Lamming Miniatures
Quietly and assiduously following his chosen course of turning out characteristic model soldiers for wargaming, Bill Lamming of LAMMING MINIATURES (ably aided by his wife Rene) never fails to come up with something pleasing and distinctive. His range tends to concentrate on specific eras, endeavouring to supply those figures not made by other manufacturers or to make a Lamming version that is invariably equal if not better than those of their rivals. His latest batch is no exception and I am very pleased to be able to review them here at some length. In chronological order there are two Persians - an Immortal and a Light Foot archer or spearman with a choice of shields and weapons. Then there are two Greeks and a Greek/Macedonian - a file leader in breastplate with long spear, shield and helmet for attaching, Greek Companion cavalry with a choice of head to make them either Thessalian or Boeotian and a Phalangite/Hypaspist wearing spolas, also with choice of shield and with separate head and weapon. A light Numidian cavalryman (or could also be used as a Greek)p with a pleasant little horse typical of the period; the horse of the Roman general is much larger and more dignified, even a trifle stylised. Then there are two Medieval mounted warriors - one in chainmail with heads to make him a Russian, Arab or Spaniard; a fine knight in plate-armour with a barded horses.
Another speciality of Lamming are the ranges of non-military figures he makes, forming ideal accessories for his Medieval and other periods - here we have two nudes -a nude female with a choice of head to turn her into a Greek, Negro or a Barbarian; and a male with heads that make him a Barbarian or a Negro.
There is also a dressed female in a long flowing robe with separate heads, who could obviously be painted up to represent most late Ancient or early Medieval periods. Another facet of the Lamming range is his 20mm scale selection of British, American and-German for World War Two - the set he has sent me is an American in kneeling position with bazooka over his shoulder attended by a man bearing a missile ready for loading. Another extremely useful adjunct to the Lamming ranges are the separate weapons he makes, enabling his figures to be armed in different manners of the choice of the wargamer.
Here we have a set that includes a Boar spear, a gisame, cudgel, rhomphaia and an Arab bow case; then there are two beautifully made 25mm scale Napoleonic muskets - a British Tower and a French Charleville; finally, there is a Medieval pavise, that tall wooden barrier behind which crossbowmen sheltered, emerging to loosen their bolts. Everything that I have described is free of flash and well detailed although without that multiplicity of markings that make some figures so difficult to paint; without doubt, these figures when painted will look exceptional.
Having recently written a wargamer's guide book to the Hundred Years War LIVING HISTORY, I am very Medieval-conscious and am well aware that there are few Medieval ranges more exciting than those of Bill Lamming, who has made a speciality of this period. His minute Medieval ships are also really beautiful and sends ones mind racing with thoughts of naval battle3 that can easily be set up on a nGrmal table because of the scale of the vessels. Lammings also turn out other relatively singular ranges including Vikings and Normans - both "fringe" armies which are tailor-made for second armies to supplement the mighty battalions of Napoleonic or whatever that usually are far too crowded on a normal wargames table to give a battle that bears any resemblance to reality.
Miniature Figurines
I saw Neville Dickinson of MINIATURE FIGURINES last night at the monthly dinner of the Wessex Military Dining Club and hastened to buy him a drink when he darkly told me that I would be getting an answer to my cheeky attacks in recent issues of the Newsletter! I &ssured him that they were not attacks but kindly criticism aimed at stirring up discussion. Neville and I are good enough friends for him to accept my explanation - nevertheless I look forward (and I hope you do) to his answer - which will obviously be the usual reasoned and convincing statement of fact for which he is noted! I hope it will appear in this issue.
In fact, it DID come in time, and here it is exactly as received, no editing or omissions!
"I read with interest in the July Must List your comments on my correspondence with Terry Wise following his views in his regular Military Modelling article. I seemed to have stirred up something of an argument somewhat like the old days of the Wargamer's Newsletter. On consideration, I would not reply to Terry's letter in the same manner as I did then but the basic theme would be the same.
As you know all the Wargame figure Manufacturers were and still are Wargamers. Thus they were Amateur Businessmen and Manufacturers with probably all of them admitting to being first and foremost Wargamers. They were Hobbyists supplying hobbyists direct and initially and as far as I know for the majority of smaller Manufacturers still supplying the majority of their production direct to the Wargaming Customer.
With the interest in the hobby increasing over the years Retailers,because of Customer demand or because they were Wargamers,comi-tienced stocking figures made by us Amateurs - Dick Higgs was a Wallpaper Designer by day, Ray Seaton of Warrior, a Tech College Lecturer, John Hammond of Skytrex a Dentist, Bill Lamming a retired Bobby, Frank Hinchliffe a highly skilled Engineer and me I ran a Finance Company. Slowly but surely our part time hobby endeavours took over our working day life, staff were taken on and inevitably and reluctantly in most cases, we have become professional Manufacturers with this unfortunate but marvellous interest in Wargaming.
