Well, thanks to Jon Attwood we have more on John Piper, both clues as to who/what and more figures to look at! Jon sensibly turned to Garratt's encyclopedia, which I hadn't even considered, and we get, under M.A. Model Accessories, the following;
"M.A. Model Accessories (John Piper), Kingston-upon-Thames (1977-80). Metal AFV's and diorama accessories. Taken over in 1980 by Miltra."
Which, given Miltra left a similar history, is not much of a help, but it does suggest that all those glossy Ad's didn't prevent a rapid decline, and explains the paucity of stuff, however, it was out there once and Jon has managed to track-down three sets which he was offering to open for us, but I've as good as begged him not too, they are more valuable fiscally, to him, AND historically, to the hobby, if left whole!
I have enhanced these shots in Picasa, the cards may be a tad more fawn or beige ('manilla') than they appear here, I brightened and whitened them a bit!
Now, I do recognise the spikes, or rods, under the figures which means I have got some - probably - loose ones somewhere, so we will return to them again, someday, for sure!
The spikes are for locating the figures in your diorama, by drilling into your plastic platform or porch, wooden baseboard or chicken wire & papier-mâché, or foam/foam-board/soft-board scenery, so you can glue the figure exactly where you want it, and slight dinks while operating the system won't knock them over. You wonder why more model-railway accessories don't come like that! Many thanks to Jon for all this.
Tim Gow obtained one of the Miltra for MOD sets a few years ago (a few? Nine! Nine years ago, where the hell did that all go?), and these may therefore be the John Piper sculpts;
Sadly, there were no figures in the set, so my own question mark (in the archives) over whether the figures were resin (reported in Military Modelling I think) or 'plastic' as Garratt reports, still awaits a definite answer! Can you help us with more on either John Piper/MA Model Accessories or Miltra?
2 comments:
Here is some more information on Miltra from Clive Smithers’ websites.
http://vintagewargaming.blogspot.com/search/label/Miltra
http://theoldmetaldetector.blogspot.com/search/label/Miltra
I’m not sure how it all fits together as Clive’s information cover 1/72, the Army recognition is 1/100 and BW Models were made in 1/76.
Oh, thanks for that Anon, I'd forgotten he covered them, and they are lead! I fear we may have lost Clive to Covid, it's all gone a little quiet over there? And he's not the only one . . . one of my annual Christmas commenter's hasn't commented since 2020 . . . sadface.
H
Post a Comment