In between duelling and forest skirmishes, I have spent my spare time over the last few days stocktaking, sorting through cupboards and restowing groups of scattered figures into ‘like’ themed boxes.
The Lucky Products plastic 30mm Revolutionary War flats reminded me I had other flat figures and moulds stowed away.
I know that many of you including Alan Tradgardland Gruber have been unearthing hidden and forgotten treasures like these German marines or sailors
http://tradgardland.blogspot.com/2020/05/i-managed-some-game-related-time-amidst.html
Although I do not yet have a copy of that particular sailor home cast mould, I recognised these sailor figures from the attractive flats or semi flats page in The Collectors All Colour Guide to Toy Soldiers by Andrew Rose (1985), widely available second hand.
These homecast figures are often known as Schneider moulds. Here is the Schneider S and arrow logo, together with the mould number 69.
Size comparisons between Britain’s 54mm,40mm + Schneider figures & Lucky Products plastic flat
These semi flat figures are depending how you measure your figures between 45 to 50mm tall or two inches?
I quite frequently check these pages as people send me emails through my blog comments asking for help about figures they have dug up, found in their family collections that need repairs or need IDing. I don’t do repairs for others but am often happy to help ID these figures where I can.
Richard Camp’s Homecast ID site seems to have disappeared from the links at Hugh Walters Small Scale World but there is always the Facebook Homecasting group.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/homecasting/
or the British section International Flat Figure collecting and painting Society
Who will my semiflat homecast Redcoats fight?
Why Close Wars contenders “soldiers versus natives” in the homecast form of Settlers versus Indians mould no. 56, of course.
Previously on Man of TIN blog, homecast Schneider moulds
https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/03/more-homecasting/
Schneider Settlers & Indians, mould number 56, this time back into the melting pot …
and an unusual zinnfiguren poem by early victim of the Nazis Joachim Ringelnatz
https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/01/zinnfiguren-poem-by-joachim-ringelnatz/
Blogposted by Mark (Thin Semi flat ) Man of TIN, 2/ 3 June 2020
B.P.S. Blog Post Script
Here is a slightly odd photograph in response to Colin Torres’ request about front end shots of these Schneider semiflat figures, which I interpret hopefully rightly as wanting to see how rounded or thin these semi flats are.
Pound Store Plastic Warriors 
Front on view for semiflats please please
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Hello Clive
Will do – quite thin figure will add this today.
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I have added this on as a BPS Blog Post Script – hope this helps.
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Enjoyed your semi flat post full of interesting things to think about. As one painting sailors I was really inspired by the paint job on them. I have gone for a black/dark blue vibe but the lighter blue is charming. I have been fortunate to pick up lots of semi flats semi cheaply on eBay over the years and in my recent shed sorting came across loads of Indians. The trapper figures are far less common and I have far fewer of them,they are a charming figure I think. I am amazed at the misidentification of figures on ebay and the frankly ridiculous prices asked for painted readcoats. The other day I came across an officer and highlander you had cast for me and was amazed at how detailed the figures can be. My sailors have minimal detail , is that due to the metal used or the age of the mould? I like to retain as much of the old paint as I can , for sentimental reasons I think. You have inspired me to dig out the semiflats and really see what I have. I put them in a safe place, but where? A quest to look forward to…
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Forgot to say, I have always been slightly confused as to what the hunter/trapper is wearing. I almost think it is European rather than American in his clothing. He lacks an archetypal Davie Crocket hat and seems to be wearing boots rather than leggings or stockings. Perhaps I am over thinking this. He seems an odd opponent for the Indian figures in terms of when the mould was manufactured? Not even cowboy looking. What do you think?
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I remember a comment in Donald Featherstone War Games 1962 “that the Allied Armies of Occupation in Germany after World War II banned all such evidence of militarism, restricting toy makers to such innocuous items such as cowboys and Indians.”
This 1936 / 30s catalogue PDF had your Sailors and my Settlers and Natives in it amongst the more modern 1930s steel helmeted German Infantry
Click to access Schneider_Gebr_Katalog_ab%201936.pdf
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The “cowboy” does look, at first glance, like a German East African Schutzetruppe.
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Thanks – Interesting suggestion. Odd mould sharing combination with Indians but they do make African natives as a mould.
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The detail is down to the homecast metal mix and temperature. Sometimes moulds can become burnt out or worn out.
The painted ones came with the mould when I bought it and they are lower in detail, probably a soft lead home cast. I also wanted to keep their paint work intact.
The silver one shown and the officer and highlander ones that I did for you are done with finer detail metal.
I hope to get around to casting some more one day when I have everything set up and the right weather.
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I think that he is supposed to be a settler maybe of the early 18th Century rather than Davy Crockett late 18th early Nineteenth Century. Not sure how tribally specific the generic Indians are supposed to be, already they look a little Hollywood or Buffalo Bill Circus types.
The Schneider moulds that are around are usually at the early to mid twentieth century period including home casting ones. A brief illustrated history in German with patents and catalog pages including 1930s Reich era ones.
http://www.zinnfiguren-bleifiguren.com/Firmengeschichten/Schneider_Gebrueder/Schneider_Gebrueder_Leipzig.html
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For an opponent, could the figures be painted as Prussians?
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I think that is probably the idea, they are fairly generic troops and obviously have a German Prussian influence from their Schneider makers already.
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