Over the years, the production has changed from mainly direct sales to Wargamers to Retailers who obviously are in business to make a living and unless these Retailers carry our products, the hobby will remain "underground". You started the modern Wargaming scene with "Wargames", then along came a couple of Wargamers capable of making figures, then some Retailers prepared to stock models and the hobby grew and grew and grew. Without your book, without the Manufacturers, without the Retailers where would the hobby be now? Probably still Tony Bath, Charlie Grant, Peter Young, you and a couple of others but certainly not me as I got led astray by your original book - still the best way to enjoy wargaming by the way.
1. Most Manufacturers were originally amateurs who became professional but because of the original, base price structure are still giving the Wargamer professional goods and service at amateur prices.
2. The other manufacturers operate their business as a "side line" so any money is basically profit i.e. they do not live on the business.
3. Costs have increased many times over but with respect not the prices in the same proportion as the various Manufacturers are aware of each others prices and are reluctant to increase them to an economic level.
4. Plastic is a bi-product of oil which is becoming expensive so do not rub your hands too much 'cos it will not last long. Oil will be in short supply soon, plastic will be short and then the prices will be as high as tin, a metal of which all known reserves will be used up by the end of the century (so we are told).
That is my view, I hope some of the other Manufacturers will state theirs in your magazine and that in some way they agree with mine."
There may be much in what Neville says, although I must confess that I have never detected anything particularly amateurish about the manner in which Miniature Figurines and Hinchliffe run their businesses! There might well be a financial limit to what the wargamer will pay for his figures, certainly the increases hinted at by Neville will encounter strong sales resistance and will inevitably cause the less monied (and probably younger) wargamer to look in the direction of cheaper plastic figures - or to start making his own moulds and pirating existing figures.
The last state of affairs would be quite disastrous to the commercial model soldier world who invest a considerable amount of money in researching and designing their master-figures, on top of that there are the usual overheads plus a reasonable profit-margin. The very fact that prices have, until recently, been kept relatively low has induced into the dogged mind of the wargamer a conviction that higher prices are a rip-off to be fought with all means at his disposal. Any manufacturer who can come up with a relatively simple figure, inexpensive in its conception and design, so that the price can be kept lower, might make a big impression on the market - although wargamers tend to become set in their ways and will probably stick to the figures to which they have become accustomed - although buying in smaller numbers.
I wonder if some sort of simple figure could be produced along the lines of those used in the dioramas by Greenwood and Ball some 25 years or so ago. These were cast in what is known as the basic anatomical position i.e. a man standing feet astride and arms stretched out to his side, then bent into any sort of position required, soldered onto a base and weapons fixed into hands. Thus a figure could be made wearing a British Napoleonic shako, with pack on back, etc., and then converted to the whim of the purchaser - almost in the manner of turning out a series of blanks in industry.
Neville made an interesting point in his letter about plastic model soldiers, so it may be necessary for you to make hay while the sun shines. Elsewhere in this issue I have mentioned the Italian-made ATLANTIC figures which have on numerous occasions provided an interesting motivation during Continental holidays by a relentless search from town-to-town and shop-to-shop until the odd box is tracked down here and there. I have not had the opportunity of doing this in Italy where they are made so they might be easier to find, but they are rather elusive in France! However, the problem is eased by the fact that MINIATURE WARFARE and a few other firms in this country are importing them, although the shipments are few and far between and cause considerable hair-tearing among people such as George Erik of Miniature Warfare who have orders to fulfil. It is rather like the situation when wargaming first began to become popular in this country - the only supplier being SAE (Swedish African Engineers) who, at various times had models made and painted in Ireland, Madeira and near Cape Town in South Africa! The only place in England where one could purchase them was a small toy shop in Brighton, whose owner Mr.Jewson would on rare occasions circulate his;%snall bunch of known enthusiasts with the knowledge that a shipment had come in and then a hair-raising pilgrimage to the Sussex seaside town would take,place. Bill Gunson, a well known collector in his day, would rush home on leave from Kuwait and buy about C150s worth at a time (and that was money in those days!)
