Hi Folks,

I'm back in the realms of old OOP kits. Earlier this year I was offered a 90mm Hearne Originals kit of 'The Ribald Dragoon' for the princely sum of £ 15.00.
For anyone who is unaware of what this looks like, the following advert from a 1978 Military Modelling shows what I got.

OK, the model is not in mint condition. It was built, painted, and subsequently broken back to its original parts. Most of the paint had been stripped off, but some bits still required a Dettol bath. Also, some of the original locating lugs have disappeared. Careful drilling and pinning will solve that.
What I've currently got is a clean set of parts waiting to be put together.

I'm going to treat this as a back-burner project, which I'll work on when I get bored with current projects, or when there's a lot of oil paint drying.

Cheers,
Andrew

You did do well, 70p under the original price. following this one

Super stuff,

Now you are restoring antiques too!

Great find mate, well done !

Paul.

One of the great sculpts of the day back then, watching with interest, if you ever come across the Winged Hussar let me know
Steve

Oooh you lucky devil - I really wanted one of these when they first came along . . . .

Paul

I loved Bill Hearne's figures, the first 90mm mounted figure I ever painted was his Crimean 11th Hussar, the man was a genius.......

Respect.

Steve

Way cool!

I was priviledged to paint every one of
these for Rosedale of Lancaster, (who took the moulds over), including the giant Drum Major Goodman, the Zulu iNduna eNkele and the emigre York Hussars.

I still have the Grenadier a cheval on foot in my cabinet, and a cowboy somewhere.

Bloody marvellous stuff !

Paul.

I also saw 3 x 200mm white metal Spartans/ hoplites in the moulds which I don't think were ever released.
They were designed as a hollow cast assembly but all in w/m.

Hearne worked first for Seagull 1972 ( Real Models ) , Seagull was a shop in London
Almond 1977, Hearne 1976, D. Grieves 1980 worked for them, among others ( G Haines, M Feldwick, J Staines
All rights of production went to Premier Miniatures in 1987
Twice Hearne made is own company; first Hearnes Originals in 1977 then Hearnes Miniatures in 1988

Some Hearne ( 90m) when he was at Seagull that I painted in the 70ies


Some Hearnes Originals


I still have the Ribald Dragoon ( in kit ), I was always rebuked because it seemed ( seems) not easy at all to assemble

Ahhh..................... the years seem to have went past in a breeze. I bought my first Military Modelling issue in 1976. Nostalgic feelings. Military Modelling was still Military Modelling with adverts in black and white, telling overseas customers to add 15% for surface shipping and 25% for 'air despatch'. With BOAC no doubt.

I actually think the figure is quite good.

Reminiscing isn't what it used to be.............

It was a pleasant surprise when I pulled out the advert Bob.

Being an antique myself may, or may not be an advantage. We'll see.

I'll keep that in mind Steve.

It's not as if I found it by chance. I was approached by someone from another club saying "you do figures, don't you? Fancy having a go at this one? Only £15.". A quick look through the box was all I needed before exchanging the requisite beer tokens.

Cheers,
Andrew

Agreed, on both counts..
I still remember the one-off American MP he sculpted, sitting on the 1/9th scale Esci Harley. The whole sculpt was superb, but the added green sunglasses made it outstanding. It inspired me to perform major surgery on the 1/35 scale Tamiya MP set, in an attempt to copy the pose.

Cheers,
Andrew

That was a nice little model shop on China Street in Lancaster. They had all sorts of goodies. I remember buying a few of the Rosedale figures (knights in particular) when visiting my parents. Somewhere, I still have some 1/72 scale w/m knights with the name 'Niblett' on them, bought at the same shop.

Cheers,
Andrew

Thanks for posting the extra info on Hearne Originals.
You're quite right about the difficulties of assembly. So far, I've had to fill both sides of the dragoon's pelvis with Miliput to give myself some decent surfaces to pin. Both bodies have been attached to the respective legs, and the fourth leg attached to the chair.
I am now going through a process akin to 'herding cats' in trying to get the various elements to marry-up.

Cheers,
Andrew

Hearne from a Military Modelling 1979



The MP was in Campaign n° 4

Great stuff! Those pics have certainly rattled some old memory cells

Yup, that's the one that got me chopping up the Tamiya MP an age ago.
It's very old, but this is how it turned out:-

My little homage to Mr. Hearne.

Cheers,
Andrew

I've now had a bit of a go at trying to get this group to fit. They're being set up on a temporary base with the first anchorage being the lady. She's been pinned through the heels and fitted (not fixed) to the base. I've placed the dragoon roughly where I want him. This tends to be almost hanging off the chair, and I need to get the back of the chair tending to be in contact with his back. Not a lot of room to get this right. This is my initial loose fitting attempt:-

The dragoon has no designed fixing to the chair, and tends to float about, a bit like a piece of ice on a plate. I dare not rely on a simple glue connection with the chair. Any slight jarring in future could easily dislodge him and destroy the group.
The first thing I'll have to do is get a pin fixed to his upper thigh and get it aligned into the chair. Once I've done this, I'll have to get the chair pinned to the base. All this will have to be done while ensuring that the lady's right hand is correctly positioned around the boot heel. This would be a lot easier if I had a second, or even third pair of hands.
If/when I manage all that, I'll be able to devote more time to getting the rest of the arms to fit. Then, if I'm happy with getting everything to click together, I'll think about transferring everything to a final base.
As Mirofsoft so correctly pointed out, this is definitely not a simple build; it's going to take a while.

Cheers,
Andrew