Wurtz-Pées - 3e régiment étranger irlandais

Hello,

A few weeks ago I stumbled across some very interesting plates with images of historical paper figures. I'd like to show you a series of them today.

As far as my research has shown, these plates were inserts in the magazine "Soldats Napoleoniens" (Napoleonic Soldiers). The figures shown are photographs from the Musée de l'Armée (Army Museum) of the very well-known collection of hand-painted paper soldiers belonging to the Wurtz-Pées family. This collection was created roughly between 1825 and 1855 and essentially depicts all the units of the Napoleonic French Army and its allies.

Interestingly, these plates also show the original backs of the figures on the reverse side.

The series shown here depicts the 3rd Foreign Regiment from Ireland (3e régiment étranger "irlandais") of the French Army in the uniform of 1811.

Best regards,

Andreas

Abadie - Soldatenbilderbogen, Feldkanone im Gefecht

Hello,

today I'm showing you another Abadie printing sheet featuring Austrian soldiers from the interwar period.

"Feldkanone im Gefecht" sheet from the first series of Soldaten-Bilderbogen

To be precise, I've already shown this sheet here before – specifically, the version from the second series of Abadie sheets. These sheets are slightly larger and have Roman numeral numbering. As far as I know, there were numbers I to XIII. Here is the equivalent from the first, unnumbered series.

For the sake of completeness, here is the sheet from the 2nd series.

As always with Abadie, the figures are 6 cm tall.

Best regards,

Andreas

J.F.Schreiber 990 - Türkisches Heer, Infanterie und Freiwillige

Hello,

today I'm showing you eight 9,5cm tall Turkish infantrymen that originally came from printing sheet no.990 by J.F. Schreiber.

Unfortunately, the figures are not in good condition. Some are badly faded, some have water damage, and the bayonets are broken. If they hadn't been glued to fiberboard and cut out, they probably wouldn't have survived. They are hard-used historical toys that appear to have been repaired several times, illustrating that with this figures were actually played with.

Best regards, 

Andreas

American Civil War - ABC

Hello,

Today I'm showing you some more figures from the Czechoslovakian ABC Magazine.

This time they are 40mm scale soldiers from the American Civil War. The figures are double-sided and were drawn (if I translated correctly) by Premysl Kubela. They were published in 1993 or 1994.

Best regards,

Andreas

Imagerie Quantin Paris - German Army

Hello,

today I'm showing you a sheet from the Imagerie Quantin in Paris. It doesn't quite fall into the "paper soldiers" category, meaning the figures weren't intended to be cut out and displayed. Rather, it's an example from the world of "picture sheets."

However, since I stumbled across this print for a song—and the manufacturer even made it into Edward Ryan's book "Paper Soldiers"—I'm presenting it here.

The figures, about 7 cm tall, depict early German field-gray uniforms from World War I. The print can therefore likely be dated to between 1914 and 1916.

Best regards,

Andreas

French Poilus

Hello,

today, for a change, I'm showing you something I painted myself. These figures are part of an experiment I undertook last August or September. I wanted to try painting only the base colors on some figures and representing all the shadows and details, etc., with blck ink hatching. A bit like in comic books.

I used scans of Pellerin French figures as references, as well as a photo of a soldier firing a gun. I scaled the figures to 8 cm.

After painting a few, I used the design of a medal commemorating the return of Alsace-Lorraine as my reference too.

Since I think this technique works quite well with the WWI figures, I wanted to try it out on Napoleonic uniforms, so I started to make a few Bavarians.

I think it could work with figures in "action" poses. However, I don't like it as much on these classic figures standing at attention.

These experiments are currently complete for me, but I can easily imagine creating some opponents for these Poilus at some point.

Best regards,

Andreas

J.F.Schreiber 394 (Mini) - Englische Truppen

Hello,

Today I'm showing you another Schreiber mini-sheet. This one is number 394 and depicts British troops (in German usage until 1945, everything was considered "English"). It also features a Roman numeral, this time "LXXVI" (76).

The British soldiers are wearing the khaki colonial uniform of around 1900. Two figures from the WW1 British Infantry set are also included. The figures are 55 to 60 mm tall.

Best regards, 

Andreas