R es para Romanos A Caballo

Literally translates as Romans on Horseback, means Roman cavalry! More box-ticking and we have seen one of them before here, as a late-Reamsa/re-issue moulding in unpainted silver, who commands my definitely Co-Ma, not RP (. . . or Basa!) squad of ring-hand Romans.

Having failed to get the frames square on the images in the infantry post, I got these dead square without thinking about it and didn't even think of scanning them! Also they did have the clear plastic sheet (but no film), so have stayed in their box for now.

Five mounted cavalry on two horse sculpts, there are two officer types - if you measure such things by plume size/type - but with such an eclectic set of shields and an un-armed 'trooper' doing a Caesar impersonation, in gold armour, I think they are too toy-like to get excited about on that level and are best called 'auxiliary' cavalry, late Empire!

The two horse designs are a bit chunky, and are reverse poses of each other - apart from the tails! That's it another couple of boxes-ticked, Reamsa-Gormasa Romans from the Soldis-Históricos 'big box' line.

H es para Históricos!

And so to Spain, not actually, but by way of subject matter for another box-ticker! Looking at a set of vintage Reamsa moulds which have seen some mileage now and I think these - by Gormasa - are the last major issue?

How mine came, the cellophane was ripped beyond repair but I managed to get it to behave for the scanner, which did quite a good job, possibly because of the pale backgrounds? If I try to scan say, a kit runner, flush against the black pad, all I get is fuzzy, but these did quite well?

However I needn't have bothered as there was a better, commercial image on the back of the box, alongside the cavalry set! I don't know if these had a 'Soldis' iteration, I suspect Históricos were the older (by era) version of the same Soldis line; the boxes are certainly the same?

I tried to be clever with the photography, but it's impossible to get the frame perfectly square with a hand-held pocket-camera, so it is what it is - a collage of lop-sided frames! But the figures are lovely and it's nice to have them in the stash.

The tool is unchanged from original owner and the painting on these is good enough to conjure-up the originals if not pass for them after a bit of playwear! But the material is a bit of a giveaway; the Reamsa figures were polyethylene, these are a substitute-PVC with the same rubbery qualities of other elastomers.

My sample's box was missing the ridged, clear plastic sheet which should tuck into the corners of the window, so with the wrap gone as well it was going to be a nightmare to keep it all together, thus, it went the way of all flesh, but not before I'd scanned all the useful bits for the archive! the troops have got a [clean] takeaway-tub in the main Romans box!

I is for I'm Not Going to Embarrass Myself . . .

. . . by pretending I know anything of import about Turbans, Pagris ("pugerees"), Khullas or the wearing of Shemagh/Keffiyeh's as full headdresses! So the best thing to do is consult this page if you want the full 'gen.

We're looking at my small collection of colonial troops wearing such headresses, and hopefully I've sped-read the link sufficiently to not make any big boo-boos!

From the left; A Gormasa-'Soldis' reissue of the old Reamsa Spanish Moroccan legionnaire, Franco found a use for them (right wing Fascists have no principles!), and bribed them with a new mosque, among other things! They still exist, but seem to be confined to the Ceuta enclave in Morocco (sort of like, err . . . Gibraltar, but not won in a war!), they now wear an Ottoman style Fez and the new Spanish Right don't like them as much as Franco did . . . fancy that!

Next to him is a French hollow-cast take on a British Indian Army soldier, presumably in France (WWI), and made by Xavier Raphanel (XR), the firm apparently ran between 1895-1935 (thanking the plagiarist 'GTO' for that), I really like him, his bayonet means business and could hurt! A quick Google search reveals the dark tunic is an XR invention, and he should be all-over khaki.

Then the Malleable Mouldings chap, taken from Comet/Authenticast metal moulds brought over from Comet-Gaeltec in the Republic of Ireland, there is some debate over who exactly made these soft polyethylene versions (Malleable used either a frangible phenolic or a 'styrene polymer for most of their non-metal production), but as no one seems to have a name for the person (or persons) unknown who may (or may not) have taken over the IP of Malleable, they might as well be called Malleable Mouldings until more information comes to light . . . must check my Chase files!

Finally the little chap on the end is from Swedish-African Engineers (SAE), and, like the previous figure is a Holgar Erikson sculpting. From the painting, I'm guessing a French Colonial soldier is being depicted, but I wouldn't like to say for certain what type, Moroccan Zouave, 1939'ish?

As we saw in the previous post, this chap came in a few months back, and note he is a third sculpt, a Sikh I think, with bloused-trousers and no apron/frock coat (or whatever it is, trying to pretend you know about colonial uniforms is a slippery slope!). Basic painting suggests boots not leggings, and the plastic colour could indicate Indian Air force, I don’t think it does but . . . ? Another might be/might not be Malleable Mouldings, and again in soft polyethylene.

Now I had hoped to have the Charbens-Cherilea-Crescent Indians here, but they haven't turned up? I thought they were in the 'big purchase' of 2010, but if they were they should have turned-up when I blogged the Russians a couple of years ago, and they didn't, so I must have imagined them. It's annoying as I have passed on some nice lots over the intervening years, but at some point I will have to bite the bullet and invest in decent sets of all three!

