New book - Toy Castles and Knights

Toy Castles and Knights - A Guide to Toy Castles and Knights from Around the World.  Written by Joseph W. Svec III, published by Infinity Publishing, ISBN 978 0 7414 7323 3.  A4 softcover, 104 pages illustrated in full colour throughout.  I bought my copy through ebay where it costs US$ 26.95 (GBP £17.00) plus postage.

This is a very big subject to tackle in just over 100 pages and this book is an enjoyable romp through what appears to be the authors own collection rather than a purely academic history.  Over 100 Castles from ten different countries are featured ranging from the traditional King Arthur/Camelot/Robin Hood types to Sword & Sorcery/Lord of the Rings up to the 90mm Schleich and Papo types.  There is also a nice chapter on the Spanish made Exin castle building sets, which are like Lego but for making medieval and wild west buildings.

The majority of castles included are of the plastic clip together or vacuformed types and it's good to see these documented as many are already no longer available, there are also some tin litho and wooden examples.  The book is packed full of colour pictures showing the castles, often under state of siege by their attendant figures, and the box art they came in.  My only criticism would be that some of the pictures are a little dark, so overall a fun book at a reasonable price and lets face it how many of us would have the room to store 100 castles?

I would have liked to see more of the earlier wooden makes of castle but that leaves room for a Book 2, until then you can see more on the history of Toy Forts and Castles at the toyforts website

7YW game of battle with 54mm toy soldiers

Earlier this week I visited my erstwhile gaming opponent PW to trial the new C18th rules for 54mm wargaming he is working on and a jolly good fast running game it turned out to be.  Both sides had about 70 infantry, six/eight cavalry, two guns, two mortars and a gaggle of staff in command.  The terrain and buildings are in scale for 28mm figures but worked very well, they give definition to the landscape without imposing so much on the visual aspect or the space that larger items would need.  This is how it went:

An overview of the initial dispositions from the Prussian lines.  In the left foreground a company of Grenadiers cover the flank of a Fusilier Regt. supported by two battalion guns.  On the right the Prussian command have established H.Q. in the hamlet and formed a strong defensive position with two Regiments of Line infantry, two mortars have been brought forward and a unit of Cavalry stand in reserve.

Opposing them the French begin to advance through the fields on either side of the road, on their left the Irish Dillon Regt. are supported by a heavy gun

In the centre dismounted Dragoons form a skirmish line in extended order supported by an elite French Regt. and a second heavy gun.

Their right flank is secured by a company of Cuirassiers and two mortars (out of shot)

The Irish Regt. halt at the line of a picket fence where they take a hard pounding from the Prussian mortars

The Prussian regiments contain many recent new recruits resplendent in their pristine undress undercoat No.1 uniforms.  The cavalry unit have left the hamlet and moved to cover the gap between the Fusilier and Line Regt's.

The French skirmish line has reached the low stone walls in the centre of the field and a battalion of Fusiliers move forward to extend the line but receive a strong volley from the enemy Dragoons and are forced to retire.

The Prussian cavalry race up the central road towards the French command but are countercharged by the enemy Horse.  The Prussian Line infantry have moved up in support.

The French Horse brush the Prussian cavalry aside with devastating effect and career into the supporting infantry where they face close range volleys from the front and flank.

A general advance of the Fusiliers and Grenadiers on the left leads to a melee which forces the French to retire.

On the right the advance of the Irish "Wild Geese" is counterattacked by a brigade of Prussian Line, who pay a fearful price to buy time for the remaining brigades who prepare a volley which succeeds in forcing the Irishmen to retire.  At the end of the day the French showed their marksmanship and ferocity in melee to be far superior to the enemy but they were badly served by their artillery, while it is fair to say that the day was saved by the judicious siting of the Prussian guns.

Guns and infantry only fire every other move so wafts of smoke are placed in front of units that have fired to indicate they are reloading next move, this gives the attacker a chance to close with the enemy without being massacred.  Artillery shots are taken using ball firing cannon, wherever the ball hits it ploughs a file through the enemy line.  Infantry fire is simulated by firing a matchstick dipped in ink at a paper template of an infantry line to determine casualties, it may sound a bit messy (and it is) but it's more tricky than you'd think and it's a lot more fun than continually bowling fist fulls of D6.

