HELMET Soldiers

2009-12-28T08:41:00.000-08:00

This is my first Blog posting for some considerable time, and as usual I have plenty of excuses for the non-arrival of any new news. However as this is a toy soldier Blog and not another of those that allow the author to sound off on their favourite subject (themselves) I shall limit my defence to the fact that I needed to find gainful, full-time employment and following a period of contract work in the Autumn, I started a five day week at the end of November. All this has meant that I have not been able to focus on HELMET Soldiers at all, nor this Blog. Excuses over.

I have been painting Napoleonics in my limited spare time in order to have a decent sized wargame starting on Boxing Day. I tend to paint the British with an eye to the War of 1812, so generally light on troops that were in both America and Europe in the period, but more of that later.

I took the opportunity of attending the London Toy Soldier Show in early December, as a punter and not a trader, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, my wallet took a hard pounding, mostly on the new Harpers Ferry figures by Replicants, bought from the ever friendly Steve Weston, I also picked up some useful bits and bobs, spare heads and stuff for future conversions. Finally I had a brief chat with a fellow converter ending in an agreement to produce some figures for a possible Siege of Vienna, 1683, game sometime soon............. more news later.

I also bought, via mail order, a box of the new(ish) Victrix Napoleonic British Infantry in hard plastic kit form. These are great with terrific characterisation and detail, the downside is that they are large figures and will not fit with any of my existing regiments. I guess they could be used separately as skirmish pieces.

So to the pictures. Our son, back from Uni, and I try to start a wargame each Boxing Day, and these few photos show the start of that event, if people are interested I'll post more to show how the game develops. We use our own simple rules which are still sort of in development, we need simplicity due the the large (ish) number of figures we deploy and the need to keep the game moving along.

The first picture shows Jonathan - the new Corsican Ogre - beginning to set up the Frenchies, I took this photo without him knowing, or so I thought. He took the second picture, of yours truly, setting up the gallant allies, definitely without my knowledge. So ignoring the ugly old gentleman in the background, it does show the very basic terrain,a crossroads with a scatter of walls and ruined buildings. The third picture shows some of the first British to arrive, Light Infantry and Rifles on open order scree a Foot Artillery Battery, a weak company of Redcoats and some Light Cavalry acting as escort to the general, in this instance Lord Peregrine D'Arcey and his servant, a corporal in the Staff Corps.

Picture 4 shows some French skirmishers, dismounted Vistula Lancers and Foot Dragoons, part of a screen also comprising a full company of Light Infantry, apart from the Replicant officer these are conversions from Accurate and Armies in Plastic with head swaps and greenstuff additions. Finally the French begin to arrive in force, Guard and Line Infantry in the background along with a couple of guns, Dragoons in the middle instance and Hussars in the foreground. Behind the Dragoons is the Emperor himself with his escort, backed by a half squadron of Mamelukes and a pair of giant pink hands which could cause problems later. Figs here are mostly Italeri and Armies in Plastic with A Call to Arms and Airfix as well as some Irregular metal models, as per usual most have been converted to some degree or other.

Enough for now, comments, questions and feedback welcome. I'll publish more pics if there seems to be a demand, in the meantime enjoy what remains of Christmas and look forward to a Happy 2010!

Cheers

Eric

2009-09-13T06:05:00.000-07:00

"Small Wars" have always held a fascination for me, and at risk of denigrating the sacrifice of those who fell in such conflicts, their appeal seems to be something around understanding and involvement. By that I mean, I can more readily comprehend the causes and course of such wars and feel some empathy with those involved.That's why I am drawn to the War of 1812, with apologies to those the other side of the pond,(compared to the wider Napoleonic conflict this is a small war), The Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, and, as seen in the picture - The Jacobite Rising of 1745.

I have been interested in this era for as long as I can remember, seeing the film on Culloden made by Peter Watkins for the BBC as a schoolboy in 1964 probably kick started that enthusiasm. Since then I have collected two sets of 25/28 mm armies, one from Minifigs, and the second by Front Rank. A real bonus has been the increase in the amount of reference material available, especially on the Jacobite forces, through authors such as Stuart Reid. When I began painting my Minifig troops back in the late 60's much of the resultant colour scheme was based on (un)educated guesswork, remember the BBC in 1964 was still broadcasting in black and white.

A couple of years back I started to produce figures for the Rising in 1:32 plastic, reasoning that the Timpo "Napoleonic" Scots were a cinch to turn into Bonnie Prince Charlie's Highlanders- as usual I grossly underestimated the amount of time involved, but at the same time enjoyed the challenge. So again the madness took over and I sought bout suitable figures from beyond the confimes of Timpo, so the pictures contain men that started out as Marx Vikings, Accurate War of Independence Militia, Imex ACW, A Call to Arms English Civil War, Armies in Plastic Ansar, Barzo French and Indian War and others......................

The imminent release of the Regulars in the new F&IW range from Armies in Plastic will, i fervently hope (fingers massively crossed here) provide the basis for some "British" Regulars and Irish Piquets - The "Wild Geese". That being the case and if God is kind, the '45 will be my ext projest in the New Year, failing the it's back to the Polish Winged Hussars for me..........

I plan to use Imex AWI artillery for most of the gunners and still have the challenge of making suitable figs for mounted dragoons, but this is a small war so I won't need too many will I????

Anyway more news later,

Cheers

Eric

2009-07-26T04:07:00.000-07:00

Recently I had the opportunity to visit "The Master", Mike Blake and great pleasure it was too. Most of us in this hobby contact our fellow enthusiasts via phone or Internet and this trip and the good old face-to-face communication that took place was truly inspirational, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and learned a great deal. Thanks Mike.

So, full of new enthusiasm I returned with a plan to paint up some Napoleonics for a Summer Wargame in the garden with our Boy before he returns to university. I was determined to complete some outstanding projects and at the same time start some new ones. Prior to seeing Mike I had always converted two figures and then painted them, then two more conversions, followed by the painting then so on. Now I am determined to prepare or convert all the figures in the unit and then paint them in one long painting exercise, although I still only paint them two at a time. This seems to speed things up and encourage me to finish what I have begun.

Most of the pictures here are of Italeri models, Mamelukes and British Light Dragoons, but first off a couple of British Hussars, from the 15th Light Dragoons, they are straight up and down HELMET kits, and are the first two of a squadron strength unit, Our squadrons comprise an officer, trumpeter and 16 men. I painted the officer and trumpeter of the Light Dragoons shown in the next two pictures over a year ago and they have been leading a phantom squadron ever since. Happily this sad state of affairs has been rectified and they now have the satisfaction of knowing that their shouted orders and tootling trumpet calls are now heard by 32 little plastic ears and responded to by 16 plastic men and horses. I really like these figures and have done very little to them, merely cutting of the right hands of some and re-fixing (pinning and glueing) at different angles to add variety.

Some of the Mamelukes have had the same treatment, and I have added firearms and blunderbusses to a few. The officer has had his held pistol removed and replaced with a HELMET sword, his sash and missing pistol built up, and white plume added. Additionally I added a load of greenstuff ornaments including shabraque to an Italeri Saracen horse, and based the whole thing on one 0f the colour plates in the Osprey Mameluke book, which was very useful for colour scemes and details of armament these chaps carried.

The Light Dragoons will be seen in the War of 1812, Peninsular and Waterloo scenarios, the Hussars in Spain and Belgium and the Mamelukes will face them in the same battles, so all in all some fairly flexible units.

That's all for now, comments, feedback, questions and blank cheques all welcomed.

Cheers

Eric

2009-06-07T08:18:00.000-07:00

GREETINGS TO ALL MAD TOY SOLDIER COLLECTORS WHEREVER YOU MAY BE!