Here are three pretty scruffy Cherilea Bren-gunners who have trickled-in with mixed lots, the best is probably the middle one, and you can find them with yellow, white and pale-blue turbans (in the Sikh style?) I think, maybe a bright green too?

I do have a reasonable sample of the King's African Rifles, also Cherilea, although I need more of the OG uniform chaps (bottom left), these are pretty whacky poses, but not quite as lunatic as the UN set, I suspect the same sculptor, and he improved quickly from the UN set.

I shot another one! No paint to speak of!

I have some of the Marx marching bloke in tall fez (reissues in bright colours), but they are with all the jungle stuff as German East African's or Belgian native troops heading into the 'Heart of Darkness'! I ought to keep the Cherilea with them.

G is for Gala, Garcia, Generalisimo, Gormasa and Guardia

Bit of a departure from recent output and a return to Spain, so strap-in for a bumpy ride as at least one of them is a great big question mark which should exercise the idiots of the Penn-State Toy Soldier Mafia and have them flecking dribble on their big book of Spain! So here goes nothing . . .

. . . and we start with this trio who were in storage and I think all came for the collection of the legendary Barry Blood back in 2010 (where one or two could be seen in the plunder-post at the time), from the left; we have a - probably(?) - Argentine life-guard type, the horse looking to be copied from Jean, but Jean had based their plastic horse on earlier composition mounts, so that's probably where this one is taken from.

The most interesting thing about him is that his right arm is attached after moulding / trimming, but before painting, and it's done with the old hot-knife/screwdriver technique! Next to him is a trooper from the Soldados de Alfonso XIII (Alfonso XIII Regiment - officers have red trousers), from Reamsa.

The final figure is also Reamsa; from the Guardia Municipal de Gala, or Ceremonial Municipal Guard. Looking these Spanish figures up over the last week or two has revealed the problem that they all seem to have two names - the monarchist-periods title and the moniker of the fascist interregnum - to that end I think these have reverted to Guardia Real, or Royal Guard?

They are compared to a Life Guard bandsman from Britains, who may be on the wrong horse, as he's using foot-stirrups with a one-handed instrument? I also wasn't happy with the last Spanish chap's horse, and went off to the orphan-horse box . . .

. . . where I found similar horses which have clearly been broken off a Wild West wagon's draw-bar, they aren't the same, but the paint is, and the rider's leg is hiding a big hole, also his horse has a shorter tail, so I think he still needs a correct horse.

Meanwhile this was in the To Be Sorted pile from May's show, and is the officer from the same set, but on the correct horse (in both cases the horse is too small for the figures, who are huge) he's lost his gold epaulets and white trouser-paint but is otherwise a nice figure, if not rare.

Gormasa re-issued these under the Soldis label (yes, I've called it Soldat in the past - more than once I think - but, a mental-typo isn't making it up as you go along!) in quite large 'touristy' sets so they do turn-up pretty regularly.

This chap was hiding in the WWI box as a [possibly] German Ulhan! He is in fact depicting the King's Lancers (Lanceros del Rey), in the ceremonial uniform of the 1970's, at which point they were called the Escolta del Generalísimo (or Fascist Bastard's Escort, if I've got my Spanish correctly?!!), they may also be a type of Cazadore (whatever that is? Is it French, it may be French!), I think these can also be mistaken for Santiago Dragoons (Dragons de Santiago)? But they all have red trousers?

Still; I'm not sure who made him, I assume (helmets on!) he's Jecsan, but there are elements of Pech Y Hermanos (Pech & Brothers) to the horse, which is otherwise like Jecsan horses, apart from the little blobs on two feet. Also - while the cloak fits nicely, and the saddle seems right, he may not be on the right horse?

Marte (Julio Garcia Castresana - 'Castresana Y Marte') also issued a set, but theirs look more formal / relaxed, this chap is in a hurry and his lance is different to the hammered-head, metal Marte ones I've seen, here a plastic blade/pennant moulding, plugging-on to the plastic shaft, but both sets have movable arms and clip-round-the-neck cloaks, so he may have just been wedged on a Jecsan/Pech horse? Means I get to put Marte in the tag-list!

Maybe they're Teixido! I'll put it in the tag-list!

You can see the lancer penciled-in as Jecsan or Teixido makes a better match - size-wise - for the British figure, and I've posted Her Mage in die-cast alloy from Britains' 'New Metal' range of the late 1970's/early 1980's, riding side-saddle, sans horse, in front of the parade.

While the pennant on the Royal Guard trooper may actually be from the Reamsa Medieval/El Sid figures? Also I'm pretty sure both of mine are Reamsa originals as the Gormasa-Soldis ones tend to a glossier finish.

There you go anyway, five ceremonial oddments from the stash, four Spaniards and a probable Argentine, and he's probably the rarer, as the others will have gone all over the world as Tourist keepsakes, but then maybe he did too, although Argentina isn't the Tourist trap Spain has been?