New Peter Laing Victorian Parade Figures; A Tale of Two Extremes

    A couple of posts ago I wrote of working on my Peter Laing "Little Wars" army. In the comments Derek Moore made an offer I could not refuse. He wrote that he had Peter Laing Victorian Parade Guards and Highlanders that he would send me. I sent him a couple of emails to try to set up the details. I didn't hear back from him, and I'm wasn't even sure if I was sending the emails to where he would get them.  When someone makes kind offers like this to me, I will try to contact them a couple of times. If I don't hear back, I will back off; I don't want to start harassing people when they are just trying to help me. I then suddenly had a burst of interest in "Backyard Wars", and put "Little Wars" on the back burner.

   This Thursday before going to work, I started work on a second mold for Backyard Wars. I intended to finish the mold after work. When I get home from work, I only have time to grab the mail, and when I walk through the door, my dog starts his jumping on me to go out and play. He gives me just enough time to put my keys and lunchbox down, then expects to go out to play ball.
This day when I got the mail, I noticed a small parcel from the UK. As I only was expecting a package from the USA, I was confused, until I saw the customs declaration label with Derek Moore's signature on it! I put the parcel down, with the intention of opening it after playing with the dog. I found myself so excited I violated one of my rules; opening a package outside. As I have really wanted some Peter Laing Victorian Guards, I wasn't disappointed  with the figures. First I saw two bags of figures; Guards marching and Highlanders advancing. There were several bundles of paper towels. In the paper towels, there were probably the best painted Peter Laings I have seen; definitely the best painted figures in my collection.

  For the painted figures, I will use them as painted. To destroy such fine figures would be a crime. Unfortunately, the unpainted figures are doomed to be painted by me! And that means the basic "toy soldier" paint job. I have already painted one unit of Guards, which you can see below.

I want to thank Derek once again for his kind gift of these figures. One thing I truly love about the hobby is the willingness to freely give unused figures to other enthusiasts. Hopefully I can "pay it forward" to Derek, or another hobbyist.

The Derek Moore painted Highlanders.

The Derek Moore painted Guards. My photographs don't do the figures justice!

The Peter Laing marching Guards. They are doomed to one of my paint jobs!

Peter Laing advancing Highlanders.

My first unit of Peter Laing "toy soldier" Guards.

The extreme between two different paint jobs. When I see Derek's paint job of these figures, I believe if critics of Peter Laing figures saw these figures, they might reconsider their criticism. When painted by a competent painter, there are little works of art.