Conversions from Colorado
Queen Victoria's Ambassadors
Dated: May 28 1998.
Here are some conversions from frequent visitor and contributor to both the web site and the HäT sets. You'll find Mr. Tawzer's handiwork on the 'Futures' page where the HäT figures first start their lives as line drawings and on the back of HäT boxes. Mr. Tawzer's own words are in quotes.
"I call them Queen Victoria's Ambassadors. To fill the gaps in the British Colonial era, I made my own. These are one-piece Armalite resin figures." The figures were first converted from existing figures, then a mold of them was made in resin, the figures you see here are cast in resin from those molds.
"The one pose of cavalry is British Dragoon Guards to fight in the Zulu War or Egypt. The 7 poses of Highlanders will fight in the Northwest Frontier, the Sudan Wars, Egypt, and the Boer Wars, and the Royal Field Artillery will fight in all of the above wars."
"I used the Armalite plastic and rubber mold making materials. This plastic is supposed to be less brittle than resin, but I found it to be still pretty brittle. I made some Dervishes with arms raised for spears, but I couldn't make ring hands because the plastic kept breaking. That is also why I scrapped the idea to make Bengal Lancers or 21st Lancers."
"Most of the body parts for the Highlanders came from ESCI Napoleonic Highlanders and Colonial British Infantry and Italeri Napoleonic Highlanders."
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"The Dragoon has legs and torso from an Imex ACW Cavalryman, the sword arm from an ESCI Polish Lancer, and the head from an ESCI British Colonial."
"The Artillery consist of ESCI heads and two Airfix RHA bodies, one Imex Union body, and one Imex Confederate artilleryman."
"The mounted officers have Imex Cavalry legs, and assorted ESCI British Colonial arms and torso mix-matches."
"I am most proud of the gun. It is the standard British 9 pounder. The chassis and wheels are from the Airfix ACW gun. I cut the corners off of an ESCI battlefield accys box to make two little seats. I glued the seats on the chassis (on either side of where the gun goes), so the new molded chassis would then have seats (like the real 9 pounder has). Then I made the mold of it. After I poured the plastic, I pulled it out of the mold before it was too hard so I could cut the opening in the trail (to match the real 9 pounder, again). I took this route so I wouldn't have to cut up and destroy the beloved original Airfix cannon. The barrel of the gun has the front end of the Imex gun and the back end of an Airfix gun to match the barrel of a 9 pounder. The front half of the barrel is much skinnier in circumference than the back half in the real gun, and so does mine."
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"Now I just need enemies! This project was such a pain in the rear and so expensive, if these troops want reinforcements they'll have to wait for a real manufacturer to make them. I'm done."
Many thanks to Mr. Tawzer for sharing his Highlanders with us. Making good conversions in itself can be a difficult task, but to make molds and cast the conversions involve a skill many times higher. The advantage ofcourse is that once you make the mold you can build your own army. The ingenuity of these modelers deserves to be applauded. It is interesting to note that the first resin cast figures only appeared on this site a few months back, will we be seeing more in the future?
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