"Looking for Cheap Greeks" Topic

Toying around with smallish classical Greek forces for Glidden's "Sparta's Wars" or something similar. That means big enough for individual basing and removal, and as simple and uniform as possible within that--ideally, probably hard plastic single piece hoplites, peltasts, slingers and/or archers and bad cavalry somewhere around 20-25mm, and I'd use paint to tell my sides apart. I want to avoid soft plastics if I can since the previous army went brittle on me still in the painting queue, and individuality slows down painting. You'd think Etsy, but I haven't turned up anything yet.

Anyone have a good idea? Doesn't need to be spot on, but I'd like to get close.

Thanks.

Miniature Figurines

In 15mm (which you didn't ask about)
Viking forge.

The way their economy is going, anywhere along the coast, just south of Athens…
Although you are looking for slightly smaller figures, my most recent experience (past 10-20 years) has been with the 28mm ranges. Perhaps my knowledge here can help a bit.
The biggest decision is where they are holding the spear!
Pointed up, and they are polite and stand in formations nicely, but they look rather sedate. And it's easy to break spears or stab hands. Difficult to store, as you need a taller box!
Poking forwards, they look more aggressive, but it's difficult to line up subsequent ranks, they are rather rude to the front when engaging the enemy, and your storage box becomes wider/longer!
And shields are not attached! The lovely round hoplons get in the way of painting, believe me. And if you paint the figures and shields separately, you could have a choreography situation.
Also, those lovely hoplon decals don't fit real well because of the convex shape of the shield. Very fiddly…
Victrix are lovely and have some great choices. When completed, they are hard to beat! But They are a chore to assemble, some of the spears are fragile and the many options can drive one wild! Prices are decent, I think $46 USD for 48 Spartans, $31 USD for 48 Athenians (poor training?).
I had a blast assembling and painting them, but it took a long time!
Then there is the diminutive Immortal Miniatures, which I believe Warlord Miniatures bought. Again hard plastic. Their left arm is cast on the shield giving no leeway for modelling (half of the Victrix figures have free ranging left arms, allowing for a "Brad Pitt" combat pose!). Warlord prices $44 USD for 42 Spartans or you could buy a huge starter army for $150 USD for:
156 Plastic hoplites
6 Metal Thessalian light cavalry
3 Metal Greek command with swords
4 Hoplite shield decal sheets and plastic bases
These plastics are smaller than Victrix (28.99mm for Victrix, plus a little heftier and taller plumes, maybe 26-27mm for Warlord).
Uncertain about the metal.
So there! I hope that I haven't wasted your time!

cheers

1/72 scale plastic figures can be found on Plasric Soldier Review. Find the figures you like, then find a seller. If Red Box figures suit you, find them on e-Bay, as they offer the lowest price anywhere. Cheers!

Robert, I don't think what you are looking for exists if you rule out soft plastic. There was a boardgame called Age of Mythology that had some usable game pieces, but not much variety for troop types. I imagine they were Risk size pieces, but I don't know.

Thanks everyone--79th especially. I was afraid that was the case, but wargaming is vast these days, and sometimes I miss something "everyone knows." Well, it's not as though I were out of projects.

robert piepenbrink, I've been gaming with painted 'soft' plastic figures for 10+ years -- mostly Red Box -- all painted.

I also game with LDPE Vikings, Cave Men, and actual Army Men figures. The Vikings and the Army Men give me grief (their paint rubs off, too easily). The Cave Men, for unknown reasons, are holding strong, for 20+ years of game handling.

The new paint for plastic is pretty good. The smaller scale figures hold paint better (they are not LDPE plastic). I would heartily recommend you give them a try. Cheers!

Nearly all my Ancients figures are 20mm soft plastic and they are both cheap and hold their paint fine. Many beautiful plastic Greek figures are available (see PSR link above).

I do have one unit if metal hoplites I picked up second hand, but Tbh they look like lumpy dwarves next to the elegant slim plastics.

Just undercoat them with a coat or two of PVA and they god pretty rigid and the pain sticks well.

Thank you both. I've panted a good few 1/72, and I can certainly make paint stick. There are colonial and horse & musket armies out in the garage. I had soft plastics put aside for the project. Then I dropped a box, and bits of hoplites went in all directions. I'd waited too long, and they'd gone brittle.

I don't say I won't go that way, but sweeping up an army with a broom and dustpan got me to looking at alternatives.

Have you considered Wofun 2.5D minis? They come painted. We're using them for our Crusades project. They're okay looking, especially with a good dose of dullcoat, but the price to table ratio is pretty great. Open box, and play.

Cheap Greeks?! Oh. I thought you wrote Cheap Geeks

….never mind

"I don't say I won't go that way, but sweeping up an army with a broom and dustpan got me to looking at alternatives."

That is miserable. I had that happen to see me old Airfix Commandos. I gather the risk of plastic rot partly depends where/how you store them.

My guys all live in the house now.

If you would consider metals, the Newline 20mm ranges are good. I use them to supplement the plastics.

Perhaps you could try HaT or Caesar 1/72 plastic figures. They are hard plastic.
link
hat.com/current.html