Looking at some of figures put out by manufacturers during and just after the Second World War I noticed that a reasonably high proportion of these are in poses either prone or standing and throwing grenades of various sorts. A higher proportion than more modern ranges have to be more accurate. I'm thinking of manufacturers such as Britains, Crescent, Skybirds, Trojan etc. These manufacturers were making figures primarily as toys, or for diorama builders, and not for wargamers. By the time mass market plastic figures by the likes of Airfix came onto the market, there were fewer prone poses and fewer grenadiers. Airfix rode the wave of popularity of wargaming in the seventies of course.
I noticed this as I began putting together a collection of these 1930-50s minis to wargame with. As I scour ebay and antique shops for small groups of these models, I'm ending up with more of these apparently less useful poses than I would normally buy.
But realising that the sculptors of these models may well have been ex-servicemen has made me wonder whether it is the later and current ranges who have got it wrong? The question I suppose is how well do wargame rules and miniature ranges actually simulate the frequency which grenades were used? And also how well do the poses of models we use on the wargame table actually represent the actions of twentieth century soldiers on the battlefield? I suspect the more accurate picture would be of most figures crouching or laying down rather than shooting from the hip like the cover of the Victor comic?
