Fleamarket finds from the weekend.

 It always seems to be feast or famine at the local car boot sale but last weekend I managed a reasonable haul:

This lot set me back £20, which I thought was very fair, there's nothing rare or special but it's quite a nice mix and they will add to several of my existing projects.

A few more Conte Normans are always welcome, my existing ones have been painted up as they came so I can afford to use some of these ones for conversions.  They are made from a firm rubber which leaves the weapons prone to bending, after straightening by hot water treatment I give the bendy parts a coat of wood glue (which is an industrial strength PVA used by carpenters) to keep them from reverting to their previous shape.

The four Timpo Vikings all need repair so I will have no qualms about basing them for wargaming, the two AWI have been added to a display shelf and I have suitable mounts for all the others.  The Marx reissue of Paul Revere in white is very versatile for conversion to many periods.

REAMSA remoulds from the Willian Tell set, I think the figure of Landburgher Gessler is particularly well sculpted, he looks just like the character played by Willoughby Goddard in the 1950's "Adventures of William Tell" TV series.

The more collectable items: a Franciscan monk and Mousquetaire du Roi made by Starlux, the grenadier drummer made by Cavendish is rarely found in white plastic so is probably an early example. The Cherilea Numidian, Lone Star African Native and Crescent Sheriff of Nottingham on the bottom row are all destined to be converted.

Medieval Lord and Lady - but who made them?

 After the success I had on facebook with the identification of the Galloglass made by Oojah-Cum-Pivvy I thought I'd try the same approach to find the origin of these rather fine figures. I believe they were made in England, 54mm tall, they are made from some sort of composition material, they may have been made for a toy theatre or something like that.

My thoughts that they might have been made for a toy theatre prompted suggestions that they may have been Shakespearean characters such as Petruchio and Kate from Taming of the Shrew, they certainly have the arrogant stance for that couple.  The period costumes have been well researched and carefully painted, I have seen examples of them before so I think they were produced commercially but not in large numbers.

Two more figures from the same series, a boy/Prince and a Monk, they are not the usual wood/glue composition or the plaster of Italian figures, perhaps more like the Blanc de Medun of some French types which is very hard, there is no armature. The base on the Prince is lead and not original but was added by a previous owner.

On the figure of the Boy it says "Courtier temp. Ric II Earl of March" on the man it says "Courtier temp. Edw IV" these were stickers added by the previous owner to notate who the figures represented in his personal collection, sadly he give no indication of their manufacturer, he uses the word temp. to abbreviate "time of". 

I acquired them in one of James Opie's auctions for Phillips back in the 80's the seller had been a student of heraldry and his entire medieval collection along with his research archive were up for sale. The lots were all high end connoisseur figures, Courtenay, Ping etc which sold for serious money but these were in a lot of plastics, most of which were conversions to represent personalities in their heraldry, luckily nobody else wanted them so I was the only bidder. Being conversions, all of the figures had these paper stickers on the base to show who they represented.

To date their manufacturer has not been identified so if you recognise them please leave a comment to let us all know.

Malcolm III and William Rufus 1093 - Battle Ravens

Since discovering that the boardgame Battle Ravens translates so well to the tabletop for a wargame with 54mm toy soldiers we thought we'd give it another outing.

  Our first trial of the game was a standard shieldwall encounter between Vikings and Saxons, but the game also offers sets of cards to portray the national characteristics of Scots, Welsh and Normans so we decided to try something different. 

  For a scenario I chose the border raid in 1093 by the Scots of Malcolm III, in support of Saxon refugees, against a frontier outpost held by the Normans of William Rufus. 

A Frisian trader has beached his ship alongside the Norman keep and is unloading his trade goods in exchange for Saxon slaves, when the alarm is sounded!  A Scottish warband has been spotted approaching the stronghold.

The Frisian crew join the Norman garrison and form shieldwall outside the stockade to protect the ship from the Scots and their Saxon allies.

Lessons learned from our previous encounter meant that the action flowed much faster and furiously this time around, more risks were taken and the subtle nuances in the rule system became more apparent. 