However, back to Atlantic - these are really worth investigating because the range is increasing and they are well made figures that paint up well. One of their attractive attributes is the manner in which their boxes depict numbers of them all painted up, giving excellent ideas for colour of uniforms etc. They come in small boxes of one sprue holding twelve figures and, for some queer reason there seems to be a bonus in each box (regardless of size and increasing in number with the size of the box) of an extra little spkue. For example, in front of me as I write I lave a box of Greek infantry - the sprue contains 12figures and the "bonus" sprue another four, giving sixteen 25mm. infantry figures for 2fr 50 (at present the franc is 9.80 to the pound). The sixteen figures contain men in nine different poses; in the larger box (selling at 6fr50) there will be three such sprues and usually equivalent bonus sprues; while the very larges boxes contain all sorts of fantastic goodies such as warships, temples, Roman amphitheatres, etc., etc. The cavalry box contains 4 horsemen and 4 horses, which probably is not quite as good value but is still worth it to 8-year-olds at about 7p a figure. The range goes on much like this, with the Greeks being packed in brown boxes, the Romans in red, Ancient Egyptians in blue and a whole range of contemporary troops (such as Panzer Grenadiers, Russian infantry, British World War Two figures, Indian Army troops of World War Two period, etc., etc.,) in similar boxes but in distinctive colours. If you look aro ' und hard abroad (I do not think these are available in England although some backstreet newspaper shops seem to have them tucked away on their shelves) you can find smaller boxes containing figures of a definite 00 scale, certainly smaller than these I am describing - it would seem that they were the originals when the range began.
Among this collection are some quite fascinating figures such as Hitler and his Blackshirts, Stalin and various Russian troops including MGs on wheels. There are interesting boxes of Italian troops, such as Bersaglieri and ski-troops with mountain equipment, including mules and mule-borne equipment. There is certainly something very interesting in the thought of making a very mountainous terrain, covered with a white sheet and then letting loose a whole lot of white-painted (think of the time saved in painting!) ski-troops upon it.
The wargamer has many interesting aspects and leads to follow, not the least being his eternal search for figures that he likes. Stalls in town markets and little backstreet shops often contain plastic bags full of figures made in Hong Kong - many of them are blatant piracies of Airfix figures, but here and there one encounters quite a reasonable and interesting figure. They are usually made in a soft plastic but paint up quite well and when sprayed with a clear varnish reasonably last the course. They blend in with other figures and provide an interesting note of difference - I have a Roman Legion with a whole bunch of senior officers converted and made up from these figures mounted on Airfix horses!
Wargamers will well know the aggravation of intensely desiring some particular soldier or piece of equipment and find that it is not commercially available. For those who are adept at making things, the problem can solved by scratch-building but such talents do not lie within the reach of all and frustration reigns rampant on occasions. For the wargamer fighting modern warfare there is a very pleasant and convenient solution in that, if he cannot find what he wants in the existing at least 100 plastic kits of AFVs and supporting vehicles in 1:76 or 1:72 scale commercially produced and on the market then he can buy kits for them and many more unusual models for a slightly higher price. These are not the polystyrene mouldings of the conventional type but are resin mouldings turned out by skilled modellers working on a small-scale within a small range. They are not as easy to put together as the normal plastic kit and the instructions must be followed very carefully and the right adhesive used, some excellent results can be obtained. They are not really kits because rarely is the complete model provided and the modeller has to supply gun-barrels, lights, stowage, steering wheels, windscreens for the vehicle; the conventional polystyrene cements cannot be used for the resin mouldings and the recommended adhesives are the various epoxy adhesives, UHU and the cyanoacrylatesters. The resin will take the usual enamels and oil-based paints however. Resin mouldings are not cheap compared with other plastic kits but it should be considered that you are obtaining the services of expert and experienced craftsmen working in a relatively expensive material to provide vehicles which could be difficult to scratch-build and cannot otherwise be obtained.
They range in cost from about 55p to 90p; turrets and items And conversions cast from 25p to 70p; larger and more complex models cost more, such as French Char B at C1.00p. The biggest range of resin mouldings is that of Eric Clark, 19 Lonsdale Road, Southport, Merseyside PR8 6NL, who can provide about 50 different models and has a programme of more to come. Barry Walby, 8 Priory Gardens, Luton, Beds LU2 7DP, has a range of unusual AFVs and also items for converting existing plastic kits. Graham Baker (GRAMODELS) of 16o Chauland Road, Caddington, Luton, Beds, can provide in 1:76 scale, such items as a barrage-balloon, World War One tank Little Willie and other exceptional items. If you write asking for details to these manufacturers remember that they are one-man businesses, their time is fully taken up with their modelling so send a s.a.e.
Still on models and kits - MATCHBOX are still maintaining a steady programme of releases of 1:76 scale armoured vehicles. Their latest effort is the PzJg IV E/70 at 45p. This is a fine model of a vehicle that was prominent during World War Two, and includes colour scheme details of markings for the vehicle in operational theatres in both East and West.
