"Has plastic helped you move to 28mm" Topic

I ask out of genuine interest in how many gamers are migrating towards 28mm because of plastic.

I have researched the subject a bit on forum searches, but note the quite a few of the posts were done when the 28mm plastic range was much less developed than it is now and that did seem to influence gamers.

Takes too long to paint. Hard to have enough figures per base to look like anything other than a skirmish. No, I am not going back. Sold all my 25mm ancients. May sell my 15s.

Nope. Ditched all my 28s a few years back (except my Lord of the Rings).

I'm with Allen. I'm more of a big battle guy than skirmishes and on even a 6x10 even a "big" 28m battle looks like a minor scrap for most periods…

Also, to my brain a 24" range in 15mm is believeable, in 28mm it looks downright stupid.

Plastic makes me buy more

I've learned that for ancients the only way to base is 1 figure per base. That said, no I did not get to 28 mm because of plastic but now I only buy plastic (except for cammands and special figures), because yes, it is easier to transport.

I like the look of 28mm. They are easier for me to paint (albeit at not a very high standard). I still use 15s, 10s and 6s for large battles but I think 28 has a place for battles in the AWI and farther back. Plastics have made it easier for me to afford entry. Of course I'm retired so I have time to fiddle with parts and glue. I also like 54mm but those I am giving to my grandsons. H

I partly ask because in my game store, they have the Perry starter ACW and the warlord starter AWI. they also have the starter boxes for the Pike and Shotte, Bolt Action and Hail Caesar rulesets.

I was taking this commercial viability as an indication that gamers were moving into the scale or perhaps new periods.

having always collected smaller scales, I have been having a go at the 28mm and find them easier to paint (to a wargame rather than 'nice' standard).

Plastic wasn't a factor for me since I've been playing the scale when it was entirely in metal.

No … I particularly dislike hard plastic. And I struggle to see the appeal of 28mm.

Phil

To play the wag, I struggle to see the appeal of anything SMALLER than 25/28mm I like the scale, and several years back sold off all but a handful of my 15mm stuff.

I had scads of metal 25/28mm metals before the plastics, and still do. What the plastics did was allow me to expand my core armies, AND start building some other ones that I wanted to do. Those Perry/Warlord starter sets are pretty neat ideas, because they allow someone to get a core army built for some period without outlaying a lot of cash. Those minis can be used with lots of other systems as well. For example, I have the Warlord Roman starter army set because I got a great deal on it, and with some additional units, I now have a solid EIR army for Impetus.

I won't ever go back to 15's or smaller. I like the 25/28mm lines, though I have been tempted to use 54mm for ECW period gaming.

As I said, the plastics didn't get me to change scales. They allowed me to move into some other ancient armies that I was interested in, but couldn't otherwise afford to do.

No, 28mm has too much unnecessary detail for my purposes – I'm a poor painter and don't enjoy it – take up and require too much space, and are still cost more per figure than I'm willing to pay personally, which is not to say that I think them bad value for what they are.

Nope, I was already in 28mm in metal. On the whole I will stick with metal, although the occasional plastic unit is joining the serried ranks of tin.

I've tried a couple of different boxes of 28mm plastic. I don't care for them, pain in the butt to assemble and with flat areas and sometimes stretched looking faces from the mould limitations. Give me metal instead any time. I still would have built the armies, just wish I hadn't used plastics.

Yes I love plastics, especially Perry and Victrix.
For the most part I find them to be LESS trouble than metals, and the kitbashing can be addictive.

BTW, at first I found them to be a pain, but if you are patient you begin to understand the method needed to put together the different kits.

cheap plastic brought me back into 28mm

Definately.

Plastics quality keeps getting better.

They are cheap. A Perry 25 can be nearly the same cost as a 15mm AB.

Plastics are much easier for conversions.

My units look more varied since they can be assembled in differing poses.

I spend about the same amount of time painting 15's as I do a 25.

I am a 25/28mm man. I use 15mm for WWII. Not totally biased against 15mm – in fact I am in awe of the detail and extensive ranges that are available. I had several armies of ancients back in the 70s – remember Mike's Models for instance? – 15mm were blobs of metal in those days.

