The World of Model Soldiers

Part 9 : Civilian Figures

Many collectors collect civilian figures to the exclusion of the military, and in view of the fact that model civilians are made in the same way, of the same materials, and by the same processes and manufacturers it has been thought necessary to include them in this work. The most prolific producers of civilian figures are the flat tin-figure makers, the least are the war-gaming manufacturers.

The model figures of civilians that have been made throughout the years are in many cases ancillary to the model soldiers; model and toy soldiers have always been the main reason for business and the civilian figures come afterwards. As manufacturers have produced more figures of soldiers than they have of anything else, this must generally reflect the desire of their customers. However, occasionally, due to political circumstances, they have stopped producing warlike toys and have turned to something more peaceful. At the end of World War I, for example, people were heartily sick of war and the last thing they wanted to do was to glorify it by buying toy soldiers for their children. In this sort of atmosphere the production of model farms, zoos, and wild animals was quickly taken up by the manufacturers of toy soldiers to enable them to continue in business. This same reaction to warfare was very noticeable in the United States during the closing stages of the war in Viet Nam. People held demonstrations for peace and children were forbidden to have toy soldiers, guns, or anything of a military nature.

Many collectors who want their figures to have a utility purpose as opposed to being primarily decorative, use them as chess pieces. The front lines, the pawns, are invariably line infantry, from one state or country or period. In the back line, the castle is made up of perhaps a pile of cannon balls or a small part of the fortification of a castle; the knight is usually depicted by a dismounted horseman, often carrying a lance and occasionally a saddle to show that he is in fact a cavalry man, as there is not enough space for a man on a horse. The bishop is invariably a civilian or figure with a clerical appearance. It depends on the period and the country as to what he should wear but he will have a civil appearance rather than a military one. The king is represented by, for example, a famous general or head of state, and the queen by a figure representing his wife, consort, or some other woman with whom he is associated.

No camp in which there are soldiers is complete without its camp followers, no parade without its dogs and small boys. To make such figures from scratch to complete a diorama or even a small display can be as difficult as making the main figures themselves. These days we are helped by the manufacturers who generally provide a sprinkling of other types, but in the past females had to be converted from cowgirls, who would be the partners of the cowboys, from the occasional Maid Marion, who would accompany the Timpo band of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, and, less often but still very useful, the farmer’s wife, with her shopping basket, umbrella, long skirt, and poke bonnet, would be pressed into service as a cantinière or sutleress (a woman who follows an army, selling provisions).

The female figures produced by the toy manufacturers have covered a number of the female services, WRNS, WRACs, and WRAFs being the most popular, the land army, civilian ladies in walking-out clothes and motoring clothes, civilian men bicycling with a lady on the back of a tandem, hikers, girls feeding chickens and milking cows, milkmaids carrying pails of milk, lady garage attendants, and a whole host of others.

Civilian figures are usually made in the 30 mm size, both flat and round, and in the 54, 75, and 90 mm sizes. In the 54 mm range, Boy Scouts, railway station staff, Salvation Army, footballers, cricketers, golfers, the farmer with his wife and farmhands, motorists, cyclists, parsons, members of the Red Cross and St John’s Ambulance, have all been made by a number of manufacturers over a great many years.

These standard-size figures are rarely designed as part of a scene or diorama, but the 30 mm flat, metal civilian figures, so beloved by the collectors in Europe, are often engaged in work or a stance that is complementary to another figure in the range. The normal method of production is to engrave the figures after first drawing the scene and to have all the figures interrelated so that the set provides a vignette, or picture.

Courtenay, prior to World War II, was very keen on producing figures of royalty and their attendant servants and hangers-on. Carman, just after the war produced a good range of courtiers of the medieval period. Britains made lifeboatmen, and Mignot brought out a whole range of different figures, Greeks, Egyptians, Arabs, Africans, all going about their business in a most pleasant and unwarlike manner.