Duke Siefried

MWAN Tribute

By Hal Thinglum

As the majority of MWANer's are aware, I have, for the last three years, selected one individual who I feel, as well as others, has made a significant contribution to the hobby of historical miniatures wargaming. Donald Featherstone was the first recipient in 1986, followed by Fred Vietmeyer in 1987, and Jack Scruby in 1988. Few would dispute the efforts of these three men and this year's selection, "Duke" Seifried, falls into the same category. In sitting down to write this, I find myself in an unusual situation, as regards this award, as for the first time ever, I personally know the individual receiving this recognition. I have since made Donald Featherstone's acquaintance though this occurred in 1988 after he received the award and I have never had the chance to meet Fred Vietmeyer nor Jack Scruby. When I wrote this column for Don, Fred, and Jack, I was writing merely from what I had heard of, or read of them, though it must be admitted that in Donald's case, I felt I knew him quite well via reading WARGAMER'S NEWSLETTER for many years. For this reason, I find myself with a great deal of information regarding Duke and, if you know Duke, as many of you do, you will have some appreciation for the task in front of me.

I first saw, not met, Duke sometime in the middle to late 70's at a wargaming convention in Chicago. This was sometime after the "wedding" between Duke's CUSTOM CAST company and a Texas firm producing HINCHLIFFE which resulted in the offspring of HERITAGE, a much publicized merger which many felt would turn the world of historical miniatures wargaming on its ear. Wandering about the convention hall observing the games, I headed toward the dealer's area. My attention was immediately drawn to a semi-bearded individual seated at a series of tables surrounded by bottles of paint, half-painted figures, and two by two foot terrain squares as well as about a dozen onlookers. I quietly took a spot well away from his front and observed what was going on while I drooled over the terrain squares ($15.00 each, which dampened my spirits somewhat). If I recall correctly, this gentleman was wearing a three-piece suit, minus the coat, and kept up a constant stream of conversation with onlookers concerning his painting technique as his brush danced merrily across figure after figure.

My immediate reaction to this situation was that surely I had ventured upon a veg-a-matic presentation) I then knew that this must be the "fabled" "Duke" Seifried though I, in my innocence, wondered what the hell "the" major hobby personality in this country was doing at a relatively small convention "hawking" every aspect of the hobby. After the crowd dissolved I asked him a few questions concerning the terrain squares but did not pursue any further conversation feeling, through no fault of Duke's, that Mr. Seifried must have better things to do than to sit around and talk with a hobby participant. Anyway, the "veg-a-matic" type approach left me feeling a bit uncomfortable in some unexplainable manner. Looking back on it now, I rather suspect that my initial exposure to Duke, and even perhaps my rather quickly drawn impression, was not dissimilar from that of many others, perhaps thousands, of wargamers. This, in itself, I suspect could be in large part somewhat responsible for the Duke "mystique" through-out the hobby.

For a number of years, I didn't venture beyond those initial impressions concerning Duke. It seemed as though everyone knew of him and had opinions - some of them quite strong - about him. As I became more involved in the hobby, Duke seemed to quietly drop out of sight. I'd hear accounts of what he was doing from time to time after HERITAGE died a noisy death - "Oh, Duke's at TSR now, some kind of Vice-President there"; "Heard that Duke's in charge at TSR after a power struggle"; "I guess he's somewhere in Wisconsin though not involved in the hobby any longer." Knowing little of the political situation at TSR and being even less interested in such though I had the idea that there must be some "strange" goings-on there, I did not feel it was unusual in any way for Duke to be associated with TSR. I did however, for some unknown reason, from time to time wonder what Duke was doing in life.

Then, perhaps three years or so ago at a LITTLE WARS convention, there was Duke again, this time running a beautiful Sudan game on a sand table. On the table sat the most impressive Sudan fort I'd ever seen with hundreds of figures and all sorts of reference play charts. I had no difficulty picking Duke out though he had aged and seemed quite a bit less animated in nature. Absent was the "veg-a-matic" approach and in place was a "laided-back" type of approach and it appeared as though he was enjoying himself. Tony Adams was a participant in Duke's game and after talking to him for awhile, Tony introduced me to "the" Duke. Duke was very cordial and related how much he enjoyed MWAN, having been a "silent" subscriber for some time and I was struck by his warmness and sincerity. We had a most pleasant conversation; he invited me to game at his place in Wisconsin; and we parted company.

