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.

German Wargame Rules from 1917

 Strategie und Taktik des Spiels mit Bleisoldaten (Strategy and Tactics for games with lead soldiers) 

Pentagon Publishing, Stuttgart, 1917 78 pages monochrome.

I had been hunting this little tome for many years but it constantly evaded me until last year when I bit the bullet and treated myself for my birthday!

There is a pencil note inside the front cover; 20 Pfg Berlin Katz 31.13.35.  It must have passed through many people's hands, or perhaps just a few.

After a Forward and Introduction the Chapters are: 

1. The Ground 

2. Tactical exercises in Company column 

3 Small off road exercises 

4. Exercises in larger groups 

5. Exercises with Army Corps 

6. The Battle Game 

7. Fantasy Wars 

8. The Strategic deployment 

9. Creating the preconditions for the Battle 

10. The course of the Battle 

11. Closing remarks

Quite a lot packed into such a small book and it appears to be much like a military manual for linear formations.

My schoolboy conversational German has long since escaped me, along with his French counterpart, so I'm struggling with this antiquated gothic text.  If you are more comfortable with it please give us all a precis of the Forward and Introduction shown here.

It contains two maps, the larger fold out one above showing the Battle of Leuthen and a smaller "Sketch of the battle of Pirot" (Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885 - no I hadn't heard of it either)

Chapter 7 Fantasy Wars, gives listings of  the disposition of Army Corps for Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Russia, Italy, Turkey, Spain, Rumania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland and Portugal.  

Bearing in mind this was printed in 1917 here's what it has to say about England:

 "Similar data can hardly be given for England, since universal conscription was only introduced during the present war, the standing army was formerly only small in number in peacetime, and was largely fragmented in foreign possessions, and the division into army corps and other tactical units took place entirely according to the needs and circumstances.  During the Boer Wars, England brought out a total of about 228,000 men, i.e. about 6 army corps according to our estimates"