Nonmetal TOYSOLDIERS ...-- would you take it??? (1 Viewer)

[Wolfgang]

For those of you who are following my Thread of my first encounter with the wonderfull world of Toysoldiers might have noticed, that I am now in need for some good quality metal. Googled around, called a few companies and friends - knowing now what alloy would be best to use for casting takeing into account that I do not own centrifugal casting equipment (yet).
I was shocked when I learned about the prices. My alloy of fancy would be the - can`t get wrong here - dropcasters alloy consisting of 50% Bismuth (O.K. or Wismuth) and 50% Lead (chemically pure!!!).
Prices for Bismuth have trippled over the last year and are still at a peak. So buying 2 Kg of such alloy will cost you (that is the best offer I got) 99,- €. I mean 2 Kg that is a joke. Remember when resin kits and figures entered the market, dealers where busy justifying the higher prices asked with the costs of resin and the fact (which is obviously true) that resin as a casting material can not be reused. So a srewed up cast is a total loss when it comes to casting material. Still 30 € (Special-Contact) buy me 2 Litres of high grade resin. How much litres are in 2 Kg alloy????

Now I know that the classic toy soldier is made of lead - no it is not!!!! It is made of an very expensive alloy reffered to as white metal - isn`t it???
Now summing up and leading to the consequent question:

Would you as collectors go for Toysoldiers that are not made out of metal???

I would love if as many of you would granting me an answer.
I know there are other cheaper alloys that (might or will) work but the latest enquirey just provoked me to ask the question. Just ban addition for those who collect solftplastics anyway, there are resins available that duplicate the softplastic really well - more difficult to work with and more expensive but after all --------POSIBBLE.

 

[theBaron]

I don't know if this helps you or not, but I get my metal second-hand. I buy linotype and linotype metal ingots from print shops, and from dealers at flea markets and other places, who clean out old printing companies. Linotype is antimonial tin (not sure of the exact ratio of tin to antimony), which I use without sweetening, in my metal molds (such as the old Schneider molds), or which I cut to about 75-80% antimonial tin/25-20% lead, for use in rubber molds. I don't buy casting metal from dealers who sell other casting supplies, because the price is generally as high as it can be.

Prost!
Brad

 

[lancer]

i would buy non-metal, possibly resin, as long as casting and painting were of high standard. i will not buy pliable plastic figures. - lancer

 

[Njja]

I only buy metal figures, I like the durability of King & Country figures. I have

found that they are easily maintained should a gun barrel become bent.

This is important to me because all my childhood Britians Figures and hollow

casts would simply snap if you tried to straighten something.

I would probably look at a resin figure, but if it didn't have the heft of a good

metal figure it would be hard for me to purchase.

I am so happy with my current options, it would be hard to change.

 

[aujj65]

For those of you who are following my Thread of my first encounter with the wonderfull world of Toysoldiers might have noticed, that I am now in need for some good quality metal. Googled around, called a few companies and friends - knowing now what alloy would be best to use for casting takeing into account that I do not own centrifugal casting equipment (yet).
I was shocked when I learned about the prices. My alloy of fancy would be the - can`t get wrong here - dropcasters alloy consisting of 50% Bismuth (O.K. or Wismuth) and 50% Lead (chemically pure!!!).
Prices for Bismuth have trippled over the last year and are still at a peak. So buying 2 Kg of such alloy will cost you (that is the best offer I got) 99,- €. I mean 2 Kg that is a joke. Remember when resin kits and figures entered the market, dealers where busy justifying the higher prices asked with the costs of resin and the fact (which is obviously true) that resin as a casting material can not be reused. So a srewed up cast is a total loss when it comes to casting material. Still 30 € (Special-Contact) buy me 2 Litres of high grade resin. How much litres are in 2 Kg alloy????

Now I know that the classic toy soldier is made of lead - no it is not!!!! It is made of an very expensive alloy reffered to as white metal - isn`t it???
Now summing up and leading to the consequent question:

Would you as collectors go for Toysoldiers that are not made out of metal???

I would love if as many of you would granting me an answer.
I know there are other cheaper alloys that (might or will) work but the latest enquirey just provoked me to ask the question. Just ban addition for those who collect solftplastics anyway, there are resins available that duplicate the softplastic really well - more difficult to work with and more expensive but after all --------POSIBBLE.

I'm not to sure that many "Lead" figures made today contain much or any lead at all due to the health issues involved. Most are as you say "White Metal" - an alloy like Pewter. This of course is where the higher costs lay. I remember using "Plumbers Lead" many, many years ago for casting some figures from an old mould someone gave me...but after I grew an extra ear I stopped using it.

Jeff

 

[eborris]

I'd buy toy soldiers regardless of what they are made out of, as long as they are the right size and good poses. Oh yeah and the right period.

 

[kilted vampire]

I melt down Del prado figures for my metal Herr Baron! I buy all kinds of figures but I can only cast with metal.

