Q is for Question Time - WHW Navy?

First, let's get the most salient point out of the way first; I don't believe these are WHW, but they seem to be contemporaneous with the similar Wintershilfswerk stuff from the war years, we looked-at this morning. Although the title is now a bit redundant as what was a three-shot post has grown to a wider overview, with a/the second - better understood, definitely WHW - set's vessels also covered.

I don't believe they are WHW because they are too large, they are poorer quality than the better known DRK (Deutsches Rotes Kreuz) - German Red Cross set of winter '40-41 (Types of the German Armed Forces/German Forces Today, although, as we saw earlier; it had several titles) and because they seem to have been glued to something - making them, originally, even larger?

 Steaming out of port we have a rather non-descript pair of warships, one a small battleship or cruiser, the other a rather large frigate or corvette? Between them something which appears to be the ill-fated Aircraft Carrier KMS Graf Zeppelin? I say that while repeating previous admissions of not being an expert on these things (sorry Granddad!) but the huge stack and long, straight-ended, parallel-sided, flight-deck both seem to suggest the Zeppelin?

The other side of the island is a simple flat formed from the tip of the 'more' male half of a two-part mould, and the ship has two small protrusions at sea level to help it balance upright on a flat surface, yet it appears to have been glued to something!

The two warships from both sides, there is a vague Bismarck/Tirpitz look to the main tower, but it's fleeting and not matched by the other details, with both vessels being pretty generic. They also - both - have signs of glue on the undersides.

The smaller ship, flanked by two vessels from the known WHW set, they are both far more accurate or detailed models, both have a bow-wave, and wash running down the sides and are manufactured in two halves, glued together; really, the only similarity is the silvery-grey polystyrene they are all made from?

They could be from a board-game, even a Nazi board-game, from the occasional frequency they (Nazi board games, not these ships) turn-up at auction (and provide an excuse for paroxysms of outrage from the Tabloids) a fair few made their way here, either before the war (as generic playthings) or after the war as booty/'war trophies' from liberated Nazi Europe? The bomb 'Engerland' set being unlikely a pre-war import, but still turning up from time to time!

They could be unattributed Nazi-era toys? Maybe an early attempt by Wiking to move away from metal, but the lack of accuracy argues against them? Although the plastic type was used for early Wiking vehicles. Perhaps penny-toys, sold from the toy-shops, market stalls or street-vendors of pre-war Germany?

Or they might yet turn-out to be WHW/KHW/DRK tokens, yet there is no sign of a hanger-hole or broach-pin attachment, but - as I say - they seem to have been glued to something at some point? Might they have even been mementos of the Zeppelin's slipway launch?

However, I have also seen a larger, longer submarine (above, about 11 years ago) included with a sales-lot of the 1940/41 set (stated March '41), it would sit well with the three 'unknowns' and has no sculpted wash along the water-line?

In Plastic Warrior's issue No.84 as described earlier, two sets were shown, including all six warships from that set; and clearly the naval vessels all have the waterline 'seascapeing', and all are shorter than the three question-marks above (and the 'archive' submarine), apart from the - more recognisable - battleship (largest model) which just-about matches the unknown Sub.

Any ideas on the biggies?

My suspected Nazi navy from both sets, in full cry, heading out en masse to meet the subject of this afternoons post, on the high seas!

 

12-06-2023 - Turns out they are an early Marx thing! US Sea and Air Defense [sic], could this be wartime, pronbaly not, they were mostly paper of wooden flats from Marx and Hassenfelt (and pthers), but I bey it's close to the end of the war, and rather that the KMS Graf Zeppelin, probably representing an Essex Class 'Fleet Carrier'?

K-WHW Das DRK is for All Sorts of Things!

This set used to be so simple . . .

"Seen this before?"

"Yeah, WHW that is, dead-rare, the first plastic toys ever made..."

 . . . would say the wise cove from the 'old guard' over yer' young-pup's shoulder.

But actually, it's all more complicated than that, and several people seem to have done plastic toys or novelties before them (the Nazi's), not least Bergan Toys (Beton) in the US. But back to the title first; Kriegs-Wintershilfswerk für das Deutsche Rote Kreuz, or wartime winter-relief by the German Red Cross, it's all a bit of a mouthful, and - as we shall see - a moveable feast.

