Musikkapelle, Gustav Kühn 10291 (similar)

Hello,

Today I'm showing you some single cut soldiers again.

It's a group of seven musicians in Wehrmacht uniforms. The same soldiers appeared in a Gustav Kühn sheet numbered 10291 as the "Infanterie-Musikkapelle" (Infantry Band). But these figures here certainly don't come from such a sheet. For one thing, the figures are smaller than I would expect from Kühn, and for another, they are printed in very poor quality on a type of newsprint. I suspect they come from a German youth magazine or newspaper from the 1940s.

The figures are about 6.5 cm tall.

Best regards,

Andreas

German Reichswehr Soldiers - Oehmigke & Riemschneider Neuruppin Nr.10331

 Hello,

Today I'm showing you a sheet of German Reichswehr soldiers in the uniforms between 1921 and 1933. It was printed sometime in the mid-1920s an it's from the company Oehmigke & Riemschneider in Neuruppin and bears the number 10331. Unfortunately, it was torn in half.

You can see various groups of German Reichswehr soldiers, supply troops, a medical carriage, a motorcycle – but also an infantry gun and a road-going armored car.

The figures are naturally slightly different in size due to the different perspectives, but they roughly correspond to a figure size of 7.5 to 8 cm. In the upper left corner there is a stamp of the dealer who sold this sheet at the time.

Best regards,

Andreas

German Anti-Aircraft Artillery 1939 - ABC

Hello,

Today I'm showing you the third of four sheets on the German Wehrmacht from the Czech ABC magazine.

This sheet covers the Luftwaffe's anti-aircraft artillery. It features an 8.8cm anti-aircraft gun, ammunition crates and shell casings, as well as the crew consisting of an officer, a rangefinder, a telephone operator, and four artillerymen.

This sheet was printed sometime in the mid-1990s. The figures, like the entire series, are 6cm tall.

A noticeable printing error is a cyan-colored bar running through the helmets and caps on the backs of some figures.

Best regards,

Andreas

German Artillery 1940 - ABC

Hello,

Today I'm showing you the second sheet (of four) of the German Wehrmacht from the Czech ABC Magazine.

This time: artillery soldiers with a field howitzer.

The soldiers correspond very well to the typical Wehrmacht uniforms of 1939 or 40, with their tunics with dark green collars, the high boots and the helmets with double-decals. The only thing that could be criticized are the red collar tabs; they didn't exist in this form.

Otherwise, these are very vividly drawn figures in 6cm scale.

Best regards,

Andreas

German Infantry 1939 - ABC

Hello,

Today I'm showing you another sheet from a Czech ABC magazine. 

It depicts nine two-page figures of German Wehrmacht soldiers in early field jackets, the typical uniforms of the 1939 and 1940 campaigns. These figures were published in 1994 or 1995. The figures are 6 cm tall.

Best regards,

Andreas

J.F.Schreiber 308 - Deutsche Husaren

Hello,

Today we're continuing with the next J.F. Schreiber plate. 

This time, number 308 features 8 hussars of the 1.Leib-Husaren Regiment Nr.1. This plate includes an officer and 7 enlisted men. The depiction with the rearing horse is "very special." A cut-out and lined-up troop certainly looks more like dancing circus horses than a tight-knit military unit. The coloring makes the hussars almost dark blue, but their uniforms should actually be black. The figure size is approximately 7 cm. These 300-numbered plates were printed and sold approximately between 1900 and 1916.

Best regards,

Andreas

J.F.Schreiber 307 - Deutsche Dragoner

Hello,

Today I'm showing you a new addition to my collection. It's sheet 307 from the J.F. Schreiber company in Esslingen. 

The sheet depicts eight German dragoons from the Imperial German Empire. One of the figures is an officer, and the other seven represent enlisted ranks. The white color of the lapels and shoulder boards identifies the riders as members of the Leib-Dragoner-Regiment (2. Großherzoglich Hessisches) Nr. 24. From the top of the helmet to the hooves, the riders are 13 cm tall, which corresponds to a figure height of approximately 8 cm.

Best regards,

Andreas

Reichswehr Kavallerie, Scholz' Künstlerische Soldatenbogen 27K - pt.2

Hello,

Today I'm showing you the figures from Scholz sheet 27K again, only this time cut out and assembled. This was my first find in 2025, and I was very happy about it. This is actually the only set I own both as a complete printed sheet version and completely cut out.

Unfortunately, the figures needed a lot of love to get them back on their feet. They must have been stored in damp conditions at some point—thank goodness they didn't start to mold! The bases were made of pressed cardboard and had become unusable. The figures themselves were a bit wavy. So I removed the old bases and pressed the figures for a while to make them flat again. Most of them never had any back reinforcement, and the ones that did have it at some point had come loose. So I gave the figures a layer of thin cardboard and glued on new wooden bases. I hope they're in good shape now to last for the next hundred years.

The officer in the front, at 11cm tall (8cm figure size), is actually slightly larger than the other 8 figures (10cm / figure size 7cm), which is further emphasized by the rider's different perspective.

