54 mm white metal figures, after make and ID of subjects, most seem Napoleonics

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T

Troy Smith

Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2023
Messages
7
Hello all
this seems to be one of the places for figure modelling information online,

I'm an occasional figure painter, painted 100's of Airfix ones as child, and then did a few of the 54mm Napoleonic collectors series, as well as Airfix Multipose.
Only ones I have done in the last few years have been the styrene versions of the old Airfix 1/32 figures.
but I recently bought a job lot of 54m white metal figures, cheaply, from a place that mostly sells plastic kits.
They are kits, which have been assembled and primed.
(and now with bent rifles, plumes swords, and one flat nose as they were posted loose in a cigar box grrr most seem fixable but blinkin' annoying as they were as shown before posting. )
I am a regular Britmodeller poster, so I asked there but figures are a very niche there.
https://www.britmodeller.com/forums...ake-and-id-of-subjects-most-seem-napoleonics/

I have been trying to ID the subjects, and they all seem to be the same range/sculptor, so if I can find that out then doing the ID will be easier i hope.

53293162470_4776f86c2d_b.jpg


53293242444_3618cb61f6_b.jpg


these are the best guess I have come up with so far

1. English Royal Marine circa 1750?
2. French line infantry 1815, possibly a Voltiguer as has long shako plume.
3. English Civil war roundhead?
4. English Infantry 1815
5. French line infantry with oilskin on Shako 1815, figure is smoking a pipe.
6. French Curassier 1815
7.?
8. Royal Artillery with Tarleton helmet. 1815
9. WW1 German Infantry
10. French Imperial guard Sapper 1815
11. English Life Guard 1815
12. English Life Guard 1815
13. ?
14. Zouave? Has a peaked cap with a plume which I have not found when searching up Zouaves

I did wonder if they might be Le Cimier, as I was hunting about online for images as I figured these must be part of a larger range.

If better pics would help, please let me know.

Thank you for any help with these.
 
NigelR said:
They're not Le Cimier, these are old figures from the 70s. I always associate the clipped corner bases with Greenwood& Ball/Lasset miniatures, for example see here: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/54mm-lasset-john-tassel-napoleonic-496181353
Click to expand...
Thank you Nigel,
that's brilliant. I just searched Lasset and found out lots of things I didn't know, and on here, about the sculptor. Talk about prolific!
"or visit ebay and buy old Lasset, Hinton Hunt, Stadden premounted and undercoated ready to paint"
https://www.planetfigure.com/threads/assembled-or-not-when-painting.236738/#post-1064329

I had no idea about this being a thing, so that explains they assembly and undercoat. Not found any of the figures as yet, but I can understand that due to their nature that this make take some tracking down.
The style of sculpting looks very much like the ones in the Worthpoint link. A look at the Greenwo0od & Ball catalogue in Mirosoft link shows figures that tally with the list, but not illustrated.
I do have a load of Military Modelling mags from the 70's which I shall have to have a another look through and see what I can spot.

cheers
T
 
A nice little collection of Stadden castings. Lasset figures are similar, but generally more gracile than Staddens. You can see the difference if you put a Stadden casting and Lasset casting of the same subject side by side.

For example, here is a pair of grenadier sergeants, a Stadden Prussian on the left, and a Lasset Hessian on the right:

Notice how the Stadden casting is stockier, more robust, than the slender Lasset.

Here is a pair of Jäger, Lasset on the left, Stadden on the right:

We see the same contrast in style here, too.

And though the two figures aren't of the same subject, this Stadden Bavarian chevaux-leger and Lasset Saxon Uhlan from the Kaiser's army also illustrate the difference in style:


I'd say #1 is just a British grenadier c1750, not a Royal Marine. It's hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like he's got a star badge on the front of his cap, so could be a Coldstreamer. #7 looks like French infantry, 1870. #13 is a Bavarian infantryman, 1870-71.

Also, though this isn't conclusive, but most of the Lasset castings I have seen have had a solid coat of a medium grey primer, very smooth. These Staddens have the typical thin coat of white primer. It still holds up pretty well, though when I get them, I'll prime over this with my favorite, Tamyia's Fine Surface primer. Or I'll strip this old primer off first, then re-prime.

Hope that helps!
Prost!
Brad
 
That's fascinating Brad. It brought back happy memories of visiting the original "Tradition" shop in London as a teenager in the early 70s and seeing the cabinets full of Stadden (and possibly Lasset) castings on those bases.
 
