RESTORING OLD LEAD FIGURES

The recent arrival of a box of broken lead figures has provided a major campaign of repair and restoration.  First job was to remove the old paint. Second job was to clean up the castings. The third move was a light prime (to provide a better view of required repairs, and nicer than handling bare metal). The fourth move was drilling, removing casting lines, fixing metal rods, and milliput work.

Here is the original delivery, I seem to have mislaid the farm lady milking cattle, might crop up later. Luckily, I do have one already in the collection. 

Here are some paint stripped, cleaned, and initial priming.

Will have to construct wire feet for the two roosters, tricky.

Lots of legwork for the sheep.

That foal can be saved.

Horns and hooves.

Rifle barrels.

MILLIPUT WORK COMPLETED

PAINTED, AND READY FOR BASING

Rather pleased with these, some Friesian cattle.

A pair of draught horses.

Some legs of mutton.

The W.Britains shire horse was a gift from Graham Apperley.

The Ardennes breed looked appropriate.....they come in a variety of colours.

Typical donkeys.

Rather pleased with this, a miliput and wire leg and tail. Basil now has a friend.

The repaired W.Britains greyhound might win a race. I chose Fawn (light distortion).

Might as well fix some lead pigs to the Johillco pigsties.

A spare Gurkha head, who would have thought that!

My British WW1 army has gained three recruits.

Well, not quite a complete W.Britains farm rake, but close enough to be a fun addition. Wire and milliput was used to make the replacement shafts. Just as well I had kept a broken metal Lone Star vehicle seat.... perfect!

Finally, the eight lead chickens have been repaired and painted to represent Welsummers (brown) and Leghorns (white). Suitable nineteenth century breeds, I'm wearing an anorak while typing this, lol.

A follow-on post should complete this project, when time allows.

MGB

LATEST ARRIVALS

                                                   WHO IS THE MANUFACTURER?

This is a question for the readers. I popped into a local charity shop (May 8) and spotted this casting. It appears to be made of metal, but not lead, and fixed to a tin base. The scale is large 54mm, but the style would not look out of place with W.Britains and others.. My plan is to fabricate a camera, and attach him to my earlier 19th century collections. But I'm at a total loss as to who produced it. I feel the thin tin base may provide a clue to the manufacturer. Any help would be appreciated.

At £2.50, I think this is a splendid find.

And here is the casting with a restored paint job, a fabricated plasticard camera, and a coat of varnish.

Typical camera c.1850.

WW2 GI ADDITION

A fleeting visit to the collectables shop furnished an interesting addition to my collection of US WW2 lead toy soldiers. This is a Crescent-made standard bearer. Now the steel wire flagpole is someone's replacement, the original is thicker, and topped with a ball ferrule. But this can be duplicated. Cost £2.

FOOD PRODUCTION

As a collection expands a wise administration makes provision to ensure food production also keeps pace. Spotted this job lot going for £24.96 delivered. Now this clears up a long standing issue in my rural landscape, the absence of haystacks and pigsties. The latter two are 1930s Johillco castings). I am going to assume the tall metal pole with a box is for owls? Those sacks look pretty old and original to me. The two long haystacks are officially Taylor & Barratt.  The single one is Johillco. However, one of the round, and one of the long haystacks, are old plastic or resin, and very slightly smaller. I haven't a clue who made the metal dustbin, but it's a fun piece.

Now repainted..... will probably base all the haystacks, and the two 'yellow' plastic will join my plastic rural collection. Not quite a bargain, but they are fun items.

W. BRITAINS EARL OF OXFORD raises an issue

Have been looking at this splendid figure for a couple of months. It was in the collectables shop for £9 but the trader kindly allowed me to purchase it for £2 less. While my Medievals were raised as Guelph and Ghibelline some of the former are actually French, and I do have a small collection painted up as English and Scots.

Incorrect heraldry is often painted on toy Medievals. The problem often occurs with horses barding. To put it simply, the horses head serves in the same manner as a flag pole. For example, Oxford's canton with the white star should be foremost on both sides of the horses head, like a mirror. When there is no reflexion, for example on a shield, it is assumed the pole is represented on the left edge as we look at it, or the bearer's right (although the illegitimate might hint their claims by 'sinister' variations in their adopted heraldry).

CHRIS PICKS UP A BATCH OF FIGURES (click photo for a closer inspection)

Thanks to Chris's efforts, have picked up this box of figures for £14.39 delivered. I must say, if all goes well with the restorations there are a lot of interesting additions to my rural collection. I have a spare pair of wheels so hope to reconstitute the Britains farm rake, and perhaps even construct a complete plough. My first job will be to paint strip and clean up the lot of them, and then it's repair and fabrication.

MGB