The game is played from two static shieldwalls and despite the lack of manoeuvre there is still a great deal of movement as warriors are pushed back and forth to reinforce holes in the line.  

The Playmobil viking ship with sail down serves as the Frisian merchant vessel, it only acts as set dressing but adds depth to the scenario.

The Scots command group, King Malcolm with his retainers and priest.  The standard bearers here and below are conversions by Eric Kemp acquired at the Plastic Warrior Show in May.

There is a temptation to press heavily on one sector of the enemy line and attempt a breakthrough but this can have repercussions later on, in the long run it's often better to give ground and degrade your opponent's forces.  

The game plays comfortably in a couple of hours but you could easily expand it by allowing reinforcements to be fed in at set points.  It would make a great demonstration game at a convention, easy to transport, limited number of figures involved, several participants could take different sections of the shieldwall and the larger figures add a bit of spectacle for the spectators.

It was a close run thing and looked as though honours were even but on closer inspection and a recount the Normans carried the day by one point.

Those with sharp eyes will recognise figures by Timpo, Johilco, DSG, TSSD, Emhar, Cherilea, Del Prado, Jean Hoefler, Elastolin, Jecsan, Reamsa, Oliver, Conte, Fontanini, Replicants, Marx, Armies in Plastic, Starlux, and Cafe Storme.

Romans by Frederick Ping

 A lucky find at the local car boot sale were these two rather undersized Romans, 50mm and solid lead, they've both seen better days and are now rather scuffed but I could see from what remained that they were once figures of quality.  

Under the wooden base I could just make out the words: Hummel Burlington Arcade London W1, which translates as "Expensive!"  For those who've never been there, Burlington Arcade, off London's Piccadilly, is an avenue of eye wateringly expensive shops, one of which was Hummel's where you could buy exclusive connoisseur model figures made by the likes of Richard Courtenay and Frederick Ping.

At some point in history these chaps have changed places, the hand painted title on the black wood plinth states he is a Roman Centurion, but the figure mounted on it is clearly a Legionary while the one to the right with vine cane and transverse horsehair comb on his helmet is the Centurion.  

It wasn't until I got them home that I noticed the "P" enclosing "ing" hand painted in gold on the reverse of the base, the signature mark of Frederick Ping.  

The most notable thing about Ping figures is that he started with a basic mannequin and dressed it using lead sheet, as on the tunic, belts and cloak of these, other elements such as armour were built up with solder.  For this reason his figures tend to be portrait style rather than action figures like those of Courtenay, with whom he collaborated and who's moulds he inherited on that sculptors death.  Another characteristic of Ping are the relatively large square lead bases, and while the figures are generally described as 50mm if you use the modern practice of measuring from the top of the base to the eye line the are more like 45mm.

This image belongs to Gildings Auctioneers of Market Harborough who sold this lot in March 2020, they are mostly figures from Ping's "Clans of the Highlands" series, which were the first to be offered through Hummel's

Ping often worked to commission and among his works were a series of 12 "Worlds Greatest Generals" for Shamus O D Wade and a number of intricate "Theatre Sets" for the actor Peter Cushing, which I was lucky enough to view when they were sold through Phillips Auctioneers.

Jacobite Rebellion - One Hour Wargames

Subsequent to this year's Plastic Warrior Show, Anthony has acquired the greater part of a Jacobite 54mm wargames collection created by our old friend Eric Kemp.  Needless to say, we couldn't wait to get them out on the table.  We turned to our default ruleset for such games, One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas and selected Scenario 6 - Flank Attack.

This post is really a shameless opportunity to show off some very pretty toy soldiers, for which I offer no apology!

The scenario opens with the Jacobite army on the road home to Scotland, their path blocked by two units of Government troops, while another 4 units are approaching on the east flank. 

The basic rules were tweaked to reflect national/tactical differences so that Highlanders have a longer move distance and can charge but not shoot they also gain a +2 in melee, regular infantry can move or fire but not both and can't charge. 

