Helmet Soldiers (1 Viewer)

[skeeterbuck]

I am interested in learning about these figures. The company manly produces calvery subjects for the Napoleonic Wars.

Anyone with any experience building/converting them please let's hear it.

 

[theBaron]

I never heard of them, before reading your post, but the figures remind me of Airfix and Historex kits, though they don't seem to have as many parts to them. But they look like they build up into attractive figures, and they should be relatively easy to convert, too.

For anyone else who reads this thread and is curious to see them, Helmet Soldiers' URL is http://www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk/

Prost!
Brad

 

[skeeterbuck]

Thanks Baron for providing the link. I should of thought of adding it to my original post.

I agree that they are similiar to the Airfix & Historix kits.

What I am wondering is the level of detail. They provide real cloth for the saddle blanket and the horses in the kits are the Britains "Eyes Right" type.

 

[thebritfarmer]

It is my understanding that the horses (some of them) are actually the eyes right/swoppet horses. Apparently after Britains stopped production he bought up the remaining stock of left over horses.

 

[theBaron]

That's interesting about the Eyes Right horses. I wonder if that means that he then made molds, to keep producing horses, or if he is just running out of the leftover stock. I can't imagine that the latter is the case.

Either way, I would be willing to buy at least one kit, to see how it turns out. It couldn't hurt.

Prost!
Brad

 

[thebritfarmer]

I had sent an email to Eric at Helmet Soldiers about the horses, he replied saying the horses are originals and many thousands of them there are too !!!

 

[skeeterbuck]

I never heard of them, before reading your post, but the figures remind me of Airfix and Historex kits, though they don't seem to have as many parts to them. But they look like they build up into attractive figures, and they should be relatively easy to convert, too.

For anyone else who reads this thread and is curious to see them, Helmet Soldiers' URL is http://www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk/

Prost!
Brad

I recently received one of the Helmet Soldiers - 17th Lancers in Parade Dress. The horse is as britfarmer said surplus from the original Britans horse. It even has the Britains logo on the base. The horses are available seperatly, so this would be a good option for someone who maybe had an original Britains figure and just needed the horse to complete the figure. The reins from the horses' mouth to the rider's hand are also Britians surplus.

The figure and most accessories, i.e saddle etc. are molded in PVC plastic. his is a rubbery type of plastic and not a hrad plastic like styrene. The kit provides most of what you need to complete the figure, but you must provide the belting material and lance pendant. I wish that some thin strip was provided in the PVC material and a sticker for the pendant. I used styrene strip material and it worked OK, But on the next one I will try something thinner. I think I will email Eric to get his suggestion.

The instructions suggest that you use PVC cement to assemble the kit. The type that the plumbers use to assemble PVC pipe - makes sense right? Wrong, when I tried to use this cement it did a very poor job of affixing the parts together. I emailed Eric at Helmet Soldiers and he said that he uses the thick super glue. I tried this (Loctite brand) and it worked great.

I had yet to paint the kit but the instructions say that you can use enemal paints so long as you prime the figure first. I plan on painting the figure to match the Britains eyes right style of painting. For me that means no facial detail and a minimum of detail painting on the uniform and a satin finish. I think that some of the charm of plastic figures is there rather simple painting.

I can recommend these kits to anyone who has some skill doing simple conversions. If you the kind of modeler who wants everything to fit perfectly the first time, I don't think these kits are for you.

If this kit turns out the way I plan, I plan on purchasing several other kits of the 17th Lancers in the Crimean War uniform.

Chuck

 

[thebritfarmer]

Thanks for the info Chuck, if possible can you post up some pic of your new acquisition?




Scott

 

[theBaron]

Interesting about the soft plastic. Reminiscent of old Airfix, then, isn't it? Are you pinning the joints, too, as you kit-bash the figures?

Prost!
Brad

 

[skeeterbuck]

Baron,
I was thinking of pinning the parts and did the head to the turso, but after using the superglue, the joints were strong enough that I didn't pin the rest. As to comparing them to the old Airfix, I remember the Old Airfix 1/72 scale being the poly type plastic similiar to the Swoppets style. This pvc plastic remends me more like a hard rubber based plastic. Off the top of my head, I can't think of another toy soldier made of this material.


britfarmer,
I see what I can do about the pics. I need to take them outside for them to look good and it has been so blazing hot the past several days that all I want to do when I get home from work is to just rest in the AC.

Chuck