Bit of a mixture this time and a chance for me to catch up on some ongoing and perhaps neglected projects.

I have always wanted to add limber teams to tow my guns, rather than having to imagine them being dragged along by invisible horses and drivers, or even worse by some strange earth force that dates back to ancient times when people painted themselves rather than toy soldiers. The French Napoleonics are reasonably well catered for with two Italeri sets, which although of some inaccuracies are pretty good material, however there is nothing for the Brits or other nationalities, so I decided to make a 4 horse team that I could use for the Napoleonic War, The War of 1812, The Crimea and anything else in between. So far it has been a labour of hate, but with some useful learnings on the way. The first two photos show the (nearly) completed drivers and their mounts. The men are simple adaptions from HELMET spares, nothing really special about them, however the horses were the real problem. The third picture shows construction of the four horses before painting, as you can see I did head swaps on the driver's horses, and also a tail swap on one for a bit of variety and to use heads that had moulded reins. Much of the simplified harness uses milliput and/or greenstuff, but my real problems arose from my opting to use decorative gift wrapping tape for the main strapping. My (obviously logical) reasoning being that this was pre-cut- although I had to cut it in half lengthwise, as it was too wide - so I would have to do less tedious cutting, secondly I chose the metallic type as I knew this to be stronger.

Alas dear reader I could not find a glue that would stick the damn stuff to the plastic of the horses. Super glue wouldn't touch it, I spent a whole evening, the air rent with numerous foul expletives, sticking my fingers together and to the horses, even when I thought I had achieved success as soon as I put the ****ing thing down, the joints slowly and provocatively slid apart, cue more swearing. Eventually I used a contact adhesive and a couple of coats of strong varnish. Learning Point? "Check what glues will work on the proposed materials before construction work begins, and try not to swear too much in the course of what should be an enjoyable hobby."

The fourth picture is a better photo of two of our new Prussian Hussar kit, it and the Uhlan should be up on the website this week - please spend generously.

Lastly a picture of some more of my War of 1812/ Peninsular War British Infantry, these are made from a variety of bits see if you can guess the source. Ken C this means you!

That's all, next time some more Napoleonics.

Take care, play fair and keep your powder dry.

Eric

2009-06-01T01:55:00.000-07:00

Greetings to one and all.

This edition of the Blog is a shameless attempt at generating income for HELMET Soldiers and shows some stuff I'm currently working on.

I would be really grateful if people who read this could post comments and suggestions, I want to make HELMET a success and the only way I can achieve this is through satisfying my customers.

Not much writing this time around, hopefully the pictures will tell their own story, however the photos were taken on Saturday afternoon during what alarmingly seems to have become a British summer, so they are a tad bright, apologies for that and sun glasses are recommended!

First up is one of our new hand made accessories, an archers' mantelet, this and a couple of other pieces are now for sale on the website are ridiculously low prices. www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk

Next the first in a range of 54mm/1:32 flags. These are for the 1st Footguards at Waterloo. They come on the same sheet with a cavalry standard as bonus and will retail at 2 GBP plus postage. We previewed these at the Plastic Warrior Show in Richmond, and actually sold some! They are not computer generated, but I paint them in watercolours at twice full size. I have completed a sheet with 8 Parliamentary cavalry standards from the English Civil War, and am working on French flags for 1815, they all should be available shortly.

Lastly there are two photos from a projected range of allied cavalry for the Napoleonic period, first to see the light of day will be the Uhlan followed soon by the Hussar as shown here. We are also working on a new body ( aren't we all?) so that we can produce Dragoons, Cuirassiers and Landwehr cavalry. More news soon.

Ant reaction/comments gratefully received.

Cheers

Eric

2009-03-31T03:44:00.000-07:00

These Blogs are coming along in threes, just like London Buses........

As promised I attache some pictures of the painted Winged Hussar along with some WIP photos of the second member of this mad project.

So I decided that I just had to have some Polish Winged Hussars and my addled brain began to process the potential difficulties of obtaining and converting suitable figures, the problems resolved themselves onto three main areas:

1. A mounted figure to use as a basis.

2. How to make and fix the wings

3. Weaponry - of which there is quite a lot.

Taking those in order, the obvious starting point foe the figure is a mounted Knight isn't it? Well I certainly thought so, they've got armour and are in the right sort of position. Therefore I got some cheap bits via ebay, and stated to study the Osprey book on the subject, and guess what, even if you want to produce a rough approximation of Polish armour you need to almost completely re-sculpt the armour. The two top pictures show this as well as the ones in the previous Blog, all I was left with was the top half of the cuirass, the rest is Milliput or Greenstuff. I used a lot of Milliput as the weight counters the top-heaviness of the completed model. The heads are from Maros in both cases. The clothing, what you can see of it and the animal skin are from Greenstuff, it all took a long time.

I pondered long and hard over the wings, and discarded a number of options before settling on this solution. The Osprey source shows that in the 1680's they were attached to the rear of the cuirass not by a series of straps as I had imagined also they were (obviously I guess) very light, so these are made from thin copper tube carefully bent to shape, with feathers from thin card fixed with impact adhesive. The feathers for each wing are made in one piece, I had thought to make individual feathers, but luckily a shaft of common sense hit my brain and things were made slightly easier. The wings are attached to the figure by sliding the copper tubes over pins that are fixed and then bent at right angles so they are vertical, this can be seen in the first pic above. A bonus of this method is that the wings can be removed and packed away as they are quite fragile.

Weapons, this started well and ended badly. The sabre if from HELMET spares as are the pistols attached to the front of the saddle, the pained model also uses our pistol holsters, the lance is brass and the pennon from painted paper. So far so good, then disaster...... The painted fig should have a long straight sword slung from the saddle under the left thigh, I just couldn't get one to fit as I left this part much too late, When I started the second model, this was one of the first jobs I tackled, see photos above - the blue feet by the way are there because on completing the armour I noticed that the Britains knight no longer looked right, mainly because one leg was about 8mm longer that the other, so major amputation and transplant surgery was necessary.

So main lessons were, research the basis figure well before spending money and starting converting, be clear from the outset how to construct the various components, and lastly make sure everything will fit together in the right order to avoid last minute frustrations.

Next I'll complete the WIP figure and make perhaps one or two more and then think about producing some Turks by way of opposition, then more War of 1812???

Comments and feedback welcome

Cheers

Eric

2009-03-30T02:28:00.000-07:00

I guess I should entitle this Blog as "An Attack of Madness, tempered by a Return to Common Sense".

The Story So Far......................

So I got interested in the late 17th Century and started to convert some figures for the Monmouth Rebellion with a view to perhaps using them in other conflicts, such as against the Moors at Tangier and in Europe or Virginia etc etc. I found a terrific Blog which has fuelled my enthusiasm and extended the possibilities that this period can deliver, if you are at all interested click on the link http://warsoflouisxiv.blogspot.com/ it is an example of some of the better thing that the Internet has produced.

So there I was looking at wars in the 1680's when I sort of remembered the siege of Vienna in 1683 (?) and the charge of the Polish Winged Hussars, so I checked my books and found some info, but not in any great detail, I searched the web and found some more pictures and film clips, both movies and re-enactment footage, then I bought, secondhand, the Osprey book on Polish Winged Hussars, the red mist descended and I had to have a go, so the first two pictures show my first attempt, with the converting finished but the painting yet to be done. I will describe how I built this beast, what went well and what went wrong, next time...................

The next two photos show how I built some of the musket armed figures shown in the previous Blog, with another pic here as a reminder. In actual fact these two chaps are the first of my Monmouth Rebels, the construction principles remain the same, however. These two are from the Accurate AWI Militia set. I chose them for a number of reasons:

* They both have flintlocks - apparently Monmouth was fairly well supplied with these.

