Introducing the British Infantry

Latest edit: Expeditionary Force British Pacific War Sets

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This post is a consolidation of the four British Infantry posts that I had to split because of the blogger limitations regarding labels. Now that I have simplified my labeling strategy, I was able to combine them into a single one. It probably needs a bit more editing, but at least for now it provides a central location to see all the British Infantry figures made by all manufacturers.

Here is a peek into what I am currently working on. It is a painted set of 50 British Infantry figures. As you might recall, I like to keep the poses unique and sometimes not all the poses from a given manufacturer 'make the cut' as far as the quality of the sculpting. You might also notice that I am only painting 50 figures instead of 100 as I did with some of the other sets. This is partly due to time constraints, partly because there aren't that many unique poses for this country/branch of the military, and partly because playing a war-game with 100 figures + vehicles, tends to take quite a bit of time, so 50 seems a good number. Another thing to note is that this is an expansion from about 12 figures that I had originally painted about 10 years back, and therefore you might see some of them at different stages of painting. As far as when they will be done, I am not sure as lately I have been doing a lot more blogging and a lot less painting, but eventually you will be able to see the finished product. Alright, so let's get to it.

Airfix British Infantry

Except for the guy who is standing firing, these poses are very dynamic. One of my favorite sets. They are also among the original squad that I had painted a few years back. That was before I learned how to give them their protective coats, so over the years they got chipped and needed a touch-up. You might also notice a glossy finish which I don't really like. By the time I am done, it will be gone. The other thing that will change is that originally all the webbing for their equipment was beige, but I later noticed that British Infantry also had green webbing, so I decided to switch to that color.

Airfix British Infantry Heavy Weapons Set

As you can see, only a subset of the figures are represented here.

Atlantic British Infantry

There are 10 figures in the original set, but some of them are a bit stiff, and some of them, like the guy carrying his wounded buddy shown in a post a couple of weeks back, are not really action poses that lend themselves to a table-top war-game.

BMC British Infantry

To be more precise, these guys are British 8th Army Infantry, but they round up the 50 figures well. Their sculpting seems nicer than that of the other figures from the other sets that did not make the cut.

Britains Herald British Infantry - Part I

Based on the weapons they are carrying these guys seem to be post-WWII figures, but their poses are nice enough that I couldn't resist being a purist and I drafted them into the WWII Army. 

Britains Herald British Infantry - Part II

Britain's Herald figures were produced from the 1950's to the 1980's, some of the later ones made in Hong Kong. You can tell some of the newer ones from the base which is not part of the figure but attached to it.

Marx British Infantry

A classic set. A bit slim for my taste, but nonetheless a nice addition to the unit.

Matchbox British Infantry - Part I

The Bren gunner is one of my favorite ones. For some reason the flamethrower guy tends to be harder to find than the rest.

Matchbox British Infantry - Part II

The officer with the sheepskin coat is turning out nicely.

Weston British Infantry

New production by Steve Weston. Overall a nicely sculpted set. The only thing to criticize is how wide the helmets are. Some of them remind me of the helmets used by the Star Wars men protecting the Emperor.

Finished British Infantry

This is how the whole unit looks after I finished painting them and gave them their protective coats.

In the previous pictures I showed all the British Infantry poses that I was in the process of painting. That post left out some poses that I decided not to paint. At the time I was aiming to paint 50 different guys with the goal of using them for war-gaming, so I left out the poses that were least appealing and those that were the least useful in a war-game. Then there are also a couple figures that I have managed to find after I finished painting that batch. Since I would like this blog to be as complete as possible and serve as a catalog organized by manufacturer I feel the need to remedy this. So here are the British Infantry soldiers who did not make the 'paint cut'. 

Airfix British Infantry Support Group

The 5 guys on the right are from the original set. The radio man on the left is a paratrooper, but it came with the set of recasts that I bought a few years back. Since I had already painted him with the paratroopers, I left him out of the British Infantry selection. The other guys are mostly standing around and I wanted action poses. The right-most guy needs a gun or a mortar to go along so I also cut him. And the prone guy is supposed to be feeding ammo to the Vickers MG (not shown here) but I already had enough prone guys, so he made room for other action poses.

Atlantic British Infantry - Part 1

I have very mixed feelings about these guys. Some of them are nice and some of them are really bad. The man helping his mate is a very good pose. Similar to a Marx 'Battleground' GI. But the other two miss the mark when it comes to realism. The one on the right seems to be picking an apple from a tree, when in reality he is supposed to be throwing a grenade. The one on the left seems to be waving at his friends... not a battlefield pose.

