Three of my all time favourite figures!

 Three of my all time favourite figures, two versions of Kiplings "Gentleman in Kharki" and "The Handy Man". The outer figures are hollow Ivorine plastic, made in 1900, in the centre is the hollowcast lead version made by Fry around 1920, the rifle barrel has been repaired and looks a bit long but it works well enough, I'm struggling over the decision to repaint him or not.

Toy Soldiers of the Great War

An early birthday present to myself (because I'm worth it), "Les Petits Soldats de la Grande Guerre" has been out for while but I've only just come across it, the cover announces that it includes 800 toys of WW1 so I had to have it.

Published in 2013 by Editions Glenat, A4 format, it has 256 pages illustrated in full colour throughout, ISBN 978-2-7234-0700-2.  Written in French only but light on text so not too challenging for anyone with with a smattering of the language and a grounding in the Great War.  The pic below gives an example of the layout and quality of the illustrations.  The cover price is 39 Euro, which I would say offers very good value for a book of this size and quality, I got my copy on ebay France, new and still in the cellophane wrapping for 19 Euro plus 9 Euro P&P from seller "Book77".  Bargain!

There are 12 chapters looking at different aspects of the war, into which the toys are conveniently slotted.  The cover gives little away and I half expected the book to include every type of toy from diecast vehicles to dolls and teddy bears, but fear not, apart from a chapter containing tinplate tanks and ships the rest is all toy soldiers.  

You can expect to see the perennial favourites from Britains, CGB Mignot, and Elastolin  but they don't dominate, it's packed with figures of every genre: paper, flats and semi flats, conjoint tin, wood, hollowcast and solid lead, composition and even a little plastic and modern white metal (but not much).  The more I flick through it the more I enjoy it, I reckon you will too.

How they made Tin Flat toy soldiers

The recent post featuring some Tin Flat toy soldiers drew some interest so continuing the theme I thought I'd throw in this short Italian clip from 1937 showing them being made in Austria.  I quite liked this one because it goes through the whole process from drawing the design to engraving the mould, casting, cleaning up, painting and displaying in dioramas.  For anyone who already casts lead toy soldiers, there won't be anything new here but it's always fun to see a piece of old film, and the music's quite jolly too!

Enjoy.

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?

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.

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.

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.