It is shown that the affine Toda models (AT) constitute a ''gauge fixed'' version of the conformal affine Toda model (CAT). This result enables one to map every solution of the AT models into an infinite number of solutions of the corresponding CAT models, each one associated to a point of the orbit of the conformal group. The Hirota tau-functions are introduced and soliton solutions for the AT and CAT models associated to SL (r + 1) and SP (r) are constructed.