Journal - International Flat Figure Society - British Flat...

JournalThe British Flat Figure Society

No 126 Autumn 2017

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BFFS Journal No 126 - AUTUMN 2017

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Front Cover: Trooping the ColourJosef Tesinski figures.3. Fairies at the Bottom of My Garden.Jon Redley regresses to his childhood.6. What's New.Figures from the pages of Die Zinnfigur.8. Visiting Kulmbach in the Sixties.8. Painting With Glazes.9. Flats for the period 1815-1970.Three short pieces by Michael Creese.10. Trooping the Colour.Josef Tesinski's figures, first part.13. Kulmbach 2017.Pictures from Kulmbach.16. How Much to Make a Flat Figure?Brian Keywood gives the gen.18. What's New Too.Glorious Empires.19. Society Contacts.Who is who and Society information.Rear cover: Western Miniatures 'Pixie Dell'.Currently available figures from this set.

Cover background Photo: Corporal Paul Shaw/MOD, OGL, ht tps: / /commons .wik imedia .org/w/ index .php?curid=27612365

The opinions expressed within this Journal are not necessarily those of the

Editor, the Committee, other officials, or the British Flat Figure Society.

Well, another Journal is late, but without enough content, no Journal. Not helped by me falling off a step ladder and putting my back out, making it hard to work on my computer for a couple of weeks. Need to remember I am 68 not 18....Anyway, many thanks to all contributors. I am as always grateful for any articles, reviews, news, in fact anything at all that is flats related.Now need to rush to get the winter edition out before Christmas......

of The British Flat Figure

SocietyJournal No 126 Autumn 2017

Journal

AFCFEF Strassburg Show will be held 5-6 May in the Pavilion Josephine, Parc de l'Orangerie.

-oOo-Dutch Model Soldier Society Model Figure Day, 8th September.

Euro Miniature Expo 2018 will be held at the Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone, on 22-23 September

Printed by: The Print Edge Ltd, Unit 2, The Old Reservoir, Buckland Road, Bideford, Devon EX39 5EU

When you reach a certain age people often think that you return to your childhood. I am sure many of my friends believe that I have either never left my first childhood or that I am experiencing multiple childhoods, not just the usual second childhood. One thing that is common to us all about our childhood is that we will have, from an early age, been introduced to the concept of fairies, be they tooth or Christmas type, and their fairy world friends. We were all, regardless of our national origins, introduced to fairy tales through story books or films, after all the Disney Corporation has made a vast amount of money and has had considerable success retelling traditional folk tales so it is little wonder that these tales have provided a starting point for many artists working in different media.

Dick Jenkins already has a range of Flower Fairies based on the works of Cicely Mary Barker to which further releases have or are being issued with the prefix refer-ence NMT (Not Mike Taylor) so it is no surprise that such a large area for inspiration forms the basis of his new series based on the Pixie Dell.

Fairy tales often have a moral purpose or are used to explain a range of different naturally occurring events. During the Middle Ages, any-thing that went wrong was the fault of malevolent spirits. This covered a wide range of situations from military failings to milk being curdled. Even as recently as the Second World War when problems occurred in the manufacturing of armaments faulty batches were said to be caused by gremlins.

The nineteenth century saw an explosion of interest in fairies both in literature and art. In 1824 the book ‘Ger-man Popular Stories’ better known as ‘Grimm’s Fairy Tales’ was published in England. Twenty-three years later the Dan-ish writer Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales were translated and published. As the century progressed more authors saw the opportunities that arose from improved standards of literacy with better education

for the young, and a growing number of stories were written for that market. Oscar Wilde produced several short stories aimed at children, Lewis Carroll introduced the world inhabited by Alice and her friends and J. M. Barrie introduced the young to the world of Peter Pan both through his writing and stage productions. This devel-opment in producing books for children brought with it a need for illustrations and a number of artists used their skills to bring the writer’s words alive to their young audience. ‘Grimm’s Fairy Tales’ were illustrated by George Cruikshank, who illustrated Charles Dickens’ works. Two regular contributors to ‘Punch’ magazine worked on children’s book illustration: Sir John Tenniel produced the illustrations for

