Schleich African Watering Hole Project (chose 1:32 scale so mainly using Britains animals)

My dream is to buy the schleich watering hole/waterfall etc... and populate it with animals that are in scale with each other.

How would people go about doing this and what suggestions do you have for the nicest models that would go together in scale with the watering hole?

Hi, Thomas, and wellcome here

That is a very interesting question !
From what I have seen, the Schleich animals are really too large for the watering hole, - but then they are not in scale with each other.
The same goes for the other common, modern brands too.
I could imagine that the old Britains models would look great wit it, but as I do not have the WH, I can't be sure...perhaps somebody else has tried ?

Welcome from Portugal, Thomas!
I think honestly it is a good idea but without it I can't help too much. Giving some sequence to Susanne's comment, I believe a set like that needed to be much bigger to fit with Schleich figures and there's also the problem, Susanne also mentioned, that Schleich figures are also not all at scale. Britains seems to be a good suggestion indeed and they are at an exact scale. You can also try Noah's Pals that are larger than Britains but generally smaller than Schleich and they also work nicely at 1:24 scale. In alternative, you can calculate yourself a scale, try to see which figure you think works nicely with the watering hole and tell us and we try to check which figures work nicely together wit that of your choice.

Many thanks for your replies.

Noah's Pals might be a good possibility as I've always wanted a Noah's Ark so I could use the figures with that as well. I do not have any Britains so this would depend on the availability of African figures on ebay. I have heard Britains are often very accurate and lovely though so it is definitely something I will consider if it is likely to be possible to collect them without being more expensive than modern brands.

My main collection is AAA which is far too big but I have a few of other brands and would be buy from any brand to achiee the animals in scale on the watering hole.

The two joys of my collection at the moment are the Papo lioness [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and the CollectA giraffe [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
so perhaps either of those could be a starting point for a scale? This will be m first time attempting to collect in scale. I am not sure how to work out scale myself as it doesn't say on the amazon product descriptions.

Hi and welcome here!
So it's an dificult thing to talk about the scale in animal figures, because a lot are not in a scale with eachother.
So you have two wonderful models but they are made in some special scales, I think the giraffe should be in the 1:35, a common scale for bigger animals, like elephants and giraffes, even some sea life figures and dinosaurs are in that scale, but it will be dificult to find smaller animal species.
The lioness is in a 1:16 scale, so a big scale, used by Papos lions and tigers. The normal scale for normal hofstock animals is around 1:20.
It's not a big thing to work out the scale, you take the shoulder height or the body length (generaly from the tip of the nose to the beginning of the tail) of a real animal, and divide it with the length or height of your figure, so you'll work out the scale. It's a little complicated to explain, but if you still have some questions I'll try to response you. :)

Your two choices are two of my all time favorite figures. Surely my favorite lioness and giraffe. Though, here starts the problem. If you want to use them really as they should compare in real, they don't work together. Giraffe is too small for that lioness or lioness is too big to that giraffe. Bryan's comment is very relevant and here starts the confusion. I think CollectA giraffe works nicely as a 1:24 figure once it is a female and that scale works decently for a 4 metters tall female reticulated giraffe that is already a very generous size. If my calculation is correct, you can use CollectA giraffe with Noah's Pals loness, though, the latter is a very toyish looking figure when compared with the superb Papo. If you repaint figures and if you conclude Britains are a good size. You can try to find cheap Britains in poor condition and repaint them. Their original painting is never good anyway though, those should be preserved.
If you want to use your Papo lioness, you'll a 25 cm tall giraffe figure to represent a 4 metters female in scale with your lioness. I believe the Wildlife Wonders giraffe of Safari works nicely with the Papo lioness, however, it will dwarf your watering hole.

Thank you again for all this very useful information.

I have yesterday and today been researching and I find Noah's Pals have stopped production and with me being in UK they are very expensive so I have looked at Britains and they are in abundance on ebay as joblots, so I think I will go with Britains. I have not repainted anything before but once I have them I can maybe learn to do this - I do not mind if it takes me a long time as then the fun spreads over years :)

I think I will also continue to find my favourite models of every animal as well and try them at the waterhole too, but that diorama won't be in scale. So many projects :)

Now I just need to decide what specific animals to look for.

