"Historical armies of 1/72nd soft plastic figures?" Topic

Hello everyone ,
Except for a skirmish game, which of you has already built and used one or armies of 1/72nd soft plastic figures for a historical wargame usually for a period before the 20th century and which army for which rule and with what brands of figurines?

All my Ancients stuff is 20mm plastic (with a few metals).
Republican and Imperial Romans, Greeks (various), Macedonians, Persians, Barbarians (various), Carthaginians, Numidians, Parthians and all the usual hangers on.

Usual suppliers, Airfix, Hat, Zvezda, Revell, Italieri, Caeser and even some old Atlantic figures.

All based for 25mm DBA (generally double or quadruple size armies) , but I generally use them with Lost Battles, Command and Colours and various combinations of Neil Thomas rules.

Otherwise my 20mm plassrics are WW1 and WW2 although I do have a few Medieval figures.

Most of my re fight armies are of plastic from the usual suppliers with speciality gentlemen in metal as required.

This allows the construction of large forces at a reasonable cost.

Also, plastic is easy to convert although metals can be albeit with more difficulty.

The results are available on TMP and indeed the new Aspern thread has my first unit, some 150 strong as an example.

Best wishes,

Chris

If you want to see some 1/72 plastic armies in action, why not visit this blog for the Punic Wars and others:
link

Most of my colonial armies are plastic.

There are plenty of people who use plastic 1/72 figures but they then don't have a high profile. I still have my Airfix British Napoleonic army. I don't really use them as I now have much larger armies of old style 25mm metal figures which match them in size.

The standard of sculpting for plastics today is excellent particularly from Zvezda and Hat. The ranges are also much wider and there are metal figures which are compatible with 1/72 plastics e.g. SHQ (they will return), Schilling and Art Miniaturen.

The issues of paint peeling have largely been overcome with proper washing, priming and acrylic paints. The only issue I can see is that you get too many unusable poses or have to buy several boxes.

Have a look at this blog. Huge Napoleonic armies almost all in plastic.

link

My Napoleonic and ACW 1/72 armies from my early teen years made it into my forties. My Renaissance 1/72 army, mostly conversions, had a shorter lifespan.

I have large WWI, WWII, ACW, Nap, ECW/30YW, Colonial, 1866. 1870 AWI, SYW and more armies in soft plastic. It's my scale of choice! Rules are too varies/numerous to mention.

Thanks

John

I used 1/72 soft plastics to make a wargame of the First Crusade battle of Dorylaeum and played it a few times with my Latin students a few years ago. I made my own rules.

It used to be HaT, then Zvezda, now Strelets is pretty much out producing them both by a huge margin.

Will is another person with tens of thousands of plastic 1/72 figures over a wide range of periods.

willwarweb.blogspot.com/?m=1

Several DBA armies – 100 Years War (French and English), Libyans, Nubians, saxons, vikings, etc

WRG Ancients – Romans and Britons and Egyptians.

AWI – both sides

Lots of 20th century as well.

Plus some HoTT armies that are basically Historical based e.g. Fantasy Napoleonics (they're French with an flying boat!), Fantasy Aztecs (Aztecs + winged serpent)…

Choice of figures changes over time – ACW mostly Airfix, these days I'd try and do any new army with Zvezda or Red Box. Also have a lot of HaT. There isn't always a choice of manufacturers.

If I was starting today I'd do everything I could in plastics with just a little bit of metal (probably mostly for fantasy and SF games).

And if I had the space (and endless time) I'd do some 1/32nd plastic armies – the elephants and cavalry look great at that scale.

Although I own quite a few Airfix 1/72 miniatures representing pre-20th Century eras, all nicely painted 30 or more years ago, I can't think of ever using them in a large-scale game. They've been in Dungeons and Dragons and Fantasy Trip skirmishes never with even 20 figures total on the table.

I can't remember ever using my Airfix Napoleonics, but they were fun to paint.

Airfix Romans and Britons back in the 70's, since then I have DAK/8th Army (several manufacturers), Eastern front, and Sicily all of which still see regular use. I built armies for the American Revolution using Airfix but upgraded to RAFM, back when those minis were new (82ish?). I have Great War Brits and Germans, HaT and Caesar, with a smattering of metals. I had huge Airfis ACW forces but also built 15mm forces in parallel (the 15s got more use and my younger nephews destroyed the Airfix forces)

All my wargaming is done in 1/72 plastic.

I have several DBA armies for ancients and medieval.

In addition I have both sides of the AWI done in plastic.

@all
It's weird no one tells me about complete DBMM or DBR armies in soft plastic figures?

Also according to you, on the same scale,for a complete DBMM or DBR army, what is more economical, metal or soft plastic figures?

Sometimes you have to buy a lot of boxes of 1/72nd soft plastic figures to have the minimum required number of figures requested by an army list if you deign to respect them.

Newline Designs has a lot of 20mm metal figures across a wide range of ancients, that fit very well with plastics—well enough that you could buy their figures just to supplement and fill in any gaps for an otherwise plastic 1/72 set of ancient armies.

I have 1/72 for the Madhist wars in the Sudan. I love the HaT figures, just wish they had more British infantry selections.

I also do WWII skirmish in 1/72 as you can't beat the cost of entry, especially the terrain.

@YogiBearMinis
I will never mix figurines from a different manufacturer in the same army and even less plastic and metal.

@Shark Six Three Zero
Yes for certain periods the plastic is usable, but that's what I thought, I have never seen anyone use armies of soft plastic figurines at 1/72 for a historical wargame for a period before the 18 th century with classic rules like DBMM or DBR.

I guess you could use my quad sized DBA stuff for DBM, but it isnt a rule set I like.

Plastic figures are as cheap as chips, and yes, you do sometimes have to buy a lot boxes. The HaT boxes are more aimed at wargaming, eg a box each of Parthian light and heavy cavalry gives you a complete DBA Army, with all the options.

@Martin Rapier
With well-designed box contents, if companies that manufacture and sell soft plastic figures sold 15mm or 28mm figures, perhaps they would make much more profit than now?

I have a lot of 1/72:

Biblical: NK Egyptian, Hittite, Assyrian
Classical: Greek hoplite, Macedonian, Persian, Roman, British
Napoleonic: 1815: British and Allies, French, Prussian. 1806: some Prussians and French
Colonial: Anglo-Zulu war, French Foreign Legion/Arabs, NW Frontier.

Based on what rules?

Sometimes you have to buy a lot of boxes of 1/72nd soft plastic figures to have the minimum required number of figures requested by an army list if you deign to respect them.

HaT actually did a few Army boxes that took figures from several Ancients sets that together gave all the elements for a DBA army.

There are more than a few DBA armies that can be done from one box (Libyans for example).

@20thmaine
Although HaT made a few army boxes containing figures from several Ancients sets which together gave all the elements of a DBA army, in any case it is easier to create DBA armies than those from other rules, but I've never seen soft plastic armies for more classic rules like DBM, DBR or DBMM.