Many wargamers like myself find great interest in making terrain and they are always on the look out for new items. An East Germag firm are putting out under the trade name of VERO a large range of plastic model building kits similar to t1iose made by Faller and Pola. They are imported into this country by EASTERN MODELS, 209 Pichurs Lane, West Wickham, Kent, and can be supplied by post. Construction is exceedingly simple and till parts are pre-coloured. The range is extensive and offers a lot of new designs which differ from those familiar over the years from makers in West Germany. Available are models in H0 (1:87) N (1:60) and TT (1:120). A full colour catalogue is available at 85p.
CITADEL MlNIATURES LIMITED (Newark Folk Museum, 48 Mill Gate, Newark, Nottinghamshire) are well known for large ranges of figures for Fantasy wargaming. Now they are offering Ral Pathar 1200 AD Medievals and Vikings. The range includes Vikings in various poses; English longbowmen, foot knights, men-at-arms and mounted knights; French men-at-arms, knight--and mounted knights; Spanish infantry, archers and cavalry; Moorish archers, infantry, cavalry and horse archers; Byzantine infantry; Varangian guards with two-handed axes; Mongol horse archers, medium and heavy cavalry. I presume these are imported as the prices are well in excess of those charged by English makers for figures in this scale - perhaps the manufacturers are not such amateurs in America as Neville Dickinson believes them to be in this country!
HINCHLIFFE MODELS LIMITED are steadily pouring out models in various scales - some of their latest can be seen in an advert elsewhere in this magazine. I also understand that future additions are a new range of Napoleonic Bavarian artillery and crews and additions to the Bavarian cavalry range. The FOREMOST range will include a Western series of 12 figures - Mexicans, half-breeds, gamblers, gun-fighters, etc.
GREENWOOD AND BALL, I am told, are putting out some new ranges of seemingly high-class figures in 25mm scale - although I have not seen them. Their advert in Military Modelling lists 6 Zulu warriors and I believe some British Infantry for the 1879 War will follow. Their well-known American Civil War range is now almost complete and includes artillery pieces, mounted generals and personality figures such as Generals Grant and Lee. I am told the horses are of an extremely high standard.
GARRISON are putting out a new range of British Napoleonics, said to be a complete breakthrough in figure design with animation casting and proportion superior to anything else available - this is what I am told, though I haven't seen them. Latest additions include British Foot Guards in various positions, Life and Horse Guards, Scots Greys, French Old Guard and Old Grenadiers, etc. They are in light campaign order, Old Guard in trousers and surtout, cavalry with haversacks and waterbottles and the British Guards have their trousers tucked into gaiters. I hear that cavalry and guns are to come and that there will also be Prussians. Apparently GREENWOOD AND BALL are paying great attention to speed of delivery and orders are returned within a few days. I can recall that this was one of the great strengths of MINIATURE FIGURINES in their early days when they guaranteed to fill orders on the day they were received - obviously they were not so busy then as they are now!
I hear from various sources (including Peter Manning who makes the figures and wargames in this house every week) that MINIATURE FIGURINES are re-moulding their 15mm Medievals - eventually there will be 21 different strips - 13 foot, 6 cavalry, 2 Command; one strip will include a scaling-party and there are pieces in the Ancient range which can be used as artillery.
LAMMING MINIATURES are issuing some new Napoleonics including Prussian and Austrian and re-making some of their older figures of this period. They are also putting out some more of their 20mm World War Two range, which will include new Americans and possibly Italians - this last piece of information is interesting because I cannot recall encountering any Italian World War Two figures except in the ATLANTIC plastic range.
Talking of ATLANTIC again - I note that Terry Wise in his "Observation Post" feature in the August edition of Military Modelling gives quite a lot of details of these kits, having obtained a catalogue of them.
A recent illustrated advert in Military Modelling showed some beautiful buildings available from MAGUS PROGRAM DESIGN of 1728 10th Street, Los Osos, Ca. 93402, U,S,A, I do not know the scale and their price indicates they art-quite Oomplex affairs. They have an illustrated catalogue which gives a complete line of kits and diorama extras at $2.50; their range includes corner cafe, a 2cm Flak tower, a French town house, a Belgian -apartment house, a Sportman cafe, Bastogne inn, half barn and a Normandy barn.
When I go through books and magazines, and note adverts and see pictures of the quite incomparable figures and kits now available in scales too large for wargaming, I feel quite guilty that I do not mention them in these pages. The solid fact is that our precious space all has to be used up for figures suitable for wargaming, so that all these wonderful pieces designed by absolute artists. In their craft do not get an airing in these pages. I hope that it is understood that this is not through any lack of admiration for them - I say this as a small tribute and acknowledgement to their existence and as a small expression of gratitude on behalf of those few wargamers who find the time to also make up and paint these larger kits.
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© Copyright 1979 by Donald Featherstone.
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