"Wargaming With 1/72 Plastics - Huh?" Topic

I decided to a down and dirty Crusades project. I'm using Commands and Colors as a base and simply spray painting 1/72 plastics. Sand for Saracens, light brown for Crusaders.

I've heard so many stories of how people started with 1/72 plastics and I want to know how? Were there just shedloads more options back then? If you want to do a little skirmish game and shoot rubber bands for combat sure. But otherwise how did you do it?

I need 5 units of Crossbowmen. A box of Crusaders has 2 such. Were there boxes of crossbowmen? Or at least crossbows and archers?

Or did you just put spearmen on the base and roll with it?

I made do with what Airfix had for sale, mate. So Romans and Britons for Ancients, Robin Hood and Sheriff of Nott's for mediaevals, AWI Americans and British grenadiers for SYW, etc. There were also Atlantic- which were hard to find and expensive, and some Japanese hard plastic WWII stuff (Bandai or Fujimi?).

They were all compatible with each other when you squinted hard enough.

Woolworths and Airfix – some Rocco – made do with what we had

Strelets and others made a box of Crossbows and a box of longbows.
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Thanks.

John

You need to do some more shopping. There are plenty of 1/72 scale plastic figures on the market, today. Take a look at the Plastic Soldier Review to see not only decent photos, but also excellent reviews, ratings, etc.

The prices of 1/72 plastic figures are amazingly low compared to metal. The variety available is also superb.

Have you tried to paint them beyond a base color coat? They paint up nicely. Even simple block painting, followed by The Dip Technique, will yield decent results, and quickly! Here is a unit of 1/72 Dwarves, around 20mm tall each. Painted in block colors, then Dip'ed. Not contest-worthy, but GEtGW (Good Enough to Game With).

I use MDF bases, laser cut to size and shape. I use Low Temperature Hot Glue to bond the plastic figures to the MDF -- it works, superbly, holding them quite strongly. For plastic figures, Hot Glue works better than any other glue I've tried, including my favorite for basing metal and resin figures, E6000 Glue. Cheers!

In 1963 there were only a few sets of 1/72nd scale plastic figures by Airfix. But as a kid, that was plenty. Now there are likely 1,000 different sets and so we are spoiled for choices.

I supplement my 1/72nd scale plastic figures by having sets from more than one company, and sometimes buying resin, or metal figures for heavy weapons, command figures, and other specialized figures. I also do conversions.

Happy gaming.

Mike

Like Dal Gavan, I made do with whatever Airfix had. Franco-Prussian War with World War I Germans for Prussians, Foreign Legion for French, and ACW artillery for artillery.
With their coats painted red, the WWI Germans could also be used as British to repel the Zulus (aka natives from the Tarzan set).

Grelber
Who now works up a snit because his figures have the wrong collar for that year.

Back in the day I think all those "I started with Airfix" gamers had two things going for them.

First the seem like resourceful chaps so if they didn't have something the converted it or made it. I remember reading in a Don Featherstone book that he cast an entire Austrian 1859 army up using lead fishing weights while watching the Olympics on TV. And plenty of old gamers will tell you how they converted airfix confederate cavalry into hussars and what not.

Secondly they seemed less fussy than today's modern gamers "good enough" was actually good enough. You wanted to use Airfix Robin hood miniatures as Saxons with pin spears and shields of hole punched card no one had a button counting meltdown.

Yes, Airfix from Woolworths was the staple. Now there is much more choice but it does take some searching.

Is part of common wargame parlance now?
I do not use it when gaming.

martin

I just used what was in the boxes of Airfix figures. I was only really interested in WW2, Napoleonics and WW1, so it was fine, even if many figures were in useless poses. Some figures got chopped up, some just got repainted eg all my Fallschirmjager were actually Airfix British Paras in spinlinter camo tops.

These days there are zillions of plastic figures available, I'd be amazed if someone doesn't make some sort of crossbow. Or just cut the off some spears on soearmen and add a cross piece. Bingo, instant crossbow.

I've never been much of a modeller so like others I used what there was, but when I was growing up there was a whole genre of magazine articles and books on converting plastic figures to fill gaps.

Spearmen on the base to fill it out and roll with that.

Box composition hasn't changes much in the last 60 years. If you're using Airfix, Hat, Revell or any of the others it's always a mix now there's just more periods and they are covered better.

Going back to the 1980s, soft plastic 1/72 was the only small-scale option available in my hobby shop. Despite soft plastic being hard to work with, the sculpting was generally excellent. I don't think they were even created specifically for wargaming, and were more for dioramas. There was a wide variety of armies from ancient times all the way up modern times. I remembering getting my first metal minis via mail order, sight unseen, and being very disappointed at the quality of them in comparison to the plastic ones.

Airfix ACW cavalry with Roman torsos and drawing pin shields to make Roman cavalry. Mind you that left a lot of bits…..
Napoleonics were often "paint conversions". WW2 were whatever they needed to be.

Fun times.