* They are wearing long coats, which although of the wrong design can be easily adapted to reflect the style of the 1680's.

* They are wearing breeches and stockings, so no work needed there.

They both needed to have different headgear, the one on the left had his hat cut off at forehead level and a new on added, the brim is Milliput, a flattened ball of the stuff pressed onto the flat surface left after cutting, the rest of the hat was built from greenstuff, all very simple. His colleague has a metal head made by Maros. The plastic head was removed and a hole drilled in the neck to take the metal stub on the Maros head, after a dry run to make sure everything fitted the new head was fixed with superglue. When this has dried I added a neck cloth from putty, this is historically accurate and adds strength to the join and covers any gaps.

The rest was comparatively simple the coat fronts, pockets and cuffs were fixed with Milliput, the weight of this material compensates for the top heavy metal head, and the buttons gradually built up with thick paint.

I trimmed the cape from one of the coats and also trimmed off the powder horn and made a more in-period powder flask, finally I added some greenery in the hats, which Monmouth's men used as a sort of fieldsign/badge.

That's it, next time it's the Hussar.

Cheers and take care.

Eric

2009-03-23T01:18:00.000-07:00

This Blog is as regular and reliable as good news in the economy.

Apologies once again for the erratic and irregular postings, this has been mainly due to two factors, once again I have been made jobless, that is my normal full time employment has been "terminated due to the current economic situation", and secondly, I have had what my doctor still, with that knowing little piece of humour that endears the profession to the rest of us, the 100 day coughing virus, which leaves me feeling, well, pretty crud.

So I have been job hunting and trying to get well. Simultaneously I have embarked on yet another new period, focusing initially on what is generally known in the UK as the Monmouth Rebellion. Very briefly, this was an attempt in 1685 by the illegitimate son of Charles II, James Duke of Monmouth to bring about regime change and topple his uncle, King James II. Activities were centered in the West Country and ended after a brief campaign at the Battle of Sedgemoor where Monmouth and his army were defeated.

I chose this period because I find it of great interest personally and it is another "little war" that lends itself to re-creation in 54mm scale and there is a surprising amount of information available on the uniforms colours and organisation of the protagonists, finally the regulars as seen in these photos can, I hope be used in other theatres such as Tangier against the Moors and in Europe against the armies of other nations.

What we show above represents a company of Kirke's Regiment from the army of James II, they are mostly produced by converting A Call to Arms ECW figures, although there are some AWI models from Accurate and ECW from Replicants. Next time I will explain how the conversions were achieved and also mention some useful sources including a truly inspirational Blog which anyone interested in the period should follow.

In the meantime feedback welcomed and see you soon.

Cheers

Eric

2009-01-04T05:40:00.000-08:00

Hi to everyone, and a happy New Year to you all.

We have had yet more technical issues so this edition has been delayed somewhat, however, here is a brief glimpse of the wargame we started on Boxing Day.

We don't get the chance to fight many games, and up until now the rules that we have made up and used resulted drawn battles and unrealistic carnage, especially annoying having spent hours painting the figures and see them blown away in seconds. So I wrote a new set, what we wanted was rules that were simple, but realistic and made us behave in ways that encouraged 19th century tactics, so far we are reasonably pleased with them, but it's early days.................

So we used all our War of 1812 figures, the British number 70 Regulars with a dozen Riflemen and a foot artillery gun, the Americans had 88 Regulars including 12 Rifles plus 4 cavalrymen and 10 Militia and a gun with crew, The scenario was set around the need to capture a cross roads with the redcoats defending and the Americans attacking in two columns. The first two pictures show some of the defenders lining a fence and occupying a ruined cabin. The idea behind these Brits is to also use them in Peninsular War battles, as soon as Hat release their forthcoming French light infantry.

The long haired kid is my son, Jonny, here commanding the US forces with more dash and aggression than normal. The last two photos show the two American attack columns the first is a mixed force of Regulars, Marines and Militia, the second is made up of two complete companies of the 18th Infantry following their colours and general.

The first few moves saw the US artillery consistently miss it's targets, and the boldly advancing Militia fire a volley and then retreat with alacrity! The US Regulars met with greater success, and although taking casualties as they advanced (our new rules say that no-one can move and fire in the same move - so you have to take calculated risks around gaining ground or causing casualties) forced the British Riflemen to retreat and threatened to outflank the British line.

More next time

Cheers

Eric

2008-12-07T07:21:00.000-08:00

Hello again to all those out there in toy soldier land, here we go with another Blog. Before I describe the pictures I'd like to mention a couple of points. Firstly a huge thank you to all those who mailed in comments after the last Blog, they were a good mix of the positive and the critical, and hopefully I shall bask in the glory of the former and reflect and take action on the latter, as I said I'd like this to be as interactive as possible, so please write in.

The second item is a reflection on the current state of our hobby. As HELMET Soldiers we attended the London Toy Soldier Show yesterday, and although attendance was good our takings were very poor and all the other dealers I spoke with had a similar experience. There were plenty of orange carrier bags around so hopefully Steve Weston had a good day, however the cost of hiring two tables, and paying for petrol and car parking meant that we barely covered our costs, I guess we'll have to have a good long think about the number of shows we plan to attend in 2009, but we won't be giving up yet.

Some of the feedback I received last time asked for a more detailed description of the conversion, so I show a photo of a completed American Militia officer, War of 1812 vintage, prior to painting. The tools and equipment used were a sharp hobby knife, some brass wire, superglue, a small electric drill ( not critical but very useful) and greenstuff modelling putty. I chose a Replicant mule handler as the basis for the conversion and did the following nasty things, cut off his head and left hand and removed the whip from his right. I carefully re-carved two small sections of fringing after the whip had gone, and drilled a hole through the hand where the whip had been big enough to take a musket, and, as it's best to complete all fixing first, I also drilled a hole in the neck and the left wrist.

The new head is from a CTS Mexican round hat cavalryman, and the hand holding the pistol is off an Accurate American Revolution militiaman. These are then drilled in the neck and wrist respectively to take short lengths of brass wire. As this type of plastic is technically unbonbable as there is no solvent, joins have to be pinned and glued, so the new head and hand are fixed to the superglued wire and pressed home firmly. I the glued a HELMET French musket into the hole in the right hand. I then set the figure aside for the glue to set.

Next I mixed a small amount of putty. Greenstuff comes in yellow and blue strips and must be mixed to a consistent green colour to become a sticky putty. I wrapped two short sausages of the stuff one around the neck and the other around the left wrist, I then sculpted a new collar and cuff to the hunting shirt, this also strengthens the glued join. I put a blob of putty on the crown of the hat which I carved to the shape of a top hat with the side of my knife, and made a cockade on the left hand side with a tiny flattened ball of greenstuff, I made a sash with trailing ends and a knot from a "snake" of putty and carved in creases and fringes with my knife. Finally I added a pouch on his right hip from a short crossbelt all out of putty although the photo does not show this clearly, the picture does show all the different parts including the greenstuff, believe it's much easier to describe than to do.

OK, a quick romp through the other photos. First some English Civil War dragoons from Replicant and ACTA pieces converted pretty much as above but with new metal muskets instead of plastic.

Next some Napoleonic British marines, I have a habit of prequelling new release by laboriously converting stuff just prior to someone releasing some in ready made form and these are another example, The officer is the old Aifix figure with missing crossbelt replaced and a new Timpo head, the next two are Replicant Austrians with new heads and slight changes to uniform details, the last ids the old Replicant marine firing upwards, altered to a more normal firing position by cutting at the waist and re-fixing at a different angle ad resculpting the jacket and crossbelts in greenstuff.

Finally some French Old Guard. The first four from the left are metal figures from Irregular, in my opinion, (FWIW) I think these are great models, all I've done is add a bayonet to the fourth man from the left. They are joined by two from the slightly disappointing set by Airfix with full dress plumes and cords added to the bearskins to match the Irregular models.

