"Hair roller armies" Topic

I remember seeing them in gaming magazines way back in the previous century.
Does anyone still do them?

Eleven PM on a Friday night and you're thinking about hair roller armies, John? Can you tell me what you were drinking at the time? I just want to know what to avoid.

I have used the plastic strip component of Velcro for 2mm Franco Prussian war infantry. They match up pretty well with my Irregular 2mm armies,
Dry brushing uniform colors and head gear for each strip and adding tiny flags gives me the ability to portray huge armies and 3D terrain features on a 4 by 4 mat with scratch built scenery.

I remember the article in the early days of Miniature Wargames.

It seemed like a good idea, but once I had cut up one of my mum's discarded rollers it was not good.
Looking at the result in the cold light of day they were awful.

Irregular Miniatures used to do 2mm troop blocks. They were bearable if you were truly short on space.

Have fun.

Epic scale is a good alternative. Those type of hair rollers are very difficult to get now.

yes, i am trolling;)

Found this on the net PDF link

There is always the option of using blank or marked cardboard counters. You can build an army in about an hour
and they can represent anything. It's a great way to test out rule systems quickly and cheaply.

-to the OFM, I saw the hair roller armies back then as well. Some fancy English magazine or other. The old PDF link from Fitzovich reminded me why H/R armies were a no go for me!

I recall some discussions of those here on TMP, waaaay back when.
More recently someone here was doing "matchstick" armies, with each rank of soldiers painted as simple block colors (or possibly printed and wrapped) around the square length of a wooden matchstick (head cut off, of course).

Cavcmdr, Irregular still makes and sells 2mm armies, and I'd rate them well above "bearable." They're cheap to buy, quick to arrive--usually airmail from the UK--quick to paint, and depending on your game scale, either easy to store and transport or more visually satisfying than some of their larger cousins. (Would you rather have you single-stand tank company represented by a single vehicle slopping over the edges of the stand, or by five tanks in a "V" formation?)

I mostly use them for travel armies, with everything needed for a game fitting in a courier bag, or at worst a laptop carrier. What do you take on business trips and vacations?

OFM, I'll dig for the hair roller article. I think I still have it. but all things considered I think either matchsticks or 2mils are better "small and cheap" alternatives. (I also cruise thrift shops for old RISK sets.)

I remember back when that delightful article was published, I looked all over but could not find that sort of hair roller around here. So no, I didn't even do them last century.

They looked really good in the articles and I have thought about doing something like that – or matchstick armies – but really the modern 2mm blocks probably give sufficient ability to distinguish between troop types so … I never did do it!

I am pretty sure that I have seen them posted on a 3mm wargaming Facebook page.

I'm onboard with the irregular 2mm armies.

I have 2mm units for all my 25/28mm TSATF colonial armies. I use them for map games.

Eleven PM on a Friday night and you're thinking about hair roller armies, John? Can you tell me what you were drinking at the time? I just want to know what to avoid.

Well, I'm on an antibiotic right now that I shouldn't be taking any alcohol with. 🤷
So, maybe iced tea?

My thoughts when I saw them, lo those decades back, was "Are you serious?"

Once upon a time, one of the English magazines ran a set of ACW riverine rules either for Richard Houston's 1/1200 scale gunboats or for scratch-built gunboats written by Andy Callan. One of the photos showed "Yankee infantry (yes folks its those hair-rollers again) blasts away (to little effect) at the Confederate ram flotilla)."
I wondered at the time what he was talking about, is this for real, or is this just bizarre English humor?
My photocopies of the rules don't include the magazine name or date. I've got photocopies, because I used the rules. Somewhere I have the magazine, and could provide this information, if you really need it. OK, I actually plan to take down Christmas decorations today, but it wouldn't take a lot to motivate me to look for the magazine, instead.

Grelber
P.S. OK, I remember buying the magazine on a trip to Oklahoma City back in the late '80s or '90s from some store's stock of unsold magazines, if that helps. -G-

That would be Andy Callan's "Noddy ACW" rules, the set that got me into ACW naval gaming many years ago

link

They were published in issue 14of Miniature Wargames

It was Andy Callan that did them along with a very good back of a postcard set of ACW rules. The hair rollers were a particular self-gripping type from Boots. I had reasonable results using the standard type, but could never find the ones Andy used. I had better results making 15mm armies from pipe cleaners!

I believe Callan was the original champion of hair curler armies.

Irregular 2mm are great for 3d map style gaming. They have great service and variety as well. I have Franco Prussian War armies and WW2 desert tank armies, so I can create a feel for big forces and distances. I enjoy creating the terrain and scenics inspired by Bruce Wegerle, but smaller than his work, which uses Heroics and Ros 5 mm. My velcro units turned out very well, giving me lots of FPW infantry. And it all fits nicely on a relatively small table space.

Velcro, now there's a good idea!

I love my Irregular 2mm figures! Well painted they are a treat.

I never tried hair roller armies, couldn't find the materials.

I have seen small figures done with plastic cross stitch canvas. About 6mm I think?

Yes, I have seen the cross stitch canvas method also!

I saw my first hair roller armies over 30 years ago. Three old gamers were creating them. I saw them at a couple of shows.

I still get use out of my "matchstick" ACW armies:

TMP link

I repainted most of 'em with First Bull Run uniforms and flags, as (a) that's a battle I never get tired of fighting but (b) don't want to devote painting time/storage space to full-sized/full-detailed figures in costumes useable only for one battle.

Saw a couple of battles with them at the Last Grenadier in the 70/80's. Interesting but never inspired me to do it.

You know, the overall decline in interest in hair roller, cross stitch and matchstick armies and elaborate Airfic conversions does suggest that we're better able to afford our hobby than was true in the 1970's.

Nice to think so, anyway.

You know, the overall decline in interest in hair roller, cross stitch and matchstick armies and elaborate Airfix conversions does suggest that we're better able to afford our hobby than was true in the 1970's.

Nice to think so, anyway.

Perhaps. Or the ultra-budget market has been captured entirely by paper and card models?

This is rather … dumb.
*I* am the one who started this thread.
Yet, while I'm scrolling down, I immediately think it says "Holy Roller Armies".
Psychologists, have a field day with that! 😄
I'm sure there's an explanation that does not flatter me. Go to town!

Reinterpretation error is a related phenomenon, but it usually refers to re-reading a longer passage of your own writing and completely missing the original point. A form of expectation bias occurs when you read something and interpret it incorrectly based on your expectation (often recent activity or mood based), but it is not limited to things you wrote. In the 21st century, sometimes this is colloquially called "autoincorrect of the mind", referring to the propensity for autocorrect features to pick the wrong word.

Like most things in psychology, there's probably not only one thing going on. Also these are not really derogatory terms or indications of a problem. The apocryphal "everyone" does it.

I think phenomena like this are related to the evolutionary imperative for making quick decisions under conditions of incomplete information. Basically, there are many survival situations where making a sub-optimal decision now is much better for your long-term outcomes than making a slightly better (or optimal) one later.