I hope you like them as much as I do.

Best regards,

Andreas

Reichswehr Kavallerie, Scholz' Künstlerische Soldatenbogen 27K - pt.1

Hello,

Today I'm showing you another sheet from Josef Scholz in Mainz. This time, number 27K, and it shows nine cavalrymen of the German Reichswehr in their uniforms from 1921 to 1934. 

Since the soldiers are wearing white and light blue lance pennants, I can even narrow down the regiment. They must be riders of the 17th (Bavarian) Cavalry Regiment. For me as a Bavarian, that's certainly something special - but the sheet is still in the original sales block, and that's a real stroke of luck for me. That's the only block of this type I've ever seen, so I absolutely had to have it. I'll present the block separately someday. The sheet presented here is even included three times!

More on this topic tomorrow... 😉

Sincerely,

Andreas

Preußische Artillerie, C.Burckardt's Nachfolger Weissenburg No.241

 Hello,

After showing very high-quality printed plates the last few times, today I'm going to show you the opposite. 

Today I'm showing you No. 241 from "C. Burckardt's Nachfolger, Weissenburg" (formerly Wentzel) featuring Prussian artillerymen. As was often the case back then, this one was printed on very thin, poor-quality paper. 

The graphics and the print itself are fine, but the coloring was done using stencils. Unfortunately, the coloring didn't always hit the right area. In some places, the ink soaked into the paper, and in some places the still-wet paint was smudged. Nevertheless, a nice example of the cheap mass production of the time. 

And definitely good enough to create my own hand-painted figures using the scans of this plate – but more on that later.

Best regards,

Andreas

Regiment Gardes du Corps, RAPI S14

 Hello,

Today I'm showing you a printed sheet from the German manufacturer Rauert & Pittius (RAPI) from Sorau. The sheet has the number S14 and shows soldiers of the Prussian Gardes du Corps Regiment in the uniform from shortly before World War I. 

A total of 15 riders in parade uniform are shown, including 1 officer, 1 Feldwebel (staff sergeant), 1 trumpeter, 2 Unteroffiziere (sergeants) and 10 men. It was probably printed in the mid or late 1920s. The height of the figures is 10.5cm from the horse's hoof to the tip of the helmet.

Best regards,

Andreas

Wehrmachtsgeschütze, Gustav Kühn 10285 (similar)

Hello,

Today I would like to show you two gun groups that I was able to purchase recently. The figures are known from the Gustav Kühn sheet no. 10285. There they are referred to as "Leichter Minenwerfer" (Light Mine Thrower - that is the light infantry gun 18) and "Schwere Haubitze" (Heavy Howitzer). The Gustav Kühn sheet also contains a third gun, the "Gebirgs-Haubitze" (Mountain Howitzer).

But these figures certainly do not come from this sheet. They are more likely to have been printed in a newspaper, a brochure or as advertising material. Firstly, they are printed on very poor, thin paper, and secondly, they were only printed with three colors (cyan, magenta, yellow) - although the cyan was not aligned correctly.

The figure size is approx. 6cm.

Best regards,

Andreas

Deutsches Reichsheer Musikkorps, RAPI S5 (pt.2)

Deutsches Reichsheer Musikkorps, RAPI S5

Hello,

after a few necessary repairs to some figures, I can now show you the rest of my new music corps.

There are 31 figures in total - but there were originally 33 figures on the print sheet. Unfortunately, two are missing, namely a clarinet player and a bassoon. The rest are in pretty good shape. As mentioned in the first presentation, all figures have been repainted as Württembergers. This is most noticeable with the Schellenbaum. The dangling tails were originally printed in black and white.

I really like these figures and I'm looking forward to presenting the next ones in a few days.

Best wishes,

Andreas

Deutsches Reichsheer Musikkorps, RAPI S5 (pt.1)

Deutsches Reichsheer Musikkorps, RAPI S5

Hello,

today I would like to show you 11 of my new paper soldiers.

They are part of a wonderful collection that I was able to buy a few days ago. The figures are from the cut-out sheet "RAPI S5 Deutsches Reichsheer: Musikkorps" (German Reich Army Music Corps). RAPI is the abbreviation for the manufacturer "Rauert and Pittius" from Sorau, who produced paper soldiers between 1922 and 1944 and whose figures I personally find very beautiful. Sheets S1 to S6 are dedicated to the German Reichswehr in the uniforms from 1921 onwards, and sheet S5 shows the music corps of an infantry regiment. The sheets are normally all in Prussian national colors, i.e. the cockades, helmet markings and lance flags etc. are all in white/black. The figures shown here were cut out and made by a proud Württemberger, who gave the figures all the red/black Württemberg state colors. A very nice detail in my opinion.

You can see the drum major, 5 flute players and 5 drummers from the "military" part of the music corps. The figures are not the same, each one is a little bit different from the others. The figure size is 8cm.

Best wishes,

Andreas