Spenkuch French - 35mm Flats

I'd bought this set of Spenkuch French infantry from Berliner Zinnfiguren a couple years back.  As well as pretty much splitting the difference between 30mm & 40mm, they also fall between the two camps of semi-rounds and flats as they're quite flat but retain elements of semi-round style.

My first reaction upon receipt of the figures was disappointment.  Primarily due to even the lowly privates being shod in officer's boots. So they remained in their box until recently when I thought of using them for this possible project for the Italian Wars. Giving them another look, they seemed not so bad as I remembered them, so let's see what can be done about the problem with the high boots.

Yup, green stuff to the rescue.

And these are the test figures I modified first.

The figure with the lowered rifle remained French. The other figure was a test conversion to Piedmontese.  Uniform details have been surprisingly hard to pin down for them but apparently they campaigned in 1859 wearing overcoats even in the summer months.  Thus the conversion wasn't difficult, just a matter of bulking up the kepi into shako form with the green stuff (sorry, the photo of these two figures in pre-painted state came out unacceptably blurry). 

So, I think this now becomes a usable set of figures.

Wollner / Sichart: 40mm Bleisoldaten

I hope everyone has emjoyed the holiday season, now winding down towards New Years Day.  For myself, it was great to see the family together again.  I also received something ordered from Berliner Zinnfiguren.  Two sets of 40mm figures: some antique Ramm flat castings (started painting these, more about which in a subsequent post) and the set of (pre-painted !) Wollner Austrian artillery shown here.  It's obvious to anyone following this blog that it's all about painting them myself, but I did think this was a charming set in the old semi-round toy soldier style.

The figures are nominally 40mm but very much on the smallish side of that rather elastic scale.

I also painted the last of the Sichart (except for the bandsmen) Austrian infantry.  I turned back the clock on these to ca. 1860 by cutting off the buttons, converting the tunic to the old double-breasted style and painted on the cross-belts.  Here's an example of one of the figures contrasted with the 1890's style which the figures were intended to be.

The flag is just okay, the raised detail of the Imperial eagle on the casting would have been more worthy of Josef Wagner composing a march "Under the Double Tarantula" as the resemblance to an eagle is approximate at best. I would probably have been better off just filing it off and painting from scratch but it's at least serviceable.

At any rate, this is all I have so any reinforcements will have to be via the mold-making process and I did save one casting for this purpose.  No rush about it though, the figures on parade with their slung rifles are a bit lacking in martial vigor so I think I can do better by the Austrian infantry from some other source.  Nice to have these as a fall-back though.

Next up, Spenkuchs.

Battle of Wissembourg, 1870 - Heinrichsen 40mm

Here's another 40mm set from Heinricshen, # 4906: Schlacht von Weißenburg, depicting the opening battle of the Franco-Prussian war with Crown Prince Frederick's corps rudely kicking in the door to Alsace.  They represent a departure from Heinrichsen's rich selection of flats: the difference being the figures are not flat but semi-flat or semi-round, halbrund or demi ronde bosse as you prefer. They date to 1893, re-issued in the late 90's. What we have here is a 57 piece set, I suppose the 19th Century equivalent of a Marx playset.  Of course, not all of the castings are figures: besides soldiers singly and in groups, a number of castings feature scenic items or vegetation, as well as explosions and battlefield debris.

Unusually so far as Franco-Prussian war figures go, there's not a spiked helmet in sight.  The Prussians in this case are Bavarians, vs. French colonial troops.  Also, there seems to be about four distinctive sculpting styles in play here. First, the group castings are consistent in style with each other and fully 40mm. The Bavarians are distinctly smaller and on the flat side, very close to actual flats in style but in bolder relief. Then we have the more toylike Turcos, a bit larger and rounder than the Bavarians, finally most of their French command figures are very close to fully round. I suppose that back in their era, these figures were mixed and matched into different sets depicting battles of 1870-1871. 

Without further preamble, let's take a closer look. First, the reverse of the group figure shown at the top of the post.

Here we have some Tirailleurs Algériens.  I enjoyed painting their colorful uniforms. The damaged pillar in the backdrop comes with the set.

And some Bavarians.

And thankfully, the Scad molds have arrived.  Suffice it to say for now, they did not disappoint.  I will report soon on how the casting and painting is going with these.