Yea, 15mms from many manufacturers are now way overpriced compared to the Perry offerings, e.g. in many cases being about the same price for the much smaller minis, especially if they are sold from/shipped from overseas.

I really dislike plastic. A pain to assemble and then all the very nicely proportioned details are way too fragile. You spend a ton of time assembling and painting and after a couple outings you have all kinds of broken swords, bayonets, and rifles with no good way to fix them.

No, overall I have generally been let down with the few plastic figs that I have.

Plastics look more realistic than metal, metal weapons, whether swords, bows, even some lances and spears are way out of scale. I have both 15mm and 28mm, I love the 28s for the detail and the way that the Perry's keep pushing the envelope is remarkable. The level of detail is great and frankly I find 28mm to be easier to paint.

Plastics look more realistic than metal, metal weapons, whether swords, bows, even some lances and spears are way out of scale, as are firearms. I have both 15mm and 28mm, I love the 28s for the detail and the way that the Perry's keep pushing the envelope is remarkable. The level of detail is great and frankly I find 28mm to be easier to paint.

If plastic were the only thing available, I would probably have a different hobby.

No.

I've been playing 25 and 28 mm with metal figures for a long, long time.

I have some nice plastic robots (Tau gun drones, I think), which I have given to my Zhodani troops as support warbots. There may be a few other plastic figures in there somewhere, and definitely some in the "to be painted" box -- which I got for free from a Craigslist ad.

Yep, plastic 28s are hard to beat.

They are certainly helping me finish projects that were back burnered!

Born and raised on 28's. 15's and lower to me look a lot like moving chits around the board. And to really have a unit that looks like realistic numbers requires more 15 figs than I usually see put out there on the board. At least 28's look like men and I can see details. It's nice for me.

No, I actually prefer metal figures.

I wouldn't have even considered horse and musket miniatures games if they were only metal. I am fairly sure I wouldn't have done much with any miniatures if they weren't in plastic.

I find plastic cheaper, easier to work with (i.e. clean, assemble and prime), and typically I find the sculpts more aesthetically pleasing than metal. Plus, they take rough handling far better than metal which always seem to chip no matter how many clear coats I put on.

That said, I have been working on a Guild Ball team all week. While mold lines and assembly were issues for me mostly due to not having the proper tools for metals, I have to admit the sculpts are very good. I still think they would be better in hard plastic (I would have been fine with board game plastic if it would have meant 1/4 the price), but at least I don't have the resin ones which I couldn't see not snapping off bits every other time they are used.

As for 28mm miniatures gaming, It was far easier to find other gamers playing that scale when I first got started. So after a while all my terrain was in roughly that scale (well from 1:56 to 1:43) by the time I started playing purely historical games.

I sometimes lament not using 20mm scale for WWII as I think it is large enough to have decent details on the models and still individually base models, but small enough to make a 6'x4' table look like a decent sized battlefield. However, I am happy enough with 28mm for WWII and AWI that I don't think I would change scale at this point given the option.

Nope – I've pretty much abandoned getting more 28mm.

No, plastic is evil. Metal, that is what real men play games in!

Nope, I prefer metal and 15mm. I hate putting together all the fiddly plastic parts. Also, 28mm looks stupid for anything other then a skirmish game.

Well, sort of. Does it count if you never left 30mm?

But I'm working on some individually-mounted armies in 28mm I wouldn't have started in cheap hard plastics weren't available. That said, I wouldn't do an army above 200 castings in 28mm these days: the metals are too expensive and the assembly time on the plastics is a serious consideration. Now, a line of cheap hard plastics I could just paint and clip off the sprue would be something else again. But I seem to be a minority there.

Don't like and don't buy plastics unless you count 54-60mm figures from Conte, TSSD, CTS, and Paragon, but I don't paint them. I like metal 28mm figures but wish the manufacturers would have stuck with 25's. I also don't like all the gingerbread put on many of the figures. I'd love to have Napoleonic figures without all the camp accouterments. Would be easier and faster to paint. And I would buy more.