This makes for a fast moving and very bloody game so we actually managed to play the scenario twice and this was the first game

Two units of Highlanders in the van followed by artillery and a unit of French allies (their only regular unit) approach the Government regulars.

The blocking Government troops get off a volley before they are hit by the Highlanders charge, once in melee they are unable to disengage.

The Government troops out on the flank include a unit of loyalist Lowlanders who have the same movement and combat features as the Highlanders.

The regulars and artillery on the flank advance into range and begin to pepper the attacking Highlanders.

The French regulars turn to face the threat from the flank.....

......and defend against the charging Lowlanders 

The Highlanders have the advantage in melee but need to engage quickly before they take too much punishment from the musket volleys, flexibility in changing formation proved to be the key to the game.

In the second game the Government drew a unit of cavalry, together with the artillery they blocked the path of the Highland army.

Cavalry follow the standard OHW Horse and Musket rules, they can charge but if they do not eliminate the unit attacked they are bounced back half a move.

The collection includes Jacobite cavalry in the form of Bagot's Hussars but sadly they didn't get drawn when units were diced for, I think they would have made a substantial difference to the dynamics of the game.

With the Highlanders enhanced movement both sides moved rapidly into contact and very quickly became depleted in combat, these were without doubt the fastest OHW games we have played to date.

The Government troops carried the day in both games but they were each a very close run thing.

The figures themselves include a large number of conversions, particularly among the Highlanders, makers include: Replicants, Armies in Plastic, A Call to Arms, Accurate, Barzo, Marx, Cherilea and Timpo.

Galloglass and Kern - Oojah-Cum-Pivvy

 Back in October last year I posted a picture of this Irish Galloglass up on facebook asking if anyone knew who made it and if it was a one off or part of a set?   The same day an old friend, Jim Lloyd, identified it as being from the Oojah-Cum-Pivvy range issued by Shamus O D Wade between 1982 and 1984, not only that but he told me he had the Kern from the same series and sent it to me as a gift!

The figure is marked under the base O.3 and is listed as Irish Galloglass 1522, he has the distinctive look of a Tudor period Galloglass, in my opinion the sculpting and factory paint job are not of the highest standard but you have to admit it's a fairly unique subject in the world  of toy soldiers.

After the success of his Nostalgia range of modern "old toy soldier style" figures, which featured obscure units from the British Commonwealth and Empire 1850-1910, Shamus launched the Oojah-Cum-Pivvy range to produce subjects which just happened to take his fancy.  

Rather more colourful is the figure that Jim Lloyd kindly sent me, it is marked O.2 under the base and is listed as Irish Kern circa 1545.  I understand that the O stands for Oojah-Cum-Pivvy (Shamus marked his Nostalgia range figures with a stylised n) and the number relates to the sequential order in which they were issued.

In the Collectors Guide to New Toy Soldiers, Stuart Asquith tells us that the Oojah-Cum-Pivvy range  ran to 36 different white metal figures and had a limited edition of just 100 castings for each.  They were sculpted by Graham Morris and produced by Peter Cowan.

I only recall seeing 54mm figures of Tudor period Kerns and Galloglass once before, made in a rubber material by a chap in Russia, so they are now beyond our reach.

This is a more recent acquisition, marked O.9 and listed as Patzinak Mercenary 11th Century (Byzantine), he is a horse archer of the semi nomadic Turkic Pechenegs from Central Asia who allied with the Byzantines to control the Southeast European steppe and Crimean peninsula.  Another very unusual subject, there were three other Byzantine figures in the range.

I don't think this is the start of a new collection for me, because of the 36 figures in the Oojah-Cum-Pivvy range at least half depict 20th century subjects (primarily from the Indian Armed Forces) which don't really appeal to me. There are some interesting and unusual subjects among the Ancient and Medieval figures so I will be tempted to pick up more if I come across them.

