"Tell Me About: 1/72 Plastics" Topic
18 Posts
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grommet37 | 12 Nov 2014 10:18 p.m. PST |
I guess these would be what we used to call "little army men" when I was a kid. As opposed to regular army men (54mm) or big army men (what were they, six-inch?). When I got into 15mm SF, there was a great resource, Dropship Horizon, so it was really easy to learn all the manufacturers, Mom-and-Pop though they may be. I looked on Hobbylinc, and PSR just to get an idea who the players are, but it seems like there's a lot to learn. I'm hoping one of you veterans can tell me a bit about the scale. What's the history? Who are the players now, as far as plastic figures for historicals are concerned? What are the common themes/genres/periods? Cheap? Worth it? What "size" figures match these? 20mm/25mm? What is the "best-covered" era? "Best-covered" horse & musket era? How about a cool, obscure, yet still worthwhile era to collect? If you were getting into 1/72 today, what era, what wars, what figures would you buy or recommend, and why? |
ochoin | 12 Nov 2014 10:41 p.m. PST |
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Bunkermeister | 12 Nov 2014 11:12 p.m. PST |
HaT Industrie does a fantastic job of Napoleonics. They make just about everything and yet are still making more. HaT also is doing a lot of British Colonial and World War One. Pegasus does a lot of WWII, particularly Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Caesar Miniatures makes a vast array of WWII Germans. By reading PSR you can see the sizes of the figures. Most companies figures fit together with one another pretty well, with a few exceptions now and then. I also post photos of new figures that I buy, often in company with other brands of figures I have been collecting 1/72nd scale figures since 1963 and have about 200,000 or so. Mike Bunkermeister Creek Bunker Talk blog |
Texas Jack | 13 Nov 2014 4:17 a.m. PST |
Nowadays 1/72 has a great variety to choose from, and the figures are really well done. As Mike says, HaT make wonderful stuff and have a lot to choose from, and I also really like Zvezda and Italeri. Some people like Strelets, but to me they are too chunky, while anything from Mars is just awful. As for which era, the best bet is to use PSR to see what is available and if it is to your taste. When I got into ACW I looked into plastics but didnīt like what was available. On the other hand, with ancients I found a lot of great stuff to choose from, including some wonderful elephants from HaT. The only drawback to me is that with metals you can get whatever poses you want, marching, advancing and so on. While with plastics you have to take what comes in the box, which means those stupid poses where guys are bayoneting the ground or using their rifles like a baseball bat. But hey, they make good casualty figures! |
COL Scott ret | 13 Nov 2014 5:36 a.m. PST |
My army scale of choice, with proper prep and painting I think they are a great way to pu together an army. They are VERY durable, I have had some for 4 decades of use with only damage due to a duration when due to army moving they were in storage and exposed to extreme temp ranges. Depending on the period you are going for different manufacturers have variable selection. Some of the older sets are harder to find but some dealers still have some stocks of those. I would look at PSR as you mentioned and while I look at their review I primarily look at what I see- because I can often live with some minor fault if they fit my vision for what I am looking for. |
Sgt Slag | 13 Nov 2014 7:57 a.m. PST |
I have a great many Caesar, and Dark Alliance, fantasy plastic figures which I game with. I have painted around 200 of them, priming them with Artist's Gesso (white), followed by acrylic paints, and The Dip (Minwax Polyshades urethane-stain). They have survived many a game without paint flaking off. I think the key is sealing the paint, either with urethane (with/without stain), or Pledge Floor Care (formerly known as Future Floor Shine, which is a thicker form of pigment-free acrylic -- thicker than paint, otherwise the same formula). I am impressed with the sculpting/molding qualities achieved in injection-molded plastic figures. The Dark Alliance Orc Warg Riders sets are actually more detailed than I want to paint! They are every bit as detailed as metal castings in 28mm scales. They are fantastic quality, incredibly affordable compared to metal, or resin figures, and they are readily available from multiple vendors, which means that I can get the best price by simply shopping around a bit; I've found the best prices on e-Bay, from sellers shipping from both Taiwan and Ukraine -- never an issue, always delivered in a timely manner, after submitting payment through PayPal. If I were to get into historcal gaming, 1/72 would be my scale of choice for quality, affordability, variety, and ease of acquiring, and painting. YMMV. Cheers! |
Who asked this joker | 13 Nov 2014 9:02 a.m. PST |
Pros: Inexpensive, good selection, many nice models to choose from Cons: Not widely accepted, somewhat harder to clean/prep, fairly limited selection in some eras Washing and priming with a plastic primer is a must. Otherwise your paint will not stick well. HaT has paintable plastic so no priming required on many of their newer sets. You still must wash them! You cannot file off mold lines on plastic figures. That will shred the plastic. You must use a sharp hobby knife to cut/scrape them or a hot wire to smooth them. As 1/72 plastics are inexpensive, they are an obvious choice for large battle games like Black Powder. As they are larger than 15mm, they also make a good choice for skirmish gaming. They still have the visual impact of 28mm figures though they are somewhat smaller. Pick an era that is well supported. Punic Wars Chariot era are good choices for Ancients. Most of the medieval era is well supported but the Dark Ages is still missing some generic infantry. You can, however, fill many