Tuesday 24 March 2020

7YW Prussian assault pioneers

Some time back, a 7 Years War siege game we were planning called for an assault on a breach in the walls of a fortified city, so I bodged up these figures for it.

All these conversions started life as 54mm plastic toy soldiers of the American Revolution made by Louis MARX.  The figure on the left was advancing with musket at the ready, on the right he was stabbing down, their muskets have been trimmed away and hats carved off, to be replaced with spare mitre caps from the HaT 7YW Prussian infantry set, then its just a case of assembling and pinning the ladder (a spare form the TIMPO Fort Apache set) to them, their hands have also been built up a bit with milliput.

The sappers with axes are the same two MARX poses used for the ladder carriers, again they've had their muskets trimmed away and headgear replaced with HaT spares, the axes are from the TIMPO Vikings and the leather aprons are cut from cartridge paper stiffened with PVA.  The chap throwing grenade is the British officer from the same American Revolution series, his cane has been cut away and a grenade made from milliput, the fuses are made from old fashioned fuse wire (can you still get that?).

We all have to get our ideas from somewhere and the inspiration for these conversions came from a book illustrating old German Tin Flats, these conversions were previously shown in an article I did for Plastic Warrior magazine but I didn't get to show where the idea came from.

The book is Soldaten des Rokoko by Waldemar Piecha, published in 1982 (ISBN 3-423--02874-2), it contains 72 prints like these, each depicting different Regiments and formations of the Prussian army.  It's a great resource for uniform info and every figure illustrated is unique so it's a goldmine for ideas.  

Tin Flats were relatively cheap and easy to manufacture, the designs were drawn and then engraved into slate, so the mould making process is relatively quick and inexpensive.  Designs were often copied from antiquity as well as period art sources which gives them a sense of the times they depict.  The collecting potential for Flats is enormous, covering every historical period, they are very well documented and books on Flats are by far the largest section of my toy soldier library,  yet they are a section of the hobby that has been virtually bypassed by the world outside of Germany.

17 comments:

  1. Great conversions and an interesting source to find inspiration from. I have never managed to get a good paint job ever on any tin flat I have tried to paint and have abandoned the figures in frustration. I find I can manage semi flats ok.
    I still recall the excitement as a boy of seeing Derek Guyler’s ancient flats ( especially the elephants) in a a copy of “Tv Times” one day. I blame that picture for helping along the road towards. a life of toy soldiers...

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    1. Could be worse, the picture could have sent you down the path of toy elephants!

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  2. I love flats they have an energy that 3D figures seem to lack .

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    1. I see what you mean, perhaps it's because they're created as drawings rather than sculptures?

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  3. Excellent storming party. (But I am not going to be drawn back into 54 plastics!)

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    1. Resistance is futile, 54mm plastics are a bottomless pit of temptation.

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  4. Love the conversions Brian. I still have one or more of those Timpo ladders amongst some old toys of mine that my father had kept for posterity.

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  5. Excellent conversions Brian! It is amazing how many poses there were in those old sets of flats. I have collected flat sets for years and have way too many! They are truly addictive, as are toy soldiers in general! Luckily they are small and don't take up too much room!

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    1. You're right, and life would be so much easier if we collected flats instead of 54mm plastics!

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  6. I remember these ruffians! https://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/2015/04/surprisingly-slick-sudden-siege-saga.html

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    1. They certainly are a ruff bunch! Thanks for the link, your pictures of the game are so much clearer than mine.

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  7. Very nice conversions! I love to see good 54mm conversions besides the standard head swap.

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    1. So do I, although I must admit the vast majority of mine are just head swaps.

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    2. Oh mine are too. No worries there.

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  8. Great conversions Brian and lovely illustrations

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    1. I really like the dynamic animation in these flats, and someone has done a great job of painting them.

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