both ‘Alice’ books and Richard ‘Dicky’ Doyle was one of the most popular Vic-torian fairy illustrators. Richard’s father John, a political cartoonist, and Richard’s brother Charles, father of Arthur Conan Doyle, were also both fairy illustrators. The Victorian artist and designer Walter Crane illustrated a number of fairy books for children, including Wilde’s ‘Happy Prince’, Spenser’s ‘The Faerie Queen’ and ‘Flora’s Feast’ (‘A Fairy’s Festival of Flowers’). Perhaps the best-known fairy illustrator of the late Victorian and Edwardian era, with his very original, irrational and sometimes grotesque approach to the subject matter was Arthur Rackham. Rackham illustrated versions of ‘Grimm’s Fairy Tales’, ‘Rip Van Winkle’, ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘A Midsummer

Night’s Dream’. He lived long enough to illustrate Kenneth Grahame’s ‘Wind in the Willows’, published in 1940. (Has anyone noticed a pattern here with Dick’s catalogue of figures?)

The dominant force of early nine-teenth century art world was the academic style. In most European countries artists had sought during the previous century to gain acceptance for their professional status. By establishing various national academies they had achieved their desire for respectability and acceptance. The only problem arose as younger artists pushed the boundaries of art and began to challenge previously accepted methods of work. The academies classified art in various levels of

importance and relied heavily on the art of the classical era. The romantic movement of the early part of the century rebelled against reason and order, which had defined the period of enlightenment that these young artists associated to some extent with the practices taught through the academy system. In their place, the romantics extolled the virtues of emotion and individualism. They looked to the past preferring the romantic tales of Arthurian legend, medieval romance rather than the stories from the classical world. In addition, they developed an interest in tales that were wild, exotic and

mysterious where they could challenge the certainties of life. In Britain there de-veloped an interest in the nation’s cultural heritage, in particular the Celtic stories and the world of fairies.

The academies used a variety of literary sources for their painting, however these tended to be confined to Greek or Roman texts with the occasional use of the works of a more modern writer, in Britain Shakespeare was seen as an acceptable source. In the 1840’s this literary based genre also became the basis for the grow-ing interest in fairy and fantasy subject matter. In particular two of Shakespeare’s plays ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘The Tempest’ became the central theme for a number of artists and throughout the

Dick Jenkins has sold the molds for the Reigning Queens set to Herr Bakat.He has also sold the molds for Ancient Egypt to Frank Dittmar.

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decade pictures based on these works were exhibited at the annual Royal Academy show. It has been argued that a number of artists used fairy painting as a means to explore their sexual inhibitions which both the Academy, with its demand for cold classical works, and Victorian so-cial convention deemed an unacceptable subject in polite and respectable society. The two Shakespeare plays allowed these painters the opportunity to produce work with a fairy theme. Daniel Maclise, Francis Danby, Richard Dadd, Joseph Noel Paton and Edwin Landseer produced paintings based on a ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’. ‘The Tempest’ inspired work by Richard Dadd, David Scott, Paul Falconer Poole, John Everett Millais and William Bell Scott.

Perhaps the best known fairy painter is Richard Dadd whose fairy paintings fall into two distinct periods. Dadd began to paint fairy subjects in the early 1840’s, exhibiting ‘Titania Sleeping’ in 1841 and ‘Come Unto These Yellow Sands’ in 1842, both conventional renditions of fairy paint-ing and based on Shakespeare’s works. In 1843 after a painting trip to the Middle east he returned home. Shortly after this, while on a visit to Cobham, he inexplicably stabbed and killed his father. He fled to France where he was arrested and returned to England. It appears that various members of the Dadd family suffered from mental health problems, Richard was commit-ted to the Bethlem hospital, Southwark, still known locally as ‘Bedlam’ (now the central part is the Imperial War Museum. In 1864 he was transferred to Broadmoor where he died in 1886. During this period he produced a number of drawings and watercolours including perhaps his two most famous works; ‘Contradiction – Oberon and Titania’ and ‘The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke’. These are two of the most extraordinary of all Victorian fairy paint-ings. Although they hark back to Dadd’s earlier career as a painter of Shakespearean fairy subjects they transport the viewer into a totally different view of the subject matter. The works have such an intricacy of detail you feel as though you are in-volved in the action. You are looking on through highly detailed foregrounds into pictures crowded with a range of figures from normal to weird, with animals and mythical creatures covering every inch of the surface. The effect of these canvasses is

haunting, obsessive and relentless, totally different from the world humans inhabit.

