Scale Link - Belgians 1914

 I've had it in mind to make a unit of Belgian infantry to go with my Funny Little Wars armies for some time, largely influenced by this:

The picture above featured in the May 1991 edition of Military Hobbies and shows the WW1 Belgian Dog Cart kit made by Scale Link, I've been a big fan of this company since the mid 1980's and have used their heads, arms etc. in numerous conversions.

The donor figures, mostly WW2 French infantry made in China by Hing Fat and sold cheaply in poly bags, the weapons can be a bit fanciful and oversized but I like the originality of the poses, particularly the grenadier.  Also some incomplete Britains Deetail French Foreign Legion, missing arms have been replaced with reissues made by DSG of Argentina, the colour doesn't match so I have no qualms about repainting the whole figure.

Rebased on metal washers for stability, head changes, a few replacement arms from the bits box and they're ready for priming.  

A recent lucky win of these recast Britains French infantry painted in Belgian green provided the impetus to kick start this particular FLW project, I added the old school style basing and now just need to paint in some detailing.

This is the 1989 Scale Link catalogue, the beautiful fine line cover illustration was drawn by John Piper the owner of the company who has signed and dated it (1986)  in the bottom right corner.  I think this was the only catalogue he ever issued and inside it's illustrated with all of his figures drawn in the same linear style with each page copyright dated from 1984 through to 1988 as the range grew.

Scale Link produced figures depicting the WW1 Western Front but also sold their constituent parts: heads, arms and equipment in these small packs shown above, the header cards all drawn, signed and dated by John Piper.  

I  became a regular customer, and got to know John, when he moved his business from Kingston to Twickenham, where he lived, and opened the Scale Link shop in Church Street.  I hadn't realised his main business was producing a wide range of accessories for model railways and architectural design models, which he also sold through the shop along with paints and modelling materials.  John got into WW1 military figures almost by accident when the National Army Museum commissioned him to produce two dioramas for them.  

The shop closed in 1991 when he retired and sold the business.  Coincidentally he lived just four streets away from Roy Selwyn-Smith who had sculpted figures for Timpo and Herald before becoming Managing Director of Britains Ltd. I wonder if they knew each other?  It never occurred to me to ask!

I don't know the chap who took over Scale Link from John Piper but over the years he seems to have bought up several producers of metal castings, mostly for model railways, and built up a portfolio of specialist brands.  The notice above accompanied my latest order advising that the Group was being disposed due to retirement, I thought I'd include it in this post because some people are interested in this sort of minutiae.  In the meantime if you want to acquire some of these Scale Link parts you'd better stock up quick!

Dorfler - Prussian Infantry

Some years ago I was offered a group of figures made by Dorfler in the 1920's, one of the less well known German manufacturers.  I think they have a certain charm of their own and thought it was time to give them an airing, so here they are:

These examples tip the scales at 60mm to the top of the pickelhaube but there was also a smaller range at 54mm, they carry no makers mark but are instantly recognisable by the distinctive hexagonal/diamond shape of the base.

German made solid lead figures tended to be cast with a generic body and separate head, which plugged into it, while accoutrements such as rifles, flags etc which were soldered onto the hands, the soft lead arms being bent into the required position to hold them.  This allowed greater variety of poses in a set, also with different paint schemes, heads and equipment the armies of other nations could be produced, a practice also common with the manufacturers of composition figures.

These Dorfler figures are single piece castings, the heads and accoutrements being integral to the body, the three poses are individual sculpts; marching at the slope was cast with arm holding rifle out to the left of the body then bent into position, same for the bugler and officer except that the bugle arm and sword arms were cast out to the right and bent in towards the body, the officer figure was also sculpted with epaulettes. 

The Lexicon der Deutschen Blechspielzeug-Industrie (Encyclopedia of the German Tin Toy Industry) tells us that the firm was founded by Hans Dorfler of Furth in 1904 making tin rattles, music boxes, trumpets and drinking cups.  In 1921 the owner is stated as Rosa Dorfler who continued the pervious product lines but added toy soldiers, the business closed in 1935, so we have a fairly good indication of their age, not looking too bad for close to 100 years old.