When I was 10-14 years old I collected all kinds of tanks and infantry in 1/76 and 1/72 scales. I still have a very vivid memory of my box of tanks … T-34s, KV-1, KV-2, Shermans, M10, M36, M3 Lee, M3 Stuart, M3 A/C, M3 HT, Matilda, Churchill, Universal Carrier, SdKfz (Sid-kafitz) 251, Pz38t, Pz IV, Tiger, Tiger II etc. etc. etc. And lots of infantry, both soft Airfix plastics and hard molded plastics from 3 or 4 vendors, with 6pdr, 25pdr, Pak 38, Flak 18 ("88") and so on. Man, I can see them all right before my eyes as if they still existed.
At 14 I discovered micro-armor. Now I have maybe 1,500 tanks and vehicles in my "active forces" boxes, and probably another 200 waiting the tender ministrations of my paint brushes.
My 1/76 and 1/72 tanks and trucks were mostly expended as BB-gun targets in the early- to mid-1970s.
About 20 years ago I found much of the old infantry in my mother's garage. The soft plastic had become dry and brittle … I painted some up, but they broke apart and fell to pieces. So I bought some new figures, and a few models, and got Buck Surdu's BAPS rules ("Beer and Pretzel Skirmishes") and vowed to get into that scale.
Painted up maybe 1 or 2 squads each of WW2 Russians, WW2 Germans, 1980s Americans, 1980s British Paras, 1980s Russians. Finished maybe 1 of the models I bought. Don't think they ever got onto a game table. Still have it in a box somewhere in my garage. The soft figures are probably all dried out and brittle by now.
Still got the micro-armor. Did some painting (finishing up a company of WW2 US Infantry) just yesterday. It's my one scale. I really like the 20mm stuff, but …
I have battalions and battalions of 6mm: WW2 Russians, French, Italians, Americans, Romanians; cold-war Russians, Americans, American Marines, French, all with tanks, recons, IFVs/APCs, infantry, engineers, artillery, air support …
Too much invested. Could never let it go. You can sell my micro-armor when you pry it out of my cold dead hands.
-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)