The work of Joseph Noel Paton also employs the technique of obsessively crowding the canvas with writhing, flut-tering or sleeping fairies. Unlike Dadd’s late works Noel Paton’s pictures display a more academic approach showing fair-ies in a festive mood, happy and not at all threatening. In contrast the work of John Anster Fitzgerald suggests a darker side to the fairy folk. In his early fairy pieces he concentrates on dreams with pictures filled with what appears to be the harmless antics of goblins and other strange creatures. As he develops his interest in the world of fairies his work becomes more imaginative. His fairies are dressed in strange costumes and the subject matter becomes darker, explor-ing the themes of sex and violence. There are aspects of his work that are reminiscent of that of Heironymus Bosch.

As the nineteenth century entered its last quarter the interest in fairy paint-ing declined. Although artists like Richard Doyle and his brother Charles continued to produce paintings it was their work as il-lustrators that became more important. This allowed them to continue their interest in creating fairy works but it also meant their

work could be seen by a wider audience. Fairy paintings had begun to die out as an art form in its own right and an interest in fairies became a literary based form once more. In this form it allowed the fairy world to continue into the twentieth century with the works of Arthur Rackham, Cicely Mary Barker and Margaret Tarrant – a book and greetings card illustrator who produced a series of images of flower fairies during the 1920’s and 1930’s.

As the nineteenth century had pro-gressed the Victorians had become aware of a whole range of ‘new’ ideas and inventions that were to affect their lives. Ideas arrived in England from Europe. Freud and Jung had begun to open people’s eyes to the idea of the inner self. Spiritualism, seances and table-rapping had been introduced from America. Cecil Sharpe had begun to look into the origins of English folk music and customs, with their references to fairy folk. The developments in photography made it possible to record an image direct from nature. It was however the use of a camera that in 1917 was to ignite a new debate about fairies. Two young girls from Cottingley in Yorkshire claimed to have seen fairies near their home and produced a series of photographs showing themselves with a range of different fairies. Experts of every kind descended on Cottingley to try and prove or disprove the girl’s claims. They had a supporter in Arthur Conan Doyle (son of fairy painter Charles), the author of Sherlock Holmes and a committed spir-itualist, in his ‘The Coming of the Fairies’ (1922). It was not until the 1980’s that the photographs were proved to be fakes.

The world of fairies is one of complication with a mix of different tales

and characters depending upon the area of origin. There does, however, appear to be a number of common themes and activities that fairy folk adhere to. Two of these are music and dancing and it’s these that have been used as the basis for the ‘Pixie Dell’ figures. It is claimed that fairy musicians have a magical skill. Their melodies are known to be beautiful and plaintive yet wild and capricious. They have affected the mortal listener,

creating a series of reactions from joyful to melancholic forgetfulness even to a fatal sleep. Along with their passion for music, fairies, whether good or evil, adore to dance. The commonest form, as seen in numerous illustrations, is a sort of circular dance. In this they have no partners and they leap, jig and twist alone in a wild reel. The site of these performances, a fairy ring, becomes a danger for any unsuspecting human be-ing, where the wild enchantment of fairy

music can lead him into the ring to join the fairies in their wild prancing. Once inside the ring the human loses all sense of time, remaining to dance with the fairies unless he can be rescued by his friends.

For those of you wishing to dis-cover more about fairies and fairy-lore (or want to know the difference between a knocker and ghillie dhu or a kobold and a pixie) then the book ‘Faeries’ by Brian Froud and Alan Lee published by Abrams is as good a place as any to start.

The Cottingley Fairies A Brooke Bond Tea card.

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Figures from the pages of Die Zinnfigur. All figures 30mm unless

otherwise stated.