I remember bending a soft plastic figure I had painted and watching the paint come right off in one piece. It looked like a flayed skin. Today's hard plastic 1/72 is so much better!

In the begining there were only airfix, so that's where I started. I did move to metal for SI FI some years ago. However metal got expensive it was worth buying a box of plastic for 2 figures, it was cheaper. Now of course I only use plastic 3D printed, cheap and in the main prone which is my preference.

Airfix Robin Hood figures were my go-to set for when I thought I was being clever. I believe they were the genesis of my "They are who I say they are!" motto.
Besides vanilla archers, I made:
Agrianian javelin man. Cut away the bow, and glue a small disk to the hand. Push a pin through the left hand. I never did make slingers, but I intended to, using string stiffened with Elmer's glue.
Spanish scutarii. As above, but cut and shape a beer can pull tab. Stroh's was the preferred brand. Back when the tabs pulled off the can.
Peltasts. As above, but do a head swap from Roman Legionaries.

1/72 used to be cheap, but not so much anymore. It can get pricey if you are looking for a particular type of troop only to find that there are 2 per box. More is the pity if you are "forced" into buying a 1/72 box, half of which are completely ridiculous poses (I am looking at you, Italeri & Esci) or the inevitable kneeling pose.

I would either convert or use 2 xbows and a load of spearman to use as stand-ins. In theory, you could convert the spears to dvrodd. Probably not worth the effort for a crash course game.

Now, they are still somewhat cheap but have taken on a boutique air in some cases, likely going to be worsened by the tariffs.

Augustus that was true 20+ years ago. Not any longer. the links I posted are full of bowmen. Strelets and Red box can be bought 40 to 48 figs per box for 9.99 dollars. Not exactly a wallet buster.

Thanks.

John

Better, thank you

martin

"Woolworths and Airfix – some Rocco – made do with what we had"
Amen to that my brothers! That is were it all started for me.

There has never been a time with more options than now, and so much of it is really good.

Back then Airfix issued all one needed for ACW and one could get 40 usable infantry for the price of 2 or 3 metal figures.

They also had a good range of Napoleonics, WwI, WWII and the Romans and Britons gave ancients and robin hood and the sheriff covering the western armies of the middle aged.

Super accurate? Not always. But if you wanted a couple of hundred figures per side certainly more affordable than metal.

Now there's pretty much nothing that can't be created with 20mm plastics.

On durability there was a great article in MWAN where someone painted – in acrylics -and varnished and then did some pretty tough drop tests and they were unscathed.

"likely going to be worsened by the tariffs."

I can get Dark Alliance figures directly from the Ukraine at about 20% of the price charged in the US. And this was BF (Before Tariffs). Plastic figures can be sourced cheaply from Asia as well.

Am I the only one to get started with Marx? Vikings, Knights, Cowboys, Injuns, and NASA rocket launches?

One reason Airfix were such a seminal influence was the ease of availability AND they backed up the figures and scenery with extensive "how to" articles in Airfix magazine which showed how their figures could be converted to…well almost anything. The Bob O'Brian series on making Ancient figures ran for a couple of years…. And the Terry Wise series on converting buildings showed what imagination and a little effort could achieve – the medieval Walled town was truly epic!

…AND they published a range of books on how to wargame with the figures, most of which included a ruleset so that there was a common "national" ruleset available.

Thinking about it, they were the GW of the sixties and seventies. That's how big an influence they were in the UK.

And then we all got sniffy about plastics and metal was the "real wargamer's choice". Funny thing is the GW of today makes plastic figures (yeah, hard plastic, but you know, it's funny anyway).

When Caesar and then Dark Alliance came out with Fantasy figures I was amazed and also very jealous of people starting out today. I did already have fantasy armies mostly drawing on medieval and ancient 20mm figures (and a Fantasy Napoleonics for HOTT of course!) but the options now, particularly with Dark Alliance. Wow, wow, wow.

If I could do my hobby time over, but starting now, it would be 80%, maybe 90%+, 20mm plastic. Everything in just the one scale…oh what a dream.

Now there are likely 1,000 different sets and so we are spoiled for choices.

Hannants currently lists 1,464 sets in stock!

What a time to be alive

Paint on soft bendy plastic figures can chip off or flake. Here is a little tutorial of mine to avoid this: link
Cheers,

I'm another member of the whatever-Airfix-had club. Then Atlantic showed up in the late 1970s with contemporary soldiers and vehicles, and that helped me expand.

Oh yes – Atlantic Egyptians and their
"fantasy" Romans.

"Paint on soft bendy plastic figures can chip off or flake"

That certainly seems to be a problem with more modern figures. I've still got old Airfix figures I painted with Humbrol enamel and they are as good as when I first did them.

Modern figures I undercoat in PVA.

Undercoat with PVA
Use acrylic paint
Varnish
Don't bend your figures….

Fun fact – if you bend a metal figure the paint flakes off…

Or use Plasti-dip clear rubber spray. Dries matte and the paint is difficult to remove from the figure.

Thanks.

John