"Wargaming in the eastern bloc?" Topic

I know we have a few posters on here who grew up in the USSR or elsewhere in the east bloc.

I am curious if wargaming, painting model kits, tin soldiers and so forth is something that kids did? Model railroads for that manner.

Was it officially discouraged?

Any native model kits or was it expensive import stuff?

Or is it all post 89/91?

If anyone have experience from Yugoslavia, I'd love to hear that as well.

Do note that I have absolutely zero interest in speculation or 20-years-after-the-fact political meanderings. I'm after concrete information from people who either lived there or travelled there.

I lived in Warsaw for three years not long after the changes (92-95). There was one quite well stocked model shop on Pulawska, the main arterial road heading southwards from the city centre. It had all sorts of Polish, Czech and Russian makes of models, mostly 1/72nd scale armour. It seemed as though it had been there for a while. Another shop appeared in the city centre, and a fantasy/SF stockist managed to get hold of one of the small shop areas in the underground Centrum right in the centre (funnily enough), although I only saw this one a few years later when I went back – I think in 2001. It also stocked historical boardgames, some of which were produced in Poland.

Since then, I have seen Oddzial Osmy advertising here on TMP, and there's also Zvezda from Russia. I presume that wargaming is alive and well, just not with the kind of profile more familiar to folks from the US or UK, perhaps. Hobbies are to some extent a product of leisure time plus disposable income, tak!?

I was in Ukraine back about 20 years ago – the department stores had T-85s and 76mm guns (I bought a couple) that were about 1/48 scale – don't know if they had infantry to go along with it but they would make great wargaming vehicles

Thanks guys :)

Hungary here. Model railways used to popular, but now are getting too expensive- but then again I hear similar from my buddies in UK. We have a long standing model shop in town who sells a mix of 1/72 and 1/35 stuff. He's devoted more of the shop over to die cast and Lego over the years, but again that seems common. Most of the over 30s I talk to got a few models from there as kids.
There is a great boardgames store and GW store in Budapest, but none I know of elsewhere.

Was the model railroad stuff around in the 80's as well or post 91?

Grew up in USSR. We had model railroad in the late 70's or 80's. It was expensive, (relatively), and was sold in toy stores, not specialty stores. Soviet industry made some, but made in DDR was a dream and hard to get. I can't tell you what scales were available, but my neighbor had a set of DDR or possibly Czechoslovakian made. I was never in to that but it looked COOL!

We had models and toy soldiers in the 70's and 80's. Most were sold in toy stores with other toys, one small model shop in my city called "Pioneer" had special department for models and construction kits.

Most kits were airplanes and the 1/48 scale were mostly excellent models from DDR, not very cheap but not that expensive. Soviet made airplanes were mostly western production 1/72 scale models in Russian boxes. It would usually say "fighter" or "Bomber" and no other info was given. Boxes were B/W or they just came in plastic bags, so no idea of how to paint them.

There was a scandal in the early 80's, I think. An article in major newspaper uncovered that there was no Soviet airplane models in stores and those sold were western "aggressors" airplanes that bombed Vietnam, never helped much during WW2 or outright Fascist German models. How come our industry can't produce Soviet made types? After that article names of airplanes appeared on boxes and many Soviet made airplanes appeared in stores.

In the 80's models of tanks and ships appeared in stores. Tanks were some weird scale and still see them sometimes on eBay or shows. I think 1/25 or something like that. They were not very expensive unless they came with electrical engine for wire control. I am only aware of Soviet WW2 models like that. Some models were snap on, very cheap and 1/72 scale or something close. Those were few modern and few WW2 ones. Ships came in many scales and usually were not named. I had a "destroyer", "Battleship Poteomkin" WW1 era ship and a submarine. There were some expensive sailing ship plastic models, but they looked very complex and I never bought any.

My main thing were soldiers. Most soldiers were thick flat models and were made in tin or plastic. WW2, post WW2, Russian Civil War, Napoleonic and Medievals. Several medieval sets had enemies like "Germans" and "Mongols". No "enemies" were made for other periods. Most scales were 54mm, but several very basic sets were made in small scale, may be 30mm. They were army, navy and, my favorite, border troops. Some were larger scales, I remember WW2 and RCW in may be 75mm. Some very toy looking were made for various periods in even larger scale.

In the late 70's or early 80's Soviets bought Marx 54mm and 6 inch? molds. Round figures appeared for the first time. They proved to be very popular and I remember long lines, literally around the block, as many people sought to buy those "exotic" toy soldiers. We had pirates, vikings, cowboys, Indians, Egyptians and Romans in 54mm. Cave men, Vikings, Cowboys and Russian WW2 in 6 inches. Later on "swappet" cowboys and indians appeared. I am not sure if they were original Soviet designs or copies from Western molds. In the late 80's original Soviet made round figures appeared in the form of Russian medieval foot and possibly western foot knights.

No reference material were available for modelers, nothing like Osprey or other publications. One had to look through posters, art, movies and some B/W material unrelated to modelling. I never saw any paints or brushes for models, but I have seen some model airplanes that were painted. I had no idea were those paints came from.

Wargaming was non-existent in USSR, mostly. Possibly for political reasons. Also, I said in previous post, Soviet didn't make soldiers for enemies for most periods. We had some simple boardgames.

I remember a football (soccer) game where colored footballers had to be cut out and played on a green field with squares. I didn't play the rules, I was just too young. I played with footballers like with toy soldiers.

There was a very simple wargame about taking a fortress in 18th century. Paper soldiers had to be cut out and made in to cones. Two fortresses ere on opposite sides of the board with area movement for two armies of cone soldiers. Soldiers and a board were very colorful. Was it original Soviet made or was it a copy of some Western one, I don't know.

Green and Blue was another one. Not strictly a wargame, but it had two boards and some modern hard plastic and very brittle soldiers, tanks, cannons, machinguns. One had to flick a plastic disk across to another board and hit the opposite enemy model. Depending on the model and how you hit it you would get points. The board had areas and it was possible that there were some more complex rules, but I was not aware of those.

Finally, I had "Dog Fight". It was a real wargame with sets of small plastic fighters and bombers in blue and red. The board had squares and home air bases and opposite sides. Both fighters and bombers moved across the grid in their way. The goal was to destroy the opposite side bombers or bomb an enemy airfield. I do not remember much more. Again, I have no idea if this was original Soviet design or a copy of some Western game.

Fascinating stuff, appreciate you sharing :)