We're Bev and Karl Krueger, and we've owned The Last Square for thirty-one years.
We both grew up in the Madison area and went to the same high school. Our first careers were somewhere else entirely: Karl was a Deputy Sheriff for Dane County, and Bev was a Registered Nurse. But Karl had always had an interest in history, military history in particular. He got his first plastic miniatures as a kid, painted his first Napoleonic soldiers, and went on to study history at college. In the early nineties we decided to adjust our careers, and our lives, and open a shop built around military history. The Last Square was born.
The Standard Bearer
The drawing on our sign is Karl's. He drew it when we opened in 1995, and it has been on everything we've printed since. It shows soldiers of Napoleon's Old Guard helping each other off the field after Waterloo. That caught Karl's idea of soldiers helping each other, even in the worst of times, and it has suited the shop ever since.
The Madison Years
The first shop was about 1,500 square feet on Madison's west side. Over the years it grew into a 6,000 square foot store with military art on the walls, hundreds of books, unpainted miniatures in every scale, board games, a space for teaching younger folks to paint, a beginners' gaming group, and plenty of table space for tabletop gamers. Many a tale of military history was re-enacted on those tables. Along the way we added military computer games, a train table, annual customer painting contests, and an annual customer "garage sale."
We also took the shop on the road, to gaming conventions across the country. One year we attended thirteen of them. That was the period when our boys were old enough to paint miniatures, play games, teach the classes, and work the conventions with us. Quite the family affair. They still say those years at the shop were some of the highlights of growing up.
The Lines We Make
In the early 2000s we got involved in manufacturing our own miniatures, and that has been the heart of the business ever since. Every line below is proprietary to The Last Square.
Figurehead is our 1:6000 scale line of ships, unpainted, covering the pre-dreadnought era, the First World War, the Second World War, and the years after. The Figurehead range also includes 1:1250 scale WWII coastal boats and a 1:2400 scale line of sailing ships.
CaP Aero is our 1:1200 scale line of aircraft, WWII and post-war.
These models are tiny, tiny, tiny. What people tend to remark on is the detail that survives at that size, and how little table you need to set up and play a game. The original sculpts were made in the UK before the lines came over to us.
Perrin Miniatures is our 10mm line of ground troops and equipment: the American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, the British Colonial wars and the Zulus, and the Second World War.
Howard Hues is our proprietary line of water-based military colors, sold in one ounce (30 ml) jars.
All of our miniatures are cast in pewter right here in Madison, with the help of Valiant Enterprises, whose owners grew up in the world of miniatures alongside their dad.
The Shop Today
As brick-and-mortar stores gave way to mail order, we sold from the shop and online side by side, until it became clear that the internet was the logical choice. Customers from all over the world could now easily see and buy what we make. So we moved out of the big store and into a smaller space closer to home in Mount Horeb, and built our days around Figurehead, CaP Aero, Perrin and Howard Hues.
The boys have grown up, and they still paint miniatures and play tabletop games with families of their own.
We still keep a small shop, and we enjoy having customers stop by to socialize, talk history, play a game or two, paint some miniatures, and once in a while enjoy a good Wisconsin bratwurst off the grill, courtesy of Karl. Our hours are limited, but if you email beverlykrueger135@gmail.com or call Bev at 608-279-2938, we can arrange a time that suits you.
Some of the Best Moments
Ask Bev and she'll say the best part was watching our boys grow up in that environment. We met so many people over the years who were interested in military history, and a good number who were true experts in it. Veterans shared their stories. Some of them, our own grandfathers among them, went back to the Second World War, and one customer had lived through the war as a prisoner in a German POW camp. Many others had served in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf. Every one of them was treated with immense respect by our staff and by their fellow customers.
The store ran painting classes and gaming sessions for kids, taught by local teenagers we hired for exactly that. More than one mom told us those classes were perfect for a kid who wasn't a class "athlete" but needed that one thing where they felt comfortable and could join in as an equal. A lot of those kids were extraordinarily bright, and in those classes they found others of the same ilk.
The shop looked after the family as much as the other way around. At one point Bev had a sleeping spot set up in the office where our oldest grandson would nap, and a wooden train set behind the counter for the little ones who came in with their parents. Bev's mother, Irene, a retired executive assistant, came in daily to clean, and usually to drop off chocolate chip cookies for staff and customers. One day a customer was talking about the possibility of a war coming, and Irene piped up: "No worries, I'll bring the cookies!"
And of course the shop had to have a dog. Annie, a golden Australian shepherd, lived behind the front counter and came out to visit anyone who wanted to see her. She was especially gentle with the little ones. Nobody ever heard a growl or a yip out of that sweet girl.
Good times then, and good times now.
Bev and Karl Krueger
The Last Square Inc.
3893 Garfoot Rd, Mt. Horeb, WI 53572
608-279-2938 | beverlykrueger135@gmail.com
