Showing posts with label Der Kriegspielers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Der Kriegspielers. Show all posts

Tuesday, 19 March 2024

Heritage Models / Der Kriegspielers 'air power' and more...


I managed to pick up another old catalogue, this time from Walthers Inc of Milwaukee. It's a second edition version for 1975 and shows no 'taint' of fantasy or science fiction... that time was about to come!

And what a selection of goodies! They did offer trade discounts but, looking at the order form, it didn't extend to miniatures...


The 'air power' range described itself as;

'All metal precision cast actual scale model recognition aircraft super-detailed for use with mini armor, ships or as a separate collection of the aircraft of World War II'.

That ties in with the militaries use of GHQ 1/285 micro armour 'recognition' aspect. I wonder how lucrative the military contracts were back then!

The range at that time was as below... I don't know as yet if it was expanded but will start to collate and update on the Lost Minis WIKI later. I picked all of these up a few years back, along with some Heritage Napoleonettes (15mm), mainly so I could record them for posterity as usual. Can't see this gaming history disappear. The early packs (as per the listing below) only showed Der Kriegspielers however once they joined forces with Heritage Models that was changed along with the artwork. 


I certainly don't have any of the full colour cards as mention in the page above... would love to find a copy or two!

The rear of the blister pack;


The few blisters I have;













A few more bits from an old DK/HM catalogue;


I've now added everything to the WIKI;


I don't have a complete list to hand, possibly in another catalogue somewhere so two of the above were later additions than the 1975 Walthers' catalogue  shows. They are lovely miniatures and I'd love to find out more about them so, if you know, please leave a comment! I can't find anything after around 1979 so possibly the range was dropped / sold on?

They also had a page of GHQ 20mm wargaming figures. I have a few examples of these and they are lovely figures, as you would expect from GHQ. There are some pics if you check the GHQ label on the right of the blog.


I also got a oldish (from 2001 which, at my age, cannot be described as old any more...) catalogue for TCS. It's full of wargames bits and bobs including a 25mm fantasy range of which I do have a couple of pieces somewhere - pieces I've never been able to identify! Very shiny metal. I must find out more.



Also, I found parts of the Hinchliffe Models Medieval Siege Tower cladding kit. I'd picked these up in a bits box of stuff about 10 years ago and had completely forgotten them. Unfortunately it's not a complete set and some pieces are duplicated. One day I'll find the rest!

Hope everyone is well. I'm suffering from my regular 'man-flu' which, as usual, hits my chest and so old man karaoke is currently off the cards. Most upsetting!

Take care.

David


Saturday, 7 January 2023

Lord of the Rings - Heritage / Der Kriegspielers style


As per previous posts, the joy of painting old school minis is something that never leaves me for long... this time it was a few of the Heritage Orcs, back from when they had the licence for the 1978 Ralph Bakshi cartoon version of Lord of the Rings. Max Carr sculpts and they really capture the feel of the movie.


1811 Saruman's Urak-Hai Orcs of the White Hand Clubs






I've since tidied up the helmets a little as I noticed the red at the metal edge looked wrong.

Besides a myriad of blisters for the range (including Cliff Sanderson sculpted 75mm ones), they also did a couple of boxed games... no exclusive minis unfortunately.

Edit - apparently the balrog only came with this set. The blistered variant was much larger.



The full range (and more) is on the Lost Minis WIKI;


A few years earlier Duke Seifried (amongst other sculptors) at Der Kriegspielers sculpted a large 'not' Lord of the Rings range including this Fellowship set. Games Workshop imported them back in the day but they were too expensive for my hobby budget at the time. I've named the Hobbits as I think they should be... Frodo is the only obvious one...

1057 The Companions


The four Hobbits


Gandalf


Strider


Boromir


Legolas


Gimli


Frodo


Sam


Merry


Pippin


The full range can be seen on the Lost Minis Wiki;


Michael over at Classic Miniatures has most of these old ranges available nowadays;


Finally, a couple of minis I am completely at a loss to identify... a wizard and a monk. Early 80's or late 70's I assume. Help!


As always enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Friday, 7 October 2022

Der Kriegspielers - Lord of the Rings by any other name...

 

Back in the early 70's, Duke Seifried set up Custom Cast Inc which became one of America's largest manufacturer of wargame figures. Der Kriegspielers 'Fantastiques' were one of the earliest fantasy ranges (beaten by Miniature Figurines in '73 and Jack Scruby slightly after) and certainly the most diverse and colourful! The 1000 series was absolutely based on Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit with slight name changes in many case being probably too close to Tolkein's creations.

A full listing can be seen on the Lost Minis WIKI here.

I picked up a few pieces back in the day when Games Workshop (via Dalling Road mail order) imported them but they were, as was the way back then, too expensive for my meagre means. Michael Thomas now has most of the ranges available again (https://classicminiatures.net/) and I can vouch that they are indeed excellent high quality metal castings. Anyway, I was sorting through boxes and came across a bunch of the range so thought I'd better post them here... 


















Lots more posts on DK if you click the labels on the right of the blog.

Hope you're all keeping well in these turbulent times.