SOLDADITOS DE PLOMO artesanos - Elaboración con moldes de estas miniaturas de colección - Documental

The origin of tin soldiers dates back to the 17th century, it was then that they began to be used to entertain princes during their childhood. Those little soldiers were solid and made of gold, silver or bronze. It was not until two centuries later, when the reproductions began to be manufactured in series, hollow and with lead. The collecting of these little soldiers is widespread throughout the world. However, it is not so common to find someone , like Ramón Aso, a hotelier by profession in Huesca, who dedicates his free time to making these precious lead miniatures. The first step in making the little soldiers, in this case a combatant from the American Civil War, is the smelting of lead. Ramón uses a frying pan and a portable stove for this. This lead you know what happens, that as I was in the bar, people come who are bricklayers and they are tearing down houses, and then when I told them look to see if you get lead. And the moment I left, one would bring me a bag, another a box, another a piece. In addition, Ramón must watch the foundry carefully to remove the impurities that appear during the liquefaction of this metal. Once it is clean, the molds are prepared. Now is to prepare the mold. It is simply to put a little talcum powder on it so that the fever does not enter so strongly and it stays a little thin. Then it is given with a brush a little on both sides and we already have it ready. The craftsman holds the molds, prefabricated by a specialized house, with the help of a jack that will exert the necessary pressure so that there are no leaks. It's that I've always liked doing strange things because I 've worked in a factory, I was in maintenance, and I had carte blanche to do whatever there, you had to make the machines work as they were. You understand me. So many times you had to come up with strange things because they were all air automatisms. And you had to be very precise for him to catch the piece or throw it. I did it well, of course. Then, pour the molten lead inside, and after waiting a minute for it to cool down and the metal to solidify again, the figure is ready to be unmolded. So there's not so much clunker loose around there. Tails are cut. And then the piece stays, and we throw the glue inside and thus we already have something collected. You have to look to cut it the more shallow the better because that way you have to go over less later. So now what you have to do is remove the burr that the mold leaves Then, with the tip of the knife, you remove the burr that it leaves Then file it so that it is flat, and the piece is ready to cut Well, now let's go to begin to give a layer of the one that has more color in the piece and then to highlight the colors. Lots of time and lots of patience. It's not worth it, I'm going to start running to do ten. This you have to be without a watch, because as you put the watch on your wrist and start looking at how many I do wrong. We are going to proceed to paint the soldier harnesses now. We are going to do a small thing, we have to put a very fine brush, to highlight the things it has. Now I'm going to put on my magnifying glasses, because practically when you've been painting those tiny lines for five minutes. Then your vision blurs. And here I have a magnifying glass that with this if you spend a lot of time, your eyes are rested, otherwise you force it too much. Now we have to get him out of his face. Hands. And now the foot of the soldier. And it seems to me that it has a golden point. On the belt plate and on the belt plate . And that is finished now. Ramón has been making these tin soldiers for three years, during which he has made more than three thousand pieces. In his private collection he keeps some two thousand miniatures from different historical periods that give a good account of the thoroughness and precision with which this amateur craftsman works. I'm Eugenio Monesma, director and producer of the documentary you just saw. If you liked it, I encourage you to subscribe to the channel by activating the notifications from the bell and so you can enjoy the hundreds of documentaries that I already have on the channel and those that I will upload weekly.