That's all for now, all comments, questions and feed back encouraged!!!!

Cheers

Eric

2008-11-22T07:21:00.000-08:00

There you thought the effort two weeks ago was just a flash in the pan, eh? Well here we are then, two in a row. We've just come in from the garden where we took the pictures, and pretty cold it is too! More War of 1812 stuff I'm afraid, I'm going to carry on with this until the end of the year and then start or return to something different for 2009. We are planning a wargame with the 1812 forces probably on Boxing Day, we'll take some pictures during the battle and if they are any good we'll publish the entire story on this Blog.

Before I get to the boring bit and describe the photos, I'd like to make a plea for feedback, apart from a few of you, Ken, Gary, Mike and Bill, hardly anyone leaves comments, questions or even abuse. This is a funny old hobby and there aren't many of us across the world that share this strange common interest, so let's get communicating then! This old world wide web thingy is an amazing vehicle for linking people together, to share ideas and news, most of the information I have been able to gather, I initially garnered from the Internet, especially on the American forces, militia in particular. Helpful people from the other side of the pond from Surrey, England were generous with information and support and I would not have embarked on this particular conflict without their help. Let's keep "talking" to each other, so please leave a comment or ask a question............................Rant over.

So a quick run through the photos.

First up some US infantry, sorry the photo is so dark, but stick with it. We tried to photo the whole lot together, 2 companies each of 20 men plus officer NCO and drummer, but the picture didn't work somehow, so you have this one with the chaps advancing into shadow. The mounted officer is something of a Frankenstein monster, his body apart from right arm is Historex, the arm in question and sword are HELMET, the hat is from a Prince August metal casting and the horse is from Italeri.

The following two pics are the finally completed British infantry company that I plan to use both in North America and in the Peninsular. So as per our rules there are the usual 20 men officer sergeant and drummer. The officer seem previously on a Blog near here is Barzo with Historex upper works, the drummer has Marx legs, a Timpo drum. all the rest are HELMET parts. Th idea of using different legs was to produce a figure slightly shorter than hos colleagues, in the event a miscalculation meant that he ended up as tall as everyone else ho hum!

Lastly two British light dragoons, officer and trumpeter. These are both unashamedly HELMET through and through. I made them to lead the new Italeri figures which are musician and leader less, it seemed a good way to impart some variety into the unit, now all I have to do is paint the unit.

So remember be good and hope that Santa is taking notice and is already thinking of leaving something special under the tree for you to open on Christmas morning. I'm hoping so too.

Let's keep in touch, thanks and take care

Eric

2008-10-25T07:58:00.000-07:00

Well, as they say, rumours of my death have been exaggerated. I know that it has been a long time since we published a blog, but I do have excuses, of a sort anyway. Firstly having re-entered the world of full time employment has meant that running the soldier business has had to take a back seat, so even more annoyingly has actually converting and painting, but here are the latest efforts, more details below...... Secondly we were burgled, they got into the house whilst we were asleep, got wallets, keys and other small items including the takings from one of the shows we attended and also stole our cars from the front drive, so we have had a lot of replacing activities of a security and vehicular nature, bastards!

Also I'd like to thank those who commented favourably on HELMET in the Littlewars chat room group especially Mike Blake and Gary, thanks guys I'll reply to you off-blog personally, it meant a lot. OK emotional stuff to one side, for those that have stayed with me so far, here's the chat about the pics. First up, three Brits from the War of 1812, the privates are HELMET and the officer is a Barzo figure with a Historex head., I chose him because he has the long coat-tails of the pre 1812 regulations. The private taking a cartridge from his pouch was something of an experiment, I wanted to see if I could change the pose through re-positioning his legs, so when I was gluing him to the metal washer in the usual way (with superglue) I held his legs together until the glue set, you can see the difference by comparing the result with the guy next to him biting the cartridge, not bad when considering these started as the same figure.

Next photo shows some of the 4th Foot, all have HELMET heads replacing the originals, the first if the old Airfix officer who famously has the cross-belt that disappears when it reaches his back, I solved this omission with greenstuff. The next two are ACTA Belgians with trouser extensions (?) and enlarged backpacks, lastly two Replicant British Royal Marines with extra equipment added.

Pic 3 shows some US Riflemen, all have converted HELMET heads. The first from the left is an Accurate AWI Militiaman with legs from an ACTA Napoleonic British Guardsman's legs pinned and glued. The officer is that strange and useless Confederate by Accurate again, who has his left arm and sniper rifle carved away and replaced by the lower fart of the arm from the officer in the Timpo Highlander set, one of our swords and a greenstuff sash - job done! Next up is the torso and upper legs of a CTS chap in hunting shirt firing from horseback, I pinned and glued more legs from ACTA Brit Guards and added a haversack and waterbottle. The last figure is a quick conversion of a Marx remoulded pioneer, picked up from a rummage box at a recent show.

The final two pictures show the first colour party that I've done for the War of 1812. All are sergeants with slightly altered HELMET heads .The man with the buff regimental colour is a BMC Mexican, the musket carrying colour guard started his career as a Timpo Prussian and the fellow with the National colours is HELMET. items such as back packs, sashes epaulets, and on the Prussian, belts, are all from greenstuff. The flags are hand-painted and nearly drove me mad, I have a rule that no unit can field flags until they have a minimum of 40 musket carrying troops, so I don't have to paint that many! The National colour is very heavy once glued to the brass rod pole, so the bearer stand on a small stack of metal washers.

That's it for now, I promise that the next issue will not be as delayed as this one has been. In the meantime all feedback gratefully received, keep painting, enjoy the hobby and be kind to small animals

Take care,

Eric www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk
mall

2008-06-07T07:53:00.000-07:00

Hello Sensation Seekers and welcome to what is becoming a very infrequent HELMET Soldiers Blog.

A few bits of news before talking about the photos. We attended the London Show in March and The Plastic Warrior show in Richmond a couple of week back in May. We had reasonable days at each event although a lot of people in the trade are talking about falling sales and we are noticing a drop in orders recently, due no doubt to the financial situation world wide. Please keep buying from the trade, for some people such as our friend Steve Weston, here in the UK, it is their only income source, and livelihoods depend on steady income streams, HELMET wouldn't say no to a few more orders either!

Right behind our stand at Richmond was a table manned by the legendary Ron Barzo, what a good mannered and polite gentleman he is, I was able to show him some conversations based on his products and HELMET spare parts, fortunately he was OK about some of his chaps coming under the influence of my sharp knife, I guess that's partly what this madness of our hobby is all about.

So to the pics:

First up are a quartet of the recently released Black Cat Russians, great stuff and what a helpful man, the owner of Black Cat, Harold Scott is, hopefully he will add the officers, drummers etc that he already produces in metal.

Next are three Prussians from resin moulds made by yours truly and a Wurtenburg infantryman made from our spare parts as an experiment. I'm going to attempt a Bavarian using the same approach. Basically it's one of our British infantry bodies and arms with a Russian dragoon head with the crest removed and a pipecleaner added, French musket and pack, again from resin, and a smart paint job - something a bit different I think.

The next three photos are back to the War of 1812, I thought it might be interesting to show a few figures after conversion but before painting, so here are three Americans. The first is a Marine of the period, again an experiment to see if things "work". It's one of our torsos arms and equipment with a stovepipe shako head on Timpo Prussian legs. You can clearly see the greenstuff additions to the shako and the shoulder belt plate. I'm fairly satisfied so will now make a few more, not too many but their uniform is neat and we have a couple of Playmobil ships that need crewing. The line infantry are done in a similar manner but have different shakos with greenstuff additions and knapsacks with HELMET canteen and haversack parts added. The middle figure is a CTS Mexican and the one on the right is from the same army, but made by BMC. His left arm is strangely thin so I have built up the limb with successive layers of paint left over in my mixing tray whilst completing the previous batch of models, you can also see this on the bayonets and some of the belts - well it works for me!