Just as Duke had been in my thoughts at times over the years, he continued to invade my mind. I had many questions about Duke: I suspected he had done a great many things in the hobby, but, for the most part as far as I knew, they remained "things" as they were undefined; I knew Duke had spent a great deal of time "on the road" selling the hobby and I wondered as to his thoughts concerning if those years were worthwhile for him; to me, Duke seemed to make the "jump" from historical miniatures wargaming to fantasy when that "rebellion" took place and I wondered about the mechanics of that move; lastly, and most important of all, as far as I was concerned, was I wondered if he felt any degree of "bitterness" regarding all of his efforts, time, and energy expended towards attempting to make our hobby equal to model railroading in this country. It was at this time that I thought Duke would make an ideal candidate for the MWAN award and announced such in MWAN. Shortly after this, I contacted Duke and asked if we could meet sometime to enable me to obtain some background on him for the write-up and he graciously consented and invited me to "Fox Hollow".

In November of 1988, 1 made my way early on a Saturday morning through Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin to Clinton where I was greeted by Duke and his wife. We talked for the entire day and I came to know Duke as well as you can know someone within a twelve hour period. All my questions were answered; even the unasked questions were answered. What is Duke? Duke Seifried is an actor, a salesman supreme, an artist, businessman, leader, street smart wise guy, story teller, entertainer, entrepreneur, musician, shaker and mover, idea man, performer, pioneer, workaholic, and innovator; who is considerate, thoughtful, domineering, creative, emotional, confident, insecure, and when he wishes to be, he is the consummate showman. To me, Duke runs the gauntlet of human emotion and lives his life with wild abandon though he has slowed down in some aspects. A charismatic character who possesses the ability to laugh at himself and has developed a working understanding of his personal attributes, Duke is enjoying his life and his hobby. He hosts games at his home for a close circle of friends; is proud of his children and their accomplishments; and heavy in his praise of other individuals within the hobby.

On my two hour drive back home from Duke's house in the Saturday night darkness, all of the above thoughts ran through my head. Knowing what I now knew of Duke, compared to what my prior impression (and that of many other people) was, I did not particularly care to adopt a non-critical approach in my article and, as you can tell, I do not think I did. These have been my impressions of Duke and I hasten to add that they may or may not be entirely correct.

On to Duke's Gaming

A six by twelve wooden table sits in the south end of his wargames room. The walls are decorated with military prints and a large closet holds perhaps 100,000 painted figures. Off to one corner of the room is a large desk filled with castings in various stages of painting. The table is a delight to view. Duke was "the" developer of wargames terrain in our hobby. Continuously ahead of his time in a great many aspects of historical miniatures wargaming, his terrain is a perfect example of this. The terrain squares I saw years ago when I first saw Duke are arrayed on the table and look simply spectacular! I do not know how they were made, though they appear to be constructed of some sort of "pressed" wood allowing for "relief" type contours. At time of viewing, Duke had a French & Indian War set-up on the table and there were a large number of wooden squares as well as several rocky terrain pieces, one of which featured "lift-off" tops so as to enable figures to enter caves.

Duke carted out box after box of exceedingly well painted wargames figures; mostly 25mm but some 15mm as well. He is a master painter and has sculpted many of the figures himself. The 25mm's are mounted individually on perhaps three-quarter's inch square stands and terrained very well. In showing me his Zulu War collection, I saw numerous figures which I did not recognize - a surprise to me as I have perhaps 4,000 figures in this period and thought I'd seen every manufacturer - Duke informed me that they are conversions (masterfully done, I might add!). I drooled over the Northwest Frontier, Sudan, French-Indian War, and many other delights! Please allow me to list his periods; Ancient Empires consisting of Egyptians & Assyrians, Greeks & Persians, Punic Wars, Caesar in Gaul, Alexander's Successors, Tolken Fantasy, Dark Ages, Medievals, Aztecs & Conquistodors, Eastern Renaissance, ECW, Carribean, French & Indian War, American Revolution, Napoleonics, ACW, Franco-Prussian, Wild West, Northwest Frontier, Zulu War, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Boer War, Boxer Rebellion, Foreign Legion, WWI, WWII Eastern Front, WWII European, WWII Pacific, and Sci-Fi.

We ventured down to his sizable basement and in one large section were shelves upon shelves of boxes filled with wargames and fantasy figures and accessories. I trembled as I approached these shelves for immediately I could tell that I was viewing figures and accessories from over a thirty year period, many of which are unavailable at present. Sitting on several work tables were two huge (and I mean huge!) Styrofoam mountains. Duke explained that he and Tony Adams were jointly constructing terrain for the Northwest Frontier (GEEZ111111). Contour upon contour of Styrofoam with winding trails waiting for layers of surface puddy to be applied. This will be something to see when finished! In a separate pile sat what appeared to be hundreds, perhaps thousands of 54mm Britains from Duke's childhood. I would have given anything to be allowed to spend a day in Duke's basement going through all of the boxes of figures) Then perhaps give me a week, or month, to lock myself in his wargames room fondling each figure and writing down notes on his terraining techniques! The man is a master hobbyist! I do not feel that my description has in any way adequately transmitted to you what I saw and felt. You have to see it yourself!

