There was a time when Alnavco and the line of ships put out by Superior were a major source for naval miniatures. The line is still available with additional 1/2400 ships and the monster sized 1/1200 ships.
All posts by Dana
Polk’s Hobby
In the days before the ubiquitous shopping mall with its generic range of stores, any major city could be counted on to offer a dazzling range of toy and hobby shops. Likely one of the most dazzling was the multi-story hobby palace Polk’s Hobbies on 5th Avenue in New York City about a block south of the Empire State Building. Each floor was devoted to a particular hobby with one floor set aside for model soldiers. You could set your sights on plastic models or toy trains or working models. Of course, they had a wonderful collection of miniatures though mostly for those sort of people who enjoyed putting them under glass jars on curio shelves. Even so, this is where I went to purchase copies of the Wargaming Newsletter and The Dragon.
A trip to Polk’s was always an experience. The store clerks were generally rude or at best indifferent but at first it hardly seemed to matter. During the 60s, a weekend would see floors crowded with hobbyists in search of that elusive bit of detail. By the 70s though interest dwindled. 45th Street had multiple model railroad shops while 33rd and 57th boasted The Complete Strategist. Even the soldier-in-a-jar crowd could go to the plush Soldier Shop. Eventually, the upper floors were sold off and Polk’s was reduced to crowded quarters in the basement. In 2013, Polk’s finally closed its doors. While it was there, it was worth seeing.
Polk’s offered different catalogs for different hobbies. The figures catalog shown offers display figures and a handful of very early wargames. Below, an attempt to explain figure scale.
Warhammer 40K
Here are some old figures from the Rogue Trader era. The Space Orcs had a curious Nazi biker quality to them. Citadel’s earlier use of metal figures as opposed to plastic seemed to allow a scope to added personality that seems lost now. The newer plastic figures draw variety from interchangeable heads and arms.
Perhaps even more interesting are the Squats. There used to be a nice range of these figures, cleverly sculpted with lots of personality. However, Games Workshop decided to shelve the Squats apparently because they did not mesh with the 40K world and possibly because they gave the game the appearance of a light work-over of the original Warhammer universe now simply dressed up in spacesuits.
Battle Masters
Milton Bradley Toys and Games Workshop meet and create a game that was unfortunately far from epic. The simplistic rules might appeal to children, but for adults, the game components were the main draw. Dozens of plastic Warhammer miniatures were included, enough to sate even the most avid collector. If only MB spent a little more time on the game.
Best Wishes!
Happy New Year!
Prussian Infantry
A side by side view of Prussian Landwehr in 15mm by Essex on the right and Battle Honors on the left. The Battle Honors figures appear more delicate, more carefully proportioned while the Essex figures which one reviewer described as ‘gnomish’ are a little more toy soldierish. Figures are primed white, painted with acrylics and metallic enamels.
Austrian Infantry
Old Glory with its rather tall figures and exaggerated poses provide a range of Napoleonics. The Austrians are reputed to be their best. These are primed white, washed black, and then detail picked out. Flags are commercial but I do not recall the maker.
What’s New, Puddy Tat?
The website has been active now for several months selling nothing, promoting nothing, getting few visitors, and otherwise settling into a distant backwater of the Internet. Which is all well and good. An original expectation was that I would work on the design of a larger corporate website, something that did not materialize. Instead, I have had a lower level of input into a less noticeable site with limited rights and permissions. And this is where the Little Men came to the rescue.
I have been able to mimic much of the activity on the larger website including the use of mechanisms I would not normally have access to because on this website, I can do whatever I want. Sadly (or not), the content has been more limited than I had hoped. It is not so much a question of material as time. There is so blessed little of it. Even now, I spend much of the week traveling by plane or car and getting very little done. Even so, having this website available has been great at every level.
Of course, there is still more to come, perhaps as inconsequential as what has already been served up. This was meant to be a learning experience and it has been one. It was meant as an exploration and the exploration continues. I can find dozens of websites covering the same ground better presented and better informed. But this is where I learn and so far, it has been great.
SF Adventurers, Civilians and Military
The temptation is to refer to these as Traveller miniatures but some are part of the Laserburn range which had its own unique set of rules. The figures shown are by a variety of companies including Citadel, Laserburn, Martian Metals, and Asgard. There may be others tucked in there but I am not really sure. The figures are over 30 years old give or take a year. These are my only award winning figures having taking first place for SF/Fantasy group at some in the distant past Origins convention. Most of the painting was done with enamels.
15mm had seemed an odd scale for an RPG. RPGs usually relied on larger 25mm and 28mm figures. It did make Traveller unique for its time and facilitated the introduction of the Striker rules for mass combat replacing the earlier simplistic rules found in the original RPG. There were also rules like Snapshot and a later more streamlined version of the Snapshot rules in the Azhanti High Lightning game set that allowed battles using individual figures rather than using multiple based figures. With the Snapshot type rules, figures could use maps of spaceships, outdoor areas, and buildings as handy battlefields. Eventually, Traveller began using 25mm figures with several companies licensed to manufacture them. Licensing really would seem unimportant as any figure could function in a Traveller game but the alien races were pretty unique.
All the figures are nice though I prefer the Laserburn and Citadel (now RAFM) figures. Vehicles have never quite kept up with the range of figures. There are more manufacturers offering vehicles these days but all seem grounded in 20th century technology.
Confederate Cavalry
These are the first metal figures I ever purchased. I bought them to supplement the absence of adequate Confederate cavalry for my set of Airfix American Civil War figures. These are by K & L Thomas who offered an extensive range of figures. They advertised in the hobby magazines I read and had I had more money, I would certainly have purchased more figures. The last entry for them on TMP is listed for 2008 so it is likely the figures are no longer available.
At that time, I had barely enough money for a few boxes of Airfix figures. I had coaxed a friend into purchasing and building his own army and even conceded the far more attractive Union side to him. But his interest soon waned and I found myself without a gaming opponent.
The painting on these figures is what I could muster at that early age. It is not the best but it was good enough. How I could get even this level of detail with the kinds of brushes I had back then I could not guess.