1525 Miniatures for collectors, wargamers, modellers and historians interested in the costumes, weaponry and tactics at the time of the Peasants and Italian Wars.

My name is Doug Miller. I am a ‘retired’ academic with a passion – Err correction obsession – for recreating history in miniature and particularly the military history of Germany at the time of the Renaissance and Reformation.

This obsession is a long standing one which began in 1973 with the research for an Osprey series title called “The Landsknechts“ – these were the mercenaries employed by the warlords at the time who were known for their flamboyant costume.

That book was published in 1976 and I followed it up some 27 years later with a title in the same series on the Armies of the German Peasant War.

The interest in the Landsknechts derived from my figure collecting hobby which I was able to further during my undergraduate placement at the Elastolin factory in Neustadt bei Coburg. Elastolin was the trade name for quite exquisite plastic figures produced by the Hausser brothers. These were produced in 1:25 (7cm) and 1:45 (4cm) scale and have become collectible figures following the demise of the company in the 1980’s. One range which the company had released focused on the Landsknechts which I couldn’t resist for their animation and character.

Whilst at the factory for a 3 month ‘Praktikum’ I had the great fortune to work with and become a good friend of Josef ‘Pepi’ Tonn whose diorama work has been commemorated in the book “Schaustücke“. He was my inspiration – not only to begin making dioramas but also to start sculpting originals myself.

In 1983 I tried my hand at modelling a chess set based on the German Peasants War, a re-modelled version of which now sits in the German Peasants’ War Museum in Muehlhausen in Thuringia.

In 2000 I began a small series of Peasant War figures which has gone through a number of phases of development since. Further major influences have been the marvelous designs of German flat figures – particularly those of Franz Karl Mohr and the stunning artwork of Anton Hoffmann.

So as I have developed as a figure sculptor I have sought to reproduce the ‘character’ of the Wiemohr flat figure design and the animation of a Hausser/Elastolin figure. Some of my earlier blogs on this may give you an idea of where I am coming from.

Moreover, having grown up on a diet of Britains’ Swoppets and Airfix Multipose figures, I have been experimenting more recently with multi pose figures needless to say the conversion possibilities become endless particularly since I have designed the figures to take different weapons which I hope to make available in separate accessory packs. You can check these out in the Shop.

Since my retirement I have had time to throw myself into a series of commissions from a number of Peasants War Museums in Germany and embarked on a self financed book project which I published in 2017 detailing the background and events which culminated in the Battle of Frankenhausen 1525.

Frankenhausen

Following its publication I have decided to release a series of figures which depict various episodes and troops from that conflict. These are are available in the Shop. I hope these pages will inspire you to model, wargame and research this fascinating period. Feel free to get in touch at 1525miniatures@gmail.com if you have any queries and/or suggestions for future figures and check out my workbench page.