Lastly some Brits in stovepipes again. I want to have about 50 of these eventually, but progress is slow. I've played about with positions to add some variety, and the corporal loading with his ramrod has big bushy sideburns added from the ubiquitous greenstuff, see the final picture for a close up. There are nearly 30 different colours on these which goes some way to explaining the time it takes to complete, but hopefully the effort is worthwhile?

That's all for now, as usual comments and feedback are welcome.

Take care and keep the faith.

Cheers

Eric www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk

2008-04-12T05:33:00.000-07:00

Hello out there, best wishes to you all. I know that these efforts have been a bit thin on the ground of late, this is basically down to my re-entering the world of work on a full time basis. This has cut down the amount of time available to paint and convert, which is annoying on one hand, but means a bit more financial security on the other.

Its nearly a year now since we purchased HELMET Soldiers, so this time the Blog is all things HELMET, I am unabashed and unashamed about this blatant form of self advertising, so there! We attended our second London Toy Soldier Show a couple of weeks back, and our sales were considerably up on the December event. It's good to meet and talk toy soldier stuff, the Internet is very good, but face to face is better. We had a good but tiring day, thanks to all those who said "hello". Next month we're at Richmond and back to London in June.

Also whilst on the topic of me. there's an article "what I wrote" in the latest Toy Soldier and Model Figure" mag covering Zulu War conversions. this includes a 17th Lancer made mostly from HELMET parts, apologies to the chap who looked at the model at the London Show thinking it was a new release.....one day perhaps.

So on to the pictures, they are mostly War of 1812 related, though the British could be used in other conflicts especially the Peninsular War. The first is a British Light Dragoon in the pre-1812 uniform, which I prefer, I intend to make a squadron - 19 figures - of these so we've released him as a new kit, details will be up on the website soon. I've started to use the foil from the top of bottles of red wine for the belts and straps it can be bent into realistic curves and bends, it also, the wine that is, tastes good. I've started to be a bit more creative in building the kits and on this chap have turned his right hand through 90 degrees to get the rather nice charging pose. (that's enough bragging -Ed.) The rest is pretty standard stuff, he's painted as from the 19th Light Dragoons who were, I think sent to Canada before receiving the new French style clothing.

The next pic is a member of the Maryland Light Dragoons, a militia outfit, I was kindly sent the uniform details from a re-enactor in the US, the dress of the regiment is similar in style to the British but with typically American details, pretty smart I think.

The picture of the two redcoats, I'll cover the third chap in a second, shows what is in effect work in progress. The middle figure is a standard HELMET infantryman, albeit with a new standard plate stovepipe shako head, the guy on the right has the same head but with a new body that is slightly different from the norm, his legs are a bit further apart and in a more dynamic pose, we're working on getting these made up for future release.

The first guy is a conversion of one of our infantrymen to a Wurttemburger of about 1812. I used our Russian Dragoon head with the stiff crest removed and replaced with a pipe cleaner. I also used a test shot of a new fur knapsack which we also hope to have available soon. I wanted to do something different that wasn't standard French infantry, anfd this is the result., I'm going to have a crack a doing a Bavarian as well, they can then go on and fight the terrific new Russian foot figures recently released by Black Cat in the States.

I'm slowly adding to our group of 95th Rifles and the next photo shows the result, new figures are a walking Rifleman, a Sergeant and an Officer wearing his pelisse. I did an earlier Officer using cavalry legs, he looks OK from some angles but head on wouldn't stop a pig in a passage!The final picture, set up, as are all our photos, by my son Jonathan, is called "Last Stand in the Peninsular" shows some of the forgoing, including the Rifles Sergeant in close up, I could also go on about the new Infantry pose, but I guess I've said enough about men's legs for one day.

Anyway thanks for looking by, hopefully there will be more news soon, in the meantime best wishes to you all and any feedback gratefully received as usual.

Cheers

Eric

www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk.

2008-02-10T07:43:00.000-08:00

HELLO TO EVERYONE!

We have just taken advantage of some warm Winter sunshine and snapped some pictures of the latest War of 1812 stuff that I have completed.

Firstly I decided it was time to equip the US forces with some heavier firepower, so I have produced an artillery piece with a four-man detatchment. It seems that American guns were based pretty much on French models (!) American readers might be able to enlighten me on this. That being accepted, the gun is by Italeri painted light blue. The gunners are from the A Call to Arms British Foot Artillery set. I really like these and they are one of the more useful boxes that ACTA have produced. I have cut off the tufts from the shoulder straps and carved away the bastion shaped lace on cuffs etc. The heads are HELMET spares with all detail carved away and plates, cockade, cords and plume added from putty. The latter started out as a pin drilled into the top of the shako and the plume built up around it. From then on it was a (fairly) spectacular paint job with the bases flocked and sanded.

The other pictures are of the grey jacketed company of US Regulars that I have finally completed. There a mix of manufacturers stuff here with Imex ACW, BMC Mexicans, ACTA ACW and Napoleonic Belgians, a Marx US Regular with metal head, a Replicant Confederate and some HELMET figures, Most have modified HELMET Waterloo shako heads, and the officer is all HELMET apart from his legs, which come from a Marx US Cavalryman. Men from Mars reading that last paragraph would instantly return to their planet feeling quite puzzled by the way Earthlings communicate.

The real advantage of this uniform apart from its simplicity and ease of painting is the opportunity to use lots of Confederate figures that add varity and require little work apart from the head swap.

Next I plan to complete a second company for my US Regulars in blue and then produce a colour party with both National and Regimental colours, also on the stocks are some Regulars in blue with red facings and white lace, very smart, and some more Riflemen.

I am considering producing a small booklet on assembling, converting and painting HELMET Soldiers,and am wondering what sort of demand there would be (if any) for such a publication. Please let me know if there is any interest in this. I have learned a great deal in the last few months about making the kits and using the spare parts and think it might be useful to pass on some, often, painfully learned tips and advice, so any thoughts out there?????

Cheers for now

Eric

www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk

HELMET BLOG

2008-01-13T03:58:00.000-08:00

OK, Hi to everyone and best wishes for 2008, I hope Santa delivered what you were all hoping for, and that the new year means plenty more reinforcements for your armies. We had a nice quiet, red wine fuelled Festive Season here at HELMET HQ, and were lucky enough to receive a couple of fantastic books with loads of good info to assist the War of 1812 project. I am already working on some cavalry for a customer in the US, but also really wanted to produce some US Light Dragoons from the two Regular Regiments and the first three pictures show the result of those labours. They are made from HELMET parts, a British Heavy Dragoon head, slightly modified, with a small plume from greenstuff and a tail from white wool, the rest is a pretty standard use of spare parts with a French Light Cavalry sabre and pistol as if they are on patrol or escort duty. The uniform lacks the colour of many other cavalry units, from, say, British or French armies of the period, but in my view looks extremely smart and attractive. The saddlery and tack are at best, an approximation of the real thing, I carved down some of out pistol housings and added "fur" covers from the ubiquitous greenstuff and a saddle blanket from felt. The girth etc was made from red wine bottle foil, back to Christmas again!

I have an annoying knack of laboriously converting a whole series of figures, getting them painted and ready for action just as some company releases models of the troops I have sweatted so much blood over, and the last two pictures are an example of this. I had put off making artillery for our American War of Independence/Revolution armies for some time and as soon as I had completed two guns and their detachments for both the British and Americans, Imex brought their sets out. Rant over.