 We did look at these a while ago to almost the same level as this post (not quite a complete set . . . or sets!?), but I've got my Plastic Warrior magazine issue 84 (1995) out of storage, and it's worth having yours (if you've got one) to hand for this post; pp's-22/23.

It's also a late addition to today's line-up which was going to be the next two posts, only, but I picked-up two more ships and colour variant Panzer III's from Mr Little (Mercator Trading, who still has a few) at the recent PW show in Whitton/Twicker's*, so I've re-written the second post in order to simplify it, and will explain the multi-set stuff here.

*I picked up four more two weeks later and took some shots which are near the end of the post.

Paratrooper, field telephone, range-finder (or dodgy mortar sculpt?) and a 'panzer' grenadier! Some people think it's a mortar, due to the lack of a base-plate I suspect they are setting-up an artillery rangefinder, but the sculpt isn't clear, so it's the owner's call and today that means it's a range-finder!

I first came across the ID for these on-line where an apparently knowledgeable German site back in the day had them as definitely (or definitively) a 1941 issue, specifically: March 1941, where they were titled 'Darstellungen der Wehrmacht' which as a direct translation gives Representations of the Armed Forces, or more properly as Examples of the Armed Forces, and was a German Red Cross collection, the DRK having been Nazified in the same way all the non-governmental 'organs of state' in Iraq were Baath'ified.

Spandau MG42 on a low-recoil sustained-fire mounting, set low, a mounted wiring-party and a dispatch rider. The pair of animals and rider in the wiring party seem to have been based on the single figure (rather than the other way round, the lone get-up is a slightly better quality sculpt), with horse-leg perspective reversed. While the MG depicted seems to be the '42 model (then brand new), but with an anachronistic pipe for a water-cooled weapon; when both the MG38 and '42 were air-cooled with changeable barrel-housings.

In the PW magazine there were two sets shown, one submitted by Michael Mordant-Smith, and believed to be a shop/window display, was self-described Kriegs-WHW 1940/41 Tag der Deutschen Wehrmacht, which - later portion - translates directly as Day of The German Forces, or more fluidly as The German Forces Today (or 'now'). This suggests - from the dates - the set was available (or being 'hawked') through the whole winter.

But also in that issue; 84, was a presentation book/box with a  pull-ribbon which enabled several of the models to stand-up when the cover was open, submitted by Brian Shorthouse, it was dated to 1940 only and titled Kreigshilfswerk für das Deuschen Rote Kreuz (war relief from the German Red Cross).

So you can have Winter Relief, War Winter-relief or plain [honest] War Relief! It's all (the money) going to the Nazi's! But . . . is no different to our flag-days or sponsor a tank/Spitfire type single-village, school, factory or WI (&etc.) fund-raisers, nor any different to the US flat we saw a while back courtesy of Chris Smith. Incidentally; a polystyrene flat, dating from the same era!

The point I'm getting to is that this set, which in the past when I've posted it I've always referred to with the 'March '41' info., was clearly available over some time from 1940 to 1941, and seems to have had several issues, as possibly evidenced here by the difference in plastic colour between a near silver/bare-metal vehicle on the left, and a mid-grey tank on the right.

In the magazine the 1940/41 sample seems to be toward the grey, the book display looking toward the silver?

While I don't have all the Naval or Luftwaffe elements of the set/s (see below), I do have all the army elements now - I think? Not unsurprisingly, given the various dates, all the equipment shown - where service date is applicable - is early war stuff, when this set was issued Russia was still 'on board' and the French/Low Countries and Norway campaigns were fresh in the minds of the populace.

This also points to extra-issues; there were two versions of this little anti-tank gun, and there may well be solid versions of other two-part scupts turn-up?** Hard to know which came first, but as with the riders; there is slightly more finesse to the glued-together example, so I imagine it was the earlier version. The solid also carries a numeral '2', probably a mould-tool/cavity number? My 'kit' has a damaged barrel.

** They have, see late shots below.

Highlighted in the past posts on the subject, and also pointing to numerous issues, the '88 on the left in both shots is both a finer-detailed sculpt and over-painted flat or 'satin' silver on a black-plastic base material; another clue to multiple issues.

Heavies; I haven't researched the right-hand piece, but it looks a bit WWI to me! I guess it's a brigade or divisional level heavy howitzer for sieges or barrages . . . is it what was hidden in a Brumbar?! And; I'm not that sure about the left-hand one being an sFH.18, but it's similar!