Below, Venus in Evening Gown, a 120mm figure. Designed by Karl-Heinz Hempel and engraved by Rolf Grünewald.Available from:Karl-Heinz Hempel, Rote Gasse 29, 01662 Meissen.

Above, a nice 40mm figure of a French Horse Chasseur of the Line, 1808. Designed and engraved by Werner Otto.Available from:Philippe Fourquet, 2 Rue Woelfelin, 68000 Colmar, France.Below, a 54mm Mohican Film Indian. Designed by Mike Michaelis and engraved by Karl-Werner Rieger. Painted by Frank-Michael Glöß.Available from:Erhardt Straßburg, Zwickauer Strasse 120, 04279 Leipzig. email [email protected] from Erhard Straßburg, the figure of Marshal Ney at Elchingen, shown right. Designed by Klaus Breyer and engraved by Werner Otto.

On this page, more in the series of figures of Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, 1798-1801 by Rieger.These include Ibrahim Bey, Mamelukes, French Hussars, and Anton Lutz (Queens Germans, 97th Foot) capturing a French Flag at Alexandria.Available from:Karl-Werner Rieger, Hufenkamp 4, 24119 Kronshagen.Tel: (03 31) 52 83 33Email: [email protected]: www.zinnfiguren-rieger.de.Right, figures for 'Through the Desert' by Karl May. Available from:Frank Thöner, Am Waldkater 7, 06846 Dessau/Anhalt.Website: www.zinnfiguren-aus-Anhalt.de.

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I made my first visit to Kulmbach in 1960 by train and speaking virtually no German A rather plush express took my wife and I from Calais to Cologne where we changed trains for Bamberg. A final change took us on to our destination where we were met by Angus and Marjorie Bantock. They took us to the Bed and Breakfast establishment where we were staying which was over a shop — it might have been a butchers but memory fades. Also staying there was a retired German General. When he entered the room for breakfast he went round and shook hands with everyone, repeating the process when he had finished his Fruhstuck. Wherever we went we were asked if Hugh Taylor was with us and there was great disappointment when we had to admit that he wasn't. Clearly we were no substitute for Hugh!

The KLIO meeting was held in a room in a large hotel and everyone who attended was presented with the com-memorative set which that year it was the Alchemist. Roy Belmont-Maitland of Tradition presented everyone with one of Charles Stadden's beautiful 30mm solid mounted figures — French cuirassiers I believe. The whole event was on a very much smaller and informal scale than now with no competitions. There was to have been a coach trip on the Monday but

this was cancelled due to lack of support. Instead a number of us met in a Gasthof in the evening. Grabelkisters (Rummage boxes) were produced and I managed to acquire a number of Mignot figures for my collection. The next day we had a very long and hot ride by train across France to Paris. I made my first ever visit to the Musee de L'Armee with a splitting headache.

On our return we went to evening classes in German where I picked up use-ful phrases such as `Wo ist mein hut tint mein stuck?'- 'Where is my hat and stick?' Four years later I had acquired my first car —an Austin Mini van — teachers never were well paid! This caused much interest as we drove around as the Mini was still comparatively rare on the Continent. We travelled across on the ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland. It wasn't a drive-on vessel and our little van sat on top of the hatch over the vehicle hold, protected only by a tarpaulin. At least it meant that we were first off the boat! In those days one could drive private cars up the Plassenburg and my little Mini tackled the climb with no trouble at all.

Here I met Erich Rohde for the first time He was to become a great friend and helped many English collectors to obtain flats from Germany at a time when sending cash abroad was very difficult. On one oc-

casion I had to threaten my bank with my MP — Enoch Powell as it happened. I had no further difficulty! Erich spoke excellent English and had had an interesting career. Originally serving in an Hussar Regiment he transferred to the Luftwaffe and was at Luftwaffe HQ in Berlin. When the air force collapsed at the end of the war he was sent to an anti-aircraft battery where he was captured by the Americans. In London he acted as an interpreter for the British and appeared to have carte- blanche to move freely around London.