What you see here is a set of British gunners with their piece and limber with team. The horses are old Britains farm animals and the limber is made from scrap, again it does not claim to be 100% authentic, the aim is to provide something of the look and feel of the thing whilst being robust enough to be used in wargames. The gunners are from the A Call to Arms British Napoleonic set, with Accurate heads attached, pinned and glued. Where feasible I added lapels and coat tails, but luckily, the profusion of belts on these figures meant that this work was kept to a minimum. The officer is by Replicants from their Napoleonic Navy set, and very suave he looks too. The gun is a cheap model from BMC with a new barrel, I think from Barzo. Repeat the above three times and wait for Imex!

I'm planning to use the same figures to make gunners for the War of 1812, anyone else out there preparing to release ready made artillery for the period, please get in touch now.

That's all for this time, please get in touch with comments, suggestions and feedback. Best wishes,

Eric

www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk

2007-12-23T06:06:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to the last HELMET Blog of 2007. We ventured into our front garden this morning to take the photographs that you see here. It was, and still is, very cold and the fog has yet to lift properly. Sorry we failed to publish last week, other things took priority.

The first two pictures show my latest work for the War of 1812, a group of American Riflemen in hunting shirts. There are two from Barzo - American Militia, two from A Call to Arms and an old Accurate Confederate, all have their heads replaced with adapted HELMET products with plumes and cords added from greenstuff. I have also modelled various bits and bobs of equipment from greenstuff and two of them have had 19th Century style overalls added also from the same old greenstufff, and the Confederate has a new right arm, from the elbow anyway, pinned and glued in position. I have also turned the head on this figure through 90 degrees to make a fairly blend model slightly more useful. When we uploaded the pictures earlier, we noticed an interloper, namely the redcoat from an as yet unidentified unit who has managed to sneak into the line. We are sure he wasn't there when the photos were taken.

The next picture is a close-up of two of the Riflemen, both of these are adapted from the A Call to Arms Maryland Infantry, Revolutionary War period. I really like these somewhat strange uniforms which seem to combine 18th Century and Napoleonic military fashion into something unique but distinctly American.

Next we started to set up my representation of the 10th Regiment of Foot, also from the American Revolution, two things defeated our efforts, firstly the roof of my car couldn't accommodate all the figures and secondly, the cold really began to bite. I'll get some better pictures of the whole lot of them on a nice warm day next Spring, in the meantime however. these should give you some idea of how big this outfit is and hopefully inspire some of you to reproduce more of the glorious British Infantry of the period.

Thanks to all those who have taken the time and trouble to read through all this stuff and all I can do is promise more of the same for the future. Thanks to my son, Jonathan, who took all the photos for this and all the other Blogs, and finally I want to say something I've dreamt of writing for a long time:

A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR READERS..................

and a great 2008 as well.

Cheers

Eric

www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk

2007-12-09T04:08:00.000-08:00

Hello and warm greetings from a dark, damp, and dank South of England. Not long till Christmas now, and I hope you have been good all year and get the presents you want, and therefore obviously deserve. I remember fondly the Christmases when boxes of Herald, Timpo and Crescent were waiting for me under the tree, there was always something about seeing them proud in their unchipped paint schemes that made them look, feel and dare I say it, smell, so special. Enough ramblings!

The first couple of photos today show the last of my Zulu War cavalry, two members of the Natal Native Horse and two mounted Boers. I was determined to include as many different contingents for the Imperial forces as possible, and will go back to them later and increase their numbers, well that's the plan anyway!. The mounted Boers are a Replicants Confederate with shotgun, pretty much unconverted, and a CTS Mexican cavalryman with a Replicants head and a couple of extra bits from greenstuff. I've used greenstuff to make the red scarves around their hats. The Natal Native Horse are an Italeri Confederate and a Cherilea remould with a BMC head, both on Hat horses. (If you re-read the last sentence only people like us would understand the strange collection of words that form it's contents.) The dismounted chaps are both from BMC Spanish American War figures with very little conversion. I know that the painted cord jackets and breeches are out of scale but I tried to "represent" the style of the cloth and not just produce a rather bland brown effect.

I guess the American War of Independence/ Revolution collection that I have accumulated is the second largest, I really like the British uniforms. As for infantry figures we are reasonably well served, with the Accurate sets for hat companies and the A Call to Arms grenadiers, however I must admit to being disappointed by their fairly recent issue of British light infantry. I do find the work of some of the American reenactment groups very useful and the recreated Royal Welch Fusiliers website is inspirational. We took these pictures about an hour ago and the green lake they are standing on is the roof of my car, still wet after a recent shower. I've included the colour party, and featured the regimental goat, from Irregular, and half the light company, that is 10 men plus a sergeant.

The conversions are pretty standard stuff for the colours and goat section, all are from A Call to Arms and Accurate. The ensigns are mounted on metal washers to counter balance the weight of the paper flags which once painted an glued are pretty heavy, for plastic figures at least. The light company platoon come from a number of sources and I admit are a bit of a pain to produce individually. I cut don jackets and add wings from greenstuff, but the real problem is the heads which are have a false from, turban, and crest all from putty, finally the white plume is more greenstuff built up around a pin driven into the left side of the poor man's head. However, the result when seen en mass is OK. At full strength the 2regiment should number 100 figures, so I've still got another 40 to paint for the 23rd, but I have one complete British regiment, the 10th - we all have to start somewhere.

That's enough for now. More later, feedback welcome.

Cheers and keep dry.

Eric

2007-12-02T06:50:00.000-08:00

Well hello again, sensation seekers and welcome to another edition of the world famous HELMET Blog. As I sit and type this, the wind is howling and the rain is lashing down, I hope you are all having better weather than we are here in the soft underbelly of South East England.

Yesterday we attended our first show, and it was a great learning experience for all of us, the current Mrs Kemp and our son and my daughter were in attendance giving help, advice and support, Although our stuff wasn't exactly flying off the shelf, we took some money and had a good, if exhausting time. Thanks are due also to Paul Morehead, Brian Carrick, Steve Weston and Mike Blake all of which came to chat, encourage and assist. Cheers Chaps, it means a lot.

What was interesting was the number of people who stopped to say that they remembered HELMET from when it first started out, one gentleman said he hadn't heard of "you" for so long, he thought "you" was dead! I admit I looked pretty terrible yesterday but I was eventually consoled by telling myself he was referring the products and not me personally. We sold a few kits but the spare parts provoked a lot of interest which bodes well for the converters out there.

This week, the pictures show the grenadiers we featured a few weeks ago, with a few of their hat company comrades. Mid 18th century uniforms are quite attractive, although those who actually wore them probably had a somewhat different perspective. There are the usual mix of Barzo, A Call to Arms and others, plus a few "metals" from Irregular, all bodged along with tons of greenstuff and a gloss paint job.

As I said last time about our attempt at the Zulu War is exemplified by the next few photos. I wanted to get away from the Zulus attacking a British defensive position, so we have only panted about 30 infantry and have started to concentrate on others, including cavalry and artillery. The results can be seen here, a couple of mounted infantry, mounted (of course) then duplicated on foot, a close-up of the Natal Carbineers shown last week and a Royal Artillery gun and detatchment. The gun is an Imex ACW piece with some seats constructed on the axles from scrap polystyrene, I was attempting to get the "look" of the thing rather than getting an accurate representation.

Lastly another pic of our new kit. K33, which is now up on the website and for sale.

Slightly shorter this week as we have to clear away the debris from the show.

Good luck to you all, and please comment or leave feedback, it shows someone out there is reading this.

