German East Afrika in 40mm

I spotted this rather nice collection of German Colonials at the London Toy Soldier Show in March but somehow the pics slipped below my radar and have just come up for air.  They are mostly Schneider semi-flat homecast figures but they've been converted to Schutztruppe etc. which I think is rather neat.  

In the foreground and left native figures provide the Maji Maji rebels, behind them the German Colonials in tropical uniform and squeezing in at the back right are the Schutztruppe Askaris

A closer look at the Askaris with some rather nice standard bearers line infantry and jaegers.

"Hey they gotta' band"  well sort of.

The natives work tirelessly in the cowrie shell fields.

There was also a clutch of scratch built buildings to go with the figures, this is the Colonial Government House and to the right of it is on of the native huts.

Lets face it the original figures are so crude and common that they're barely worth the metal they're cast from but with a bit of work and imagination there's a lot you can do with them, why did I never think of doing this before?

Russian clay toy soldiers for wargaming

There seems to be a thing in Russia for making toy soldiers out of modelling clay I don't know if they are soft like Plasticine or they harden like FIMO but I am in awe of the patience and dexterity of the people who make them.  The sort of thing I'm talking about can be seen on this website showing a wargame of the Battle of Wachau 1813 with 45mm figures, or in this magazine article about the collection of Sergey Kiselev who sculpted his 30mm wargame figures over a period of 31 years (the photos belie their size until you see them standing next to a zippo lighter). 

Links to these sites have featured on various blogs and Yahoo Groups before but I don't recall where or when so if I should have given credit to someone else for finding them in the first place my apologies but I can't remember who you were.  Anyway my reason for bringing this subject up is that I came across this video by accident, enjoyed it and felt I should share it with a wider audience.

As I am still a bit of a blog virgin it is also an experiment to see if I can add videos to this site.  Posts here have been sparse lately as I have been on a bit of an end of year creativity bender, doing lots of conversions and painting, when you feel the urge you have to follow it before it all wears off. 

Oh yes........... a Happy New Year to all, now enjoy the film.

All I can say is they must have some awful long hard winters in Russia!

Three new books on Toy Soldiers.

We have an old saying in London, "you wait ages for a bus then three come along together" and this used to be the case until the introduction of GPS Vehicle Management Systems and Bus Lanes but the saying has been retained as a euphemism for a period of scarcity followed by plenty.  Thus it has been recently with regard to books on toy soldiers, nothing for ages and then three land in my lap together.

The title translates as "Small Handbook for the Identification of German Lead Toy Soldiers" it appears to be self published by Dr. Hanns Roth as there is no publishers name or ISBN number quoted, Dr Roth has included his email address (which I won't post on the Internet but will happily pass to collectors who email me) so you could contact him direct to buy the book, my copy cost £30.  Soft cover, it has 99 pages and is illustrated in full colour throughout. 

The problem with German 40/45mm semi flat and fully round figures is that they never carry the makers name on the base and the sculpting style varies very little from one company to another.  This book does exactly what it says on the cover, it points out the subtle differences that distinguish between the the figures of Haffner, Heyde, Heinrich, Norris, Spenkuch, Krause and various other smaller manufacturers.  The text is in German but there is little of it so it's easy enough to follow with the help of Google translate and it is overflowing with illustrations, which makes it my kind of book and a long overdue addition to the wealth of toy soldier knowledge.

Die Zinnlaube, translates as The Tin Arbour (summerhouse?) and is more of an almanac than a book, it is set out in the form of individual articles on various types of old toy soldiers and I understand that it is to become an annual publication.   Produced by the German society "Friends of Old Toy Soldiers" it is edited by Dr. Ignacio Czeguhn, again there is no ISBN number and contact details available from me on request, my copy cost £20.  Soft cover, it has 85 pages and is illustrated in full colour throughout.

Articles include, figures of "Der Alte Fritz", The Huns, two smaller manufacturers of Flats - Seidel and Zufall, Anni Schweizer nativity figures 1926,  Theodor Salomon - manufacturer of 30mm solids in the 1930's, Charles Dickens' charachter figures, Abd el Kader and the Spanish Moroccan War, Interview with Dr. Hans-Henning Roer, Collectors favorite figures, book review and a photo roundup of the club Freunde Alter Spielfiguren.  Main text is in German but each article also has a precis in English and French, as you can see it's quite a good quality publication.

