Britains Hussars (1 Viewer)

I've been thinking along the lines of maybe showing some sections of my collection at some time Brad - maybe in The Collections part of the Forum. The snag is - time! I have set myself deadlines for completing some projects - and - so far so good. But to stop to retrieve sections of collection right now - then set 'em all up - photograph and process them to go onto the Forum - just doesn't fit in right now.

I'll be off to NZ to visit my Grandchlidren within the next few months - and will be stayijng there for a while. Maybe early next year might fit in - so will try for some sections then?? That's an almost definite maybe ^&grin

Just begun another interesting project that I think you might like - involves a brewery................{sm3}jb
 
It's just struck me that I haven't shown all of my recently completed 11th Hussars together in one pic.

Here are seven mounted Hussars advancing with weapons in hand with one trumpeter along. ( I have a second trumpeter at the gallop left to repair - but haven't included him - as I Unfortunately bought the wrong head to repair him - so, another time for him).

All of these shown have been repaired in some way - and are now as good (hopefully a bit better), than when they were new. And that - COULD have been a lot of years ago - as these Britains poses have been around for a very long time. jb


 
JB, excellent thread as usual! ^&cool
These old figures have a certain charm to them, and I agree they are most certainly better than in their original coat of paint! {bravo}}

Jeff :salute::
 
Beautiful restoration, John, your excellent standard of finish!

Prost!
Brad
 
johnnybach said:
It's just struck me that I haven't shown all of my recently completed 11th Hussars together in one pic.

Here are seven mounted Hussars advancing with weapons in hand with one trumpeter along. ( I have a second trumpeter at the gallop left to repair - but haven't included him - as I Unfortunately bought the wrong head to repair him - so, another time for him).

All of these shown have been repaired in some way - and are now as good (hopefully a bit better), than when they were new. And that - COULD have been a lot of years ago - as these Britains poses have been around for a very long time. jb


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Really look good John, especially together, always loved the "massed" effect.
Ray
 
aujj65 said:
JB, excellent thread as usual! ^&cool
These old figures have a certain charm to them, and I agree they are most certainly better than in their original coat of paint! {bravo}}

Jeff :salute::
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I'm glad you feel that the oldies have a charm Jeff - because I feel exactly the same way. The sculpts are so good - with a bit of TLC and a lick or two of paint - they're brand new all over again.

Cheers - jb
 
nmrocks said:
Really look good John, especially together, always loved the "massed" effect.
Ray
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Agreed Ray - with glossies - the more there are - the better they look. I now have around thirty-something 11th Hussars - so may dig 'em out and take a few more pics, later. jb
 
With the loss of pictures from this thread - none of it makes much sense now. BUT...........to refresh your memory - here's an update on this part of my collection.

When I left it - I was awaiting a spare head to make up a Britains Hussar repair. The pose was the familiar "Rocking Horse" figure - and I had already restored three Troopers and an Officer (on rearing horse) - and have finally completed my Trumpeter on a similar mount to the Troopers.

Here are a couple of pics below of my resulting set. I gave the Trumpeter a Grey, this time. Hope you like 'em. jb

PIC_4478.JPGPIC_4479.JPG
 
thebritfarmer said:
They are lovely ! but my favourite is the trumpeter, love those Greys !

Great job JB
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Hussah!:cool: me too Scott - One thing to note though - the tail of the grey is a replacement part ( so is one of the rear legs - but you wouldn't really know that). I didn't have the correct tail as a spare - so I used one from another Britains bashed up donor. If you look carefully - you can see it's a "wrong-un". jb
 
johnnybach said:
Hussah!:cool: me too Scott - One thing to note though - the tail of the grey is a replacement part ( so is one of the rear legs - but you wouldn't really know that). I didn't have the correct tail as a spare - so I used one from another Britains bashed up donor. If you look carefully - you can see it's a "wrong-un". jb
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Oh yeah never even noticed !
 
I haven't been here for a while - but in two separate job-lots of damaged figures - i came across a couple of Britains Hussars in the identical pose. No guesses for which Regiment they were going to be - as the 11th are my favourite.

Both had missing horse legs ( spot the repaired ones) and the obligatory missing sword arm - and one has a replaced head - darned if I can remember which one - as I already had an old Britains one in my spares box - so no new replacement.

