A friend of mine is looking for models of British soldiers in the 1800s, such as the ones fighting in Africa. He didn’t give me exact details, but I believe he doesn’t care too much what scale/size they are. I think he plans on building a collection with them, so something over 6" tall may be too big.
If the scale doesn’t matter I think best option would to look into white metal Wargaming figures.
They normally tend to carry every type of soldier/equipment per army.
Some shops will sell a whole army, others individual pieces or only the molds so that you can cast your own.
Many wargaming clubs also got swapmeets for armies and figs can be had cheap.
Thats 100 years of British Colonization and expeditionary forces.
Just in the second half of the 19th century there was plenty to keep the British Army busy in Africa.
Anglo-Ashanti Wars in West Africa (1823, 1873, 1893-4, 1895-6), English occuption and colonization of the Gold Coast (begining in the 1830’s) Ethiopia (1867), Egypt (1879), Sudan Campaigns in the Republic of Sudan (1885-1897), the Zulu War in South Africa (1879), and the Boer War also in South Africa (1880-1881, 1899-1902), French and British skirmishes in Busa ,Niger(1897), Egypt (1898).
With all the changes in livery for the British army in that 100 years it would make quite the impressive collection. Check Michigan Toy Soldier and Redlancer for figures. Otherwise it may be alot of conversion work.
Mike
Yeah, that’s quite a tall order! From Napoleonic smooth bore muskets to the Boer War and clip fed Enfields, from brightly colored columns to khakis.
My apoligizies, I didn’t think about it being over 100 years… I was basically quoting my friend… Anyway thx for the replies. He’s checked out our local wargaming store, but had no luck, so I’ll check out those companies renarts mentioned.
Italieri produces 1/72 scale historical figures - 50 to a box. The poses are basic but the uniform was quite standard during the long reign of Queen Victoria. During the Anglo-Zulu War ( 1879 ) as well as the First Boer War of Independance ( 1881 ) Tommy Atkins wore mainly red jackets and white “webbing”. During the Anglo-Boer War ( 1899 - 1902 ) they changed to khaki uniforms, still with white webbing. In the veld ( field ) the used mud to stain the white webbing. Boer marksman were notorious for picking out Officers and subsequently rank badges were discarded. Oh, these figures are soft plastic!