I can't remember where the meetings were held — it might have been a school. Only flat figures were on sale — there were no solid figures to be seen. Once again I was able to add more figures to my growing collection The commemorative set that year was related to the building of the Plassenburg. Leaving Kulmbach we motored down the Romantische Strasse as far as Ludwig's Wagnerian folly at Neu-schwanstein, staying in bed and breakfast accommodation. We visited the medieval towns of Rothenburg and Dinkulsbuhl. I was particularly impressed by the rococo beauty of the tiny pilgrimage chapel in the woods at Weiss. Many years later, on my next visit to Bourse, there had been a great change with more stands in the huge tent in the square and a more formal atmosphere.

Someone coming fresh to the field of flat figure collecting might be forgiven for feeling that history ended abruptly on the afternoon of June 18th 1815! I've lost count of just how many figures of Napoleon I have in my collection. But, of course, there was a great deal of history yet to come. Inevitably the collector will find figures of British forces hard to come by but there are still plenty of areas for exploration.

There are a few figures of the Crimean War, usually featuring the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava — see the Gottstein Diorama of the battle and Journal Number 124 for instance. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 is much more heavily featured, inevitably, given that the majority of figures come from Germany. It was a brief conflict ending in the total defeat of the French under Napoleon III. the great man's nephew.- but totally lacking his talent. I was introduced to this war by Mike (Cannock) Taylor and it is a fascinating period to study with some great battles. For instance, the 'Death-Ride' of the German 7th Cavalry Brigade at Mars-la-Tour ranks alongside the Charge of the Light Brigade although it was rather more successful. The battlefields in Northern France are easy to access from England and are largely untouched. One can track the course of the battle by the multitude of regimental memorials erected by the victors and there are some superb paintings by the French battle painters. Incidentally, General Patton came to grief in 1944 attacking the German position at St Privat which had been held by the French in 1870

Some of the finest figures for 1870 are by Hafer and there are also superb sets from Frauendorf. I like his figures; they are

ever so slightly more slender than those of other makers but nevertheless he manages to get expressions into the combatant's faces. His moulds were acquired by Wun-sch. An unusual set features a Bavarian band advancing in greatcoats including casual-ties. By the turn of the century uniforms had become much simpler but were still smart and colourful. Figures are generally presented in a parade setting although once again the British Army has largely gone AWOL. One could make a fascinating series of German standards, both horse and foot. There is also a beautiful set of figures of the Russian Guard regiments c 1900 by Scharlovsky including the Tsar and his staff, though strangely omitting artillery. I have it in mind to convert some German types into Russians!

There are of course many civilian figures for the turn of the century — that magnificent set of ice skaters by Hafer for instance. An interesting exception to the general rule is the British infantry colour party produced some years ago by the Brit-ish Model Soldier Society. On a common base, two sergeants flank the ensign. Putting two units together one could have both the King's and the Regimental colours and a little modification with Milliput gives you the Fusiliers! The German picklehaube of 1914 is somewhat lower than that of 1870 though otherwise the uniforms are very similar. There are figures, for instance by Frauendorf, in fieldgrey (Feldgrau) and wearing the steel helmet. Dick Jenkins has produced some British infantry for the first year of the war.

The figures of the Second World War present some interesting issues. Im-mediately after the war there was an under-

standable reluctance in Germany to produce figures representing the Wehrmacht. Neckel had produced a range of figures represented the army in the early years of the war and I believe that there were also figures representing Hitler and the other German leaders but I have never seen these. One of the first editors to produce figures after the war was Retter with his range of tanks and an 88mm gun and crew in the Western Desert together with Rommel in his staff car. I remember once seeing a very fine diorama by Dr Wolfgang Weiss featur-ing this set at Kulmbach. More recently I painted up a Mark III tank and a half-track with appropriate figures and with different camouflage on the two sides. I exhibited this with a mirror/behind it at a MAFVA show at Duxford. It was interesting to note that it was very often the children who spotted the contrast first. In recent years there have been more figures produced in Germany including some Russians, by editors such as Tylinski. As usual British and Americans feature much more rarely though I have a nice jeep and some British infantry with their hands up — Crete perhaps?

