"Der Kriegspielers Continentals " Topic

Does anyone still make them?
I had a few regiments "back in the last century", but sold them off to concentrate on the "larger" 25/28mm figures.
The friend I sold them to is making noise about getting more.

Cute little fellows.

Years ago, some guy in Oklahoma had the molds for the Continentals and some of the other old DK ranges. His business was called Iron Brigade. I think his name was Terry Canarsa [sp?}

At least ten years ago, Terry died of a heart attack. His widow didn't want to and/or know how to keep his business going. At one time, she sold off a lot of stock. But I have no idea what eventually happened to the molds.

Jeff

That seems to be the fate of most "true 25mm" ranges.
I remember Iron Brigade. Plain simple Colonials too.

Here ya go: TMP link

Jim

Not encouraging. The sale/discussion happened in 2009.

TMP link

A look at their webpage does not show any of that figure range listed:

link

Funny, as I was just talking about this range with a friend two nights ago. They used to attend Hcon when it was at the Penn Harris.

Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't this originally owned by Duke?

historygamer, yes, I believe that Duke owned these.

Back around '75 or '76 I talked my dad into driving me to the Tin Soldier in Dayton OH for my first visit. I don't remember how I learned about the store, but at the time I was into Avalon Hill and SPI games, not miniatures. Anyway, Duke was there and he very energetically tried to sell my dad on lovely boxed sets of painted Der Kriegspieler Continentals. I don't remember how much they cost exactly, only that they were way above my limited budget. It was my first exposure to the miniature wargames hobby and I was smitten. I would later start with Airfix Napoleonics before soon switching to Der Kriegspieler/Heritage 15mm figures, which were just then hitting the hobby and were more affordable than 25mm. But I always liked the old school Der Kriegspieler 25's.

These were not Kriegspieler figures. They originated as a company called Custom Cast which can be seen on the bottom of the bases of unpainted figures. They were much nicer than DKs. In 1980 I bought a mixed lot of 250 of them, unpainted but carefully cleaned, and primed in the famous Imrie/Risley primer – wonderful stuff but probably lethal as heck – at Historicon (or one of its forerunners) for cheap, and this was the beginning of my metal AWI armies (as opposed to the Airfix I painted as a young teen).

At the time they were OOP. As Jeigheff states, Terry in Oklahoma later acquired the molds and starting selling them under the Iron Brigade name. I have to say that he used lower quality metal. Jeigheff is also correct that Terry died, I think around 12 years ago, following a lengthy period of ill health. The last few that I bought – from his widow – were very rough, I was able only to paint them up as casualties.

I've seen them (and bought some) on E-Bay. Be sure to get good pictures because a lot of the unpainted ones are poorly cast. During roughly the 2005-2010 period some collections of painted ones were sold off as the owners moved on to 28/30mm. That process seems to be finished now.

Your friend can look at the Falcon molded figures from Minifigs UK as pretty close matches.

Custom Cast was the name of the company in Ohio, apparently that Duke ran. Der Kriegspielers also made Napoleoniques, according to some documents I found on line. Apparently somewhere Napoleonettes were mixed in there as well.

Confederals were the ACW line done by Der Krieg.

Apparently at some point Heritage became the producer of both Der Krieg and Hinchliffe figures as the two companies merged in 1977 (looking at a magazine ad).

The Rev War line, as far as I can tell, were called Continentals.

Confederettes was the name of the Heritage 15mm ACW figs – I've still got some Rebel artillery crews from that line, part of a bunch I bought from Duke Seifried when he visited our local wargaming shop here back in the '70s (Epic Gallery in Militaria).

TMP link

Heritage also had a small 15mm WW2 line.

I barely remember those AWI figs Winston mentions – they were elegant looking as I recall (proportions something along the lines of the pleasing dimensions of Fife & Drum figures now).

I have a bunch of them. They were nice for the time. The faces are a little distorted but the rest were ok. The scale well with Minifigs. Duke did own the range. He had those, FFL and thermopolytes (which I loved) too.

My recollection was that the original Der Kriegspieler line was the 20mm (ish) line of Napoleonics which was pretty extensive. I was working at a local hobby shop and Duke and his wife (girlfriend?) came in to hawk the line. I convinced the owner that our local wargaming group would buy a lot of these (which they did) and that I would paint one of each of the figures on the display that Duke convinced him he needed (which sadly, I never did…). Duke also sold a couple of sets of rules called Frappe (I think they were a 1:10 scale set) and Napoleonique which were 1:30. The rules didn't sell that well since the local group was firmly into Column, Line, and Square, but the accompanying organizational books did sell.

I think that the next couple of lines were the 25mm Continentals and a 30mm (ish) line of Greeks and Persians called Thermopylites. Sadly they did not fit well with Minifigs which started to come on strong about the same time (and they had separate arms which were not popular at the time).

This thread brought back some of my early teenage gaming memories from the mid-70s!

Of course, the Der Kriegspieler line was a direct rip-off of the UK Hinton Hunt line. Somebody – I know not who – bought 1 each of every figure in the Hinton Hunt Napoleonic line and used them as masters for molds. Hinton Hunt sued, but surprisingly, the law was unclear about legitimate uses of legally purchased miniatures. The fact that it was two different countries, and Hinton Hunt's failure to specifically prohibit such use were additional complications. Hinton Hunt eventually prevailed but it took several years.

Having made my switch from plastics to metals while studying in the UK, I well remember, upon returning to the U.S., coming across Der Kriegspielers and wrongly assuming they were the U.S. licensee of Hinton Hunt. Anyone who has purchased genuine Hinton Hunts will have seen the loss of detail in the DK castings (also the inferior metal, another story …).

Rawdon, I knew that the DK figures were copied from HH but did not know about the legal wrangling… is that what took DK 25s off the market? I just assumed that with the advent of Minifigs, USA, which were larger and nicer, that DK simply, as all good old soldiers do, faded away. I know our group made the switch.

I picked up a a number of HH figures that I hoped I could mix in with my DK (I still have the HH Old Guard and Marines of the Guard… some are primed using Imrie Risley primer and others in various stages of being pained using IR oil paints) but there was a clear difference in quality. HH had a greater variety in poses so that didn't help either.

I wish I had those DK figures (I had a lot as well as a good number of Airfix including quite a few conversions based on articles in Airfix Magazine) since they represent some of my earliest and fondest wargaming memories. I now just have few odds and ends left.

Custosarmorum, yes that is what took the DK figures off the market. To be fair, the market forces that you reference would probably have achieved the same result only a bit later. HH in fact did not long survive its legal victory.

I picked up a few unopened packs of DK Continentals,and one pack of Confederals. I'm debating whether to leave them in the packs or actually paint them up.

Bob C.

Resurrecting this thread 5 years later… I bought a good amount (at least what I could find/afford) in 1978 from various local stores in Northern Virginia, and got some more through Iron Brigade when they were in business in the 80s. I've recently, within the last few months, made the decision that I'm going to paint them all up, and acquire more of them, if possible. I've found a decent number on eBay, but it's hard to build units that way.