"Lost Battalion ~ Montfacon 1/72 or 28mm" Topic

I'm looking to do a large multiplayer game that combines the Assault on Montfaucon and the Lost Battalion into a large multiplayer games with say 200 figures each side a few FT17 tanks (I know they weren't there lol) and some artillery

It's to be a pseudo historical fun game combining elements of both battles and a little more to keep the players on their toes and include a lil bit of everything AEF faced

Stumbling thru Ebay I was surprised how well WW1 is supported by Airfix and other 1/72 plastics of my youth and first forays into wargaming

Is these feasible and has anyone else stepped back from the large expensive 28's and enjoyed playing with our old plastic soldiers

Just curious

No need for hate wars or trolls just curios if other over 40's enjoyed the trip down this memory lane or are the quality of molding and trouble painting worth the small savings ?

I've got a large group of 28mm US infantry from Old Glory and their trench wars range plus a whole bunch of others from basically any manufacturer who makes 28mm WWI. They paint up great and look good on the tabletop too. At this point, I admit enjoying painting 25mm over 15 or 20mm because I can see the details easier. With an Old Glory discount card, you could price them easily the same as the old plastics. Plus there is no assembly and the paint won't break off because the rifle gets tweaked (or at least that is what I remember from the old plastic airfix kits).

If you want to do an interesting twist on the US attack with tanks, you could run a game that I did over a year ago with the fight at Cantigny. The US 1st Infantry Division launched an attack supported by French Schneider tanks and Engineers. Some of the tanks broke through the trenches and helped subdue the Germans holed up in the cellars of the town. We fought that from the taking of the town to the German counter-attack and it turned out to be a great game. Just use your FT-17 tanks instead of the Schneiders and have fun with it!
Larry

Stumbling thru Ebay I was surprised how well WW1 is supported by Airfix and other 1/72 plastics of my youth and first forays into wargaming.

And about to be even better supported:-

link

You can do better in Plastic just by looking at HaT figures. They own some old Airfix molds but also have some of their own figures. I am pretty sure there are a few other WW1 manufacturers out there as well.

Old Glory army would work too. You would still end up spending more money on these figures but not as much as some other companies. In order to make "the army card" worth it, you do have to buy a bunch of figures. It still costs $50 USD to get a card for 1 year.

Personally, I'd stick with 1/72 scale. there are also some metal manufacturers that can be used to fill in the holes.

As usual, Plastic Soldier Review is your friend. link

And you can get Armourfast Ft-17's, two to a box for not much £s, and they go together…fast !

"20mm" plastics are superb. The new airfix stuff coming this year looks to be very good.

Check out Robin Sutton's 'Great Adventure' website. Lots of photos of Airfix and HaT WW1 figures. Robin uses them with the Great War Spearhead rules. It brought back lots of memories when we pushed them around the table for a few games…

wargaming.org.nz

Sadly the Airfix US infantry are probably the poorest from an historical accuracy perspective. Still fun though.

Robert