"After a very long break" Topic

As a teenager Napoleonics was my thing (Airfix plastics if anyone remembers those). Also some minifigs Russians.
45 years later I am tempted to go back – Pre 1809 Austrians are what I was thinking.
What is the scale of choice these days and which minis would you recommend – Should I go back to plastic, even though prep is a pain?

As an aside I remember even then predictions of the death of (then) 25mm due to the increasing cost.

Baccus 6mm link

I have seen some really nice 6 and 15 mm figures and they allow for large battles. I also think the 25/28mm figures are excellent and very nice to paint and look at.

It all depemds on what battles you want to recreat and how you want the amries to look on the table. Since you had Arfix in the past, I would look at the bluemoon/ Old Glory 15/18mm range. Very nice and they have the era you are looking for.

Matthew

Worth considering 10mm as well?

Any scale is affordable. Metal or plastic. After years of experience I feel pretty comfortable that the answer comes from these questions:
Are you interested in gaming? If so find the local group or convention and see what scale is common.
If you want to game at home what space is available? I love 28mm figures but the games definitely take up space. 15mm and smaller is much easier on space.

What sort of battles do you like to fight? What sort of rules are you comfortable with? There are no bad scales. There are no wrong choices. But there are some combinations which will cause you grief.
I'd say the general rule is the bigger the battle you want to represent, the smaller your castings ought to be. Otherwise, you wind up insisting that these 12 men are III Corps, and most of us just can't.
On the other hand, if your preferred rules involve casualty removal, you probably don't want to go smaller than 20mm/1/72, while stand removal and roster systems work all the way down.

One quick test. What's the typical battle you want to be able to fight? What size table do you have or can you fit? Use those to figure your ground scale. Now, at that ground scale, what makes a satisfactory unit for you?
Alternatively, think of a deployed unit taking up 1/6 to 1/8 of your table breadth. Either way, the resulting unit has to be visually satisfying for you and compatible with your choice of rules.

Do check compatibility if ordering from multiple manufacturers, though. 15/18mm and 5/6mm seem to be the worst offenders at present.

And welcome back!

Perhaps worth noting that plastic prep isn't so bad these days? You still ought to wash the castings, of course. There there are primers which work quite well with plastics, or a mix of acrylic paint and PVA will serve. Paint with acrylics only, and use a clear flexible finish coat, and you shouldn't have any troubles.

That said, Austrians are prone to biggish battles. You'll probably wind up 15mm or under.

Thanks guys, lots to look at.
Not really got a game type in mind, not been a club member for many years, I'll have to see what there is locally.

I've always fancied big battles so 6mm is attractive, possibly do a larger scale too for smaller ones.

Austerlitz has always been my favourite battle.

If you do fancy going back to 20mm / 1/72 then there's a great selection of plastic figures out there now link and several 20mm metal ranges too.

Welcome back to the greatest hobby….

Scale is personal preference thing.

I find it easier to paint the larger scale figure, and I do tend to take my time painting and basing.

That said, I think AB's and Eureka's 18mm are fantastic.

Good luck and enjoy your hobby.

What I have done to get back into gaming after a long hiatus is to try Command and Colors Napoleonic board game. You can check it out on Board Game Geek. It uses blocks for units but can be converted to miniatures. It is a basic, high level game which gives the general feel of the period but without the detail which is so interesting.
You may also want to game in small scale but collect and paint some units in 28 mm for the enjoyment of having some beautiful figs or for skirmish games when you are between big battles. Just a thought from an old man.

If 6's are too small, there are some very nice 10's these days. But remember in all the smaller scales, you're not painting figures: you're painting units, and going for mass effect. So an indifferent paint job on a lot of figures may work. Just don't shrink stand size past the point at which you can comfortably handle them.

I follow rustymusket's program, by the way--small figures for big battles and 200-300 bigger fellows per army to do smaller engagements in more detail.

I've been in 28mm, 1/72, dabbled with 6mm then finally settled on 10mm as a compromise between massed look and stuff I can actually see to paint. I reckon the cost per unit frontage or stand works out similarly between scales, cheaper in 1/72 if you aren't fussy about poses.

My preference in 10mm is narrowly for Magister Militum but I have also done lots of Old Glory and Pendraken. Lots of options. 15mm and 28mm are more common where I live but I typically paint both sides and host games anyway.

Echoing DColtman, I think it is a great idea to paint up balanced forces for both sides. That way, when you host, you can provide all the necessary troops and use whatever rules and scale you prefer. If somebody else wants something different, then leave it up to them to provide the troops and rules when they do the hosting.

We do 28mm which take up a lot of space. Given my choice I would go with AB 18mm figures. Beautifully sculpted and paint up well.

Although I strictly do 28mm metal myself, a look at Mateus' blog may convince you to do 1/72 plastic:

link

Amazing what he does with them!

Peter

Can't beat 28 mm for skirmish level games, but I like to play games with several divisions per side, so have collections of 15/18mm, 10mm and 6mm. If I had to choose just one scale, it would be 10mm. The figures are sufficiently detailed to make painting interesting and cheap enough to build big armies. I generally use 36 figure battalions and 12 or 16 figure cavalry units (represents a couple of squadrons) and current favourite rules are "Over the Hills".

I can't help you with choosing a scale, but welcome back.

Thanks all for taking the time to reply.
It shows how long I have been away – didn't know 10mm was a thing, some of them look good and the AB minis too.

I have even found a club fairly near so will pay them a visit.