Given that Shamus O D Wade was of Irish heritage (like me, he was born and raised in England to Irish parents and lived near us in West London) I had hoped that he might have included more Irish subjects in the Oojah-Cum-Pivvy range but sadly not.  I knew Shamus through the British Model Soldier Society and subscribed to his sales lists in the 1970s/80s, but at that time I was only interested in buying hollowcast figures from minor UK makers so took little interest in his Nostalgia and Oojah-Cum-Pivvy ranges of modern white metal figures.

Although he had no real interest in plastic toy soldiers Shamus was always supportive of Plastic Warrior from the earliest days, he was one of the few dealers to take a stand at the very first Plastic Warrior Show and it was entirely down to his continuous urging that we started to lodge copies of the magazine with the British Library so that the information they contain would be preserved for posterity. 

Die Zinnlaube vol. 14

 Volume 14 of Die Zinnlaube arrived recently, now only published once a year, this is the 2024/25 issue, 112 pages (including the cover) printed in full colour throughout with text in German and English.

Articles include: 

Figures portraying Andreas Hofer and others made by Johann Hilpert

Czech Gymnasts Association flats made by Ernst Heinrichsen

British Life Guards and Prussian Hussars, solids from 1880 by Ammon of Furth

Figures from the Hungarian Uprising of 1848/49 by Sohlke

Characters from fairy tales (more early flats)

Sack of Louvain 1914, rare set from Ernst Heinrichsen

10cm composition figures 1914 from SFJB of Paris

The Death of Marshal Schwerin 1757 

Swedish Kings from Karl XV to Gustav VI

Tin figure exhibition at the German National Museum, Nuremeberg

German infantry battle Franc tireurs in Louvain 1914

The heavy coverage of tin flat toy soldiers won't appeal to everyone but I find the articles are always very refreshing with subjects and figures you will rarely ever see elsewhere.  

John Ruddle's Battleship

 On 6th December last year the Toy Solder Collection of the late John Ruddle was sold by C&T Auctions and I am told that the sale raised £100,000.  Here is a link to the online catalogue, compiled by James Opie, which in itself is a valuable resource for collectors of old toy soldiers: The Toy Soldier Collection of the Late John Ruddle Auction (candtauctions.co.uk)

But not everything went to auction; the wargame buildings, accessories, homecast figures and ships from his garden were considered unsuitable for inclusion in the sale, largely due to their condition, and were sold privately as a job lot.  After cleaning up and some repair most of the ships were sold through a collectors shop in Gosport, a Naval town just outside Portsmouth, where they were mostly snapped up by retired Naval officers as garden ornaments.  

  John had told me, some years previously, that he'd sold all of his model ships to a collector in Germany and I assumed he meant his garden battleships, naturally I was disappointed that I'd never see them again.  I realise now that he meant his collection of 1:1200 scale waterline ships, for which there is a much larger following in Germany, that made a lot more sense to me.  The last two garden battleships found their way to the London Toy Soldier Show last year so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to acquire one as a piece of iconic wargaming history.

John's ships have been shown before in various books and magazines but the photographs are mostly monochrome and set in larger views of his garden so I thought people might like to see a closer view.   

I don't know much about battleships so I'm hoping someone can tell me the class of this one.  John seems to have named his ships after actual vessels (although I recall a freighter named after the fictional "African Queen"), this one is HMS Rutlish, which I have been unable to trace any record of.

John was a maintenance engineer in the print industry and, while the ships are impressive from a distance, close up you can see that he bolted on all sorts of bits and pieces to build them.  

The superstructure lifts off and inside I found it had been fitted with an electric motor, so it might have been floated on a boating pond at one time, but there is no sign that a propeller shaft or screw were ever installed.  John had told me that he built his ships from aluminium sheet and that does appear to be the case with the deck, guns and bridge but the hull is made from fibreglass, a common enough material used by ship modellers and for DIY car repairs in the 1960's, but rarely used domestically since then.

This final shot of me holding HMS Rutlish is to give a sense of the size.  The paintwork is flaking badly, testament to years spent out in the garden and several repaints, I am currently struggling with the decision to burn off the worst sections and repaint or leave as is? 

