In addition to figures I bought from the late Eric Knowles collection ( and indeed the reason I was interested to buy them ), I have my small collection of 'vintage' Minifgs 25mm 7YW Prussians; they have been enjoying a long-awaited bath in Bird Brand 'Eco Spirit' for the last several weeks. It looks a bit noxious ( I keep thinking of Kenneth Williams shouting 'Frying Tonight!' ), but it's doing the job of removing a dodgy 40-year-old coating of Humbrol Enamels.
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| Prussians in the noxious swamp |
Unpacking them ,we have :
48 Line Muskeeters ( Minfigs PSW1 )
3 Line Musketeer Officers (PSW2 )
1 Line Infantry Standard Bearer ( PSW12 )
and one rather splendid mounted officer - not sure which he might be. Maybe Frederick himself?! Though I'm pretty sure he was intended for the Colonel of the regiment.
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| out of the bath and on parade |
This collection was indeed a regiment, bought from teenage 'birthday money' I suspect, as a result of earlier acquiring, reading and being enthralled by Charles Grant's 'The War Game'. How I ever imagined I would recruit a full army, with my very limited resources then, I have no idea! I think in the interim, they were pitched against a motley collection of Airfix plastic Napoleonics and AWI figures, all pretty badly painted. I reconciled the eclecticism of the figures by creating 'imagi-nations', which was of of course in keeping with Charles Grant's ideas, and was probably also fuelled by the serialisation of Tony Bath's Hyboria campaign in 'Battle for Wargamers' at around the same time.
In the end, I think the advent of WRG 1685-1845 rules with their 1:50 figure ratio, and battalions of 12 or 16 figures, was much more budget-friendly and space-efficient, and these chaps probably made 3 or 4 battalions under those rules. Now, I hope they will finally wear their proper colours as Musketeers of the Prussian Line Infantry, and should provide material for several units - they could perhaps make up to six battalions under Bob Cordery's 'Portable Wargame' system as adapted by me, and certainly a couple of battalions for Keith Flint's 'Honours of War', for example. I hope they will go nicely alongside the figures from Eric Knowles collection - indeed, when those became available, my thought was exactly this - I could finally make use of my Prussians after all these years!
But still, this is not to forget the original inspiration of Charles Grant's lovely book, that made the much younger me dream of grandiose armies. As another inspiring chap, who lived and is buried not so far from here, said:
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| "Teenage dreams, so hard to beat" |
Admittedly, he probably wasn't thinking of toy soldiers! (it's hard to believe, Peel would have been 81 next month) .
Keep well, everyone.
Teenage Dreams indeed. Can’t believe Peel was just a few years younger than my mum, God rest their souls.
ReplyDeleteI got those rules before I plumped for the SYW and slowly built up my Prussians.
I’m pretty sure that mounted officer is the infantry colonel though I never had one because I went straight for small WRG sized units. If I remember correctly, Minifigs’ Frederick had thick lace on his hat and Ferdinand had his right arm down with no sword.
If I carry on reading your blog I think I’m going to end up placing an order with Minifigs.
I think you are probably right about the Colonel, I took a look at the current catalogue and couldn't see it for some reason, but I think I would have gone for him at the time. If you get tempted by more Minifgs,you could always ask David Crook if there are any left.. he may have some still on ebay
DeleteI bet Peel would still have been broadcasting, and would have been over the moon about his favourite team's recent success. Great loss to the world.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, he went far too early. I think he would have been the 'go to' Liverpool fan for interviewers recently, and would have been very happy to crow, in the nicest possible way!
DeleteThe understated Liver bird on the gravestone is a nice touch!
DeleteCheers Dave - ignorant Southerner that I am, I had not noticed that! Thanks for pointing it out.
DeleteHow strange to see John Peel's headstone looking so old and the date 2004 seems such a long time ago. It was a shock when it happened which feels like last year or two ago, not sixteen, yet he wrote the funny foreword to a National Service book that I have, as a former National Serviceman himself. Sadly most of my John Peel show audio tapes are now unplayable through age. I think the same happens over time or through time to tapes as happens to your Minifigs after weeks in their chemical bath. Best of luck with your figure painting / SYW project.
ReplyDeleteIt did surprise me to realise he had passed away all of 16 years ago. The picture is admittedly not terribly clear, which may have 'aged' the stone even more, sorry! It was taken in August 2017, in fact - I had a pleasant afternoon tootling around our country lanes and ended up at Gt. Finborough, stopping on the way at a church (maybe Felsham?) which was the prototype for a pottery model which MS Foy had featured in his blog! I can't imagine Peel would have been very suited to National Service - I too have a book on that, which says he 'claimed that his sister's fiance, a second lieutenant, insisted that Peel, a private, call him 'sir' during family gatherings'!
DeleteI was interested to see the gravestone, it looks a lot older than it obviously is. I didn’t know his age and name.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see those memory laden Prussians emerge from their historic painting. Seems so fitting they are coming into their own after all these years. I look forward to seeing them progress. I am sure they will fight well for you with all this TLC being lavished upon them. I recall the wrg rules you mention. I never really liked the look of the thing with wee units. On the subject of Minifigs a little purchase of a unit of jaegers, small in number, or unruly freicorps fellows would add a little colour to the blue army.
I think some families keep their loved one's gravestones scrubbed clean, but maybe Sheila ( aka 'The Pig') prefers to let it age naturally. Or perhaps they got Mike Siggins in, to do some weathering?
DeleteThanks, yes I am glad to be getting on with those Prussians, they deserve proper uniforms! Agree about Jaegers and Frei Korps, in fact I have some, courtesy of David Crook, but the Jaegers have been pressed into the Austrian army(!) - once the Botta regiment chaps are painted, the Jaegers can perhaps re-join Alte Fritz.
Excellent post - enjoyed that - especially the feature on the only interesting person ever to come from Heswall (most people moved there after they had made some money in Liverpool - I had posh aunties there and in West Kirby).
ReplyDeleteI'm interested by your experiences with Eco Spirit - I've never heard of it - I've been using Clean Spirit (by Bartoline), which works very slowly, but is less scary than the alternatives, though sometimes I am forced to finish off particularly obstinate batches in The Bleach, which undoes all that protection of the environment in a single slurp.
I must check out Eco Spirit forthwith. Thank you.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough the 'Eco Sprit' was inspired by one of your posts when you mentioned Clean Spirit. I went looking for that, and found Eco Spirit, which rather assume is pretty much the same thing. The figures had several weeks soaking earlier this year, which got most paint off, and I have recently given them another dunk to finish the job. As you see they are a dull shade of grey now, so they have not regained their original shiny metal look, but I think the paint is off OK, which is good enough.
Worth pointing out that I don't think they were varnished back in the day, so that may have helped.
There is a satisfaction of its own to rescuing old soldiers and breathing new life into them.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ross, yes indeed I will be very happy if I can give these a new lease of life!
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