"Today's Gamers are spoiled rotten!" Topic

Today's gamers are spoiled rotten! There is such an abundance of figures for different nationalities and periods! When I started we had to convert every thing from Minifigs and Airfix figs! I had a book with an article on how to convert a Napoleonic British RHA officer to a Zulu warrior! Talk about extreme. I used to convert all my spare figures to Jacobite Highlanders for the '45.

So, I'd like to see all your favourite figure conversions.

I'm too spoiled rotten to convert figures.

Airfix Robin Hood archers converted into peltasts with Roman heads and Strohs beer pull tabs for shield.
Airfix Robin Hood were also good for staff slingers.

Airfix French cuirassiers converted into Carthaginian HC with thumbtacks.

Airfix Zoo Set #2 elephants converted into Carthaginian Irregular D elephants by smooshing a Numidian Cavalry rider onto his back.

A friend converted Airfix American Indians into Mauryan Indians with a hankerchief and glue.

Airfix cowboys became Gauls with beer tabs. Strohs' tabs had the best shape.

Impoverished student conversions all. We had no digital cameras back in 1974.

Like DAF said.

I had some Airfix converts, but they were so old that they crumbled to the touch!

And when we went to play a game, we had to walk 20 miles in the snow, uphill! And barefoot!!

Quite true, but don't see that as a bad thing…..

I recall literally trudging through the snow on foot a mile or two (each way), to buy a set of miniatures rules, back in the day. Had never seen them before, and wanted to get back to the bookstore before the copy they had was sold out.

Who'd have thought thirty years ago we'd all be playin' here with the abundance of figures for different nationalities and periods.

But you know, I was happy in those days, though I was poor.

I had to make figures out of bits of old shoe box.

I used to have this tiny old wargames table with great big holes in the middle.

And you try and tell the young wargamers of today that and they won't believe you.

Bill

I walked to school too, both ways uphill barefoot in the snow!

Ay, when I wer a lad da wud gi us a good aidin afore a game n one after too.

Wargames table! Bloody luxury lad, twas a frozen pond fer us, ice so thin had to lie on our bellies so we didnt fall through.

Figures, used to carve them out of ice wi mi fingernails! Never melted cuz I slept in the barn.

U ad a barn, you were lucky, we ad to game in a puddle int middle of the road,

Tally Ho!

hu a puddle, you lucky bastard, when I was growing up, we didn't even have a hole for the puddle, we ad to make armies out of used pine cones in a davistated forest plauged by deforestating.

You lot are spoiled!

When I was young I lived in the vaccuum of deep space, and there waren't no gravity. I had to make figures by scraping together bits of anti-matter stuck together with aether. We didn't have any rulers so we had to measure movement rates using the wavelengths of rays coming off a nearby gamma burst.

Ah, those were the days. We didn't have much, and what we did have was radioactive, but you didn't hear us complain about it! You young kids these days, with your atmospheres and your gravitational fields. Puh!

You had used pine-cones? Luxury!

We had to play in cesspool in the toxic dump, using cockroaches for 'gabions'!

Cockroaches!
Bloody Cockroaches!

We used to dream o cockroaches!

When I were a lad we ad to use rats guts for bricoles!

Vaccuum, bloody vaccuum, when I was young, the big bang hadn't happend yet, so we didn't have anything to play with, no time, no space, no dimentions, nothnig, not even cosmic strings.

Well, we all seem to know the three Yorkshiremen joke, then!

I'm too spoiled to even read this thread.

Remember when we used to argue over rules? Ah, good times, good times…

Allen

Allen

You mean last week?

Well if you had a puddle, at least you had running water…blinking toffs!

I do recall trying to work out some way to provide 2-inch mortars to my Airfix British Infantry set figures. There was a pose of a soldier kneeling, sort of cradling a Sten gun in one hand with his other hand extended and empty. I've no idea what on earth he was supposed to be doing, but I did think a straight length of plastic glued in place might pass as a 2-inch mortar barrel. Some similar thoughts for a longer piece of plastic to give the hard pressed US Paras some Bazookas also occurred.

Gary

Cutting up toothpaste tubes to make flags and wings for dinosaurs and what not. Made a British officer with a WWI German head on an AWI officer's body for Colonial gaming.

Yes, and today's computer users are spoiled rotten. I can send a message to hundreds of people around the world, get books to listen to or read without going out of the house, buy things, likewise, view pictures, see movies that are not in theaters.

People in almost all hobbies are spoiled compared to 40 years ago.

In gameing, in 1969, Dick Bryant converted the whole Brunswick Corps from a French infantry figure.

Last week, I converted some Spanish police to Scottish Company of Archers, in battle dress. So what's the big deal.

I carved M3 halftracks out of blocks of balsa wood, converted Airfix British paras into Fallschirmjaeger, Afrika Korps figures into tank crews etc etc, I also built a lot of mortars and MGs out of scrap.

The real joy was when Airfix released the Panzer IV and suddenly a whole new load of conversions became possible, I did Nashorn, all the Flakpanzers and Jagdpanzer IVs.

Ha, when I were lad, if you wanted to wargame you had to join t'army.

I'm too spoiled rotten to convert figures.

I spoil figures by rotten conversion.

Funny thread….

Ah the smell of the plasticene and the slosh of the banana oil, happy days

And the smell of burning plastic and flesh from the pyrogravure……

"in 1969, Dick Bryant converted the whole Brunswick Corps from a French infantry figure"

somewhat smaller than 6mm buy the time he finished shaving the last musket down, I expect

Bah. All of you are posers.