Turning to more recent times, there were figures of the East German Army — now presumably items only of historic interest. Of more interest to the British collector is the series by Grunewald of Queen Elizabeth II mounted at the head of her Household troops. Given that the full dress uniform of the Horse and Foot Guards has changed little since 1900, one could cover earlier periods than the one intended and the pipers of the Scots Guards might be used for any Highland regiment.

Plenty of scope then - it didn't all end at Waterloo!Painting in water colours, one can build up

superb effects with a series of translucent washes or glazes using water as the medium with which to dilute the colour. Oil colours, on the other hand vary in translucency from, for instance, Indian Yellow which is very translucent to Yellow Ochre which is not. However, using a medium such as Liquin and appropriate colours one can nevertheless obtain some fine effects. A tip given to me by the late Jim Woodley was to finish faces with as glaze of Indian

Yellow and Crimson Lake. This pulls the shading together and enhances the final effect. Highlights can be retained if desired by lifting the glaze in places before it dries. Increase the amount of Crimson in the mix for a more sunburnt effect. Brass metallic objects such as helmets and musical instruments can be rendered with glazes using Burnt Sienna and Indian Yellow with touches of pure white for the highlights. Cobalt Violet is a horrendously expensive pigment at least in Artists Grade

but it does produce some superb effects and a tube should last for years. Generally speaking Student Grade pigments are much less satisfactory as they are more coarsely ground and contain more 'filler’. For instance, a glaze made up of Cobalt Violet and Raw Umber can be used to enhance the folds on flags and on white uniforms. Shadows on white metal objects such as cuirasses look well with mixes of blue and violet with perhaps a touch of grey.

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Dear friends and all of you who are holding the BFFS Journal, let me introduce my current project - Trooping the Colour. After a few "get touch" projects I was browsing web sites to find something of my interest. When I spotted on Rudolf Grünewald's web wonderful sets of British soldiers during the ceremony celebrating the birthdate of the British sovereign, the project started rising in front of my eyes.

The ceremony is held in London annually and it has marked the official birthday of the sovereign since 1748. Since 1820 it has occurred annually except in bad weather, periods of mourning and other exceptional circumstances. From the reign of King Edward VII, the sovereign has taken the salute in person. It was Edward VII who moved Trooping the Colour to its June date, because of the vagaries of British weather.

Trooping the Colour allows the troops of the Household Division to pay a personal tribute to the sovereign with great pomp and pageantry. The Queen has attended Trooping the Colour in every year of her reign. Formerly mounted herself, she

commenced riding in a carriage in 1987. In her years attending on horseback,

Her Majesty, as Colonel-in-Chief, wore uniform with medals and the riband and star of the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Thistle or a combination of those orders, depending which regiment was trooping its colour. Since 1987, she has not worn uniform, but wears the Brigade of Guards badge, a large brooch representing the

different regiments that participate.On the day of Trooping the

Colour, the Royal Standard is flown from Buckingham Palace and from Horse Guards Building, while the Union Flag (colloquially known as the Union Jack), is flown from public buildings as well as the flags of the British Commonwealth of Nations, especially in recent years.

Ouuuu....... Please, slow down Jozef with the wiki history before you change the journal to a book and get back to the project and figures, before we all fall asleep. :-)

As I wrote at the beginning of the article I have found figures at Rudolf Grünewald’s website under the section marked as ‘Schmidt Catalogue’. The catalogue includes almost all the figures to do various set-ups of trooping the colour:

Foot Guards series - standing or marching Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, Welsh Guards, Irish Guards, and Scots Guards and mounted: The Queen and her suite, Blues and Royals, Life Guards. All figures are in very good shape, minimum flash or small holes upon casting, designed by K.H. Heinrichs and engraved by H.G. Lecke or Dr. Söllner.

