Brand New Honourable Lead Boilersuit Company Schutztruppe Figures in 28mm!

As readers of this blog will recall, I have always loved the old 28mm line of German Colonial figures once produced by the Honourable Lead Boilersuit Company.  Today I received an unexpected but most welcome message from Richard at HLBC who remembered my interest and an old email query about his figures.  Much to my delight, he told me that he has just reimagined and released a new line of German Colonial figures in 28mm and they are magnificent - easily the most detailed and accurately uniformed figures available.  Naturally, I  just placed a large order.

There are plenty of excellent figures for use in German Southwest Africa, including those wearing field caps as well as the classic "sudwester" slouch hat, and a beautiful patrol of camel riders, complete with proper harness including the bucket style rifle holster used by mounted troops in the colony.  There are also seebataillon in 1900 Bortfeldt helms, and machine gun sections for each head type.  But there are also east Africa Schutztruppe Askaris, Schutzruppe in 1904 Bortfeldt helmets, and East Asian Expeditionary Force (in 1900 Boetfeldt helmets and side cocked straw hats)!  All are stunningly and meticulously detailed with proper uniforms and equipment, and there are even heads wearing all the different hats and helmets to convert other figures for your table.

It is a wonderful return to a fantastic range.  I will lobby for more additions (Hereros and Namas?  Heliographs and Feld Lazaretts?) and look forward to painting some of them up in the near future!

Building an authentic DSWA Schutztruppe NCO's M.1896 Kord Waffenrock

The uniform regulations of November 19, 1896 prescribed a new corduroy waffenrock for the enlisted men of the Southwest Africa Schutztruppe.  Like those of the officers, it was: 

“made of sand-colored corduroy fabric, in the same cut as the Prussian Waffenrock, but with an angular cut, turn down collar provided with a pair of hooks and eyes for closing, Swedish cuffs.  Collar, cuffs as well as piping from cornflower-colored cloth.”

The kord Waffenrock of the Southwest Africa Schutztruppe was based on the Model 1895 Prussian waffenrock, which by this time had undergone several design changes since its first introduction in 1842.  

These guidelines present the research and documentation that informed an authentic reconstruction of a Schutztruppe Sergeant’s kord waffenrock suitable for service in German Southwest Africa at the turn of the 20^th Century. This project was a partnership with Matthew Williamson, a skilled tailor and student of Victorian-era colonial uniforms who constructed the waffenrock and a documented pair of Schutztruppe corduroy trousers based on documentation and materials I provided.   For the benefit of others who may wish to acquire a Schutztruppe uniform of similar quality, it would be hard to imagine a better suited tailor than Matthew.  He lives in Delaware and likes a challenge.

This project took three years to research, source and finally complete last May, and I am extremely

pleased with the results. The resulting kord waffenrock  is a faithful reproduction of the corduroy uniform authorized in November 1896 for colonial service in Southwest Africa. It uses cloth, cord, lace and buttons that are as close as possible to those issued and available when the original tunics were constructed. 

Matthew had the opportunity to examine a surviving M.95 Prussian waffenrock firsthand, though we did not have access to an original Schutztruppe kord waffenrock. Our reconstruction therefore relies heavily on photographs of original uniform details and Matthew’s knowledge of period uniform tailoring techniques. Both Kraus and Müller’s (2009) The German Colonial Troops from 1889-1918 History - Uniforms - Equipment   and Chris Dale’s German Colonial Uniforms website were essential resources, as were many period photographs and images of surviving uniforms from museum and private collections.

Again, the link to our documentation and guidelines is here.

Kord Waffenrock Project update

Almost three years ago, I posted here about my intention to research, source materials for, and construct a "museum quality" Southwest Africa Schutztruppe model 1896 kord waffenrock.  I learned a great deal in this process and found a premier tailor and 1850s-1900s colonial-era uniform specialist with whom to collaborate.  He is almost finished with the waffenrock (front view shown here) for an unteroffizier ohne portapee (in this case, a Sergeant), with original Prussian Guard silver metallic tresse at the cuffs and collar and original imperial sergeantenknopf on the collar (and not visible in this shot). There are also kord trousers and I'll have more construction details and pictures of both to share shortly.

I am building the entire impression, minus the rifle, and will post documentation and sources of the uniform parts and accouterments in subsequent posts.  I am down to the final missing piece (properly constructed tall brown riding boots that will fit my wide calf) and may have found a workable solution.