Almark Publications

Almark was a company that was hard to get your head round - prolific publisher, of books and the short-lived (I think) magazine Almark Modelworld; producer of the plastic and metal Charles Stadden designed World War 2 wargames figures (see my The Old Metal Detector blog here); and other interests including 54mm figures.

This post is mainly about the books - published in both hardback and paperback versions. With the passage of time the wisdom of investing in the hardbacks has become clear - the paperbacks were produced in the format laughingly called "perfect bound", with individual pages glued into the spine - not a good recipe for frequent use as a painting reference.

Authors included Emir Bukhari, Rene North, Alan Kemp, Michael Head and David Nash. The format included line drawings, colour plates and photographs. They could vary - the Prussian Army volume has delightful line drawings of gnome like figures who look like either children dressed up or early prototypes for Wargames Foundry figures.

I haven't been able to locate anything like a complete list of Almark titles, so have illustrated this post with some of those I have in my library (below). The three advertisments above are all taken from issues of Almark Modelworld.


The Books

Almark plastic British Infantry and Heavy Weapons sets

Over on The Old Metal Detector I posted some information on the Almark metal and plastic WW2 figures sculpted by Charles Stadden.

As it is illustrated by conversions of the British Infantry and Heavy Weapons plastic sets, I thought this article from Almark's Modelworld magazine of January 1974 might sit better here.

In it Bryan Fosten covers British Army Battledress 1939-45, illustrated with figures converted by Don Skinner and Noel Ayliffe-Jones. I don't remember reading this article before - it has something of the feel of John Sandars' 8th Army in the Desert series in Airfix Magazine.