I chose marching versions in the set-up shown below: 2 drum majors, 4 drummers, 4 flautists, 2 cymbalists, 1 big drum, 2 Scottish and 2 Irish pipers followed by:The Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Wales, Duke of Kent, Master of the Horse, lieutenant of Blues & Royals, Coldstream Guards officer, Irish Guards officer, Welsh Guards officer, Major-General commanding household division, lieutenant of Life Guards, 2 grooms of the Royal Household who are followed by:

the ensign with the Union Jack flag, officer, sergeant–major, Irish Guards Regimental Mascot and handler, sergeant, 7 corporals who are followed by:3 trumpeters of Household cavalry, 1 drummer of Household cavalry - Blues & Royals, 1 drummer of Household cavalry - Life Guards, 1 drummer of Blues & Royals, 1 trumpeter of Blues & Royals, 1 drummer of Life Guards, Life Guards officer with sabre, Blues & Royals with sabre, sergeant with the flag, 2 farriers and finally 2 Blues & Royals and 1 Life Guard.

To be continued …… In the next issue of the BFFS Journal I will provide you with step-by-step painting of the corporal.

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Irish Guards Mascot and Handler

Groom of the Household

Ensign, Lifeguards

Kettledrummer, Lifeguards

'Sleeping Beauty' Jupiter Miniatures figure, unidentified painter.

'Don Quixote' Jupiter Miniatures figure, unidentified painter.

'Borodino' Glorious Empires figures, unidentified painter.

'Polish Lancer Trumpeter'

'The Kiss' Hartinger figure, Trevor Morgan painter. 'Banner of the Bishop of Durham'

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'Spitfires' Glorious Empires fig-ure, painted by 'Jan'

.

'Peter Pan Airship' Vladimir Nuzhdin figure, unidentified

painter.

English town in the XVIIIth C 'Jester' Jupiter Miniatures figure, unidentified painter.

'Elephant Dancer' Rieger figure, unidentified painter.

'The Borgias Play Chess' Jupiter Miniatures figure, Stéphane Couderd painter.

English knights & archers of the Battle of Crecy 1346

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We are all fans of the flat figure, the low cost to buy to add to your collection from sets to the single figure but how much does it really cost.

We start with the idea, could be a painting or sketch you have seen, or it could be unique from your imagination and think that’s the next figure. First you need sketches to map the figure, this can take a lot of your time to get right, now you have your idea on paper you now need it drawn for the Engraver

This is not as simple as it may sound, the drawing needs to be suitable for cutting and casting and the idea you had can change, cost of this depends on the complexity of the design but £40 to £70 can easily be spent on each figure, already the cost is soaring if you’re making a set, just ask Charles King!!

You now ask your friendly engraver about cutting the figure, he will have a list of other work, so your figure may not be done for a least 6 months down the line, you

have to be patient and talk to the engraver as he will have found a mistake on the drawings, belts crossed the wrong way or no spurs and need to be added. Once cut a sample is cast and sent to you to approve and sort any alterations that need doing, cost again depends on the figure but £250 for each slate is about right, again cost is going up if you’re doing a set.

The engraver either casts figures for you as and when you need them, a cost again for tin, time and post, let’s say £4 each casting and post on top of that, or the moulds are sent to you or your caster.

So you have the moulds and are going to cast your own figures to try and keep the cost down, tin as I write is £32 a kilo, you will have waste out of this when casting , need a pot to melt the tin and again lots of patience, you can cast 40 figures and you’re lucky to get 12 figures you can use, in all the time I have cast never got a continuous run from a mould.

Nearly there now, you’re coming to the end! You have your figure and now you have to sell the castings just to try and get back some of your investment so what price? We’re talking the world of the flat figure where it is expected that the figures will be cheap £1.50 for 30mm foot and £2.50 mounted! far too cheap!!

So let’s recap, a set like The Charge of the Light Brigade by Charles (part one), over £1,000 to make ten 30mm figures ( 5 Slates) selling for £25 a set, one of Joerg and my pinups cost just under £350 and that’s one figure, selling at £3.50 each.

My bikes are a cost of at least £400 a piece, got 4 of them in the set.

Why do we do it?? I really don’t know as for the same money we could produce round figures with much more chance of getting the money back for the next figure, it must be a passion for the flat figures.

A lot of time and money goes into our little guys and prices will have to go up or it will be the end of “the new flat figure”.

