This was sitting in Picasa for a silly
reason; I'd found a whole bunch of these, and only when sorting them for
photographing them did I realise they were the over-spill from a master
collection, or swaps, so put them to one side while I waited for the master
collection to turn-up in the 'from-storage' lot.
At some point these turned-up, and I shot
them thinking they were the master collection, but I don't actually think they
are, because they don't contain the farm items in the overspill/spares pile,
meanwhile, I'd forgotten where I parked the spares pile, so they aren't here
either!
In other words, what's here is some of the
master collection being most (or all?) of the Speedwell Battlefield Accessories I have, and some copies, along
with an archive shot, but missing all the farm/civil stuff in red plastic
(probably most (or all?) of the Trojan
I have), except those that are here . . . if that makes sense!
These are definitely, 100%, 24-carat Speedwell! I can say that with some
authority as they are both clearly marked Speedwell
Made In England! The number 1 pertains to the next-but-one image. Points to
note are clean sculpting and surface detail, cracked plaster modelled to the
inner wall surface and a sharpness to the 'steps' in the broken brickwork.
There are two cavities seen here, with the
one on the right being the 'copy' with a loss of etching-detail and a slightly
drunk arch, 'leaning' to one side.
We then get these, and from the level of
detail it would appear that they may have originated in time (chronologically),
as numbered? With the 2 a quite close but smooth inner-walled copy (Trojan?), the 3 losing detail to the
coping-stones and broken-brickwork and in a glossy plastic (Benbros?) and the 4 being so crude at to
have been carved by a myopic invalid!
The 2 and 3 both taken from the second
Speedwell one with the lean getting more noticeable on each in turn (hence my
numbering), but the 4 has a more even arch.
It's also smaller overall with a smaller
window and smaller arch with machine-routed stone-work on the inner-wall,
however, it has traces of that dark (decades dried Evostick) glue residue known from Blue Box sets . . . and Cherilea
sets? Goes off to Cherilea folder on dongle . . .
. . . to find nothing obvious, they have a
similar, thinner version in the later window-boxes, but not this 4. However
when looking at the bases the 2 stands out as having the least 'copy' base, I
still think it came after the 1, but suppose the 4 was first, just cruder in
sculpting, with the brown one possibly an independent copy, contemporaneous
with the marked-Speedwell and the 2 being last?
The small window suggests the numbering is
more correct than the musing, but it's not clear; anyone got any other bright
ideas?
Really pleased with this collage, I shot the
dark-green ones (1 & 2) years ago (thank you to John Begg) knowing they
would come in useful one day, and then the shiny one came in with the 'big
purchase', and is clearly a latter specimen, remember; they (Speedwell) did shiny troops at the end).
But also what we see is that they obviously
had problems with the tool, probably getting the product off the mould as a
wide, flat dome would 'cling' a bit wouldn't it? So, the left-hand of the two
chalky, dark-green ones (2) has had both a couple of release-pins fitted
(rim-edge, north and south) and a reinforcing ridge added - presumably a few
exist with the pin-marks but no ridge - as the act of engaging the pins bent
the cooling moulding (it's quite thin across the top), so a stiffener was added
as a spine below the surface?
Finally in my example (3), and having
failed to solve the problem with the previous changes (?), four more
release-pins have gone-in to force the product off the mould with six pins! the
edge/rim has been 'heavied-up' and evened-out at the same time, presumably with
the same idea in mind as the earlier spine - keeping the product true after
it's got off the tool?
The barbed-wire may not be original and
consists of security wire of the sort used by gas and electrical fitters to
seal meters and junction-boxes with a lead-plug which is stamped over a loop of
uneven wire. I think wire 'escape saws' in WWII were a similar design, but a
harder material? By the way, while I say 'may not be original'; given the
'made-yesterday' state of the plastic and paint I think it probably is
factory-fitted, and both examples in the Plastic
Warrior 'Special' on Speedwell
have it fitted . . . incidentally; that publication also has an apple-green
base version of the 2 moulding.
All marked Speedwell, the white one having
lost nearly all of its paint which seems to have been mostly a yellower
olive-green. Of the two tan ones; one is all hand-painted (left of pairs) the other
(right) is part airbrushed, it has had a stone removed from the low end. Also,
note that the left-hand of the two tan ones has only been painted on one side,
the other fully painted (and airbrushed) on both sides.
Unmarked for the both, but internal wall
detailing and door/window colour say contemporaneous with the 1-wall (above)
and they go well together to make a destroyed out-building, stable or hovel.
I haven't a clue! The one on the left is
the simpler of the two and quite glossy and probably equates to the brown
3-wall (above), while the multi-coloured one seems to be of similar agency to
the 4-wall?
The only clue I do have is that neither are
Speedwell; the recent Plastic Warrior magazine's special (post forthcoming) on Speedwell shows marked versions of this
with no loophole and a wider or more-spreading base, I think it's made of
fatter pillows too!.
I'm lovin' the colour of the right-hand
one, despite the lack of realism, it evokes all sorts of 1960's plastic tat,
not least Marx Miniature Masterpiece
and Merten plastic display-trays or
various forts!
I think an over-zelous fettler may have also
removed the top sand-bag from the brown one? As an aside - I wonder if George
Musgrave had a hand in any of the above? The first wall section has
similarities with his little bridge-pieces and Kentoys could be one of the names in the frame for some of the
unattributed versions of this stuff?
We will return to these when either the
'rest' turn-up or the big bag of spares, as there's plenty in that to be going
on with, I just have to remember where I've put it down!
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