Strategie & Taktik: Des Spiels mit Bleisoldaten

Here's a period curiosity, an old book about playing wargames with toy soldiers. Kindly offered as a free download from Zinnhobby.de, located here.
http://www.zinnhobby.de/zinn.php?PHPSESSID=f9f6082869b33db3e2c52bde12ffcc97

Unfortunately, I can't read much of the German text in the old script and apparently neither can the translation program cope with the pdf format.  Perhaps that's no great loss as according to the forward by Ralf Wlaka, the author's rambling ode to playing wargames with toy soldiers doesn't really live up to what seems to be promised by the cover. In other words, Dr. Floericke's musings don't hit the mark for anyone looking for a useable set of wargaming rules.

Still, from what I can superficially glean from the text and the attractive drawings of flats or home cast figures of the day, combined with some formation diagrams, battle maps and OOB's, it's the sort of  book I'd like to read regardless of how dated.

Oddly enough, Strategie und Taktik dates to 1917.  I have to share Mr. Wloka's puzzlement about the timing, publishing a book about playing wargames with tin soldiers in a Germany suffering from blockade and beaten down by three years of horrendous casualty lists. He puts it rather well, "Perhaps this work is also just a good indication of how little real war - contrary to the opinions of the war-game opponents - has actually to do with the Zinnsoldatenspiel."

Meisterzinn - 40mm Home Casts

Readers of this blog will well recognize these familiar Nurnberger Meisterzinn figures.  I have most of the molds for the Renaissance range, although my collection is lacking a few: the sword-wielding knight,  the foot cavalier (sword or pistol), the wagon set and the nice artillery pieces. But this is most of them.  Yes, they're a pain to cast but the figures do have an appealing toy soldier look.  I also have the color pamphlet Zinnfiguren aus Meisterzinn which shows painted examples of all the castings.

Armored men. I rather wish the tournament knight had come with a detachable shield, making him more useful as an early 16th century man-at-arms, but still it's a good figure.

Classic landsknechte although the standard-bearer is more of a hybrid figure to my eyes.  According to Ross MacFarlane the trumpeter can be converted to a pikeman and I can see where that would be an excellent way to get more mileage out of this mold. 

The halbardier is more of a "tweener" who can bridge the gap between the early 16th Century and later, but the musketeer and mounted figure look like 30 Years War, hence the Matthaus Merian backdrop.  The musketeer comes with mold cavities for two heads but he's somewhat oversized relative to the others.  The rider cuts a dashing figure.  Although so far as I know of the 30 Years War, figures bearing lances are usually depicted in 3/4 armor, he appears to have some conversion possibilites. He could be easily become a standard-bearer,  or replace the lance with a musket and you could have a nice dragoon.

Lastly, although it has nothing to do with Meisterzinn, here's a quick shot of what's in the painting queue.

HWG-Modelle (Wollner): Part I

Finished painting the first pack HWG-Modelle Austro-Hungarian infantry figures over the weekend.  Although the figures were sold as unpainted castings "HWG-Modelle", judging by the 38mm size and antique toy soldier style, I'm fairly sure they are Wollner figures.  Wollner dates to the late 1800's and they're still sold by Kober Toys of Vienna. But only as painted sets, so far as I know.  

"New models in preparation" ?  I only wish all of this stuff was still in production (Oh yeah, Turkenkrieg !), but I've been able to find nothing on the web about HWG-Modelle. The packaging looks pretty dated to me, perhaps sold new in the 1980's (give or take a decade).  I purchased these sets from the Flohmarkt section at Berliner Zinnfiguren.

Skinny guys and hard to hit with a Little Wars spring gun

The foot are easy to paint quickly on account of the slim, semi-round style.  The cavalry are also toylike but more rounded.  The riders are cast with their saddles and have to be glued onto the horses.

Too bad there's not of enough troops in this first group to field a battalion.  However, I have another identical set on order, as well as infantry musicians on parade (containing the standard bearer). Between the two, there will be 18 foot figures, which will have to suffice.

Spenkuch Hussars - 35mm

Just finished painting this small set of Imperial German hussars which I've had sitting in the box for a couple of years. The figures are attributed bythe seller to Spenkuch - perhaps they're not, but certainly the bleisoldaten style is consistent with Spenkuch.  They're semirounds, pretty flat though. 

They're the starting point of another idea, moving the imagi-nations forward in time to 1900.  This will allow me to combine the two interests of painting figures and building ships, thus bringing pre-dreadnought era navies into play.  Now I am painting a set of Austro-Hungarian infantry, 38mm Wollner castings.