Wednesday 2 September 2009

Wargames Foundry Franco Prussian War Painting Guide



I wasn't quite sure whether to post this here or over on The Old Metal Detector blog. It also seems a little odd to think of Wargames Foundry being in any way to do with Vintage Wargaming, really being the start of the "modern style" metal figure and the creep to 28mm.

One of my favourite ranges of all time was/is the Wargames Foundry 25mm Franco Prussian War one, introduced some time in the 80s I think. They caught my eye in photos illustrating articles in Wargames Illustrated, and because of a rather nice painted unit of Turcos in the window of the small wargames shop that used to be near Kings Cross Station.

These two pages are true ephemera - interesting and useful paper based materials which are unlikely to survive. If you are thinking of trying to match the colours to the Foundry Paint System then don't bother - these colours are from a much earlier range of acrylic paints.

7 comments:

Chris Cornwell said...

There were (and only ever have been) just 2 Foundry ranges I thought were remotely any good, one of them being the Imperial Romans, the other being the Franco-Prussians. Cracking little figures, in a sort of stumpy, dwarven, no-necked way

Anonymous said...

I still have mine, but I lost the 2 or 3 pages which described the uniforms and had B&W illustrations of other minor troop types. You never know, Foundry might one day complete the range!

Matt

Der Alte Fritz said...

Would that be the Gamers in Exile store that you were talking about? Circa 1990, I bought a nice 32 figure set of French Dragoons for In The Grand Manner at that store. I think that they were Hinchcliffe figures. They had a nice shiny coat to them.

The Late Roman vs Saxon range is very nice too. The old Foundry figures were not yet on steroids.

Vintage Wargaming said...

Yes, I think that was the one. I couldn't afford painted metal figures in those days but it was nice to look when waiting for a train.

Robert Johnsey said...

Yes a fantastic range which I helped to promote under the banner of Quartermasters Stores at shows all over the UK.

There was an excellent set of rules which Foundry was selling at the same time for the FP War - does anyone know how to get hold of them now?

Anonymous said...

Robert,

Contact me at matratmatt@yahoo.co.uk

I think I have a set of these rules.

Matt

Anonymous said...

Just to say thank you to Matt - who is a thoroughly decent bloke!

Robert Johnsey