HM of Great Britain (2 Viewers)

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uncled

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I recently purchased a terrific set of the 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers by HM of Great Britain on Ebay. Full Slade Wallace equipment, 10 figures, five firing in various positions, four reloading Martini Henrys, and a First Sgt. ("Whatsisname") instructing. Great box art, "Field Day Infantry". Some had mustaches, some clean-shaven, the figs. are 60mm a little larger than usual 54mm, but awesome detail. Does anyone know about HM of Great Britain, and are they still making sets, etc ? Am very satisfied with the set at a bargain price !
 
I don't know to much about them. I do know they made quite an extensive farm/fox hunt range. If you look at member (beating retreat) albums he has painted some HM castings of ADC's, kings and guards on horses.
 
James Kingland bought in 1989 the company called Heritage Miniatures Ltd where he used to work as a designer and renamed it to HM of GB. They started trading in 1990. The company produced mostly limited edition sets, some of them are very nice and hard to find and famous with their high quality paintwork.
Sadly company ceased its operations in a while ago and some of its molds were bought by Tommy Atkins and another toy soldiers company in Australia.

Al
 
This company HM of GB has made some nice sets.

The sculpting of the Victorian civilians is quite outstanding.

There have been some that fetched rather high prices on eBay.

So far, I have not managed to get any figures.

Does anyone know if the paint finish is either matte or gloss ?

Thanks, Raymond.:)

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glossman said:
This company HM of GB has made some nice sets.

The sculpting of the Victorian civilians is quite outstanding.

There have been some that fetched rather high prices on eBay.

So far, I have not managed to get any figures.

Does anyone know if the paint finish is either matte or gloss ?

Thanks, Raymond.:)

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Hi Raymond,

All the ones that I have seen have all been gloss.

Scott
 
My Fusiliers are painted in gloss as well. Highly detailed, the whites of the eyes are painted in a la Charles Hall figs. Cap badges, buckles on backpacks, ammo pouches, etc. all well-sculpted and painted. Thanks all for your input.
 
uncled said:
My Fusiliers are painted in gloss as well. Highly detailed, the whites of the eyes are painted in a la Charles Hall figs. Cap badges, buckles on backpacks, ammo pouches, etc. all well-sculpted and painted. Thanks all for your input.
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Hi uncled,

Any chance of posting some photos of your set ?

Thanks, Raymond.:)

***************
 
Peter Kingsland started the company back in 1988. He was one of my first customers when I started sculpting comercially after leaving the army. We made quite a large range of figure including Yeomanry, infantry and artillery. I think the fusiliers that I made were from one of the vonunteer batalions. Most of the civilian sets were based on the idea of Thomas Hardy country.

Martin
 
Martin Tabony said:
Peter Kingsland started the company back in 1988. He was one of my first customers when I started sculpting comercially after leaving the army. We made quite a large range of figure including Yeomanry, infantry and artillery. I think the fusiliers that I made were from one of the vonunteer batalions. Most of the civilian sets were based on the idea of Thomas Hardy country.

Martin
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Didn't John Eden by the molds to this range, I'm sure Ive seen him advertising the range on his site.

Regards John
 
The last I heard was that a man call Philip Magor had the rights to the figures, I can't remember who was making them for him or how some of them ended up in Australia!

Martin
 
Martin Tabony said:
Peter Kingsland started the company back in 1988. He was one of my first customers when I started sculpting comercially after leaving the army. We made quite a large range of figure including Yeomanry, infantry and artillery. I think the fusiliers that I made were from one of the vonunteer batalions. Most of the civilian sets were based on the idea of Thomas Hardy country.

Martin
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Thank you for your input, Martin
I always liked HM of GB, they made many interesting sets. Some of these sets were made in very limited quantities. I have pictures of several sets in my album. I wonder what sets did you work on?. I have HM of GB early catalog but it covers mostly non-military sets. I know they made 10th Hussars for example but I have never seen this set.
I heard that molds were split between John Eden and Australian company but obviously some molds just "disappeared" :confused:
John Eden is very good person to deal with but his production is quite limited...I have not seen anything good from Australian company so far, their web site is not "quite friendly" and they are difficult to deal with (from my personal point of view).
Al
 
Al would it be possible for you to scan your HM of GB catalogue and email it to me. I wouldn`t mind having a look at it.
 
thebritfarmer said:
Al would it be possible for you to scan your HM of GB catalogue and email it to me. I wouldn`t mind having a look at it.
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Well... it's a quite large xerox copy and a quality is not there :D:... let me see what can do...at least I can e-mail you a few sample pages...please send me your e-mail address in PM.
Al
 
I'll have to have a dig around the loft, I'm sure I still have the original design drawings somewhere. Peter used to enjoy the design part. When HM of GB folded he did some design work for William Britains when they where still a British company.
If you ever get a chance to see an HM figure in pieces you'll find that the legs and body are seperated at the line of the tunic, this was so that the two parts could be painted seperately. He also tried painting kilt sets with a soft touch printing machine. The strangest thing though was a "spigot with flanges" he had machined. The idea was that when an arm was made this thing would be imbeded to be used as the location peg, the flanges holding more glue, would make a stronger conection. A good idea but it was easier to file a few lines in a miliput location pin.
By the way Peter also wrote a very interesting article showing how the small kilt now worn by Scottish regiments was designed by an Englishman and that the idea family setts started as a con ! If anyone is interested I'll try to dig that out also.

Martin
 
Martin Tabony said:
I'll have to have a dig around the loft, I'm sure I still have the original design drawings somewhere.

By the way Peter also wrote a very interesting article showing how the small kilt now worn by Scottish regiments was designed by an Englishman and that the idea family setts started as a con ! If anyone is interested I'll try to dig that out also.

Martin
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Please do... looking forward to see this interesting information.

Al
 
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