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Thursday, April 23, 2026

F is for Follow Up . . . From Ages Ago!

Do you remember when we looked at the Nazi board game Friegur;
 
 
Well, I managed to pick up a few of the pieces at the BMSS show last weekend, they weren't cheap, but well worth it, to add them to the stash, and they also add something to that previous post, being unmarked and introducing a new colour, useful, as the link to the Leipzig set found by Paul at the time is now dead?
 
A full squad of twelve infantry, with the standard-bearer.

One each of the German Army's poses, the officer has lost his hand, maybe his Mauser exploded! And we can see the oxblood red of the mounted figure (in German helmet . . . ish) must be from another set, as we saw with the whole game, last time, each army is one colour.
 
Likewise, there are 'Frenchies' from two sets, but there were only three items, two foot officers and one mounted, again in the oxblood red.

Comparison between the not very German helmet (the foot figure's helmets are a better shape, as can be seen in the previous images), and the more obvious Adrian helmet of the 'French' side, and a difference of base design, one's thicker too. So we have examples from at least two sets, possibly three, and none of these were marked, whereas there were clear base-marks last time we looked at them.
 
I'm guessing here, but I suspect the different tech' involved in producing Bakelite mouldings, over the later petrochemical-polymer injection processes, might have led to larger tools or bolsters, for oven finishing of whole 'sides', with all the pieces required of a game, being made in one colour batch, then another, and the two opposite sides swapped for contrasting colours, at the packing stage?
 
Certainly the larger components made in the phenolic material for the electrical industry would suggest such large tools/components were not rare, although nowadays, Bakelite is, or can be injected, in quite small moulding machines, so I guess it's a moot point!

Howitzer, trench mortar and the 'lozenge' tank, as seen last time.
 
Notice on all these, the uneven finishing/sanding of the bases, as opposed to the marked set we saw last time, where they were all clearly ground level, in a uniform fashion, here they've just been touched to the sanding belt, to remove high-spots. It would be interesting to know if these are earlier or later production, I suspect the latter, maybe licensed to another maker, the Leipzig connection from last time? Although I've tagged them Denkmeier and Fischer to keep them together with the previous post.
 
The cockpitless Messerschmitt Me.109 'drone'!
 
So, marked or unmarked, in black, khaki or oxblood, I still have a few to find before I'm happy with the sample, given that an actual game will stay well outside my budget parameters! But this is a nice start! 

4 comments:

  1. John ...
    Off topic Hugh.
    But a quick question. We are off to Salou in two weeks. I was wondering if you know of any toy soldier model shops in Salou, Barcelona.
    More so places where Reamsa Jecsan can be found.
    Or the Spanish attitude to Franco or Republican scale models?
    Thanx
    John

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  2. Hi John. I don't offhand, but check the Spanish and Portuguese blogs (several in my blog list) for show announcements, they have several, and they seem to be as good as PW. On the Civil War - I can only point to one of the Spanish Blogs who posts both Fascist Falange figures and Republicans, toys is toys! I think the thing to do, especially with Spaniards, is to avoid discussion on the subject, if you have to, try to not have an opinion on who was right or wrong, and if that fails, feign ignorance, and try the wishy-washy "Well, it was a shame it had to happen"?

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  3. Very nice! Have you ever seen the German/Nazi WW11 era chess set figures? I saw a couple from a battlefield dig, from memory in a rich deep orange plastic.

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  4. I think so. When I shot the show-and-tell of the original post I did some digging, others have come to light digging for WHW's, while many years ago a 'social hysteria' piece from the Daily Wail, on Nazi board games, led to more digging, and there is some stuff in a folder on a dongle somewhere, I Think!

    H

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