Towards a 7YW wargame in 54mm

Been a while since my last post, nothing wrong just haven't had any toy soldier news or anything particular to say.  Over on the Vauban and Shandy blog Paul Wright has treated us to an airing of his new C18th wargame and pretty impressive it is in my opinion.  Some years ago I bought the BMC Yorktown playset as I needed some figures in mitre caps to paint up as Napoleonic Russian Grenadiers but when they arrived they weren't what I was expecting.

In the left foreground are the command figures with a couple of drummers converted from Accurate AWI, behind them going clockwise are figures in stages of completion from basic undercoat up to the finished items in right foreground - BMC Hessians painted as Prussian Fusiliers.  In the centre are Grenadiers by CTS and the BMC artillery crew.

The BMC Hessians have short mitre caps not suitable for the Russians I had in mind, somewhat annoyed I searched through various uniform books and found they would be perfect for 7YW Prussian fusiliers, also the other infantry in the set had rather large floppy tricorns which just didn't look right for the American Revolution but perfect for Prussian line infantry.  Just what I needed, another wargame project with lots of fussy uniforms to paint, it started enthusiastically enough but then ground to a halt.

Subsequently I have had an invite from the aforementoned PW to help playtest the new rules so the Prussians have been dusted off and I am undergoing a frenzy of basing and painting to bring the numbers up to a decent muster - just the impetus I needed!  No doubt there will be game reports on blogs in the not too distant future.

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.

Rose Model Soldiers catalogue 1957

I never really got the bug for painting the white metal Military Models that proliferated during the mid 1970's, I dabbled of course but never really developed the skill or patience for all that shadowing and highlighting which became the fashion so beloved of the international modelling magazines. Some people painted them sumptuously in oils others went for the ultimate in authenticity by using vegetable dyes, for me, that path would ultimately have led to madness so I stuck to my tins of Humbrol gloss enamels and did them in Old Toy Soldier style.  Probably my favourite manufacturer of this time was Rose Models sculpted by Russell Gammage so I was delighted to discover this:

I recently bought up a selection of old magazines and while flicking through them what should fall out but this rather quaint Rose Models Soldiers catalogue from 1957.  It is an A4 sheet folded into A5 and printed on one of those old Roneo reprographic machines that we used in school before the advent of the photocopier, the sort that you fitted a carbon sheet to and turned the handle.  The smell of solvent filled the room so you felt high as a kite by about page 15, then the paper feed went askew but you didn't notice until about page 60 so every sheet had to be amended by hand where it had misprinted.  They were great days.

It's not a great document in the scheme of things but it gave me a moments amusement so I thought I would share it for anyone with a memory of Rose.  I never realised they'd been in business since the 1950's (never gave it a thought really) so I was interested to see the prices - 5 shillings (25p in today's worthless coinage) for an unpainted foot figure, in the late 1950's that would have bought you at least 5 pints of beer, today that would make the castings £17.50 each (all figures based on London beer prices).

There is no mention of Gammage's smaller scale wargame figures so I guess they didn't come out until some years later.  Since publishing this post Rob (Xaltotun of Python) has kindly directed me to a post on the Old Metal Detector blog showing that the first two Rose wargaming figures were listed in the 1956 catalogue and I subsequently noticed that what I have here is a supplement to that list.

Posts to this blog have been rather sparse of late because we recently suffered a burglary, thankfully little was taken (causing Mrs C. to observe that our electrical goods are so big and obsolete as to be not worth nicking) but the haul included my camera, and as my web/blog philosophy is to be big on images while short on text this loss has had a very limiting effect on me.  Even greater disruption has been caused by the subsequent fallout - dealing with Police and Insurers (both very helpful) changing locks, adding locks, raising the height of fences and installing an alarm system (the latter a neat piece of kit based on wireless technology which will even send me a text if the miscreant should return for a second round!).  Hopefully normal service will be resumed as soon as the insurance claim is settled, in the meantime I am reduced to the use of my scanner and whatever stock photos I can dig up.