of these ranges with metal figures from New Line Designs or Tumbling Dice. Napoleonic is another good choice. Lots of manufacturers and lots of options here. You really can't go wrong. Either of the World Wars would work. World War I is actually a very good option as the armies were largely infantry with only a few tanks. Easy to get started. World War II may cost you since there will be more vehicles and the cost won't be so easy to swallow. However, there are plenty of 20mm manufacturers out there that allow you to purchase just about anything you want that you can't find in 1/72 scale plastic. Finally, I've been building some tank models out of card. There are plenty of choices for these as well and the images cost anywhere from $1.30 USD to about $6. USD A small price when you consider that you can print as many as you want. Fantasy is growing in 1/72 scale. I've been doing some mixing and matching with figures from Dark Alliance, Caesar and Wargame supply Dump. As well, I've used figures from various Human ranges for humans. Monsters can be used from existing 28mm ranges. The large ones especially look quite fearsome next to the 1/72 scale figures. Hopefully there will be many more 1/72 fantasy sets to come. |
davbenbak | 13 Nov 2014 10:47 a.m. PST |
@ochoin Thanks for the link to bennosfigureforum. I have been browsing non-stop for the past two hours! Another MUSt have link to go with PSR. |
FuriousGamer | 13 Nov 2014 11:14 p.m. PST |
I love 1/72 (and 1/76) plastics – Italeri (ESCI), Revell, Orion, Caesar, Imex, and of course, Airfix. I think that, for the most part, plastic is much more realistic in both detail, and esp. body and weapon proportion. I hate the "chunky" look of most other figures. I mount mine on a penny with epoxy to give it a good weight. If gaming modern war (1914+), the vehicle selection is endless – you can now buy 2-3 fast build tanks from various companies for under 14 bucks. Oh, and dirt cheap. Also, leaves you with that awesome "toy soldier" feeling… |
Citizen Kenau | 13 Nov 2014 11:50 p.m. PST |
Also check Pijlie's Wargame blog for sci-fi gaming with 1\72 plastics |
Stepman3 | 19 Nov 2014 7:01 a.m. PST |
HaT miniatures are great, though the plastic is a bit soft…lots of variety… |
miniatureperday | 12 Jan 2015 8:10 p.m. PST |
If something comes out of the box bent, you can boil some water (I use a plug in kettle because I have one) and dunk the figure in. Wait 10 seconds or so and you should see the bent part straighten out on its own in the water. If it doesn't, pull it out and carefully bend it where you want it. Then when you like where it is, plunge it into some cold/ice water. |
Henry Martini | 12 Jan 2015 8:17 p.m. PST |
I know what you mean, Texas Jack: invariably hideous to behold – and why do they always want to wipe out humanity and take over the Earth? |
Marc the plastics fan | 13 Jan 2015 5:32 a.m. PST |
Red Box are getting better. Zvezda make truly wonderful figures, but gradually going under. HaT make a great range. Airfix tend to shed paint the most in my experience. Nice figures, good price, realistic anatomy, good period cover for most main stream periods and a lot of obscure ones. Oh, and Strelets work quite well with the dip, far more like metals in terms of chunkiness, but painted they look a LOT better IMHO. |
miniatureperday | 07 Feb 2015 2:31 p.m. PST |
Strelets look some much better painted than in bare plastic. If PSR added a painted score where they took a random figure from each box and painted it up, Strelets would fare quite well in that category. I'm currently in the process of choosing my next era for 1/72 plastics. I do ancient Sumerians using Hat's two sets. A couple boxes of infantry a few boxes of Chariots and I have two full armies. Things I'm considering: Reconquista/Crusades. There are loads of great early middle ages figures from HaT and Strelets. Hat's El Cid range is particularly tempting. Though I also really like how Strelets m series kits are designed in terms of ranking up miniatures on a base. Roman Republic. Between Strelets, HaT and Zvezda, Rome and her enemies are well represented. WW2. There's just a huge number of kits both for soldiers and vehicles. Though I already have a small 15mm WW2 collection, so this is a very unlikely choice for me. Hoplites. Things are pretty well represented here. Zvezda's first set of Greek Hoplites might be the single best 1/72 kit ever created. There's also nothing wrong with Caesar's offerings either. For Persians there's quite a bit as well, so the Hoplites can have someone else to fight as well. Chariot era. Caesar has filled in this era so well. All these great chariot kits. They even have Mitanni. |
number4 | 13 Feb 2015 1:01 p.m. PST |
While so much Strelets stuff is horribly proportioned, ugly and out of scale, there are some notable exceptions like their Medieval Levy and the WW2 Polish people's army which are very well done. For best covered era it has to be Napoleonics with Zvezda's superb figures, Italeri Revell and of course the comprehensive Hat range that just keeps on giving! For a more obscure period, again Zvezda top the list with their simply exquisite figures for the Great Northern War |
Marc the plastics fan | 13 Feb 2015 1:10 p.m. PST |
The Sterlets nap command figures (in fact, ACW as well) are quite nice and with a bit of care look really good. Can never have enough command figures. Sadly, my fear is that they are hard to get. Maybe if we all nag Strelets to re-release them… Oh, and GNW is being discontinued by Zvezda – why, oh why oh why… |
colonneh137 | 15 Mar 2015 9:50 a.m. PST |
I have been using 1/72 plastics since 1969. Plastics are best sealed with Krylon Crystal Clear acrylic spray, painted with acrylic paint and sealed again with Krylon Crystal Clear flat finish. Plastic sticks to plastic (Wow! What a concept!). It still works, too!! All that we had was Featherstone and Airfix. Those were the really good old days, eh Roger? Wake up, Roger. 8-) |
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