My Navy; the original cause of this post! They definitely aren't to scale, and I seem to be missing four two of a possible seven. The one I'd like to find is the three-mast training/cadet vessel with 22 sheets to the wind, it's a fine little model of a clipper-ship, looking very much like later, post-war margarine premiums!

Titles are purely guesswork, but it seems to be two smaller warships and a pair of biggies, with the sub' (and the motor launch and sailing ship), but as you can see the largest model isn't the recognisable large ship to its right, also it (the left hand one) is a single shot moulding and seems too often have the slight cooling-distortion/bend in it seen here.

It should be noted that the largest vessel (top left) is subject to losing its front, upper tower (as mine has), it should sit on the little nipple at the back of the box behind the turret, and which gives it quite a different look; for some time I was looking for an eighth ship!

My air-force is also at half-strength***, with an absent ME109 (early version) and a twin-engined bomber/fighter-bomber also missing. The Messerschmitt is a single-piece moulding, while the others have glued-on propellers; my Henkel's weren't glued on very well and have been flung-off upon starting without damaging the locating shafts.

*** Now both presented below with damage.

Images courtesy of Mercator Trading

A further complication in trying to ascribe these to each of the known or reported issues is that there are as many as three variations of some (or all?) of the individual mouldings. This may be something as simple as several factories being required to handle the masters in order to manufacture separate tools, so that for the period of the 'promotion' the millions of products needed - in a short space of time - were ready.

But . . . it could also point to either simplification of manufacture (in which case the solid versions of the two-part sculpts would likely be the latter ones) to reduce costs/time to the manufacturer, or an austerity measure, sent down from central government, to reduce vital war material use (the plastic); in which case the hollow, two-part ones might be the later sculpts?

As far as the grenade-thrower above is concerned, the first scenario would leave all three versions contemporaneous, while in the case of the economic theories, the former would leave the left hand figure as probably the last to be issued, the latter might have the middle figure as the final version!

A graphic of the data to-date, from my examples, I hope it will change over time, does anyone else know of single-moulding versions of the two-part sculpts, or any other over-painted examples?

Of note is that the two sets shown by Plastic Warrior all those years ago manage to ignore the range-finder ['mortar'] and split the rest of the set between them; twelve-each and with one duplicate? Oh; and of all the WHW's out there, these are about the least-rare; another sign of multiple issues.

Late additions; The  'Corvette' (with heavy flash/gate-mark on the bow), the two missing 'planes (both with damaged propellers) and a silver-on-black plastic version of the field-telephone vignette (also with better etching than the unpainted issues).

I think I'm only looking for the motor boat and the sailing ship to complete the samples, but if I'm still looking for up to four versions of each (solid, two-part, two-part hollow, and finer, over-painted) - I have a long, long way to go yet!

T is for Two - Plastic and Metal Flats

A couple of bits that came to Small Scale World recently, one as photographs the other as a tangible 'sample' for the collection! Yes; I know Stadinger had flats the other day, but A) these have been in the queue for three weeks and B) I don't think I can be accused of competitively following him in quite the same way as he is following me these days, with his recent Leprechauns, 'what's this' British 50mm mounted (fancy not knowing?) and Jaru tank?

Especially as we always have a few flats here from time to time - return to 'Zoo' coming soon!

All shown days after I've posted the same/similar, he's threatening to show us a whole Imperial bag next, which will be nice, the follow-up comments will make for interesting reading too, after the Jaru tank (rack toy tat) you'd think he'd found the crown jewels or a new pose of Swoppet knight with pink caparison!

I can't work out if he's playing "Look - I've got some of those too" which would be tragic in a slightly pathetic sort of way or "I've got some Hugh didn't show" which would be pathetic in a slightly tragic sort of way.

But either - equally childish - way; he's taking the position of sitting in my dust and if that's what he meant by watching my very closely, I've nothing to worry about, as apparently I'm now setting the agenda for what appears over there; responsibility for two blogs . . . I'm not sure I can take the pressure! And the other 700-and-odd of you are the winners - again . . . and every time!

So this came into the fold the other day and what's interesting about it is that it's a strip, and a damaged strip at that, not only has the gazelle lost both a horn and an ear (that's the trouble with poachers using battlefield weaponry!) but an unknown number of other sculpts - well; at least one - seem/s to be missing from one end?