Atlantic British Infantry - Part 2

Again, a mixed lot. The commander is good. I would have painted him if I had not had enough officers already in my selection. The other two prone guys were easy choices to cut. The one on the left seems to be doing push ups, and the other one comes with a detached Bren gun which you would actually expect him to be holding with both hands.

BMC British Infantry

Compared to BMC's Germans and Americans, the British are actually fairly decent. In this case, I wouldn't say that I cut them, but instead I chose to paint them with the British 8th Army instead. But I did let them contribute two poses to the batch of 50 that I painted.

Britains Herald British Infantry - Part I

The Britains Herald poses are fairly good in general. They represent post-war figures, but they still come in very nice poses. I ended up painting 10 of them. The mine sweeper guy did not get painted because I got him after I was done painting the other guys. The marching guy was eliminated because I wanted more active poses. The rest of the Herald British Infantry poses are in this other post.

Britains Herald British Infantry - Part II

This guy is more like a 50mm figure than 1/32. From what I understand he was designed and manufactured as a test product -and just this single pose- when Britains was evaluating getting into the plastic market. In case of a failed experiment, they were going to be sold to the tourist market, hence the ceremonial stance. 

The following guys are all factory painted or were found after I described the British figures above. In addition to the guys below, 21st Century Toys also produced 6 factory-painted British Infantry, but I did not get around to buying those. Now that I am posting pictures of the figures, I wish I had. Maybe I will look for them on eBay at some point. Anyhow, let's take a look at the ones I do have.

Britains Deetail British Infantry

These are vintage figures from the 70's and 80's. A nice set all around. All small arms are represented. It's nice how they all have bits of cammo attached to their helmets.

First Gear British Infantry

These are recasts of the original Britains Deetail figures produced in the last few years. I find the color scheme better than the original, but I don't like how they paint the eyes that much. Note also that the bases have rounded corners, not that it makes a big difference.

Britains Deetail British Mortar Set

A really nice heavy mortar team. The mortar can actually fire shells enabled by a spring mechanism inside the tube. There is a small lever in the back of the mortar which can be pulled and released to eject the shells. A pretty fun set.

Britains Deetail British Assault Boat

An officer and a Bren gunner on a raft. A tricky set to find a realistic setting for, but like the saying goes, 'that's a good problem to have' when it comes to the coolness factor of this set.

Britains Deetail British Land Rover

This is a nice little set from Britains Deetail. The Rover comes with a driver and a Bren gunner in the back. I would have rather had it in a tan color scheme to use it for some long range patrols in the desert, but hey, we can still send this guy to scout the French countryside.

Britains Deetail British Land Rover - other side

From this angle you can see the Bren gunner better. Notice how his knee is resting on a little ledge behind the cabin so that he can lean forward and rest the gun on the top of the vehicle while he fires away. I find that a nice touch of realism. 

Crescent British Infantry

Based on the weapons, these guys seem to be modern British Infantry. They are a bit on the smaller side of the scale, but I think that once they are painted they will fight just fin. I particularly like the two guys on the right. Their forward lean makes them good action poses.

Crescent 60mm British Infantry - Part I

Crescent also produced 60mm British Infantry figures. Naturally they look a bit large next to the rest of the guys, but if you spread them out, they could just be a big guy among the rest of the normal size crowd.

Crescent 60 mm British Infantry - Part II

The officer. A nice action pose. Running into the heat of battle.

Britains Swoppets British Infantry

I only have a handful of these guys, but this sample is quite nice. The mortar team is very well put together. Unfortunately the man dropping the shell into the tube is missing the shell, but if you assume that he just dropped it, then it works just fine. The stretcher guys unfortunately are also missing the stretcher, so I had to place the wounded man on the ground. I guess that's the downside of the swoppet approach. Those detachable pieces go missing. Note that the wounded guy comes with a blanket, which gives it an additional nice touch.

Britains Swoppets British Infantry - Part II

A couple more guys. The marching guy is nothing out of the ordinary. The other guy is showing quite a bit more action. Definitely more into the heat of the moment. 

Britains Swoppets British Infantry - Part III

This guy came to me already in a pretty beaten up shape. Looks like the previous owner wanted some casualties in his army and even painted some blood stains on this poor fellow. I wish they had kept him in his original shape...

Britains Swoppets British Infantry - Part IV

This guy seems to have the same lower body as the previous guy. although he seems to have lost his base, but that's OK. He does not really need it. The upper body is very much to my liking and his weapon is in great shape. I think he is one of my favorite swoppet figures across all swoppet manufacturers. 

Timpo Swoppets British Infantry - Part I

Here are a couple of the figures in the regular British infantry set. They seem more dynamic and better posed than their German or US counterparts. I particularly like the man charging with the bayonet. The officer is also nicely done, including his revolver. Hopefully I can get my hands on the rest of the set at some point. 

