"Are games prejudiced against plastic 1/72 figures" Topic

I recently rediscovered 1/72. I used to have a bit of it as a kid, but never gamed with it.

I like the light weight (a penny gives plenty of heft) and the fact that I can easily cut them with a knife. I HATE base bumps! It would be insanely labor intensive to cut/file the bases from 15mm figs so that I would get a nice low profile base…but this only takes a second with plastics.

I'd love some modern zeds, superheroes, civis, and more fantasy.

Yes, they are prejoodiced, and I am calling my lawyer!

Yes, I have never purchased plastic figures and never will.

"Are games prejudiced against plastic 1/72 figures"

Gamers might be, but TFL rules embrace them.

When I was a kid in the '80s in Australia all I could get was ESCI 1/72 sets. Super clean with 0 flash I would paint these up using Humbrol enamels. Then the paint would come off during play (My own solo rules on the HO trainset layout my dad and I had built). I'd reconstruct the movie Dirty Dozen 2 with the Americans trying to take a Nazi train. Lee Marvin was my hero
at 10 years old in 1988. I was a weird kid.

I was foolishly distracted by Warhammer 40K in my teens and it cost me hundreds to realise the game was pointless and shallow.

I returned to 1/72 ESCI with a set of US paratroopers when I was about 16. I had acquired real rules at Cancon that year. Bodycount by Bruce Rhea Taylor, a set of Vietnam rules. I adapted them to World War 2 and conducted my first real solo wargames on my Mum's dining room table.

I realised then I would never fit it in. If I wanted opponents I had to fit in and conform to GW world in my town. So I stopped fitting in and kept playing World War 2 with Vietnam rules on my own..

After discovering girls I dumped wargames and RPGs when I turned about 18.

After constantly failing with girls I rediscovered wargames when I was about 35.

I tried 1/35, 20mm metals, 1/6 outdoor gaming. All fun but the ultimate satisfaction still eluded me.

This year, at 44 years old, I've returned to my start, full circle, as I buy some of the Italeri reissues of my fave ESCI sets from the day, a long with some new sets from outfits like Orion. I chop and convert them with new materials (Tamiya 2 part epoxy, far superior to miliput imo, and Vallejo Premium White primer and a propper sealer so they never chip) and I apply new skills in pinning, head and body swaps and stuff. I sculpt the equipment that I think is missing from figures. The more realistic proportions of 1/72 plastics are so much better in the end and they fit into some of the crazy Fujimi playsets I have acquired over the years, ie a metal 20mm figure won't fit in a Fujimi trench, but a 1/72 based on a smaller metal washer, will.

As my soft plastic 1/72 hordes expand I am interested in a spray primer. Currently I use a paint on primer that works, but is time consuming, Velejo Premium White Primer:

I've read about rust-oleum plastic primer being recommended, but it doesn't seem to be available in the land Downunder, where I live. Here we have a generic rustoleum product: link

That is supposed to prime plastics as well as anything else. Does anyone have experience with it and soft plastic dudes?

I fimd it interesting. I use 1/72 plastic mainly commecial Revel. I play a lot and figures do get dropped. So my experiance is that metal break and chip and become unuseable. Plastic painted correctly last longer but do eventually lose paing but far slower than metal.

I am replacing some old plastic with my own 3D printed caus' its cheap, they are crude and simply because detail has no dominion over me.

1/144 plastic so far has proved practically indestructable dropping causes no damage to paint or structure. I expect this to be the same for 1/72 plastic figures but have not had any long enough to make a valid comment.

Personally Meatal figures are a thing of the past for me. I personally see no merit in them but am happy to play against them ;-).

The weight thing, I guess being an ex aerospsce engineer weight is a paria to be avoised at all costs and I have a bad back at times so weight is somtimes a real issue as well.

Yes USCHA, my Elhiem metals DO constantly chip during play, just with handling, not dropping. They are properly undercoated and sealed with 2 coats of Valejo varnish (one gloss and then a matt). Barrels and extremeties I think I coat 3 times but they still chip.

With proper prep and sealing, yes the soft plastics never chip.

The only reason I put a metal washer on the base of my plastics is for stability. They simply stand up on slopes more easily if they are bottom heavy, I don't really actually care about "heft" when you pick them up although at one point I think I did care..

Hmm turns out the Body Count rules I used in High School were by Ian and Nigel Drury, not Bruce Rhea Taylor! Bruce is author of my current favourite rules, Fire Fight: Modern Skirmish Rules. Both Bodycount and Fire Fight were published by Tabletop Games and they saved my life.