These shots make it easier to see that the runner is broken-off beyond the ape, my question is, were they designed to be broken off, by a retailer, say, and issued one at a time as a premium/prize or token-gift for a purchase of something else; cigarettes, cakes, sweets, or beer even, or was it issued in strip form (as a mini-set or part set) in coffee or similar and has since become damaged?

I think I have a few singles with similar bases in storage, so we may well return to these but if anyone knows more about them, or can put a brand/maker to them; please tell the rest of us!

I know what these are 'cos it says so on the box! Heinrichsen Russian [something - strike?] Infantry Storming or at least I think that's what it says! And they are obviously grenadiers as they are nearly all throwing grenades.

It's funny, as a kid I used to pop-up the Library and devour all the  - now 'old school' - books on toy soldiers and war-gaming and I don't remember detailed rules on Napoleonic grenade throwing? I've since learnt some early ones were glass balls and almost as lethal to the operators as they were to the intended victims . . . fuse technology lacking the finesse and fine-tolerances of the modern era!

Only four poses, and only one each for two of them; devoted to an officer/SNCO and drummer, with 8 each of the two line grenadier poses.

The two line grenadier poses again, showing the distinctive Heinrichsen bases, they weren't the finest of flat makers, but they were prolific. Shot's not up to my usual standards, maybe I borrowed the picture from you know who, straight-swap for one of my ideas on what to post!

H is for Heilpflanzen Des WHW

A bit of a bitty post, but like yesterday's it gets them in the tag-list and adds to the 'whole' on that tag - which you can find under each post (specific to that post) or down the right hand column of this page (all, alphabetically).

Taken from recent acquisitions and Adrian's stall at Sandown Park recently it's a return to the Winterhilfswerk Abzeichen or 'winter-help-work tokens'; some of the earliest plastics in our hobby, although there are a few non-plastic ones today.

Here we see five of the 1942 Berlin Guard set issued by the Gau (regional authority) of Berlin with one of the Police figures from a 1940 issue; he still has his hanging cord - with this you could pin the token to your collar or lapel to prevent yourself being 'button-holed' by another fund-raiser/seller down the road or the next day.

The military set; it's funny we've looked at these before briefly I think, and I now have a full sample of the foot figures in storage, but even with this post we still haven't seen them all here, the half-track is still missing as is the two-man vignette setting-up a range-finder, and this stick-grenadier is broken, so we will return to these at least once more, one day!

This was actually issued by the Deutschen Roten Kreuzes (German Red Cross) in 1941 and titled 'Examples of the Armed Forces'. Also absent are a second, more streamlined submarine (which - having no bow-wave - may be from the question-mark set we looked at ages ago, with the KMS Hitler-like carrier) sand a motor-boat with troops in.

It can be seen that propellers suffer loss and here all three types are missing parts of propellers.

On the left is a few more from the above set which have come in over the last few years, a Heinkel Bomber (early version with open roof-gunner position) which seems to be missing its propellers, but may have been converted to take little clear discs - now missing? The paratrooper - who was the largest-scaled figure in the set at around 35mm - is one of my favourites; this is my second, for painting at some point. Also a badge of a German soldier from a set for which I don't know the details.

On the right are various oddments; The bisque trawler-man comes from the occupations set of 'Industrious Germans' issued in March 1939, it was one of the larger sets with 20 figures (I think we've looked at the coal-miner before?) and all were given a pin-broach fitting on the reverse, again for wearing as a 'badge of contribution'! An earlier, similar set of regional costumes from 1937 in the same style look like a technicolour take on the Commonwealth dancing dolls!

The terracotta plaque has no method of wearing and was a common meme in WHW's, there being various sets of buildings, people, shields etc in the material, while the base-metal dog with semi-precious stone eye was part of another series of similar tokens which included sets of 'Germanic Swords & Daggers' (1939) and ' Historical Tomahawks and Battle-axes (1940), they're from page one of the 'how to militarise a nation' book!

Finally a vulcanised-rubber (or ceramic - it's hard to tell after 80-odd years) chicken's head which may or may not be a WHW token and may or may not be meant as a pencil top?

Some close-ups; The four artillery pieces donated to the blog by Wouter Wyland, shot from the other side from last time! My two planes, head on, and another submarine. The Pak-36/7 is almost HO-gauge compatible (wheels are a bit close together due to the semi-flat nature of the sculpt) and has a cavity number '2' on its underside.

