About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Friday, February 9, 2024

M is for Minor Metal Makers

More box-ticking to get these guys and galls into the Tag List, I know little about the histories of these makers beyond the fact that they mostly produced small ranges for a short time and have mostly disappeared without leaving much trace, beyond the original publicity and any examples in collections, or pinned/glued to layouts!

 
Starting in no particular order, Cromer Models were obviously more of a transport maker, but items 6, 7, 8 and 10 come well within the parameters of figure collecting, or, if you know me, wagon collectors!
 
And, like all seven makers in this post, using white metal (or 'whitemetal'/white-metal) a catch-all for low-melt, lead-free, pourable soft-metal alloys, usually a majority tin-based, with various additives including antimony, cadmium, bismuth, and/or zinc . . . obviously, if you start adding aluminium and/or magnesium, you get harder alloys as used by die-casters. Add a bit of copper and you can get pipe-weald or solder, which more experienced - than me - modellers sometimes use, to glue these models together.

Already in the Tag List, as I think I have a couple of Wyatt & Tizard (W&T) wagons in the collection, and again, more of a vehicle range, but some nice horse-drawn items. The horse is a copy of a Britains beast, which they themselves scaled-down for the Lilliput line.
 
 

Mastercast are another which came and went before I was even aware of their existence, but clearly they had the beginnings of a nice range of scenic accessories, indeed, I may have the gravestones in the master-pile somewhere, I know I have a set or two, but one may be a late addition to the Linka sets, Linka having had several owners now!
 
As far as I know this was it for Kemco, if they ever made it to shops, and they look to be influenced by Hornby-Triang and Airifx figures, but it's only an artist's impression, still, it may help someone (including me!) ID some 'unknowns' in the stash?
 
This Pullman image came from Jon Attwood, and shows two examples from his collection, he sent them with some Roger Saunders bits which I've given a seperate post to, and from the accompanying text in Jon's eMail I don't think there was a connection - but I stand to be corrected Jon!
 
I think this ad'/puff-piece was actually in Military Modelling, but would have been shared with the publisher's stable-mates, which included Diecast Collector and Railway Modelling, I think, where I might have hoovered it up? And Highway Models aren't to be confused with the US maker Highway Miniatures.
 
Lovely set of firefighters, and it's funny, or ironic, as there are hundreds and hundreds of firemen (as they were still called in the 1980's!) in metal, plastic, composition, wood and tin-plate, but very few decent ones in a good OO-gauge compatible size!
 
Finally, the only other bit of colour in a B&W post, this is from a relatively recent PPP-Peco-Guagemaster catalogue (15-20 years old?), so these may still be around, but there are so few model-shops left now, you'd have a search-on!
 
And if they are THE Rose Miniatures, long-gone? However, various lines/moulds were taken-up by other makers, so there's every chance someone else is still making them as Rose, for the name, I don't know?

Many thanks to Jon for the Pullman shot, and I've just found three more emails from him, so there'll be these Railway Figure posts, 'till the end of March, at this rate!

3 comments:

jon attwood said...

The Rose miniatures in the final pic look identical to the Pullman figures, even down to the bases, perhaps they are related?
Highway models ad is from Railway Modeller magazine news and reviews section.
I'll send an old W&T catalogue sometime, they had a large range, as well as listing lots of kits and bits from other manufacturers.
J

Jan Ferris said...

Lovely treatise on the subject. Nice models and they are fun to build, using solder or glue. There are definitely fewer of these modules available nowadays, but a few can still be found on eBay from time to time.

Hugh Walter said...

They may have used the same sculptor, Jon? I doubt the mighty Gamage would stoop to maintainece of way in HO, so whoever did them, would have been looking for work elsewhere?

It's only getting them in the lists Jan, but with Jon's encouragement and contributions we're going to get most of them up, hopefully!

H