Among the other items that never made the grade for the auction were a large quantity of silicon moulds that John used for casting his own figures and spare parts to repair and convert old Britains hollowcasts.  There was also a large collection of the actual figures he'd made and used in his garden wargames, being in the print industry he had access to ample supplies of lead, and created units which had never been covered by the toy manufacturers, including several units of what appear to be various Constabulary to police the far flung regions of his garden Empire.

Battle Ravens - Dan Mersey

It's been a while since we last had a game but this weekend I finally managed to clear enough space for one.  Battle Ravens is a board game designed by Dan Mersey with graphics provided by Peter Dennis, both well known names in the gaming world, the former for rules systems and the latter for his excellent ranges of paper soldiers.  The game is about combat in a Viking/Saxon shieldwall and comes with opposing 35mm armies of Peter's card mounted paper soldiers.  Anthony thought it would be good to play using 54mm toy soldiers so I dusted off the Dark Ages collection and this is how it went:

The two armies square up to form shieldwalls, each has armoured Hirdmen (Hearthguards) in the front line, unarmoured Bondi in the second line and a group of Thrals (skirmishers) behind them.  The command units overseeing each shieldwall have no role in the game but I included them to represent the players, and because they look good.

Each shieldwall is split into 6 areas, delineated here by the use of movement trays, at the start of the game players dice to see who goes first and then take it in turns to allocate tokens (Ravens) to each area of their shieldwall, Ravens are used to pay for activity in each area, either attack, defend (saving throws) or to move between areas.  

Player A selects one area in their shieldwall and pays with its' Ravens to either attack or move, but not both. To attack, Ravens are payed to buy dice throws, a score of 6 is two hits and 4 or 5 gives one hit. combat takes place against troops in the immediately opposite area, two hits will kill a Hirdman and one hit kills a Bondi.  If there are casualties Player B can now pay some of the Ravens from the area being attacked to buy saving dice throws: 6 saves two hits and 4 or 5 saves one hit.

Player B then selects an area of his wall to activate and either attack or move.

To move, one Raven is paid for each figure to be moved to an adjacent area and no more than 9 figures can be placed in any one area.

When the Ravens in all the areas on both sides have been spent it is the end of the turn and a new turn begins with both players alternating, as before, to allocate Ravens to areas in their shieldwall.

The Playmobil pirate ship above is perfect for 54mm toy soldiers, it was a cheap car boot find and plays no role in the game but looks great so I had to include it for a bit of set dressing.

The three bowmen behind the shieldwall are Thralls and they allow failed attacking dice throws to be rerolled, for each reroll one Thrall is removed from the board, at the start of the next turn any Thralls that were removed are returned to the game.

Each player also gets 5 bonus cards which reflect the national characteristics of of the armies and allow additional actions, just one card can be played each turn.   The basic game offers expansion kits of these cards to allow for armies of  Scots, Welsh and Normans.

The simple game system is very easy to learn and quick to play, despite this we made some inevitable errors in our interpretation of the rules and soon learned that the apparent simplicity masks some subtle nuances which emerge as the game progresses.

As wargames with 54mm toy solders go, Battle Ravens can be played in a very small area, across a dining table would be ideal, and with very few figures required.  We used 18 Hirdmen, 18 Bondi and 3 Thralls per side so only 78 figures needed in total.  

The sail billows in the wind, sending the longship scudding across the waves towards the estuary where the surf crashes against the treacherous rocks.

I really enjoyed building these Dark Ages armies and was it was great to get them on the table, using 54mm toy soldiers makes a massive difference to the visual impact of the game.  There's a great variety in the painting and poses of the figures which include Timpo, DSG, TSSD, Emhar, Cherilea, Del Prado, Co-Ma, Jean Hoefler, Jecsan, Conte, Fontanini, Replicants, Marx, Armies in Plastic, Technolog, NeTechnologist and Cafe Storme.

We both felt it was a great system for portraying the desperation of the shieldwall, the frustration of battering away trying to force a breach while urgently rushing to shore up the holes in your own wall before it collapses, now I know what it feels like being Uhtred in one of Bernard Cornwall's Last Kingdom novels.