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Toy Soldier Collector Open House

Open House

RP World Models remains a popular bastion of traditional toy soldiers as Rob Hendrie discovered at the recent open day there

Open Days at RP World Models in Nottingham are events unique in the toy soldier calendar – a working factory opening its doors to demonstrate painting and casting and to sell its vast ranges of 54mm figures, vehicles and spare parts. It’s always a fun event and the most recent was no exception.

Bob Prati (the RP in RP World Models) worked for William Britains in the 1990s when they were based in Nottingham. But when Racing Champions bought the brand they closed the Nottingham factory and shifted most production to China. Bob formed his company in 1999 to paint Britains’ gloss releases until that work also went to China.

As Bob found other manufacturers to use his painting facility, he developed his own ranges (Robin Hood and footballers) and also began to paint and market the massive Steadfast range. Dating from the late 1970s and in the vanguard of “new old toy soldiers” – as the figures were then known – Steadfast’s ceremonial and action sets mostly depict Victorian conflicts, with the Crimean and Zulu Wars well represented.

The quality of the horse-drawn equipment and artillery is excellent and all are available as keenly-priced castings. An attraction of Open Days here is that something can be cast for you while you watch - you can even remove the castings from the mould yourself!

With RP’s own ranges, the massive number of Steadfast figures plus countless Britains spare parts from that company’s final years of UK production, RP World Models is a treasure trove of traditional toy soldier products. It pays to search patiently and be eagle-eyed – there’s no telling what you might come across! I cannot tell you how many bits and bobs I’ve picked up over the years to repair or enhance figures and to aid scratch-building projects.

Currently popular are 25 and 31 piece marching bands based on the Britains Standard Bearer figure. After slight adaptations to the basic figure, more than twenty different bands have now been created – many at the request of collectors. Recent additions include the bands of the RAF Regiment, the Army Air Corps and the Northumberland Yeomanry.

In early 2006 Bob Prati acquired Burbor Enterprises – the casting company and owners of Steadfast – and so added casting and mould making to his existing painting facility.

As has been reported in these pages before, part of that deal included the World War One vehicles by Premier (created by Charles Biggs in the 1990s) and over the last months more of this series has been made available and all have now become part of the Steadfast range. RP’s versions of the these vehicles are very affordable: General lorry (£70), Ambulance (£90), RNAS Rolls-Royce Armoured Car (£85) and Thorneycroft Anti-Aircraft lorry (£95).

The most recent pair, on show for the first time, were the unusual American Dodge Ambulance (£90) and the German Hagan Tank (£90). Castings in kit form are also available of all the vehicles.

The emergence of matt-painted Great War figures over the last couple of years has, at last, established that conflict as an expanding collecting theme in our hobby. We are now starting to see some really good vehicles to display with the figures like King & Country’s Kaiser’s Car and the Renault FT-17 Tank from Old Northwest. Many other vehicles, no doubt, are on the horizon. So these former Premier vehicles from RP may well be due a well-deserved renaissance.

Although supplied painted (in gloss) by RP, they should not be confined to just a toy-style, traditional collection. They are of sufficient quality to stand alongside many of today’s matt soldiers so collectors should consider buying them as castings and doing their own matt paint jobs on them.

The advantage is that they’re well-designed, easy to assemble and contain good detail. Even the least gifted modeller (and I hasten to count myself in that class) will be able to add much extra detail by finding some transfers, shopping around for appropriate crews and loads for the vehicles and weathering them as much as possible. It’s entirely possible to end up with vehicles compatible with the current batch of matt figures.

The next Open Day is on Sunday 21st October. Get yourself on Bob Prati’s email list: rprati@proweb.co.uk if you want more details of the event nearer the time.

Date Published Wed, 08/01/2007 - 14:07
Author: Rob Hendrie

Contact
RP World Models Ltd.
The Barracks, Maville Works,
Beech Ave., Basford,
Nottingham.
NG7 7LU
0115 942 7462

www.rpworldmodels.net

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