Duke's twin nine-year-old sons joined us for a short period and they explained the campaign they played with their Dad - Duke had constructed a skillful game in which his sons explored unknown lands (imagine having the chance to do that as a nine-year-old!) in which anything could happen! A huge mountain, perhaps three feet tall, was hauled out from the closet (how did I miss that the first time?) and the boys removed piece after piece revealing inner compartments and caves (oh, my goodness!). The boys were obviously enjoying themselves and Duke was in his glory relating to his sons. A very nice scene which any father could relate to.

I have always been interested in the history of our hobby and felt that I knew a fair amount as there had not be a wargames publication which I had not ready over perhaps a 15 year period. However, Duke related events of which I had no knowledge of during our day's visit. I promptly managed to forget 75% of it - due to an overload of information - even though this man was involved in, and responsible for, perhaps 75% of what was happening in our hobby for many years, I found no signs of a sense of ownership on Duke's Part for what had transpired in the hobby. Instead I found facts being presented in a matter of fact manner and easy giving of recognition and acknowledgement to others for accomplishments. Admirable qualities in a man!

The day passed entirely too quickly for me and I had the feeling that Duke felt the same way. All too infrequently we encounter people in our lives where within a brief period of time, we become kindred spirits and there is an unspoken, though strongly stated, feeling that this person could be a very good friend if distance was not a factor. Those are moments to be treasured and highly valued and I left Fox Hollow in that frame of mind. I can still recall that feeling very well though it has been eight months ago.

Individuals such as Duke are infrequently found in life. His multitude of personalities, talents, and approaches to life amaze me. In prior lives, Duke could have been a diplomat, a used car salesman, a General in Napoleon's Army, a public relations man for the mob or for the most successful type of business, a trusted lieutenant or a subordinate with plans of his own. A modern day enigma who perhaps might have been better off being born at least a hundred years ago when fortunes could be made based upon the force of one's personality.

Duke can be, if he chooses, a difficult person to know and understand well. If one is, or has been, exposed to only one side of Duke (i.e. the "veg-a-matic", businessman, etc), the true nature of the man is not known. We simply are not used to encountering such multi-faceted people.

I am not naive enough to be convinced that I can "read" people well enough so as to be totally correct in my assessment of them, however, I remain firmly convinced that Duke is deserving of much more recognition from the historical miniatures wargaming hobby than he has received thus far. While everyone else in the hobby - I mean everyone - pursued the activity as a hobby, Duke pursued it as a livelihood. There is a major difference between the two approaches. I have, at times, thought of making MWAN into a professional publication and what stops me is the fact that I know I would have to alter my approach drastically and act in such a manner so as to insure that my livelihood (i.e. MWAN providing sufficient income so as to adequately provide for my family) is ensured. Donald Featherstone was a highly successful Physical Therapist; Jack Scruby a printer; Fred Vietmeyer an engineer, in addition, they contributed heavily to the hobby. I only state this to illustrate my point.

Duke's occupation was that of selling toy soldiers. In discussing this subject indirectly with Duke, what came through in his words was the fact that behind those years of attempting to make historical miniatures wargaming a larger activity in this country was a love of toy soldiers! One which, I believe, since he has changed occupations and is now a very successful Vice-President of a sunglass company, has returned to the forefront as regards the hobby. Speaking personally, at this time, I am of the opinion that Duke is pleased this transformation has occurred. What began as an avocation became a vocation and has returned to it's original state. The roller coaster of life has both slowed down and reached a more level plane for Duke and with it, as with all of us though perhaps on a lesser level, I believe, or would like to believe, that Duke is pleased with achieving a new comfort level in life, one which he is richly deserving of.

This dissertation on Duke is, I suspect, radically different than what one would expect from a hobby publication. Stating a man's accomplishments in a straight forward manner is an easily done task. Attempting to view the man behind the accomplishments and develop an understanding, admittedly basic in nature, is much more difficult and considerably risky for me as a writer as I would not wish to in any way injure Duke as a person. However, this man, due to his multi-faceted appearance, has, in my opinion, been deeply misunderstood by us. My aim, in utilizing this approach, has been to present Duke to you, my friends, in a more complete fashion so as to hopefully present some light on him as a person deserving of our thanks for that he has accomplished for our hobby. If I have, in some way, managed to accomplish this in spite of my limited powers of human observation and transformation of my thoughts to words, I am well satisfied.

In closing, I would like to sincerely thank Duke for his willingness to subject himself to my interpretation of an honest appraisal; to express my personal appreciation to him for what he has done to enhance my own wargaming as well as for many others; and to wish my dear friend the best of luck! Thank you, Sir!

Duke Siefried MWAN Honoree of 1989

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© Copyright 1989 Hal Thinglum
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