Colonial Spanish Soldiers (1 Viewer)

[Carnahan]

A few years ago I was in a gift shop in St. Augustine and happened to come upon a display of glossy metal soldiers depicting the local Spanish military during the 1700s. I purchased a figure and was told by the sales associate that the owner casted and painted the soldiers himself. I had been interested in finding out which company produced the molds, but upon my return to the city last week I found that the shop had since closed. I am wondering if anyone can ID the soldier I purchased.



The figure is 1/32 scale, and detail is fairly good for most of the uniform but minimal for the face.



The only marks on the bottom are in the corner, which look like they could be a squarish 09 or 60.

 

[theBaron]

Good question. I think we can rule out Prins August or Little Army, as the source of the mold that made this figure; those are the two most available brands of home-casting molds, that come to mind. I don't recognize it as from any mold made by Castings, Inc, either. The man who painted the figure may well have made the mold himself, from a master that he produced. The master may have been a completely original sculpt, or a modification of an existing figure.

Can you take another picture and adjust the focus? We can see some of the detail, but unfortunately, the focus is beyond the figure, to the background, so the image is just a tad fuzzy.

I'm curious to hear what the others think of the figure.

Prost!
Brad

 

[theBaron]

Now, something just came to mind, and that's that I must check my Rose Miniatures catalogs, when I get home. The uniform is similar enough to the French uniforms of the 1730s and 1740s, that the figure could originally be a Rose, or a modification of a Rose. It would have been simple to take a Rose kit and make a mold of the figure without any changed (I have some molds myself, made of other Rose subjects), or to modify the kit figure to make a new master, and then make a mold from it.

Prost!
Brad

 

[Carnahan]

Sorry about the pics - having a hard time with the light and focus. The pockets and buttons are raised, but the face is fairly flat other than what is painted on.