The Stuka is slightly smaller that the MPC-Minis one we've looked at before, and both examples in these images seem to have miss-moulded wing-tips. Unsurprising in a nascent technology, and most are well formed with little flash or other signs of production problems; a few of the ships are miss-registered down the mould-split/join-line though.

The badge looks like it could have been made yesterday, not by a regime consigned to history 72 years ago! The glued-in sub-assemblies of the Stuka dive-bomber - if you invent polystyrene you have to invent polystyrene cement! - which has run up the sides of the fuselage, just as it would on my Airfix Boulton-Paul Defiant 30-odd years later; Doh!

A is for Abzeichen

First-off apologies to anyone waiting on eMails or eMail replies, but as I suspected the other week the move to Andover has been problematical, mostly because Vodafone have seen fit to deny any sort of service to the community - Mobile/Cell-phone as well as Internet? Although Belkin not providing drivers for Windows 7 has meant the back-up plan failed as well! Modern Technology - I swear it's going backwards!

Consequently I'm doing this on my lap in an industrial park with half a battery - I'm watching like a hawk so don't expect it to be spell-checked as at some point I'll hit 'publish' in a panic! Also while I'm trying to follow other Blogs when I get a one-bar signal for a few minutes, commenting is out for a while...that'll please some!

But I will catch-up with everything next weekend and every other weekend thereafter hopefully. In the meantime, by way of one of the unsent eMails; Thanks go to Wouter Wayland of the Netherlands for sending me these, and while it ended up as a mutually beneficial 'swap' he originally proposed sending them to me for nothing, so thanks Wouter - they were in the postal system so long I thought they might have gone AWOL!

These four are all the artillery elements from one of the more sought after sets of WHW (Winterhilfswerk) Tokens from the flag days (Heilpflanzen Des WHW) held every two weeks or so during the latter stages of the Nazi regime. The set is not that rare and I will come back to them another day as I have most of the set now in the storage unit, however it is sought by both figure collectors and WHW/Militaria collectors so there is a greater demand for it.

I have also seen presentation boxed sets in two sizes which were presented to dignitaries and - perhaps - clubs or organisations who raised money separately from the collecting-tins carried by SA-men or the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend) and similar girls organisation (Bund Deutscher Mädel) who made-up the bulk of the collectors.

On the right is another item from the set Wouter sent above, in the same silver-grey polystyrene, the others are from a rarer set issued exclusively by the Gau (local authority) of Berlin (in about 1943 if memory serves - I'll get the details right when we come back to them in the future). They seem to have been issued twice, once unpainted in the same silvery-grey plastic and once painted in 'base' coloured plastic to match the figure depicted, in this case police units of the civil and NASDP/Nasi party.

They have a hole for threading so they can be worn to show that the wearer has 'made a donation' although propaganda made it impossible not to contribute, which is why none of these are really rare, not even the Gua issues, there are literally millions of them in the 'odds' drawer by the 'phone, in the attics and cellars and basements and game drawers of Germany, and the homes of German sympathisers, and all over the occupied territories, and come to market often in handfuls, sets or part sets for around 15-quid. You should never pay more than a fiver for a single WHW token and you want to be aiming at around a pound a piece, whether tin, white-metal, paper, wood, ceramic or plastic.

Some others that I happened to have on the hard-drive, these (along with rest of the previous shot) were all purchased at Beltring about three years ago, there was an English dealer asking 15/20 quid each for some pretty tatty WHW's, but plenty of Dutch, Belgian and German dealers had them for a pound or two.

The trumpet with the sig rune in missing its mouthpiece and is a pin-badge, as is the fired-ceramic miner, he's part of a set of about 18 rural and work (arbiter) subjects, the pin set into the ceramic with an early polyurethane resin/two-part epoxy type adhesive. The '88mm is interesting as it appears to be from an undocumented second issue of the common set, being in black plastic over-sprayed in silver paint.

The MG-crew and Horse-rider are also from the common set, there is a version of the rider with a second horse in tow, laying comm's-cable which I have and which will be covered another day. The pack is from a set of belt-order fighting equipment, and was described as a Hitlerjugand set, the accompanying pieces being the canteen, water bottle, zeltbhan-roll etc...I've included a second shot of the Wouter donation and a close-up of the Gestapo-mans arm-band. Oh - and Abzeichen...equals 'token'!