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History center head's home is his toy soldier castle

Thursday, November 21, 2002

By Marylynne Pitz, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

"Toy soldiers are armies you can control," said Andrew Masich, head of the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center.

	Hobbyist Andrew Masich is passionate about toy soldiers. He melts and molds the pewter into elaborately detailed figures that he paints and poses in the basement of his Fox Chapel home. He and his miniature troops will take over the Heinz History Center on Saturday, when Masich offers a seminar on casting and painting toy soldiers. (Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette)

Really? The soldiers appear to have taken over an entire room in the basement of Masich's Fox Chapel home, along with a large corner of a solarium and various pieces of furniture throughout the house.

For years, Masich has made a hobby of melting pewter and molding it into elaborately detailed toy armies. He paints the figures, too, and for about six years ran a mail-order business that shipped little marching men all over the world.

On one shelf in his library, a miniature Lt. Col. Oliver North takes the whispered advice of Brendan "I am not a potted plant" Sullivan, his silver-haired lawyer during the Iran-Contra hearings. A stern Sen. Daniel Inouye watches as North answers questions.

Nearby, the Camel Corps, bearing miniature cannons on their humps, marches atop a piano during the 1885 Battle of Khartoum in the Sudan.

The 2 1/2-inch figures will take over the Heinz History Center, too, on Saturday, when Masich offers a seminar on casting and painting toy soldiers to parents, grandparents and children 11 or older.

Anyone who attends will be in good historic company. Toy soldiers captured the imagination of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, author H.G. Wells and Malcolm Forbes, the late publisher, whose collection was extremely valuable.

In Masich's Strip District office, toy soldiers are already camped out on a side table, including Gen. Robert E. Lee, who swivels in his saddle and waves his hat, exhorting his troops.

That seems fitting because Masich's fascination with these colorful little guys began when he was 10 and found a Civil War bullet in the attic of his grandfather's Victorian home on Lake Chautauqua in New York.

That find of a .69-caliber Minie ball bullet ignited Masich's passion for military history. The Minie ball, invented in 1849 by Capt. Claude Minie, revolutionized American warfare when the U.S. military adopted it in 1855.

Unlike a round ball bullet that could bounce off a human bone, the Minie ball inflicted far more damage because it shattered once it hit its target.

The Minie ball was shot from a rifle musket and was accurate at 500 yards, a great improvement over the round ball bullet, which was shot from a musket and accurate at only 50 yards.

"I loved that bullet so much. I made a plaster of Paris mold out of it as a Boy Scout," said Masich, who got the sculpture merit badge for it.

That bullet, and many others, rest in a printer's drawer that hangs on a wall in Masich's basement, a veritable war room of antique guns, swords, saddles, photos of Civil War re-enactors and, best of all, toy soldiers locked in perpetual battle.

Masich's toy soldier hobby carries into the modern history. Marine Col. Oliver North is cast in pewter, testfying at the Iran Contra hearings as an attorney whispers into his ear. Masich's hand painting even includes North's service ribbons. (Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette)

On one shelf, Germans and Americans face off in autumn 1918 in France during the Battle of the Argonne Forest. After 47 days, the Americans broke through the German defenses. The German toy soldiers, are, of course, wearing mustaches.

Another display centers on the Zulu War of 1879, and the battle of Rorke's Drift, in which 100 British soldiers defended a base camp besieged by thousands of muscled, well-trained Zulu warriors. In one of the British Army's finest hours, the defenders drove off six full-scale Zulu attacks that lasted through the night. The next day, the Zulus withdrew.

The Zulus, who were not allowed to marry until they washed their spears in human blood, could run 40 miles and used a short spear called an asagei with great effect.

There's Lt. John Chard, who is falling because he's wounded in the chest. Eleven Victoria Crosses were handed out after Rorke's Drift, the highest number awarded in a single action in British Empire history.

In Masich's sunroom, the battle of Cinco de Mayo is under way, with French Foreign Legion soldiers charging the heights of Loretto in the town of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Capt. Jean D'Anjou is among them.

One year later, on April 30, 1863, D'Anjou led 60 French soldiers in the 10-hour battle of Camerone, Mexico. Except for three soldiers, D'Anjou's entire group was wiped out and all that was found of the brave Frenchman, who refused to surrender, was his prosthetic wooden hand.

And of course, Masich's Capt. D'Anjou has a removable prosthetic hand.

When Masich worked at the Arizona Historical Society, his friend, Bill Thompson, asked him to create a mold of a Confederate soldier with a bedroll.

	Masich makes his toy soldiers from pewter cast in made-made moulds. The figures are individually painted , giving each a unique personality. (Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette)

"I made a sketch of what it looked like. Only about one in 20 collectors can sculpt and cast. Only about one in 10 can paint. Andy does it all. He'll find a way to get it done, starting from scratch," said Thompson, a retired television producer from Phoenix.

When Masich finished, Thompson recalled, "He made this mold and he cast 100 of them. I had a whole regiment of them. It was a little guy marching along with a blanket roll and a beat-up farmer's hat."

First, Masich mixes lead, tin and antimony in a production pot.

"I make them in the traditional way, pouring molten metal into a mold," he said.

Unlike military miniatures, which aim for authenticity by including a day's growth of beard and smudges on a battle-scarred face, toy soldiers are stylized with pink cheeks and glossy paint.

The Germans were the first to mass-produce toy soldiers but the French, during the era of Napoleon Bonaparte, made them for royalty and the upper classes. In 1893, William Britain began making them in Britain and that company's sets are still coveted by collectors today.

Masich's daughter, Molly, now a student at Gettysburg College, loved making toy soldiers so much that she never admitted burning herself with molten metal.

"She was my best toy soldier maker. If she'd burn her finger, she'd bite her lip and quietly walk out of the room," he recalled.

Masich acknowledges that at $10 apiece, these little men can shoot big holes in your wallet.

But, he added, "They've held their value as a collectible. They're just plain fun to play with."

Thompson is equally enthusiastic.

"These little toy soldiers represent the best and the worst of man. They build nations. They destroy nations. They determine the future of all kinds of people when diplomacy fails. To see these little guys all dressed up with their equipment is great."

Andrew Masich's seminar on casting and painting toy soldiers will be from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The history center will supply participants with paints, molds and brushes. The cost is $25 for history center members and $35 for non-members. To register, call 412-454-6372.

Marylynne Pitz can be reached at mpitz@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1648.