Artillerie de la Garde Impériale - Silberman No.26 (FAKE?)

 Hello,

While searching for old Silbermann plates, I found this one here in Italy and bought it. I was a bit skeptical from the start because the size of 26.8 cm x 16.2 cm would be much too small for a Silbermann print. Did the seller make a mistake? Did I just find proof that Silbermann also printed much smaller figures that were previously unknown?

Neither. When I finally held the sheet in my hands after a long wait, it turned out to be a modern "copy." A "copy" in terms of the image, but of course not in terms of the format. The figures are only about 5.5 cm high! They were printed using modern CMYK halftone printing. On the back is the well-known advertising imprint for "Cordonnerie Piron." On the originals, the printing ink had soaked through the thin paper, so the print was also slightly visible on the front. Here, however, this print on the front was shown as a halftone print!

What do I have here? Where does this sheet come from, who had it printed and for what purpose, and are there other motifs? If anyone can help me, I would be very grateful for an answer.

Best regards,

Andreas

Bavarian Hartschier Guard, pt.1 - 1701, rider in overcoat

Hello,

Today I'm showing you my first Bavarian Hartschier. The idea came from Jean-Benoît Pfeiffer, who showed me three beautifully painted Hartschiere from the time of Ludwig II a few days ago. However, I didn't want to simply copy his work; instead, I used it as an opportunity to figuratively depict the history of the uniforms of this Bavarian Guard.

My first figure shows a "Hatschieren" in the uniform introduced by decree of September 7, 1701. I used an engraving by Anton Hoffmann as the basis for my figure. This rider's "rothe Mantel" (red overcoat) is particularly notable: a "scarlet cloth coat, lined with red, with three silver-covered buttons below the collar for closure and three one-and-a-quarter-inch-wide silver loops on each side as buttonhole edging." 

This red overcoat was only available to the Hartschier Guard, so I think it's worth depicting.

Until 1701, the Hartschier Guard rode "large bays." According to an order dated September 7, 1701, only "grey" horses were to be ridden. So I finally painted my very first horse and tried to depict a grey one.

The next Hartschier Guard figures are already being planned. 😉

Best regards,

Andreas

Czechoslovakian Airforce 1938 - ABC

Hello,

Today I can finally show you the last sheet of the 1938 Czechoslovak Soldiers series from ABC Magazine.

 It took a few years, but thanks to a nice contact in the Czech Republic, I was finally able to get this sheet for my collection. In addition to six figures, two smaller-scale aircraft are also printed. The figures are about 6 cm tall.

Best regards,

Andreas

Wargame Print - Just Paper Battles Crimea 1854 - pt.3

Hello,

Here's a little update on my 1854 French figures from "Just Paper Battles" (Wargame Print). You can find more details and information in part 1 – the most important points are that I've scaled the figures to 75mm (266%) and printed them on one side only.

These are the newly completed figures since the last update.

In this photo I have removed the fighting Chasseurs a pied so that you can see the figures in the back better.

In 1854, the French line infantry was still divided into fusiliers, grenadiers, and voltigeurs. This disappeared in 1868. In the picture on the left, you can see my first line infantrymen from a fusilier company.

The rider in red in the middle is a Spahi officer. And on the right are more Chasseurs a pied. This is the branch of the military I'm currently focusing on.

Here's a snapshot of all the soldiers I've completed so far in this project. There are only about 60 of them, but they're already taking up an incredible amount of space!

And another photo of the workbench. As you can see, there will be many chasseurs a pied in the next update - but not only! 😉

Best regards,

Andreas

Abadie - Italian Soldiers Abyssinian War

Hello,

Today I'm showing you some loose figures from the Abadie series about the Abyssinian War. As far as I can tell, this series, with a total of 15 numbered soldier picture sheets (Soldatenbilderbögen), was published in 1937 and featured both Abyssinian and Italian troops. So far, I've only managed to find a few individual Italian figures for my collection.

The figures shown cannot be assigned to a specific number, as they all appeared multiple times.

The Italian officer was found on picture sheets number 9, 12 and 14.

The shooting soldier was found on picture sheets no. 9 and 15.

The Askari was printed on picture sheets no. 11 and 12.

The hand grenade launcher was found on picture sheets no. 10 and 13.

And the storming soldier appeared on picture sheets numbers 9, 12, and 14.

The figures in this series are slightly larger than the Abadie figures of the Austrian Federal Army but still correspond to a figure size of 6cm.

Best regards,

Andreas

Abadie - Soldatenbilderbogen Infanterie

 Hello,

Today I'm showing you two more soldier picture sheets (Soldatenbilderbögen) that were used as advertising material by the Austrian cigarette paper manufacturer Abadie. This one also shows soldiers of the Austrian Federal Army in pre-1938 uniforms. Many of these Abadie sheets were printed both with and without numbering. However, I've never seen numbered sheets of the variants I'm showing today. The two sheets are almost identical and both have the "Infanterie" (infantry) imprint. The only difference is that one shows only marching soldiers, while the other has two figures replaced by an officer and a drummer. The figure size is 6 cm, as usual with Abadie.

Best regards,

Andreas

Gallic Heavy Infantry - Warriors and Battles

 Hello,

Today I'm showing you Gallic Warriors.

They're the "Gallic Heavy Infantry" figures from "Warriors and Battles." You can find this figure set and many others from this manufacturer, for example, at wargamevault.com. They're PDF files for downloading and printing yourself. The figures are actually in the wargaming scale of 28mm, are drawn with front and back, and can be printed with black borders of varying thicknesses. I was curious to see how much these figures could be scaled up and was very surprised that it was no problem at all to print them in 75mm figure size (250%).

Unfortunately, the front and back of the figures don't line up. So if you want to use them double-sided, you should leave a small border around the figures. However, I wanted my figures to be cut precisely, so these are only single-sided. The 8 different warriors cost me about $3, and I think I'll gradually collect at least the various Gaulish sets.

Best regards,

Andreas