"HO Scale, 1/72nd, 20mm: Why Plastic?" Topic

How come there aren't any/many manufacturers producing ranges in lead/tin/pewter in these sizes?

Massive numbers of companies on either side – 15s and 28s, but not 20s.

I have quite a bit in metal. FAA, SHQ, B&B, Minairons, Foundry, Britannia, Kelly's Heroes, TQD, Warmodelling, and Early War Miniatures off the top of my head. Also, plastic (soft) has been a staple for 1/76 and 1/72 from the very beginning.

Add AB, Platoon 20, Under Fire Miniatures and Elheim to the list.

Don't forget 18s, 22s and 25s!

newlinedesigns.co.uk

One of several metal figure manufacturers at this scale.
About a third of my 1/72 collection (thousands of figures) are metal.

It used to be that we measured figures from the sole of the foot to the top of the head (not eye level) and that 25mm WAS 1/72 scale. You bought in 25mm for larger figures and bough 1/72 scale plastics to fill out the ranks rather inexpensively.

Now newline and Tumbling dice both sell 1/72 scale figures and Newline also sells a slightly smaller 20mm (1/76 scale?) figure as well. There was another company called NapoleonN that had 1/72 scale Napoleonics.

Add AB

Doh! Best of the bunch, don't know how I forgot them!

Interesting gents, I really learned something.

I'm mostly a Horse & Musket guy so all this stuff in the 20th century explains why I've been able to tune it out in the past. Must have something to do with the cheapness of of all the model armor and vehicles.

fidelismodels.com

TMP advertiser and my best friend Randy of Fidelis Models sells Roco, but that's only the tip of the HO 1/87 scale iceberg. There are dozens of small companies making HO vehicles. Including Paul Heiser Models, Trident and ArsenelM who between them make just about everything WWII German and American.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

When I was a kid, back when giant lizards ruled the primordial swamps, Roco vehicles were $.25 USD brand new on the card down at the hobby shop, and a box of Airfix HO/OO figures was $.50 USD. You could build a McCoy Standard battalion with all the attachments from your earnings raking leaves or collecting old pop bottles.

Today an average 1/72 kit is $12 USD, and the British seem to think that 20 pounds is a fair price for a pack of two or three easy-build vehicles. It's discouraging.

Hmmm. PSC 3 easy build tanks £14.00 GBP

Plastic and metal rub shoulders happily on my table.

I use SHQ/Kennington, as they fit better alongside my plastics than Newline (whoalways get mentioned whenever people talk about plastics, despite Newline being "true" 20mm and so looking like little boys on pit ponies – strange. Maybe SHQ/Kennington are just not widely known).

The SHQ range provides extra officers etc to my armies, and that may explain the problem for metal manufacturers in 1/72. They cannot compete on price, and they have to go some to better the detail of the best 1/72 plastic ranges. Yes, the world has moved on from Airfix, just as metals have moved on from Minifigs.

I have recently bought some stuff from FranzNap – an Italian living in Holland, who makes the finest figures I have seen this side of Anthony Barton's ABs. But it has cost me heavily. Normally I buy speciality figures, but this time I have ordered from Francesco his Carabinier (in bearskin) and his horse artillery, and I am almost €200.00 EUR down. Worth every penny, for figures of this quality, but I think I would struggle to replace my plastic armies with his figures for all my rank and file.

In plastic, a unit costs me, say, a fiver (£5). In metal, that same unit is going to be £30.00 GBP upwards.

So while I have done this for one cavalry unit, I could not afford it for all. And luckily, with the beautiful plastics available, Zvezda and newer HaT amongst those, there is no need.

So I think there will always be a place of 1/72 in metal (and I note that the Europeans are FAR more into 1/72 than us Brits), but mostly for specialist figures rtaher than bulk armies. Not for everyone, of course, but for those of us who enjoy big armies at discount prices, plastics take a lot of beating.

I just wish there was a better variety of plastics available. For example the ESCI Spetsnatz and US Cold War infantry are beautiful sculpts. 50 figures per pack, and a good spread of weapons means that 1:1 scale, you can build a representative force for very little at 1 platoon per pack. What is annoying is the obvious gaps – so no BAOR in 20mm plastic, no 'line' Russian Cold War infantry.

A Call to Arms makes a set of "British Infantry of the 1970s."