John Niblett is probably most famous for his work with Airfix, but he did produce his own figures, including a range of
small 20mm figures. Rather than go into a complete history check out Vintage 20mil in the links section (after all I would only be copying the information from there!).
I had never seen them in the flesh but I found two packs on eBay a couple of weeks ago. One is completely unopened and contains two ECW cavalry in helmet and coat and an opened pack of two cuirassiers. Incredibly the horse is made up of two halves and the base and sword/scabbard are separate. The detail is amazing on such delicate figures. According to the Vintage 20mil site the original moulds are sadly incomplete and so this range will never be produced again.
The Airfix RHA figure and horse are for size comparison. I am not sure what I will do with the figures-they are almost too good to tamper with (now I know some model train collectors never get their toys out of the box-but a wargamer?).
I hope to post more Newline figures which I am doing for a friend and have promised him before Christmas, so next up mounted British officers.
Last post before Christmas!
