Saturday, December 15, 2018

Flats on Hexes!! (Before I was born.)

Today I followed a FB link to a great article about a group of miniature wargaming enthusiasts in Paris in the 1930s and 40's. These were not just gentlemen of leisure but included soldiers, artists, historians and others, many of whom played their part in the Resistance even while the games continued.
Flats on Hexes! Photo borrowed from :

Petits Soldats, Grandes Victoires  by Jon Peterson (author of Playing at the World)


The article is well worth reading for anyone with an interest in the history of wargaming, the influence of French miniature wargaming on early US wargaming, or real life stories of brave men.

You can reach the article on Medium here:

Link to Petits Soldats, Grandes Victoires by Jon Peterson

Well worth reading.

23 comments:

  1. Thanks Ross, fascinating and very well presented.

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  2. It is a corker of an article isn't it?

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  3. Excellent find. As well as the petite soldats grandes victiores newsreel clip of 1944, There are more French language newsreel video clips about solders des plomb https://www.ina.fr/recherche/search?search=soldat%20de%20plomb&vue=Video

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  4. In this series an Interesting 1970 French language newsreel of a lady making soldering and painting military Miniatures https://www.ina.fr/video/CPF10004924/coules-dans-le-bronze-video.html

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  5. What an interesting article,thanks for sharing with us.
    Alan

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  6. Always think of flats as German, never really considered France. Learnt something.

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  7. Fascinating stuff, and what a tragic end for so many of the French collectors society.

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    1. Indeed, toy soldiers are for real heroes as well as wanna he's.

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  8. A great article! Thank you for sharing the link.

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  9. This was an exceptional article in so many ways; among the best I've read about the history of our hobby in a long time. The flats on hexes just sort of look "right", don't they! Mty earliest armies were pre-painted Ochel flats, purchased when I was in middle school and knew i couldn't paint worth a damn!

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    1. They do look right, as does the scenery. My semi flat Prince August guys will have to calm that itch. I have an awfully feeling that painting some 30mm flats would be like eating 1 salted peanut.

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  10. Very cool! Great to see the history of the hobby!

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  11. Very interesting , thanks for bringing it to my attention .

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  12. Fascinating stuff Ross.
    Thank you for posting.

    All the best. Aly

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  13. Great find. Never saw this article before.

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