Timpo Swoppets British Infantry - Part II

Here is another guy from the Timpo Swoppets set. The top combines nicely with the legs giving it a very dynamic stance. He is holding a revolver on one hand and a grenade on the other. Note also that the base if a different color than the two in the previous picture.

Timpo Swoppets British Infantry with raft

Here is a rather nice and interesting set from Timpo. It is a set of British Infantry advancing on a raft. Sometimes such rafts feel quite a bit underscale, but in this case, both the figures and the raft are well proportioned. Two of the poses seem to be repeated, and I don't know if that was the case with the original set, but I am still quite happy having found it in this good condition.

Hilco British (or US?) Infantry - Part I

These are only three poses from the set. I've seen another 4 or 5 guys. I am not sure how many there are in all. The figures are a bit on the slim side, and the sculpting is OK, but not extraordinary. Even so, they seem to be a bit hard to get. And for some reason, that piece behind them with the tree stumps seems to be something special as I saw it go for 20+ dollars on eBay. Also, The shape of the helmets makes me doubt whether they are really British Infantry.

Hilco British (or US?) Infantry - Part II

Here are a few more Hilco guys that I recently found. As you can see they are mostly recasts of Britains Herald (grenade thrower, officer), Timpo (minesweeper, radio man), and Crescent (flamethrower) figures. The one sure thing that confirms that they are Hilco figures is that the base is stamped as such. About the country that they represent, I am now wondering if they actually come from two different sets: American and British.

Hilco British (or US?) Infantry - Part III

Another guys based on the Timpo figures. Note how the plastic that this guy is made of also shows those unusual color variations. 

Hilco British Infantry - Part IV

And here is one more guy. This one also seems to be a copy of the Herald British Infantry. The plastic and original paint scheme are different from the figures in the previous pictures, so there must have been several releases of these figures. 

Hilco British Infantry - Part V

And they keep coming in one at a time. From a large lot of mixed figures... Although similar to the Timpo guy, I know it is Hilco due to the stamp on the bottom of the base, and also due to the strange and unique plastic that many of them are cast in. The other sign that this is a Hilco guy is the fact that the base is split into two sections, just as it is for the kneeling radio man. A good heavy weapon to add to the team.

UNA British Infantry

This is a figure from new company that I just discovered. I purchased a lot of mixed soldiers and this one came with it. At first glance it looks like a Lone Star kind of guy, but the bottom part of the base is marked 'UNA' and a few google searches revealed that is an actual toy soldier company. His uniform and Vickers MG lead me to believe that he is a British guy, but I have not confirmed it or found any other UNA Tommies yet. Based on the helmet he might also be a GI as UNA did make a GI set.

Brenbros British Infantry

These are reproductions of the Herald British Infantry. Not much special about them, since they don't even come factory painted as the Herald guys did. 

Blue Box Elite Command British Infantry

This is a set of 4 metal figures representing General Bernard Montgomery and some of his infantrymen. Compared to other metal figures, like King and Country and so on, they are not as nice. In fact, I bought them thinking that they were plastic figures as that is the focus of my collection. As far as the resemblance with Monty, I think it requires a bit of imagination to get there. 

Cherilea Modern British Infantry

I really like the level of action and intensity depicted by these guys. And by that, I don't just mean that they have for instance, a guy who is charging, because some other manufacturers also have such a pose, but still, the movements of those other figures are sometimes not as fluid. They really captured well all the subtle angles of the joints and leaning of the body to give them a very genuine look. There is at least one more guy in the set, as I've seen a picture with 4 poses (a grenade thrower is missing).

Plastic Platoon British Infantry

This set is meant to represent the British defenders of Crete who fought against the German Paras. Again, characteristically well made by Plastic Platoon, with lots of action and intensity. You can tell that these guys were involved in close quarters fighting. Worth highlighting is who I think might the Sarge, holding a pistol on one hand, and brass knuckles on the other. A feisty bunch to come up against, although as we know, they were eventually subdued, although at no small cost, which is one of the reasons why German Fallschirmjaeger were no longer used in drops after that. 

Expeditionary Force British Assault Section - Pacific War

This is the first of what will be 5 sets of British Infantry for the Pacific War. They are mostly wearing MKIII helmets, aka 'turtle helmets' -although one of them is also wearing a beret- and are equipped with a variety of weapons, including their beloved Bren gun, a Sten gun and a couple of Thompson submachineguns. All the figures also come with a standard backpack. Being an assault section, they are all on the move or firing, and as an acknowledgement to the tropical weather, they have all rolled up their sleeves. In fact I am a bit surprised that none of them are wearing short pants, but maybe it was better this way to fend of the mosquitos. 

