Raventhorpe
First off I should confess that I have dealt with Tony Raven (Chadburn) for more years than I`ve been married - so 30+ The companies service has always been second to none, in the days of hand written orders (pen & paper sent via the post office, for our younger readers 😁), I`ve known orders to arrive before the cheque was cashed (a cheque was a piece of paper allowing someone to remove a writen amount from your bank account 😁) Yes I know - sounds insane, but that was how we did things before Paypal, etc......
The companies range is vast, the figures have an old school style which I like and enjoy painting; they also do a range of white metal models and a range of resin models called Ready to Roll.
Raventhorpe also sell resin buildings many designed by legends of our hobby - Mick Sewell, Colin Rumsford, Richard Marsh and Don Mchugh to name a few. Like a lot of long standing, older companies Raventhorpe never grew beyond the family buisness level in our modern internet age, but whilst this may bother those of you who like the instant gratification of click and book, it doesn`t bother me and never will.
This post is in direct response to a comment posted on Raventhorpe`s FB page to a recent post of mine showing some recently finished Raventhorpe British -
"Really like those Richard - it does help to see the figures - thanks"
This post will be a photo list (I know my photography is crap, but what can you do) of Raventhope`s various ranges that I own (including codes if I can work out who-is-who) and will also include Ready-to-Roll vehicles and Sentry Models buildings. You will also find my conversions using Raventhorpe`s range of seperate heads, and some out of the box thinking over uses of some figures. Hopefully this will give the reader some idea of what is possible, even when someone paints as poorly as me 😁
British and commonwealth
BUA08- charging rifle, BUA12-kneeling firing rifle, BUA03-Advancing rifle and bayonet, BUA13-kneeling firing at ready
BUA11-standing firing rifle
BUA70- Medic
Same figure with Punjabi turban head
BUA73- Bush hat advancing with Piat, BUA74- Bush hat advancing with rifle
Head-swapped with British helmet head
Same figures with Punjabi turban head
Prone Piat team
BUA49 casualty, BUA50 rifleman aid for BA49
BUA 53 soldier helping wounded
British gunners
SPEC25 French Goumier
US medics with casualty
US soldier firing pole mounted .50cal
Seen here crewing a half-track
US Naval gun crews
US gunners
LCVP Boat Teams
IMHO very useful as US Assault Infantry for bunker busting, etc
Moving mortar team
Moving .30cal team
Bazooka, bangalore torpedos and sachel charges
Flame-thrower
US .30cal water cooled MMG (the loader is Platoon20)
US infantry in greatcoats
Mediteranean Theatre Germans
I`m pretty sure the kneeling guy with the MP40 in Kelly`s Heroes (sorry)
Italian motorbikes and combinations
Raventhopre also do sun helmets and helmets with cockerel feathers for Bersaglieri
Deployed Breda MMG
Cowboys and Boers (painted up as cowboys)
Mexican Peons & Federales
Mounted Federal trooper (Raventhorpe do two styles of horse)
Mounted Villista/bandit firing (this is the second horse variant)
Federal mounted officer
Seated driver and passenger with peaked cap heads (the officer is
Britannia)
Rurales created by using Aussie hat heads on Raventhorpe`s British colonial bodies
Ready-to-Roll Vehicles
Italian M14/43 tank
Fiat 626
Shown here with a mixed French colonial crew
Russian T-26
US M15 SP AA
Converted by me to a captured T28E1 based on a photo from Tunisia 1943 GMC CCKW 6x6Radio Truck
Studabaker 2.5 ton 6x6
Sherman Dozer
Conus SP 75mm
Note the gunners heads have been swapped from British tin hats
Italian Lancia IZM
Horch Kfz15 car
Pictured here with with a Raventhorpe white metal general service trailer, mixed crew and loads of stowage
French T-23 truck
Panzer IVH
White metal kits
Chevy 30cwt truck
Converted by me with a 20mm Breda AA and crew for 2/3rd Lt. anti-aircraft Regt RAA in Syria, The driver is also Raventhorpe with a bush hat head
Vickers 1pdr (37mm) Pom Pom
(pictured here with a mixed plastic crew)
US 105mm short howitzer
Crew also from Raventhorpe
Maxon quad .50cal turret (resin with metal parts) Pictured here on salvaged old Matchbox M16 half-track
Morris 15cwt with Bofors 37mm AT gun
For 2/2nd anti-tank Regt RAA, Syria 1941
Truck, gun and crew all Raventhorpe
Horch with twin AAMG and trailor
Mixed crew and lots of stowage
French `75 (in my opinion a bit over scale - sorry)
Crewed by Raventhorpe WW1 gun crew with a mix of heads, serving with my Federal Mexican Army
Early 25ldr and limber
Seen here being towed by a Britannia Sdkfz10
Seen here towed by a Britannia Sdkfz10
John Frost`s Arnhem HQ
Lots more photos here:
Sentry Models raised churchyard
Pictured here witha ruined Hovels church (sorry)
More images here:
Raventhorpe heads and conversions
Shako "tall kepi" used with Warrior Miniatures figures to create French Chasseurs d`Afrique circa 1900
Raventhorpe Mexican Federal officer with head-swap to create thier officer
Raventhorpe British and German sailors converted to French with help of Tam o`shanter heads
Egyptian NCO converted to French (Algeria or Indo-China) using a "Digger" hat head
Same figure now a Legionnaire with white kepi
Same figure with his SMG swapped out for a G3 and the kepi slightly altered to create a Spanish mech-infantry NCO from the 1980s
Combat Miniatures Chinese cavalryman with a kepi head to make him a French NCO
Moroccan turban heads (and plasterscene cloaks 😁)converting Raventhorpe Federal cavalry into French Spahis cavalry
Other Spahis conversions using turban and kepi heads
Quad 13.2mm AA mounted on CC60L truck manned by Fusiliers Marins in the desert, crew converted to wearing the Bachi cap using the Tam o`shanter head once again.
Britannia US officer converted to command my 2Dble force using the Kepi head
Warrior Miniatures SCW mounted infantrymen converted to a Mexican Rurales using the Aussie heads
An
EWM French artillerymen mounted on a ancient
Citadel Minatures pony (bought when I was in school some 40+ yrs ago) converted with a kepi head to a French officer
The US water cooled .30cal simply converted to a .50cal by swapping out the gun
Side cap head turned this rather ugly plastic Russian into something more interesting
Raventhorpe telephone OP (from the WW1 range I think?) I gave this one a side cap head and painted him up for my colonial French for Syria
Same figure but this time with a cap/helmet comforter" head, he is part of my SCW militia HQ, I also have the same figure serving with my late-war Volksgrenadier HQ with a feldmutze head.
The kepi head gives this
Elheim senior French officer a bit more class and elan I think 😁
The Aussie hat converts this
Hat Industrie British colonial officer to a Mexican Rurale
Mediteranean Theatre Germans painted up as Spanish in Spanish Sahara (Ifni War 1958)
I weapon swapped these with Raventhorpe STG44s which look a bit like early CETME rifles at 4ft across a tabletop
These are Liberation Miniatures Iraqi with MG3 and G3s converted to Spanish using a variety of Raventhorpe heads - German Feldmutze, side cap, modern bush hat, Aussie style bush hat and modified kepi.
A slightly modified kepi and a little modeling turns this
Britannia Cold War Brit into a Spaniard