Cheers

Eric

www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk

2007-11-25T05:37:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to the latest HELMET Blog. We start off this week's effort with a bit of HELMET PR in the form of our latest kit, Number K33, a French Infantry Officer in pre-1812 uniform. This can be painted in a number of ways including officers from the Young and Middle Guard, so you could use one to lead the Armies in Plastic French Napoleonic Infantry. Also in the kit I've included a few spare parts to enable the construction

of a mounted French ADC, again this figure can be used alongside the Italeri French General Staff set. We'll be launching the kit at the London Show on December 1st and it will be available from the website in the near future.

The next three pictures show some recent, I only finished the bases this morning, work where I have been looking at ways of providing opposition for the Americans I'm making for the War of 1812. The 6 figure picture is of a Canadian Fencible, a private from the 5th West India Regiment, and four men from the 95th Rifles, this hot is followed by close-ups of the two Redcoats and the Rifles. These are all basically HELMET figures as follows:

The Canadian Fencible, also can be a British Infantryman from the Peninsular War or even a member of Bernard Cornwall's South Essex, is a standard kit apart from his head, which uses a test shot of a stovepipe shako head with "standard" plate, we hope to have these available soon, as I think they'll open up a whole new area and can be used in America and Peninsular and elsewhere, for infantry and artillery models. The West Indian has his pack straps carved away and a bayonet scabbard added from scrap. Both have had their shoulder strap tufts built up from the ubiquitous greenstuff, always a challenge to my spellchecker! All the rest is achieved through paint.

The Rifles are pretty much basic HELMET kits, with an added waist belt and small pouch made from scrap plastic. The Baker rifle is just a cut down Brown Bess, shoulder straps ass before and one figure has shako cords in greenstuff. I wanted to add variety to the existing Riflemen that I already have ready to paint (Replicants and Italeri) and also I wanted a Bugler and Officer, you can see that latter on the Conversions page on the website. I'm quite pleased with the result, they look a bit different and to my biased eye, quite elegant.

I've mounted all the infantry models on small metal washers, which I bought very cheaply in a local "Pound shop", this provides a bit of stability and "heft" when picking them up and moving them.

Finally a taster, some cavalry from our Zulu War set-up, these are Natal Carbineers, mounted and dismounted. I really want to game in this period, but wanted to get away from hordes of Zulus attacking the 24th Foot in a defensive position so have started to build a few mounted units to have a more open type of game. The idea is to duplicate most of the mounted models so that they can fight on foot. The horses are Imex, although the Officer's mount has a metal head which I added as an experiment in variety, the dismounted figures are A Call to Arms British infantry with their kit carved away and new belts and bits from greenstuff. Pins and a dab of putty make the helmet spike. The mounted men started out as Cherilea Mounties, heads and gear as before with A Call to Arms weapons and boots added from other models as appropriate, all making up something a bit different.

Going now, have got stuff to do for the show next week. Comments and feedback welcome as before.

Cheers

Eric

www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk

2007-11-18T08:07:00.000-08:00

If it's Sunday it must be Blog time. Hello everyone from a wet, dank and dark south of England. We've spent most of the weekend getting stuff ready for our first show on December 1st at the Royal National Hotel in London. We've never done this before, and there seems to be so much to think about and prepare, but if you're coming to the show, drop by table A1 and say hell. I am continuing our quest to get some new HELMET products on the market, and I fully realise that we have at least one customer patiently waiting for new stuff out there, but I'm quite excited that we'll have some new and interesting items in the near future. I'll not mention this again until I know that we can actually supply the new bits and pieces.

So, on to this week's pictures. There is nothing new here, the show preparation has seen to that, but there should be some more War of 1812 pictures ready soon. I particularly like British 18th century uniforms, The Revolution and before, and have long been interested in the Jacobite Rising of 1745/1746 and the French and Indian War, so have devised a cunning plan whereby I can use the British troops for both conflicts. I realise that there are subtle uniform differences, but as I said in an earlier Blog, I paint and convert to get the "look and feel" rather than complete down to the last button accuracy. These grenadiers are mainly from the A Call to Arms grenadier set. I have trimmed their bearskins and produced mitre caps from the ubiquitous greenstuff, and added deeper cuffs and some additional bulk to their coat tails from the same material. The drummer is a metal figure from Dorset Soldiers and the officer is made by Barzo. The loading figure is from the Maryland Infantry set.

The Romans are mainly from the newish set from A Call to Arms, the conversion work consisted mostly of turning heads through 90 degrees so that at least some of them are holding their shields in front of them. I read somewhere that equipment was only replaced when it was worn out, and as this makes perfect sense, I used a few heads from the Toyway set and a mail clad body from Italeri. The centurion and a couple of legionaries are metal models from a New Zealand company who are no longer operating.

The two Napoleonic cavalrymen are made from HELMET spare parts. I saw a photo of a painting by Eugene Leliepvre on the front of an old Military Modelling - July 1984, I was only 10 at the time (not!) and was impressed by the simple but elegant uniforms. These are Declarers of the Guard, I think the nearest translation is "scouts" and were formed apparently to counter the threat from Russian Cossacks. We could issue these as a kit, what do people think?

Finally the Russian steamroller from the Crimean War. There are two companies from a line regiment here and about 20 packs of greenstuff. The figure come from the usual wide range of sources and take ages to make, but there is some compensation in the fact they are fairly quick to paint up.

That's all for now, any comments and feedback gratefully received.

Cheers and take care,

Eric

www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk

2007-11-11T06:46:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, the English Civil War cavalry pictures we published last time seemed to cause something of a stir, so not being one to ignore a passing bandwagon, I've continued the mounted figure theme on this edition of the Blog. True to my word in promising that this would not be a vehicle to advertise HELMET products, there are none of our kits or spare parts on display here today, however it must be said that there is an influence in the use of pipecleaners on some of the conversions.

The photos that show cavalry from the American Revolution, or American War of Independence, depending on your preference, show mainly Loyalists dressed in green jackets, this is our standard organisation for a cavalry squadron, an officer, a sergeant, a trumpeter and 15 men. They are mostly CTS Mexicans on HaT horses, although there are a few Historex bits and pieces along with a couple of Italeri converted Scots Greys. Usual rules apply with pins replacing most of the plastic swords and additions from greenstuff. I have tried to add a little variety through the chap firing his pistol with his sabre attached to his wrist by the leather sword knot, and the guy, somewhat unwisely reloading his carbine whilst riding at the gallop. I really like the plain and simple uniforms they form a marked contrast with the three 17th Light Dragoon conversions riding alongside. The Loyalist are "sort of generic" by which I mean they are probably closer to the Queens Rangers in their uniform details, but could easily be used to represent Tarleton's British Legion Dragoons.

I've added a picture of some of our Parliamentary Horse from the English Civil War, like the Royalists shown last week, they are pretty massive conversions using a great deal of greenstuff and/or miliput. The excellent heads on most of the figures are metal and come from Maros here in the UK, I'm not sure if they are still available, does anyone know? I'm very much Old School when it come to the English Civil War, so all the Cavalier cavalry are flamboyant and colourful, whilst their opponents are uniformly dressed in lobster pot, back and breasts and buffcoats, well I like it that way, The second photo shows a few of the boys getting stuck in..........

The Roman was made as an experiment, we've got some infantry, I'll feature these on a future Blog, but was unsure about cavalry figures, so this poor Frankenstein monster is made as follows: the head and feet(!) are from the Toyway factory painted Romans released a few years back, the torso is Italeri, the legs, down to the calves are from a HaT French Dragoon, I had to extend the mail shirt with greenstuff, javelin from brass rod, shield from card and an old Timpo horse......phew! The result is OK but I need to make a few more to improve on some of the methods and techniques.

OK thanks for looking, any comments gratefully received, cheers for now,

Eric

www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk

2007-11-04T06:21:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the latest version of the HELMET Soldiers Blog. What I've got this time are some old school photos showing part of our English Civil War set up, produced a few years ago, and some work in progress when I return to the War of 1812.