While I was looking to find out what animals to have at my waterhole I came across two links that people on here may like:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] this has lots of African animals with nice photos of them

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] This is the oldest waterhole live cam. I have already seen a herd of elephants come to this watering hole!

This is a useful thread on scale. i'll just put it here so I don't lose it [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
and info on 1:32 scale birds [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

It is good that you're using our topics as your project reference. First be sure Britains are not too small for you. Their elephants are almost the same size of a Papo elephant but, for example, the baboon, is much but really much smaller than baboons from major companies. If you find a giraffe with good painting, you can send it to me that I have an almost albino one for you to be repainted. Britains sculpts are very serious and very well done and you may be able of finding other animals, not present in Britains range, but that work correctly in scale with your Britains once 1:32 was used for several vintage companies. I think it is also a good idea that you start a project with non scale models that you like so you can add to your collection some wonderful figures to join to your lioness and giraffe. CollectA is particularly generous in terms of African fauna with several antelopes, grevy's zebra, red river hog, etc. :)

Hi,
Just to update you on this. I have been slowly buying joblots on ebay - this is a very long term project. When I have enough I think I will consider repainting.


I'm basing the watering hole on Serengeti area. This is a list of the models I think Britains did that would be suitable. Please do let me know if I've got ones wrong or if there are other Britains I'm not aware of.

wildebeast
hippo
zebra
elephant (there is 1965 African elephant that I think has good reputation)
giraffe
eland
lion
black rhino
leopard (the 'panther')
crocodile
pelican
ostrich
griffon vulture
okapi
flamingo (during migration?)
stork? (possibly - there's a death stork in serengeti)


Britains has a springbok and sable antelope but I think they would not be found in the serengeti? - I wonder if they could be repainted as similar animals that are found in the serengeti? (There's info on serengeti antelopes here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] )

Britains does also have buffalo but it is north american

Found this nice page of birds of the serengeti for anyone interested [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

ethomas wrote:

Hi,
Just to update you on this. I have been slowly buying joblots on ebay - this is a very long term project. When I have enough I think I will consider repainting.


I'm basing the watering hole on Serengeti area. This is a list of the models I think Britains did that would be suitable. Please do let me know if I've got ones wrong or if there are other Britains I'm not aware of.

wildebeast
hippo
zebra
elephant (there is 1965 African elephant that I think has good reputation)
giraffe
eland
lion
black rhino
leopard (the 'panther')
crocodile
pelican
ostrich
griffon vulture
okapi
flamingo (during migration?)
stork? (possibly - there's a death stork in serengeti)


Britains has a springbok and sable antelope but I think they would not be found in the serengeti? - I wonder if they could be repainted as similar animals that are found in the serengeti? (There's info on serengeti antelopes here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] )

Britains does also have buffalo but it is north american

Found this nice page of birds of the serengeti for anyone interested [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I am a freak for African animals. For the Serengeti, a springbok is only local to South Africa but a Sable can be found in Tanzania/Kenya border. The Sable inhabit wooded Savannah in East Africa south of Kenya, and in Southern Africa, with a population in Angola. The Thompson Gazelle is very similar in size and somewhat looks to a Springbok, and Tommys are wide spread in East Africa. The griffon vulture I believe is only local to Asia, Europe and North Africa (not East Africa).

Very interesting project. I don't know much about the animals that live in the Serengeti (would like to know though), but I suppose you have had a look at the Toy Animal Wiki for the list of wildlife animals that Britains used to produce:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

There is also a topic on 1:32 scale animals where you might find non-Britains animals that live in the Serengeti:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thanks Roger!
I did not know the animal wiki had a list of all the animals produced so I haven't seen it. It is so useful! I also have a few of the animals that dont have pictures so maybe I can help the forum by adding them. Thanks also for the topic on 1/32 scale animals.

