John Edwin Scruby (October 24, 1915 – September 1988) was a manufacturer of military miniatures whose efforts led to a rebirth of the

miniature wargaming A miniature wargame is a type of wargame in which military units are represented by Miniature model (gaming), miniature physical models on a model battlefield. Miniature wargames are played using Toy soldier, model soldiers, vehicles, and arti ...

hobby in the late 1950s.

Scruby and wargaming

To meet the needs of wargamers for inexpensive but historically accurate miniatures, Scruby began casting figures made of

type metal In printing, type metal refers to the metal alloys used in traditional Movable type, typefounding and hot metal typesetting. Historically, type metal was an alloy of lead, tin and antimony in different proportions depending on the application, b ...

in 1955 and selling them from his shop in central California. Scruby made innovative use of RTV rubber molds. In 1958 Scruby began selling figures of his own design which he sold for 15 cents apiece as late as 1962. In 1963 he began using the 50/50 tin/lead alloy that would remain the industry standard into the 1990s. In 1956, he organized the first US (and perhaps first anywhere) miniatures convention in California, and in 1957, he launched ''War Game Digest'', the first publication devoted to military miniatures gaming (initially with 50 subscribers). Published quarterly, ''War Game Digest'' became the publication around which the early miniatures hobby coalesced. In 1962, Scruby began to publish ''Table Top Talk'', intended as a promotional publication for his lines of miniatures and sets of miniatures rules, and ceased publishing ''War Game Digest'' in 1963. Jack Scruby was also a founder of a miniature wargaming club in 1971 along with Robert (Bob) Casey, Stephen (Steve) R. Casey, Elliot M. Derman, Michael (Mike) W. Frank, Raymond (Ray) James Jackson, Wayne Ludvickson, David Rusk, Ronald (Ron) Vaughan, and Harold (Hal) Windell. This Club was very informal and had no name until the meeting on October 7, 1972, when on a motion by Ray Jackson, his proposal to call the Club the San Joaquin Valley War Gaming Association (SJVWGA), was unanimously accepted. The Club then became a formal organization with dues and officers, but no written BY-Laws. The SJVWGA on the same date became a chapter of the now defunct Spartan International. The San Joaquin Valley War Gaming Association still exists to this day as a subdivision of the War Gaming Society (WGS). From the late 1950s until October 1973, Jack Scruby's miniatures business was in Tulare County, specifically in or near Visalia. Then he moved to

Cambria Cambria is a name for Wales, being the Latinised form of the Welsh name for the country, . The term was not in use during the Roman period (when Wales had not come into existence as a distinct entity) or the early medieval period. After the ...

in San Luis Obispo County (the California coast near

Hearst Castle Hearst Castle, known formally as La Cuesta Encantada ( Spanish for "The Enchanted Hill"), is a historic estate in San Simeon, located on the Central Coast of California. Conceived by William Randolph Hearst, the publishing tycoon, and his arc ...

) where he opened a retail shop, called like his mail-order business, The Soldier Factory. It was there that Charles Kuralt and his CBS ''On The Road'' crew came in August 1977 to film a segment for the ''CBS Evening News''. In 1975 Scruby introduced a line of fantasy figures using the 30mm scale advocated by

Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering tabletop role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax creat ...

in ''

Chainmail Mail (sometimes spelled maille and, since the 18th century, colloquially referred to as chain mail, chainmail or chain-mail) is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common milita ...

''HistoriFigs
—website of a company that continues to manufacture Scruby miniatures and appropriate for use with ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

''. In addition to miniature figures, Scruby sold gaming newsletters and rulebooks alongside campaign maps of Mafrica, a fictional continent used as a

campaign setting A campaign setting is a setting for a tabletop role-playing game or wargame campaign. Most campaign settings are fictional worlds; however, some are historical or contemporary real-world locations. A '' campaign'' is a series of individual adve ...

for

that he invented for use in 19th-century African Colonial period campaigns. A map of Mafrica was designed and marketed by Scruby. Publication of the map has been continued by HistoriFigs/Table Top Talk Press.

Literature

Periodicals

*''War Game Digest'' (1957-1963, 1971) *''Table Top Talk'' (1962-1967) *''Miniatures Parade'' (1967-?) *''The Soldier Factory News'' (1973-1974)

Rulebooks

*''All About Wargames'' (1957) *''The Strategic-Tactical War Game'' (1961) *''Fire and Charge'' (1964)

References

External links

Los Angeles Times article on his life and death
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scruby, Jack Miniature wargames 1916 births 1988 deaths Toy soldier manufacturing companies