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Society ContactsPlease send all information to be published in the Journal to Jerry Mortimore. All other correspondence with the Society should be addressed to the Secretary. Membership applications and renewals go to the Membership Secretary. All addresses can be found on this page.The next JournalThe copy deadline for the next Journal is 18th November 2017 for the Winter edition.Contributions to the Journal can be typed, handwritten or digital. Images need to be high resolution; 300dpi with the long side about 1500 pixels or larger. They can be sent via Dropbox on the internet.Annual SubscriptionsFull membership including printed Journal:UK - £ 22.00 Rest of Europe - £ 27.00 Rest of World - £ 29.00Online Only, includes the Journal only as a PDF option: - £ 18.00Subscriptions are due for renewal in January or June every year.Payment of subscriptions can be made by cheque, postal order, or Paypal. We cannot accept foreign currency cheques unless drawn on a British bank.Paypal payments should be made in Sterling to [email protected]. Add £1 to cover Paypal fees.Cheques must be made payable to The British Flat Figure Society, not to the Membership Secretary or any individual person.AGMThe AGM is held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting, in April.It is requested that all matters for discussion at the AGM and nominations for posts on the committee should be made to the Hon. Secretary before the end of the January preceding the meeting for inclusion in the agenda.The AGM minutes and financial statement will be published in the Autumn Journal following the AGM, but may be made available earlier on the website.

Contact The committee and Area Representatives of the Society

Hon. Secretary:Nick Ball 2 Manor Fields, Southborough, Tunbridge Wells Kent, TN4 ORG. Email: [email protected]

Membership Secretary:Ed Humphreys, 11 Oakeley Terrace, TalwaenyddBlaenau FfestiniogGwynedd, LL41 3LYEmail: [email protected]

Treasurer:Ed Humphreys, Address as above.

Additional Committee Members:Ian Parkinson, Ashton House, Main Street, Hemingbrough, Selby, North Yorks YO8 6QE

Editor:Jeremy Mortimore,Oak Meadow House,Chilsworthy, Holsworthy, Devon, EX22 7BQTel: 01409 254869E-mail: [email protected]

Journal Distribution & Printing:Jeremy Mortimore, Address as above.

Show Stand Co-ordinator:Chris Seeley, 13 West Road, Bury St EdmundsSuffolk, IP33 3ELTel: 01284 763560

Archivist:Richard Hyne, 2 Chambers Lodge, 2a Church Street, Baldock, Herts, SG7 5AD.

Webmaster:Mark KirkbrideE-mail:[email protected]

Area Representatives

SOUTH-WEST: Tony Du-Vall,4 Pixie Dell, Braunton,North Devon EX33 1DP

BRISTOL & AVON: Dick Jenkins,51 Tregarth Road, Bristol, BS3 2QR.

MIDLANDS: Jon Redley, 6 Elderberry Close, Norton, Stourbridge, DY8 3JN. Tel:01384 376227

NORTH-EAST: M.G.Wardle, 96 WestEnd Drive, Horsforth, Leeds LS18 5JXTel: 0113 258 1508

NORTH-WEST: Malcolm Collins,16 Tithe Barn Street, Currock, Carlisle,Cumbria CA2 4EL. Tel: 01228 46444

EAST ANGLIA: Michael Creese, ‘Nutwood’, Great Glemham Road,Stratford St Andrew, Saxmundham, Suffolk IP17 1LL Tel: 01728 602746

SCOTLAND: John Russell,2 Marcus Crescent, Aberdeen AB21 0SZTel: 01224 790680

CANADA & USA:Patrick J. Deluhery 141 Pine Grove Dr. South Hadley, MA 01075 Tel: 413-437-7145 [email protected]

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND:John Brewer, P.O. Box 5250,Turramurra, Sydney, Australia [email protected]

ITALY:Gianpaolo Bistulfi, Via Alberti 10,20149 Milano, ItalyTel: 02 33106690E-mail: [email protected]

From Glorious Empires, period houses to go with your 30mm flats in dioramas and vignettes.The houses are cast in resin to save weight.Designed after a sketch by Lucien Rousselot and engraved by Daniel Lepeltier. Right is an example painted by Eric Talment.

New figures from the web and other sources. All figures 30mm unless other-

wise stated.

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