Tinasotilas, Tin Soldiers.  Written by Yrjo (George) Larmola, published by Gummurus Publishing Ltd. ISBN number 978-951-796-529-3, my copy cost £20

Covers the history of toy soldiers, playing with them, uniforms and then the author takes us through a potted history of the world (from a European viewpoint) illustrated by the figures from his own collection.  A novel approach but nothing new or interesting from a toy soldier perspective most of the figures illustrated are Schneider homecasts or modern white metal models, and there is no mention of SIRO the only Finnish toy figure manufacturer I know of.  The text is in Finnish so this book is only really worth getting if you speak Finn, collect books about toy soldiers or are a complete toy soldier nut.  I plead guilt on two of these charges.

Authenticast 40mm semi flats - mystery solved!

Back in March I posted an entry about a couple of 40mm semi flat sets made by Authenticast and questioned whether they were sculpted by Holger Erikssson because they were similar to his style but didn't carry the distinctive HE monogram.   Here is a picture of one set to remind people:

I subsequently received a comment and a more detailed email from Hans Jacobson in Sweden telling me that "They are slightly modified figures from about 1910 first manufactured in Stockholm by "Gamla Santonska Tenngjureiet" (The Old Santesson Tin Foundry) originally moulded in slate moulds.  Later the slate moulds were bought by the owner of Autenticast Kurt Wennerberg.  Autenticast modified some of the figures and kept some of them as they were.  He made then new rubber moulds of them that could keep up to commercial use. I think." 

Hans also told me the original figures were made for the Morocco crises 1910-11 and very kindly sent the following picture of the other figures in the set.

I think the mounted figures are stunning particularly the rider firing from under the horse.

The name of Holger Eriksson has become so synonymous with the firm of Authenticast that it is easy to forget that he was just one of the sculptors, the main one certainly, employed by Curt Wennberg who set up the venture in The Irish Republic on behalf of Comet Metal Products of the USA in 1946.  Before that in 1937, Wennberg had set up a company called Treforest Mouldings (in Wales) who are best known for their 1:1200 scale waterline model ships (under the brand name Tremo) but are also on record as making 40mm toy soldiers.  While the ships turn up regularly (at horrendous prices) the soldiers have never been seen, so I am wondering if Wennberg originally made copies of the Santesson figures at Treforest before issuing them on a more commercial basis at Authenticast?

 

Hans also discovered the origin of the standard bearer, it is a Turkish Janissary from another set by Santesson depicting the 1713 Skirmish at Bender, an action from the Great Northern War which I had never heard of but which would make a great wargame scenario.  Finally Hans sent me a link to the Swedish Toy Soldier Club website which shows early Swedish 40mm semi flats as well as some 54mm figures by Holger Eriksson and another of the Authenticast sculptors, Lennart Norrke.  Here is the link http://carolinen.se/home.htm the site takes a bit of navigating but it is well worth it, from the menu list on the left hand side click on "Galleri" then on "Aldre tennfigurer" for the 40mm and "Rundmassiva figurer" for the HE/LN figures.  If you have an interest in old waterline model ships, 40mm semi flats or want some inspiration for Funny Little Wars armies you'll find plenty to interest you here.

40mm semi-flats by Holger Eriksson for Authenticast - confirmed

Hidden in the bottom of the junk box I bought at the London Show last weekend were more of the 40mm semi-flat Authenticast figures that I recently blogged about, and here they are:

There are three of each pose shown above but sadly no box, I'm not usually bothered about boxes and frankly the whole concept of something being better or more valuable because it's mint and boxed just grinds my gears but in this case the absence of a box leaves me with more questions than answers.  With the previous sets of 7YW infantry and Arabs all the places in the boxes are filled so I know that they are the full set complete with individual portrait figures of standard bearers etc.  In the case of these new figures I'm left wondering if they are both from the same set or separate sets of WW2 British infantry and Sikhs, also were there any other poses?  However what I do know this time is that they were definitely sculpted by Holger Eriksson, apart from the unmistakable poses and chiseled finish they are marked HE under the base.  Semi flat figures are not every bodies cup of tea (not mine either really) but discovering these unexpectedly in a box of junk gave me a moment of pure serendipity.

Homecast Toy Soldiers at the London Show March 2012

An assortment of 56mm Prussian infantry castings

Various old homecasting moulds

This two part mould for a Prussian Hussar on prancing horse is marked JDEAL, a German company actually called IDEAL, which made copies of Gebr. Schneider moulds.

New to the London Show was a chap called Mark Shilam who had a table full of old homecasting moulds and various castings for sale.  Mostly they were old Schneider Brothers hand clamp moulds but there were also quite a few rubber Prince August moulds for 54mm figures.  What interested me was that Mark told me his father used to make toy soldiers from the moulds and sell them commercially, I had heard that people used to do this but this was the first time I'd met someone who actually diid it.  Usually in the run up to Christmas his father would go into the garden shed for days at a time pouring the moulds and cleaning the castings, Mark was then a schoolboy and would spend all of his spare time in the evenings and weekends painting them, they would sell them in markets and anywhere else that people would take them.  Mark was selling everything up on behalf of his father who is now too old and unwell to continue the business.