Hi number 14 is a chassuer 2nd Empire, 13 is a Bavarian infantry looks to be Franco Prussian War 1870. 7 looks like a french inf 1854, Hope that helps fill out a bit more. My college Ian identified the two thought he might know.

Steve

TFB Miniatures Team
 
Steve headley said:
Hi number 14 is a chassuer 2nd Empire, 13 is a Bavarian infantry looks to be Franco Prussian War 1870. 7 looks like a french inf 1854, Hope that helps fill out a bit more. My college Ian identified the two thought he might know.

Steve

TFB Miniatures Team
Click to expand...

Tell Ian I beat him to it, Steve! I'll give him a hard time later on Facebook :D

Prost!
Brad
 
theBaron said:
A nice little collection of Stadden castings. Lasset figures are similar, but generally more gracile than Staddens. You can see the difference if you put a Stadden casting and Lasset casting of the same subject side by side.

I'd say #1 is just a British grenadier c1750, not a Royal Marine. It's hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like he's got a star badge on the front of his cap, so could be a Coldstreamer. #7 looks like French infantry, 1870. #13 is a Bavarian infantryman, 1870-71.

Also, though this isn't conclusive, but most of the Lasset castings I have seen have had a solid coat of a medium grey primer, very smooth. These Staddens have the typical thin coat of white primer. It still holds up pretty well, though when I get them, I'll prime over this with my favorite, Tamyia's Fine Surface primer. Or I'll strip this old primer off first, then re-prime.

Hope that helps!
Prost!
Brad
Click to expand...


Fantastic info Brad. I took a gamble on these, the whole lot was £30., which I'm guessing is a good deal.

While doing some other searches, I saw that Mr Tassel of Lasset was 6 foot 3, perhaps why his figures look tall?

in the Stadden catalog here https://www.mirofsoft.com/app/download/11880346726/Tradition+Stadden+1967.pdf?t=1693396552

I noted that 14, or very similar was on page 24, one of the few figures that seem very similar to the ones I have. Interesting uniform too.

Been an eye openers, I had no idea such extensive range exited, but then I presume the set up costs for the moulds were less, so a wider range was possible. They would have been out of my price range in my youth I presume, my budget was the Airfix Collector series, or Multipose, though I did get one Historex mounted figure, which I still have and was apparently £2.75, when a similar Airfix was maybe 70p...
It was out of my skill range, mostly as the instructions are, erm, pretty non existent.

Regarding #1, i can't quite make out what on the cap, it maybe a star. One of the reason I asked is I have vague knowledge of some Napoleonic uniforms, and did get a couple of Funcken books last year when I pciked up a few Collector series figures, but anything else is very vague, so some idea of what too look means I can search for colours.


Thanks for the priming tips, I'd probably try Tamiya buff, and then Vallejo on top of that. Some figure work might be a good change, I have desk piked high bitty aircraft projects.
I really need to actually tidy the works space first....

Thanks again for the info, more searching will be required on these.

Steve headley said:
Hi number 14 is a chassuer 2nd Empire, 13 is a Bavarian infantry looks to be Franco Prussian War 1870. 7 looks like a french inf 1854, Hope that helps fill out a bit more. My college Ian identified the two thought he might know.

Steve

TFB Miniatures Team
Click to expand...


Thank you, gives me something to go searching for. I should have noted my ID's are 'best guess' and may well be wrong, so corrections are very helpful.

cheers
T
 
They all are Greenwood and Ball/ Lasset figures, originally sculpted by John Tassel ( note the crafty anagram of his name!) I seem to remember Peter Wilcox also did one or two masters, but his main area of expertise was Ancient Tribes, Indo-Europeans, Celts, etc. A large collection of the figures can be seen at Houghton Hall soldier museum in Norfolk; well worth a visit .

Alan
 
Troy Smith said:
Fantastic info Brad. I took a gamble on these, the whole lot was £30., which I'm guessing is a good deal...
Click to expand...

I'd say that's a great deal! That's about $25 dollars for the lot , and for 14 unpainted Staddens, that's good. If I can get the foot figures for ten bucks apiece, I consider it a good deal. Five bucks each, even better. I look for the mounted figures for $25, but they are harder to come by.

I like them for nostalgia reasons, and as you can see, I like to paint them to a gloss style. But I like that there is a decent amount of sculpted detail, generally. True, some of them can have soft details, and often the equipment doesn't match (eg, every hussar you find has a Napoleonic French sabretache, regardless of the time period). But a good part of my collection is made of up Stadden castings. Nearly all of my Seven Years War Prussians are Stadden castings.

I look forward to seeing whatever you do with them!

Prost!
Brad
 

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