I started these two off with paint - whenever I had the appropriate tin of paint open - I just did a little bit on each figure when I thought of them. It's probably taken me over two to three months to get this far - and both are near completed now. I thought it might be of interest to show the difference between them "unglazed" - and in my favourite high gloss finish - so am showing them before bases are finished and gloss coat on.

PIC_4634.JPGPIC_4635.JPG
 
And here they are again, with a few chums did earlier. The new pair have swords at the carry.

All of these horses were the same casting originally. As all of them came to me in a damaged or parts missing state, it was easy to decide what arm to give the rider. Carrying a carbine, sword or trumpet.

What I also do, that Britains never did - is to remove the EXTRA carbine from the holster, or sword from the scabbard - to suit the figure. Britains never did - so you could get a hussar carrying a sword - and with another in his scabbard - OR a Hussar carrying a carbine - with another in his holster.

Look carefully at the pics below - and you can see where I have removed either the sword hilt or carbine butt from the appropriate figures. The horses are all in the same pose - so colour of each sword can be varied - to give a more pleasing display of these very colourful figures.

PIC_4647.JPGPIC_4648.JPG
 
More beautiful finishes, John! That's a nice touch to correct their gear, too.

Prost!
Brad
 
johnnybach said:
And here they are again, with a few chums did earlier. The new pair have swords at the carry.

All of these horses were the same casting originally. As all of them came to me in a damaged or parts missing state, it was easy to decide what arm to give the rider. Carrying a carbine, sword or trumpet.

What I also do, that Britains never did - is to remove the EXTRA carbine from the holster, or sword from the scabbard - to suit the figure. Britains never did - so you could get a hussar carrying a sword - and with another in his scabbard - OR a Hussar carrying a carbine - with another in his holster.

Look carefully at the pics below - and you can see where I have removed either the sword hilt or carbine butt from the appropriate figures. The horses are all in the same pose - so colour of each sword can be varied - to give a more pleasing display of these very colourful figures.
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I will never tire of admiring the horses you do jb !

Excellent work, as usual.

Thank you.
 
Today sees a new Officer and Hussar joining my favourite Hussar Regiment. They are new Cherry Pckers (11th Hussars). My Officer is a pretty straightforward Britains figure on the Prancing Horse mount, who required a bit of surgery to restore his left leg - as it was a gaping hole when found. Fortunately, I had a spare in my box, which fitted almost perfectly. A new plume top was made up with a wire core and some Milliput, and a right arm with sword at the low carry completed his repair with the help of a few more pieces of Milliput. I painted him as an Officer around the mid 1850's ( Cherry shabraque on horse). From around 1860 - this would have been blue. (Spare arm from Dorset Model Soldiers).

My other figure - is a Hussar OR - and is a pretty remarkable survivor! He was ALMOST intact, except for losing his head somewhere along the way, and the bottom of his sword scabbard snapped off. And it has been a pretty long way too. Under his horse's belly is the embossed date - 12.2.1903. - which means he could be 115 years old! He even had his long carbine intact and still riveted in place - which probably means that his head was broken off quite early on in his career- and he's been lying in a box - untouched for over 100 years. He was practically a new casting - once the grime and decayed paint was cleaned off - and after a new head and scabbard were grafted on - and then a new paint job - he's brand new all over again.

Here's a few pics attached of the pair, which originally came amongst a job-lot of in-expensive, broken figures for repair or spare parts.

PIC_4800.JPGPIC_4801.JPGPIC_4802.JPGPIC_4803.JPG

Here'a a pic of my Britains Officer - alongside a Benbros Officer already restored and in my collection - just to show the differences between the two contemporary sculpts.

PIC_4805.JPG


jb
 
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Another pair of great pieces, John!

I think we've discussed the appropriate term for work like this. It's not restoration, since we don't return figures to their original state. I think this is a revival, bringing old figures back to life.

So, another great revival, John!

Prost!
Brad
 
theBaron said:
Another pair of great pieces, John!

I think we've discussed the appropriate term for work like this. It's not restoration, since we don't return figures to their original state. I think this is a revival, bringing old figures back to life.

So, another great revival, John!

Prost!
Brad
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I'm okay with "revival" Brad - and pleased they both turned out okay. I must admit that I rather like making up something that was not as originally intended - and that means with Britains, that there are many combinations of figures with arms/weapons or heads that can be used to make up something that Britains never did originally.

I also like to give the painting of the figures just a little more TLC than the original piecework paid painters ever had time for, so they hopefully look a little better than the originals.

But best of all - I like to save them from the bin!

Glad you like them too - jb
 
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