Hello,
I'd like to use this "reflective
time" at the end of the year to look back on the past year.
In January 2025, I decided to start
this little blog with the intention of creating a kind of digital
archive of my collection, and to continually motivate myself to
craft, draw, or paint paper figures. This initial enthusiasm was
fueled by the idea of creating a collection of handmade figures
in the style of Alsatian soldiers, inspired primarily by Jean
Pfeiffer.
Unfortunately, the necessary time
wasn't always available (old house, garden, two children, pets, work,
other hobbies), so this area often fell by the wayside. Although I'm
not particularly good at drawing or painting, I tried to find my own
style. I experimented with watercolors, oils, and acrylics, creating
simple figures without shading as well as more elaborately painted
ones. I still owe you some of these experiments, meaning I will
definitely show some more pictures of them here in the future. And my
experiments aren't finished yet. I also have more ideas and various
templates that I'd like to try out. But I'm close to the point where
I'm satisfied with the figures—especially with the ratio of
production time to appearance—so I hope that I can fulfill my dream
and start with the making of such a collection soon.
The second part, creating a kind of
database of printed historical paper figures, has been much more
successful, I think. I was sometimes surprised myself by how much
I've accumulated over the years. I think I have enough material for
this blog for many more years—and new finds are constantly being
made. I also keep discovering new things through research that I'm
happy to share here if they relate to one of the presented prints.
I've received a lot of questions about
specific pieces. I'd like to answer some of the more general ones
here for everyone. First of all, there are many collectors who like
to create their own figures for their collections from historical
printed sheets. For this reason, I've started making most of the
figures included on the presented sheets available as 300dpi scans.
If you haven't noticed, you can click on these images and save the
scan as a separate file to print it yourself in the desired size. If
you'd like to craft any of the figures I've presented here that I've
forgotten to scan, just let me know, and I'll add them.
This, of course, doesn't apply to new
figures, especially those released as digital downloads for the
wargaming community. When I present such items, it's primarily to
promote the respective product—not because I receive anything for
it, but simply because I generally like these figures and want to
support the designer or publisher.
I've also been asked several times if I
cut out the figures from the presented print sheets. No, of course
not! As much as I enjoy cut-out figures, the intact print sheet is
the best way to preserve these older pieces. And it would be a real
shame to destroy them. Please don't do that.
Regarding some questions about the
"restoration" (or repair) of cut-out soldiers: Not all of
the cut-out figures I present here originally arrived in the
condition shown. Many of the figures need minor restoration.
Sometimes the figures' legs or weapons are bent and need some support
from behind. Sometimes the wooden bases are missing. Sometimes only
paper tabs are attached for display – depending on their condition,
I sometimes replace these with wood, etc. Some figures were also very
poorly cut, and I've made some improvements there. Some figures are
also coming loose from their cardboard backsides or need a few new
adhesive dots to prevent them from falling off. My goal with all
these small repairs is to preserve the figures as well as possible
for the coming years and decades as collector's items, and certainly
not to destroy or unnecessarily alter anything.
A few details about the blog itself:
When I wrote the first lines at the end of January 2025, it took
quite a while before the first interested readers found this blog.
When I saw some click counts, I was delighted to see that there are
apparently people worldwide who enjoy looking at such old prints or
are interested in historical paper figures.
The number of visits to my blog has
steadily increased since then! I'm truly amazed by how many different
people—and from so many different countries—are looking at my
little soldiers!
In total, I've uploaded 95 posts so far
in 2025.
Over the last 11 months, I've had
6970 visits, or about 20 per day.
The post with the most clicks was the
one featuring German artillery from 1940, published by ABC Verlag
(published on June 23, 2025).
Broken down by country, most of the
visits came from the USA, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, and
the United Kingdom. This is just a selection, though. Even if I'm
sure many of the visits originate from proxy servers in these
countries, I'm delighted that there seems to be a worldwide interest
in this wonderful hobby.
I hope to present you with many more
interesting pieces and information about paper soldiers next year.
I wish you and your families a
wonderful, healthy and successful 2026, and continued enjoyment of
looking at, crafting, or collecting paper figures.
Best regards,
Andreas
