = Foundry Indian Mutiny
    5D - ECW = Foundry English Civil War
    5E 5F - Minifigs ECW (I think F is S range, the other is their later better range)
    5G 5H - Minifigs Pirates

    6F is Minifigs S range

    ----------------------------------

    Cheers again Tim!
    H

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  6. And then he added (brilliantly - 'cos I hadn't seen it!)

    Just a note: I remember from SOMEWHERE (Hinton Hunter, Old Metal Detector, etc.) that one company started by modifying Airfix figures.

    3B and 3C appear to be modified Sheriff of Nottingham figures. (But I could be wrong...?) Might they be homecasts?


    http://www.vintagewargamingfigures.info/rblack/

    ---------------

    Cheers again Tim

    H

    ReplyDelete
  7. Tim/Gisby sent three more emails on the Garrison-like ones (3B and 3C)...

    --------------------


    http://parumpugna.blogspot.ca/2012_12_01_archive.html
    Parum Pugna
    parumpugna.blogspot.ca
    Old Battles, old toys, old blokes. Ancient Wargaming Using My Own Rule Set and Vintage 25mm Figures

    3 articles about the Minifigs JonBee range: Converted Airfix. They are Greeks, not Medievals, but take a look at the horses.... He made one-piece cavalry. And there's a Greek converted from the same Nottingham figure.



    From http://parumpugna.blogspot.ca/2012/12/well-ill-bee-damned.html


    At one of the first wargame conventions held in the mid-1960s in Southampton, a wargamer from Stockton-on-Tees in the north-east of England turned up with a box full of figures he'd made. Charles Wesencraft was amazed "We all had our armies of Airfix plastic Romans and there was this chap with these beautiful little metal Greeks and Persians". Another man who was impressed was Neville Dickinson. Dickinson had just bought a figure company, Alberken that made Hinton Hunt sized 20mm Napoleonics. He'd moved Alberken from Nottinghamshire to Hampshire and changed the company name to Miniature Figurines The wargamer from Teesside was John Braithwaite and Dickinson hired him to design Ancient figures for Minifigs. The result was the 20mm JonBee range.
    The range was short lived - probably in production from c.1967 until c.1969 when Brathwaite started his own figure company, Garrison and Miniature Figurines launched S Range. They don't feature in any of the 1960s Minifigs catalogues and the listing I have for them was laboriously compiled from adverts and figure reviews in Slingshot and Scale Models.

    The JonBee range is, I think, the most obscure of all the ancient ranges that features on this site, yet they were created by a famous designer and produced by a company that was soon to be the biggest manufacturer of wargames figures on the planet. Why then were they so cloaked in mystery, missing from catalogues and rarely advertised? A glance at the slinger above may offer a clue. He is plainly converted from one of the peasant figures out of the Airfix Robin Hood set. I wonder if the British toy giant noticed?

    More on this in the coming weeks....

    ---------------------------

    http://parumpugna.blogspot.ca/2013/01/jonbee-20mm-listing.html

    http://parumpugna.blogspot.ca/2013/01/jonbeezantines.html

    ---------------------------


    Last one tonight, I promise (maybe)

    From http://www.vintagewargamingfigures.info/rblack/minilist20.htm, a listing of Minifigs 20mm following the JonBee Ancients

    Codes were perhaps made with pin pricks on bases, and impossible to read....

    Medieval
    As with the Ancients our knowledge of this range is scanty at best. If you have a listing let us know.

    M 1 Dismounted knight with two-handed sword
    M 2 Dismounted knight with spear
    M 3 Crossbowman firing
    M 4 Halbardier standing
    M 5 Halbardier thrusting
    M 6 Axeman attacking
    MC 1 Mounted knight with lance
    MC 2 Mounted knight with sword
    PMC 1 Polish Lancer
    RMC 1 Russian Lancer
    GMC 1 Goth horseman
    PMC 2 Persian Lancer
    HMC 1 Hun bowman
    MMC 1 Mongol horseman
    TMC 1 Turkish horseman

    ----------------------------

    As the chap went-on to found Garrison Miniatures after his work for Minifigs/Alberken that explains the similarity and I really must stress my gratitude to Tim/Gisby for the effort he's put into these - and everything else!

    H

    ReplyDelete

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