On another stall I found a junk box with a variety of homecast figures going cheap:

Two Turks but I don't know what the paint scheme is meant to represent, I think they will be taking a bath in paint stripper farily soon.

A French? bugler and British infantryman

Finally an Uhlan and a Cossack.

More Authenticast semi-flats - Holger Eriksson?

This is the second set of Authenticast semi-flats that I've unearthed, the standard bearer looks like an Eriksson design to me but I'm not so sure about the two arabs.  There is no indication what these are supposed to be on the box so I am assuming them to be arabs but exactly where from and what period I couldn't say for certain.  The standard bearer has a very Ottoman look to him and I think he may have lost a bit off the top of the standard.

I'm not sure if it will show in the photo but the green standard above has a Union Jack engraved on it so i'm guessing tht this figure also did service as a sepoy at some other time in some other set.

The mounted figures are in scale with the foot but I think  the horses might be a tad small.  Eriksson is probably best known for fine sculpting of his horses and to me these don't cut the mustard on that score so either they were done by someone else or they are very early examples before he refined his skill.

Authenticast 40mm semi-flats - but are they by Holger Eriksson?

Back in about 1966, so when I was 10, my dad decided to build a new wall for the front garden of our house in Chiswick, West London.  In digging up the area to lay the footings he unearthed a Royal Horse Artillery cap badge, 2 live rounds of .303 ammunition and a white plastic toy soldier of a highlander standing at ease.  How this cache came to be there is anybodies guess.  Now if I'd found a couple of live rounds I would immediately hand them over to the police but for reasons best known to himself  my dad decided to store them in the cupboard under the stairs next to the gas meter! but the important thing is that I got the cap badge and the highlander. 

By that time I was already an avid collector of plastic toy soldiers and was well versed in the products of all the major UK manufacturers but I'd never seen anything like that highlander, he'd lost his base and rifle, he wore a quirky uniform almost Crimean but certainly pre WW1 and was very well detailed.  I always felt there was something special about him but it would be another ten years before I was able to confirm that he was made by Malleable Mouldings from a design by the sculptor Holger Eriksson for Authenticast, a firm in Galway, Eire (where my dad was from).  That was the start of an ongoing love affair I have had for the works of Eriksson, a most prodigious sculptor for Comet, Authenticast, Malleable Mouldings, SAE (Swedish Afrikan Engineers), Spencer Smith, Prince August and his own Connoisseur range.

In the never ending tidy up of my toy soldier room I unearthed this old box of Authenticast 40mm semi flat figures of British infantry from the 7 Years War.  On the base they are marked Eire and a number has been scratched on each one but there is not the distinctive HE found on the majority of Authenticast's 54mm figures, denoting that they were designed by Eriksson.  Of course HE wasn't the only sculptor for Authenticast and it may be that they simply didn't mark the smaller sized figures so perhaps we can only go by the general style, which I would say is very HE particularly the man advancing at the ready which has that "purposeful stride" so typical of Eriksson. 

Despite the fact that they were in production for a relatively short time Authenticast 54mm figures are fairly common but these smaler semi flats are much less so, I have one other set (which I'll post up in a day or so) and I recall seeing a box of Napoleonics at a Phillips Auction about 15 years ago and that's about it.  The other box that I have is identical except that it carries the original price: 2/11 (two shillings and eleven pence. which for those not conversant with British pre-decimal currency would now be fourteen and a half new pence)

The standard bearer has his head turned to look back at the rest of the troops, a small detail that adds to the charm of the set.  Were they the forerunners of the Prince August range?  It's possible I suppose, these are much thinner than the PA figures.

Homecast toy soldiers

Making your own toys soldiers at home has long been a popular pastime, perhaps not so much in recent decades with the universal shift towards political correctness and safety concerns, but there used to be a big market for the sale of moulds to cast your own in lead. Homecasting moulds were sold extensively across Europe and the U.S. under many diffferent trade names but the figure designs invariably come back to one company in Germany, Gebr. Schneider (Schneider Brothers).

Sometimes enterprising individuals would produce figures from these moulds and paint them to a good standard for resale (as I suspect is the case with the first figure above) but mostly they were cast to a poor standard from whatever mix of metals could be found, often fishing weights or, according to urban myth, lead stripped from the church roof! The figures are mostly about 40mm high but size varies all the way up to about 60mm. They are exactly the sort of toy soldier that you will dig up in your back garden, crushed and suffering greatly from lead rot, and then be disappointed when you put it up on ebay and it dosen't sell. They are generally very crude and get little interest from collectors but I rather like them and they are great for playing wargames.