When I was a wee lad, we had to actually wear uniforms and shoot each other, 1:1 scale.

So there.

Nyah.

Uniforms? You had uniforms?
La di dah!

…and we liked it!

- converting Atlantic Romans into Romans….

Ah yes, I remember well metal figures in metal tool boxes, my shoulder has never recovered!!

To game with my friends I had to walk 10 miles.

In my bare feet.

In three feet of snow.

Dodging moose in heat.

And it was uphill both ways.

D'oh! Didn't see firemonkeyboy's post 'til it was too late.

It's not the three Yorkshiremen JOKE, it's the three Yorkshiremen SKETCH! Know your comedy structure!
Colin (Python Orthodox) Upton
(Sorry, but as this is TMP I felt someone had to nit-pick!)

And now for something completely different…..

ACW Tiger Zouaves from Airfix WWI French infantry and FPW Wurtemburgers from Airfix Japanese painted (Humbrol Gloss) Dark blue….

We'd wake in the mornin' at 2 a.m., clean out the pothole where we lived. Then, we'd all get a thrashin' from me Da. Then, it was off to work at the coal mines for 20 hours, then we'd get a quick game 5 minute game of 1:1 War in, with no uniforms, and only sticks for guns and dirt clods for grenades. We dreamed of having toy guns and uniforms. We were lucky to have dirt clods. Then it was clean out the pothole and off to the mines again.

"spoiled rotten"?

That would explain that curious aroma at conventions.

Argue over rules sets?????????????????????????
Sets??????????????????????????????????????????
You wimps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There was only one set of rules then!!!!!!!!!!
Nobody could afford a copy so we had nothing to argue about!

- converting Atlantic Romans into Romans….

LOL

Oh, and SMC1 too !

"- converting Atlantic Romans into Romans…."

"Ah the smell of the plasticene and the slosh of the banana oil, happy days"

"I carved M3 halftracks out of blocks of balsa wood, converted Airfix British paras into Fallschirmjaeger, Afrika Korps figures into tank crews etc etc, I also built a lot of mortars and MGs out of scrap."

Airfix Robin Hood archers converted into peltasts with Roman heads and Strohs beer pull tabs for shield.
Airfix Robin Hood were also good for staff slingers.

Airfix French cuirassiers converted into Carthaginian HC with thumbtacks.

"Airfix Zoo Set #2 elephants converted into Carthaginian Irregular D elephants by smooshing a Numidian Cavalry rider onto his back.

A friend converted Airfix American Indians into Mauryan Indians with a hankerchief and glue.

Airfix cowboys became Gauls with beer tabs. Strohs' tabs had the best shape."

Pfah! What a bunch of milque toasts the lot of you are! Oh, poor me, I had to convert with handkerchief and glue, boo hoo! Blooming pathetic! Luxury to the lot of you.

My brothers and I had to wake up 3 AM, eat the roadkill of the night before, walk 20 miles uphill both ways in the snow, dodging irritated wolverines to go to work which started at 3:45 AM. Our work? We had to convert sand grains to Napoleonic troops with the correct lining, piping uniform color AND do their eyes WHILE taking into account the different campaigns over the entire era. At the same time, we had to hear lectures about the 1234th Jagersberg Bavarian Kettledrummers' cuff and button colors and how that affected the direction of War of Jenkins Ear.

You people know nothing about hardship! Spoiled rotten I tells ya!

Virginia Esten was a pretty good painter in her day, …as well as an excellent figure converter.

Here is an example of some of her 30mm Napoleonic Spanish from 25 years ago or so. Pay no attention to the 37mm cannons they are carrying, …more often than not they don't stick around to fire more than once. Will

I still have nightmares about the Airfix Robin Hood billmann shape-shifting into a monster.

Glue impregnated tissues sticking to everything except your model. Preferably eyelids.

Getting a bit ' off with the fairies' after using too much Britfix glue. Still have a craving.

Sticking a pin into a plastic figure and feel it go into your thumb. Deep.

The invention of superglue. Eventually I'll have fingerprints again.

Pyrogravure shaped marks on your inner thigh because it fell off the table. And you automatically tried to catch it before it hit the ground.

Spoiled rotten? Traumatized and mutilated for life would be more like it!

I had forgotten about the three Yorkshiremen. Now it will echo through my mind for months! Gee, thanks!

I am trying to imagine FPW Wurtemburgers made out of Japanese. I usually try to find something with a similar silhouette!

I'm currently converting Russians to Swedes; They don't like it one bit.

During my college years I built dozens of Cruiser Mk.III and IV out of the plastic things poked into potting plants. Only to be out done by the bloke in the next dorm room who built T35's out of the cardboard in packets of underwear; and they were damn good!

This thread perfectly illustrates what I meant. Nowadays one just has to call up the appropriate webpage and Voila! there are models of the Romanian Flying Brothels of the 1st. Balkan War. Everything one could want.

Oh, yes, and I had to wade through the creek on the way to school. There was a perfectly good bridge, but what fun was that!

Is it we swedish and the canadian gamers that are most spoiled rotten, or is it the rest of the world?
Are speaking about or to us?

This thread perfectly illustrates what I meant. Nowadays one just has to call up the appropriate webpage and Voila! there are models of the Romanian Flying Brothels of the 1st. Balkan War. Everything one could want.

But they only have the Mk II, the Mk I saw much more service, and if the war had gone on for longer the Mk III would have dominated.

You had schools? There you go- spoiled rotten!

Nostalgia isn't what it uesd to be!!

I hate to be pedantic, but it's the Four Yorkshiremen sketch.