The English Civil War is a great period to model in 1:32/54mm, and I really like the A Call to Arms Infantry especially the pikemen set, which I think contains 20, rather than the more usual 16 figures. The musketeers need a little more work on them, hence the usual round of conversions and additional figures from Replicants, amongst others.

This group represents a company from the Royalist Marquis of Winchesters' Regiment. To be honest I have based them on a re-enactment unit in the English Civil War Society, so cannot vouch for their authenticity. The Marquis was the owner and commander of the garrison of Basing House, which eventually fell to Cromwell in 1645. The ruins of Basing House are only a few miles from where I live and we often walk around the now peaceful grounds in the summer. I particularly like the claret colour of the clothing and the huge variety of headgear which breaks up the uniform appearance. At the moment there are over 60 figures in the company, which is probably, on a 1 to 1 ratio, about the correct size for an infantry company on campaign.

The cavalry also come from a number of different sources, and are the usual massive conversions, they represent troops from the regiments of Prince Rupert and the Prince of Wales and include some modified figures produced by Replicants and others. Most of these were bought from Steve Weston, who provides a helpful and friendly service and has a great website at www.plasticsoldiers.co.uk .

The others pictures are a return the the War of 1812, currently my newest period. I've started to make a company of US Regulars in the short grey jackets issued to some regiments, Although very plain, I think they paint up as simple but attractive models. Most of these feature the usual HELMET head, the hat less private is from an old Phoenix part. I looked for models that had short jackets, so the Accurate ACW Confederates were a good start, although the downside is their lack of crossbelts, so I rather painstakingly added these from greenstuff, there are also toys from Marx, HaT, Imex, BMC, A Call to Arms and HELMET, I've just realised that's seven manufacturers for eight figures, where does the madness end?

Finally for the War of 1812, the first "British" figures and a confession. I don't normally give my painted units any form of flag until they number at least 40 "privates", however the ensign in the photo was an experiment to see if I could convert an infantry officer from HELMET parts. I wanted the colour he carries to be something a bit different, so chose the Swiss Regiment Meuron, because of both the strange pattern on the flag itself and their unusual light blue facings, so you see before you the complete British Army for the War of 1812. The privates are from HELMET and A Call to Arms with HELMET heads.

I'll post some more next week, as usual any comments or feedback gratefully received. By the way I thought it was about time I mention Plastic Warrior magazine, A great read every two months and also a terrific show in Richmond each year, you can reach them through the ever helpful editor, Paul Morehead, at www.plasticwarrior.com .

Finally don't forget us, www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk , cheers for now,

Eric

2007-10-27T06:08:00.000-07:00

This time we will look at the Crimean War, one of my favourite periods. It is some yardstick on the nature and extent of my insanity that I embark on toy soldier projects that require almost every figure to be drastically converted, and this one is no exception. Shares in greenstuff must have rocketed during this time as I was buying packet after packet, and going through knife blades at a rate of knots.

I think then contrast between the British and Russian uniforms is another reason why this war is so interesting, the British are dressed in classic toy soldier style, whilst their opponents are drab and almost modern looking, I'll publish some Russian photos next time.

So to the pictures, first off an 11th Hussar trooper, one of Lord Cardigan's "Cherry Bums". This is an extremely minor conversion of a standard HELMET Napoleonic British hussar, all I did was add a small cap pouch to his waist belt, made from a scrap of plastic, the water canteen and haversack moulding is another addition. You can see this more clearly in the second photo, which shows our bold hussar alongside a Light Brigade colleague, this time from the 17th Lancers - this is a standard HELMET kit.

Next we have some Scots Greys from the Heavy Brigade. These are mostly old Cherilea heads on CTS Mexican cavalry bodies, mounted on Imex horses, the belts and other equipment are built up from greenstuff. The officer's head is from Timpo, with a somewhat alarming set of whiskers "greenstuffed" to his face.The trumpeter behind him is from the slightly disappointing Italeri Greys set, with built up headgear and trumpet slung across his back from a HELMET spare. Wherever practical I replace plastic swords with metal pins, thickened up gradually with layers of paint, this prevents the plastic blades bending and cracking their paint. I paint in batches, so the left over paint from batch one produces the sword blades for batch 2.

My grandfather was in the Coldstream Guards, so there is a dreadful inevitability about their appearance in my Crimean British army. So the next picture shows a part of the single company I have produced so far. These fellows are from Imex, CTS, Accurate, A Call to Arms, Armies in Plastic and (probably) others, They have heads looted from Britains Deetail figures picked out from rummage boxes at various shows. Plumes, large white epaulets, equipment and cuff flaps from the omnipresent greenstuff with coat fronts trimmed to look double-breasted, buttons have been built up with paint as per the sword blade method outlined above. Finally we have four Highlanders from the Thin Red Streak, the 93rd. These are from Timpo with bonnets, sporrans and cuff flaps from greenstuff. These were quite simple to convert, but maddening to paint, personally I find the tartan not too bad, it's the damn dicing on the headwear and the pattern on the hose that I drives me to distraction, which all goes to explain why there are only four!

I'm still working on War of 1812 American regulars, so an update on progress there, next time. Also some Crimean Russians, and how about some English Civil War to add a bit of contrast?

Any comments or feedback welcomed, and by the way we have added a link to the Blog from the website under the "Latest News" tab.

Many thanks

Eric

2007-10-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

So here we are at Blog Number 2 and some War of 1812 American Regulars. Thanks to all those who responded with positive feedback after Number1.

Some people requested information detailing the construction and conversion methods I use, but, before I go on to do that, a quick statement of the type of stuff I produce. We like to have big units, we think that large scale figures in small numbers look a little daft, so what you see in is our standard infantry company, an officer, drummer and sergeant and 20 privates. Because of our desire to build these units as quickly as possible, our conversions are best described as "in the style of...." that is they do not stand up to scrutiny as 100% accurate, but are pretty close, they are not connoisseur models, but toy soldiers for wargames and display.

I've always liked "American Wars" ACW and AWI (American Revolution if you prefer) both are well provided for with plenty of plastic figures in our scale. So why choose the War of 1812? Madness just madness.

So back to the figures. They are a mix of Barzo figures from the period, a few HELMET Soldiers, simple conversions here, and the bulk of the rest coming from A Call to Arms Belgian Infantry, BMC Mexicans with similar from CTS. I was just looking for British style Napoleonic types.

For all except the Barzo's I used HELMET Belgic shakos. I removed the cords, not the tassels, and badges and replaced these with new items form greenstuff, the American badge was small and higher up, and the cords sloped across rather than hanging in a half loop. I also "nicked off" the top corners of the false front on the shako to try and create the impression of greater height. A tip here, I try to avoid troops carrying their musket across their bodies, this can often be avoided by turning the head through 90 degrees and have him looking along his gun rather than across it. The high collars which support the pinned and glued heads come from greenstuff.

Those figures wearing knapsacks had them replaced with American envelope style packs made simply from greenstuff. I've uploaded a couple of pics of the command figures as we have had a few questions about the availability of such models. The Officer is as follows: HELMET body, arms, head, sword and scabbard, Marx US cavalry legs with sash etc from greenstuff. The drummer is an old Timpo Waterloo figure with a HELMET head, I carved away the lace on the coatee front and built up coat tails, haversack and canteen from greenstuff. Finally the sergeant is basically a HELMET figure converted as above with sash and epaulets from greenstuff with an extra sword and bayonet scabbard. The belts are made from thin paper fixed with a gel superglue. Painted for durability in good old gloss enamels and textured bases. Done!

I'm working on some more regulars in grey jackets which we'll post when complete. Any feedback gratefully received.

Cheers for now.

Eric