Metal. I bought a Perry box once several years ago. Looked at the contents and decided it would result in broken parts quickly. Sold the box at a loss and never bothered again.

Without cheap plastics I would never have built my 28mm Pike and Shot, WSS army ( Wargames Factory) or WWII (Warlord). Built my Napoleonic army in the 90s (Minifig, Old Glory, Elite and Foundry) after selling off my 15mm Napoleonics 20 years ago so they are all metal. Now have moved to 40mm ACW and started 40mm Napoleonics. If someone made 40mm in plastic that awesomeness.

15mm is about my limit for painting to a decent army standard. Not opting for a large scale just because it may be a cheaper price point historically compared. I do like playing with them when someone else has made the effort to make them look good, though.

I've been a 25/28mm gamer for many years. The only reason my brother and I bought 15mm Naps back in the 70s was because we couldn't afford 25s with the money we made cutting grass. I've sold off just about all of my 15s; I simply prefer the look of 25s.

No, no, and h@ll no! When I saw all the assembly involved in the current 'plastics' fad I couldn't believe people were buying that stuff. Yeah, okay, cheaper – to buy. But then you have to assemble. And then you have to paint. And then – plastics don't have any resale value to speak of that I'm aware of. I just don't get it. Except the cheaper part. But time is of great value, too, and it already takes ages to get an army together and painted, etc., without having to assemble a jazzilion pieces to get one, ONE, figure!

Nah, I have no real feelings on this topic. Leaving now.

No ,but I think this is a more a age factor. Old metal ..younger plastic. But plastic is great for making a Hobby more cost effective.

I have been gaming in 25/28 mm ever since I can remember, since first drooling over pictures of Peter Gilder's games. Most of my Napoleonics are metals, but that is simply because for most of the time I have been collecting miniatures, that was the only option.

But the only reason I am able to game the period in 28mm with others now is because of the advent of plastics. It made it a lot more accessible for other people who wanted to get into the hobby here.

I'm pretty much the oldest gamer I know of here in Tokyo, and without kids I've been able to get away with spending money on imported metal miniatures. Other gamers I know here have young families and do have to consider cost; so the plastics are ideal for bulking out the collection, even if they do have to be assembled.

Another consideration here is that people tend to take the train rather than drive. So if you're lugging your collection to and from games on public transportation, it's a lot easier carrying around your heavy cavalry division if it's made of plastic rather than metal.

I've gotten into assembling and painting the plastics myself, and the extra work involved doesn't really bother me, as for years I've been putting together plastic models as well, so it's not really a big thing for me- in fact I enjoy it.

for sure – yes

A collector rather than a wargamer. So numbers are relatively small. Recently impressed by 15/18mm quality but sticking with 28mm metallic. Plastic are brilliant for their conversion potential. I recently bought plastic Mahdists (Perry) in 28mm just for two heads (Mamelukes) and the bare arms and legs of some (to be amputated!)

For me – no, as I much prefer large armies of smaller scale miniatures.

However, for my son starting his first real wargame army, the Warlord Roman and Barbarian plastics have been a great entry into the hobby. That being said, he now agrees with me that Aventine metals are the way to go in the future for Romans, although he really likes the ability to customize his Barbarian Horde with plastic bits/mods etc (and I don't know of any metal Germans that equal the quality of Aventine's Romans).

If I'm going to go for 28mm, I'd much rather go for plastics.

Yes. I have bought some figures for projects that wouldn't have happened without 28mm plastics.

I like them so long as someone else builds and paints them.

I prefer plastic, enjoy the assembly of them & the variability they provide. I have lots of metal but now only buy plastic.

I have done Celts vs Romans, Zulu War, Agincourt and Swiss vs Burgundy in plastics. I could not have afforded to do them at that scale without plastics. I also have a lot of conversions.
link

I did also buy some Perry WW2 and ACW but found them quite difficult to paint. My modern, WW2 and fantasy forces are mostly metals.

Yes they did. Well regarding ACW at any rate. Started with Perry plastic then moved into their metal range for the same period.

Although I still play other periods and scales too.

Not sure I could put up with painting smaller scales anymore – could be an age thing.