A Call to Arms: John O'Brien

How long have you been collecting, John?

Started with AIRFIX plastic kits and Britains hollow cast figures at a kid in the 1960’s and progressed to the 1:32 scale figure kits by Historex from the Napoleonic era.

I gave that away in my late teens due to study while working and other interests ( beer, cars, women, travel) then took up the hobby of painting ‘little lead men’ again in the late 1990’s when I wanted as hobby, as a married man. I was a cartographer (map maker) by profession and was trained in hand printing and colouring in watercolours and later with the introduction of computer mapping. I still wanted to keep my hand/eye coordination active, therefore taking up painting was change from twiddling my finger on a computer mouse. The result of painting castings meant I amassed a collection, then later on after doing many painting commissions for many collectors, local, interstate and overseas I could afford to buy painted toy soldiers, like K&C Napoleonics. My skills have also been put to good use repairing damaged figures and retouching paintwork and even repainting production figures. Part of the back shed has been divided off for my workshop which is where I spend many pleasant hours with the ‘little lead men’ bringing them ‘to life’.

As well as painting and then collecting I published a website to show off my work to collectors worldwide. It was first published in 1997and has remained somewhat unchanged in format in the following years, but every couple of months the front page is revised to show the figures I have been painting. This year I was forced into moving the website after my ISP no longer provided a complementary web presence, so I now have my own domain https://toysoldiergallery.au/

I have also had articles about toy soldiers published in number of international magazines and authors have used images of some of my figures in their books. On the small screen my figures have also been used in props for TV shows and 2011 I was featured in the ABC Collectors program showing off my collection.

What periods span your collection?

Mainly (90%) Napoleonic and 7 Years War, so 1700 – 1850 time period.

I have painted about 80% of the 5000 figures in the collection myself from metal castings or plastics I have bought, or cast from commercial moulds like Prince August.

Being an ex-gunner, I am always interested in anything Artillery so I have guns and gunners in my collection from 14c up to the Vietnam era when I served in Reserves.

What is your favourite model/period/vehicle?

Napoleonic era figures, I love the flamboyant uniforms and the multi colours of those troops.

Also that means I don’t have many vehicles, but those I do have are horse drawn and of course I don’t collect aircraft!

How do you display you models (diorama/shelf/...)?

All my figures are in a dedicated room (aren’t I lucky ???) which was a closed-in verandah that needed renovating due to a leaking ceiling, old windows and single brick wall. The work involved adding new windows, power points and lighting as well as carpet and all was completed the day before we went into lockdown for COVID in 2020.

I then had two months to relocate the 5 x IKEA Billy Bookcases, assemble another couple of new tall cabinets, a desk and 3 low cabinets then fill the shelves with my 5000 figures!!! The advantage of the BILLY System is being modular I can add more shelves, change doors or even locations of the cabinets when the collection grows. All cabinets have lighting on the top and central fixed shelves, but it is not very effective lower down as the glass shelves fill up.

In the 7 high cabinets I have fitted mostly glass shelves that gives me 56 linear metres of display space, and more top shelf space but that is slowly being filled as I paint more castings that have been lingering in my work shop over many years. Also on the shelves I have placed printed labels to identify the soldiers or the time period or the battle they come from. This really helps the viewer identify what they are or what army they represent.

On the top of the low cabinets and in a few tall cabinets I display my figures and diorama bases which really show them off in realistic poses.

Do you have a model on your wish list you're still looking for but can't find?

I’m always on the lookout for castings from retired makers from the 1960’s-90’s like Rose Miniatures, Hinchliffe, Stadden etc. that I can paint.

Are there any periods you wish one of the manufacturers would do that aren't covered yet?

I’d like to see more European Campaign 7 Years War figures, similar to what John Jenkins had for his ‘Battle of Leuthen’ series.

He has a lot from 7YW North America and will have a new series from India soon so that a compromise I suppose? Maybe French and Austrian will come????