Thanks Sean for the info on Serengeti animals. It is very helpful to know the Thompson Gazelle is very similar tothe springbok as I can get worn out springbok which are likely to be cheaper and repaint like the Gazelle. I'm also thinking of doing this with the Guenon monkey - repainting it as a vervet monkey. The arch of the back is a bit narrower but with the right colours I think it will look ok.

I'm sad that the Britain's tapir is not an african one and has very different body shape so probably not worth repainting.

I forgot to say: MiniNature makes many African Savannah animals. They are very realistic and each species comes in various different poses, so you can create herds.
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ethomas wrote:

Thanks Roger!
I did not know the animal wiki had a list of all the animals produced so I haven't seen it. It is so useful! I also have a few of the animals that dont have pictures so maybe I can help the forum by adding them. Thanks also for the topic on 1/32 scale animals.

Thanks Sean for the info on Serengeti animals. It is very helpful to know the Thompson Gazelle is very similar tothe springbok as I can get worn out springbok which are likely to be cheaper and repaint like the Gazelle. I'm also thinking of doing this with the Guenon monkey - repainting it as a vervet monkey. The arch of the back is a bit narrower but with the right colours I think it will look ok.

I'm sad that the Britain's tapir is not an african one and has very different body shape so probably not worth repainting.

It is fantastic that you want to provide pictures to help completing the Britains section at Toy Animal Wiki. Britains Ltd is a first priority company once it was one of the most influent toy animal companies at its time.
Maybe you mean other animal instead of the tapir once there aren't tapirs in Africa.

The only African animal that I can find remotely similar to a tapir is an aardvark... tough of course the closest African cousins to tapirs are the zebras and rhinos.

Pardofelis wrote:

The only African animal that I can find remotely similar to a tapir is an aardvark... tough of course the closest African cousins to tapirs are the zebras and rhinos.

I think that instead of Tapir, Thomas meant griffon. It happens sometimes, I remember calling okapis to tapirs in a topic on forum. To be fair, I think the Britains griffon could be repainted to a Rüppell's vulture, present in Seregenti, vultures from Gyps genus are very similar and the figure is too small and the slight differences in shape won't be noticiable.

Thanks for suggestions on the repaints.
I have tried to find out what I meant by tapir - I think I got confused with the lowland/brazillian tapir because there is a place in Germany called 'Serengeti Park' which has lowland tapirs.

Here are some  Britains I have collected for this.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I almost forgot how beautiful are Britains sculpts. If you mean the fauna of the Seregenti National park, surely the Indian rhino and tiger do not belong there. Unless they just entered the picture accidentally. Britains has a wonderful black rhino that you can use. The tiger can also be transformed in a lioness but it needs a little customization.

You are right I have removed the tigers.

Have a look at my post in Britains - I have giraffes there but I think they are the larger scale ones but am not sure how to work out scales. They are beautiful. I also have the walrus. I think it is the 70s one which isnt on the wiki yet.

link to my Britains zoo/wild animals collection: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


edit: have added giraffes above too as confirmed they are right scalel (thanks roger)

I hope someone more expertized than I am give us a help with the Britains walrus versions. I am defintely not kowledgeable enough to identify them and my online references have gone. It puts even more focus on Toy Animal Wiki.
About the giraffes, they are absolutely perfect in terms of size. As long as you decided to work with the classic 1:32 scale, be sure Britains figures work all decently for your project. Obviously, your Britains giraffes will look to big when compared with other figures but that is the correct proportion. Giraffes are really very tall and particularly the Masai giraffe that you can find in the Serengeti. These are the perfect giraffes for your project. If you plan to repaint them, try to check the specific pattern of the Masai giraffe. I will repeat but if you plan to repaint your giraffes, please do not use these you've got, their painting is in quite good condition and you acquired both versions, the reticulated and the Angolan. My Britains giraffe is a poor one almost without painting, it would be a pity for me to see you repainting these good ones.
You will need some species not present in Britains range as it is a warthog, an African buffalo, etc. I will try to check what is available at that scale and please feel free to ask for help anytime you need to know about the scale of a certain figure.

There is a topic on the two different walrus versions here:
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rogerpgvg wrote:

There is a topic on the two different walrus versions here:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thanks for remembering, Roger. So the best source is the forum.