P is for Pipes & Drums

Am I right in thinking Lowland Regiments have 'Bands' and Highland Regiments have 'Pipes & Drums'? Something like that, anyway; Hilco didn't bother with marching soldier types, but gave us some nice Pipes & Drums, seen here, although there are some colonial 'combat' types; I don't have any.

The pipes come in three versions which seem to all be from hollow-cast moulds. Now, there is a rule of thumb with these paint-simplified Tartans which - as plastics collectors - I guess we take from Britains catalogues, but it goes back to the hollow-cast era, which seems to consist of two main parties - The Black Watch and the Gordon Highlanders.

Above we have Black Watch 1st, 2nd and 5th figure, with something equating to the Britains Gordon's at the 4th stand. The 3rd figure is probably supposed to be a Gordon also, but the pale yellow, being almost a whitish hue, could pass for another tartan.

The Black Watch pipers actually wear Royal Stewart tartan for both kilt and plaid (the over-shoulder cloth), the soldiery wear the darker 'Regimental' tartan, which Britains did as a plain, darker (than the Gordon's) matt-green. If you get a bit of blue in the mix it's probably the Cameron Highlanders (the Sculptures UK figure we saw the other day?).

Two Black Watch on the left and three Gordons on the right. The Drum Major has an extra-long gold-painted dress-makers pin with the pin-head set into the little slot in his hand, for a staff/mace, I meant to put one in and photograph it before I posted these but forgot, I'll try and do it for the end of the (this!) 'Highlander season' . . . or next time we look at them - thematically by pose - but you can see how it should look, I'm sure.

I've seen these in an all-gold finish too, presumably as touristy items?