 

[trooper]

Unfortinately the world price of metal has escalated during the past twelve months due to the tremendous demand from China and India. Commercial casting alloy, (used by most makers) now costs £10,760 per metric tonne. 25 kilos now works out to £269 plus VAT at 17.5% giving a total of £316.08. This shows an increase of nearly 50% in a year. The manufacturers are to be congratulated in that they have not passed on this ratio to their customers.

 

[Cardigan600]

Yo Trooper Jeff, lol any chance of sending me the spare ear when you have painted my Hussars, I am deaf as a doorpost in one ear, could always get Damian to graft it on for me lol. Mind you guys comes in handy sometimes when the wife is giving out, poor Heid must be deaf in both ears by now lol. While we are talking deaf, any of you guys having the same problem with hard of hearing on DVD 2 region or use scart leads for TV, I worked it out myself how to rig up good headphones with the new TVs, so you can hear all ie DVD, Tapes, Sky. All the main TV sellers said it couln't be done Sony etc, but they forget they were dealing with a Hussar. Now if I am on holiday takes two minutes to rig up to Hotel TV instead of sitting there just watching the pictures lol.
Bernard.

 

[aujj65]

Yo Trooper Jeff, lol any chance of sending me the spare ear when you have painted my Hussars, I am deaf as a doorpost in one ear, could always get Damian to graft it on for me lol. Mind you guys comes in handy sometimes when the wife is giving out. While we are talking deaf, any of you guys having the same problem with hard of hearing on DVD 2 region or use scart leads for TV, I worked it out myself how to rig up good headphones with the new TVs, so you can hear all ie DVD, Tapes, Sky. All the main TV sellers said it couln't be done Sony etc, but they forget they were dealing with a Hussar. Now if I am on holiday takes two minutes to rig up to Hotel TV instead of sitting there just watching the pictures lol.
Bernard.

Bernard,

Talking of which, they have just turned up.

Jeff

 

[Cardigan600]

Unfortinately the world price of metal has escalated during the past twelve months due to the tremendous demand from China and India. Commercial casting alloy, (used by most makers) now costs £10,760 per metric tonne. 25 kilos now works out to £269 plus VAT at 17.5% giving a total of £316.08. This shows an increase of nearly 50% in a year. The manufacturers are to be congratulated in that they have not passed on this ratio to their customers.

Yo Troopers have to come in here, understand what you are saying about cost of metal, so with SABRE drawn WHY DO THEY WASTE ALL THE METAL PUTTING HORSES ON PLATES. I have seen every major Soldier maker lately on ebay K&C, FRONTLINE, BRITAINS, etc etc, with horse at the stand pose and they are on PLATES, you know this one really bugs me guys, is someone coming forward to tell me why. To answer our friends question its a defo NO for me metal or nothing.
Bernard.

 

[Spitfrnd]

Well metal is the standard for quality figures but there are increasing numbers of quality plastic ones now so I would consider any composition so long as it was relative durable and could be cast in detail and, as said earlier, the figures are accurate and have interesting poses. Some weight would be nice but even that is not an absolute requirement for me.

 

[trooper]

Yo Troopers have to come in here, understand what you are saying about cost of metal, so with SABRE drawn WHY DO THEY WASTE ALL THE METAL PUTTING HORSES ON PLATES. I have seen every major Soldier maker lately on ebay K&C, FRONTLINE, BRITAINS, etc etc, with horse at the stand pose and they are on PLATES, you know this one really bugs me guys, is someone coming forward to tell me why. To answer our friends question its a defo NO for me metal or nothing.
Bernard.

Bernard, the reason most manufacturers put their horses on BASES is for stability, and, your own personal preferences notwithstanding, most customers want them that way. You must have experienced the domino effect achieved when one careless movement leaves your entire line up of troops looking like the aftermath of the Light Brigade. And the only time a horse should be on a PLATE is with it's jacket off, surrounded by new potatoes, broad beans and Yorkshire pudding. But I am sure that if you ask them most makers will take them off the base for you.

 

[aujj65]

I melt down Del prado figures for my metal

That's probably cheaper than buying new ingots.

Jeff

 

[binder001]

My personal background is in plastic models and in playing with plastic soldiers as a kid, so I love PLASTIC! As a modeler I have also worked with many fine resin figures that were superior in detail to many plastics. So to me the media is of minor importance compared with the quality of the figure. I like to convert figures, mostly plastic. By the time I do a difficult conversion the figure ends up being brass wire pins, expoxy glue and two-part epoxy filler, so can one still call it a "plastic" figure?

Anyway, enjoy the figures and the hobby and don't worry about their material.

Gary

 

[Wolfgang]

Thank you all very much for your inputs. Answering the question myself I prefer the metal version of a Toy Soldier, but being spoiled by the resulting surface-quality of resin casting and the fact that you might be much better off casting tricky odd shapes in resin I will (have to) stay with resincasting as for my own trials. I am just about experimenting with resin-dollies and will post some pics soon at my ongoing thread in the sculpting section. Anyway my first master of a Toy Soldier is almost ready having used one of my casted metal dollies as a basis, pictures of it will follow soon in the sculpting section.
Thank you all for you interesting feed back. Hope you stay tuned ...
rgds
Wolfgang