............ well not if I can repair them !
I have half a dozen hollow cast Life Guard type figures probably Johillco and they are all a bit worse for wear - a head missing on a couple of them and two horses with missing legs . I decided to try and renovate these so I've stripped the old paint off using 'Dettol' and this is one of the horses being repaired . I drilled up into the leg and them drilled the base and pushed a pin through it and up into the horses leg and applied copious amounts of super glue , I'm going to build up the missing leg using 'green stuff' and then repaint the figure , I'll post more when I get them painted .
* I ended up Googling where this quote comes from and it's from a 1969 film staring Jane Fonda and previously from a novel by Horace McCoy
Not forgetting the rather fine song by 'Racing Cars'.
ReplyDeleteYour right I did forget it !
DeleteGreat to see you restoring. I have used a pin methodology like this with great success . I look forward to seeing the figure finished and on the field of Mars.
ReplyDeleteIt was you that got me started on this project , a bit fiddly at times but worth it in the end .
DeleteYou never saw the movie? Aren't you lucky!!
ReplyDeleteLooks an awful lot like the antique Britain's lifeguards I have but I'm no expert.
Yes I've heard about the movie (phew lucky miss there ) Think it is a Britains Life Guard .
DeleteVery challenging work here to restore the Cavalry figure- you are very skillful Tony.
ReplyDeleteYes rather fiddly , getting the leg slender enough is the thing .
DeleteA real horse in this condition would have been shot.
ReplyDeleteI suspect so !
DeleteVery cool stuff, I just starting doing restoration work on these old figures - lots of missing horse legs. I've been doing the pin and green stuff routine but I found out there's a company that sells spare parts for Britains figures including horse legs. Not sure about JoHillCo though.
ReplyDeleteI've tried to modify as little as possible if the paint job is anywhere near still present, although I did totally repaint a Britains Belgian cavalry officer that I stripped a long time ago. Some of the JoHillCo figures I have are pretty beat up though so probably will get a whole new coat of paint.
Not sure if you've had the same experience on the wargaming front - I have two of the Britains firing naval guns and was horrified to find out they don't actually knock the soldiers down! I don't know what Wells was using in his guns, or maybe he had an older and more powerful version, but I was pretty disappointed that I couldn't really refight Hook's Farm properly.
If you're interested, some of my restoration WIP's here: https://ratrampantminiatures.home.blog/