RP World Models
E Mail rptoysoldiers.store@gmail.com WWW https://toy-soldiers.store

Chelsea House, Chelsea Street, New Basford, NG7 7HP Nottingham, England 
    Tel UK +44 0 115 942 74 62
  
        

Bob Prati joined Britain’s Petite Limited in January 1990 as their Industrial engineering manager.  By the end of the following year Bob had been given the difficult task of closing the world famous Britain’s site at Walthamstow and transferring all the production to Nottingham and the die casting of the Britain’s farm range to Micro Link in Swansea.



It took many months to complete the transfer but eventually all the William Britain’s and Britain’s farm production was set up within the Nottingham sites. He took over as factory manager at the time when Racing Champions were in control. This led to him being offered the chance of setting up his own company and taking on the role of manufacturer of William Britain’s products in Nottingham.

At the beginning of June 1999 RP World Models Limited came in to existence and was based at Arnold Road, Basford, Nottingham, where they had a very large factory employing 21 people to carry out the assembly, painting and packaging of the full range of products.  The factory was extremely successful in its first year producing around 1.8 million figures. The castings and mouldings were all supplied by Ron Burgess.

One of the processes used was the electro-ferretic dipping of the figures.  This system used positive and negative charges to make the paint adhere to the figures. A conventional paint spraying booth was also used, keeping both pieces of equipment very busy.

In 2001 Bob bought the Steadfast toy soldier range from Jim Borrowman. A wonderful range of figures and vehicles which continues to this day. Soon after RP World Models released their own Football figures and Robin Hood series, both proved very popular. These were followed later by It’s Magic and their own Ceremonial figure range.

Over the years RP World Models has made toy soldiers for numerous toy soldier businesses including Tradition of London, Sarum, Mountford Metal Miniatures, The British Toy Soldier Company, Maison Militaire and Little Band Man, to name just a few. We also cast for some dolls house companies and also Holly Love Toys.

 The painting at RP World Models has always been very special and, whether it is a simple ceremonial guardsman or a more intricate limited-edition figure, the painters constantly produce highly professional work, always in gloss enamel, which gives a wonderful finish.

Throughout the last 20 years the outworkers at RP World Models have played a very important role and this small band of people who are currently painting are amongst the best in the country.  The outworkers’ abilities are always being tested, especially with the large number of new products constantly being introduced, but they often say they are happy to see something new to test their skills.

Working closely with Magnus Lindström of Tradition of London, RP World Models is constantly bringing out new products.  For example, the Armistice Signing Set 826 was a great success and along with the WW1 Belgian Cyclists, this gave the enthusiast some wonderful new products to add to their collections. 

In October 2019 RP World Models was taken over by 2 long term employees who have both been with the company for over 15 years. John Wilson and Jon Slack. John Wilson has been a hobby painter since his early teenage years. He began working for William Britain's as a painter in the mid 1990’s and continued to work for RP World Models before moving onto other projects.

In 2008 he returned to RP World Models where he continued his passion for military figures. Jon Slack also started off painting wargame figures in his teens and then went onto collecting figures, starting with plastic figures by Airfix, Britain's and Timpo. Years later changing over to collecting metal figures by King and Country, Thomas Gunn, Collectors Showcase etc. He joined RP World Models in 2004 as a figure painter and was very impressed by seeing the hobby from the manufacturing side of things.

The future is looking very rosy for RP World Models with more and more people wanting to make use of our services, be it mould making, casting or painting and with it being carried out in the old Britain’s Petite factory, there is an optimistic air of continuity.