Expeditionary Force British Defense Section - Pacific War

These guys represent a defense section, and therefore, their poses are better suited for a static position, with a nice mix of kneeling and standing men. You even get a grenade thrower. They are equipped with MkII 'Brodie' Helmets with netting added to them, which smooths their shape a bit. As with the previous set, you also get a man with a beret, and another one with an officer cap. The standout figure of the lot is the kneeling Bren gunner firing behind the tree stump. One thing to be aware of with this set is that they all come with backpacks as well, except for the officer. This means however that you want to make sure that you glue the officer's head on the body without the hole in the back. Just in case you were contemplating gluing the officer's head on a different pose. I suppose you could always fill the hole in the back with putty if you really wanted to mix and match the heads and bodies.

Expeditionary Force British Machine Gun Section - Pacific War

This is the third set of British Infantry for the Pacific Theater of Operations. They are wearing the Bridie style helmet, but as opposed to the Defense Section, they are doing so without the netting, which gives these helmets a flatter appearance. The set consists to 2 MG teams firing a water cooled Vickers heavy Machine Gun. Each team consists of a gunner, an ammo loader and a third man directing fire. Additionally, there are three support troops. As is the case with all Expeditionary Force sets, you can swap bodies and arms, so if you wanted to, every man on the MG teams could be kneeling, and all the support troops can be made to stand. I chose to mix it up a bit.

Expeditionary Force British HQ Section - Pacific War - Part I

These British HQ guys came with berets as headgear. I am thinking that this allows them to be painted as commandos or even Paras. In terms of their weaponry, this set also came with a heavy MG, which I assume was meant as an alternative for the piat pose, but I decided to give it to one of the standing guys. This means that I will need to find some wall or something else to lean him against, but I really like how it turned out. Note also that I have him a head without any cover and I glued a helmet at his base. He must have lost it in the heat of the moment!

Expeditionary Force British HQ Section - Pacific War - Part II

The rest of the HQ section, with the 3 standard poses (mortar, radio, and piat) and a couple of supporting guys. Note that here I have turned one of the kneeling guys into the NCO which is directing the movement of the guys behind him. In the case of the Australians, I glued those arms to a standing figure. 

Expeditionary Force British Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part I

The British mortar crews come with two options for headgear. You can give them turtle helmets as I did for this first crew, or berets as you will see below - and with the NCO coordinating fire in this picture. Again, I have tried to mix up the loaders and ammo handlers so that there's some variety on who is standing vs crouching and which side of the mortar they are standing on. 

Expeditionary Force British Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part II

Here I have made the loader kneel, and instead of dropping the shell into the mortar he is performing some adjustments before firing the shell. This crew also got the officer to direct the operation. 

Expeditionary Force British Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part III

This last crew got issued berets, which means that I could use them as a crew for Paras, who don't have a lot of heavy weapons options. I also assigned them the radio man, who happens to be a bit distracted and reaching for his rifle, perhaps because he saw something threatening on his flank?

Expeditionary Force Scottish Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part I

This set is a bit different because while they are part of the Pacific series, the fact that they are Scottish troops opens up the possibility of using them as B8A guys in North Africa or the ETO. Which is a good option given the few heavy weapons available from other vendors for that service branch. 

Expeditionary Force Scottish Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part II

It is quite nice how just the bonnet makes these guys look significantly different from the other mortar crews in the series. BTW, one small mistake I made was to place the container for the piat's rounds next to the mortar, thinking that it was meant to contain mortar shells. 

Expeditionary Force Scottish Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part III

In this set I decided to give turn the NCO into more of a fighting figure. Not only did he get a Sten gun which he is using to cover his men, but he also got a highlander's cap instead of the bonnet, which by the way, includes some pretty cool ribbons hanging from the back. Just a little extra touch to make him stand out.

Mars British Commonwealth Troops

This release from Mars portrays British Commonwealth Troops, which I guess means that you could use them as any number of nationalities. I know many collectors would like to use them as Canadian. What's nice about them is that a couple of them are wearing a leather vest, which I gather is called a jerkin. Another nice touch is that among their poses they have a prone piat firing team. As far as I recall, only 21C had made a prone piat firing paratrooper, but it did not have a loader. The set is pretty good overall, with almost all figures in good action, fighting poses. My only disappointment is the figure on the left, which I find very poorly sculpted. Like several other Mars figures, his arms are tucked next to his body as if he were trying to hold something with his arm pits. He actually looks worse when you look at him directly from the front. I really wish by now Mars had figured out how to properly sculpt arms in more natural positions. 

Click here to take a look at WWII Toy Soldiers by Country

Click here to take a look at WWII Vehicles by Country

Click here to see more British Commonwealth Troops

Click here to see the British Infantry in action against the Waffen SS.

Click here to see a post about a special British guy