Britains Premier A Tale of Two Gunners with Pics (Long Post).

A few months ago, I put a feeler out on a private Facebook group for Toy Soldier collectors about the differences between these two figures.

Both are from the Britains Premiere Set 4.5" Howitzer in Review Order Set #8913. I have posted my artillery display before, I went on a bit of a bender over a couple years with the goal of collecting a full battery of 6 guns. Two of my guns have crews painted with a lighter blue and feature a few more small details painted than the other four which are darker.

The helmet plate is a bit more precise on the right marker figure and the blue is noticeably lighter.

Looking at the rear of the pair you can see that the level of detail is the same with the exception of the right marker (now on the left, as they are retired) has his spurs painted silver. This is absent on the darker figure.

Bottom of the darker figure, has the bottom of his base painted.

Britains Set #8913 in darker colours.

The Battery, note that No.1 and No.2 Guns crews uniforms are painted in a lighter colour. I also suspect my officer is also from this earlier production line.

Explanation: When this was posted on the aformentioned Facebook group. One of the painters who worked on the Charles Biggs Premiere sets responded, much to my surprise.

It was posted on a private group, so I won't drop his name but he explained that the first 50-100 sets produced were supplied to him in bare metal and needed to be primed. This added significant time as the primer needed to dry.

The colour difference was also explained as the original lighter blue was a can of household gloss dark blue paint. Charles Biggs then decided to provide the figures sprayed a much darker blue(1). Once those figures started to come through this enabled the painters to focus on faces and some uniform details, speeding up the process considerably.

He also said that a few other sets, such as the Royal Artillery Mounted Officer as well as the Vickers Gun on the Wagon Wheel can also be found with the original gloss paint.

Let me know if this was at all interesting, it was a bit long winded but I find these kind of details to be a fascinating part of the hobby.

1.Footnote on Colour Difference: My own personal suspicion is that Charles Biggs wanted the line of figures to be as accurate as possible. This is why the khaki used on First World War Service Dress and Khaki Drill is almost colour matched to the real thing. I suspect this is also true of these RA sets. The darker blue is much more in line with real examples of Royal Artillery and Royal Canadian Artillery uniforms that I have seen, that survive from the period.