What are your experiences with using big figures. Tis includes 1/32nd, 54mm, 2" etc....
Game type, table size, availability of figures, conversions, scenery and future thoughts?
Not used them since about 1963.
Not used much in gaming but there is a huge range of both figures and scenic items out there.
The obvious one for us in the UK is Britain's. A good range of semi ex
Pensive figures and lots of s Enid items and equipment from the various farm, stables, zoo, ranges etc.
Plastic manufacturers are Armies in Plastic, China toys, Call to Arms a d Glenco (Pirates!) To mention but a few.
Elite do various Napoleonic figures in white metal for various countries.
Phoenix Minatures sold by a company called Fourth Third Ltd makes all manner of bits from the Viking era onwards, furniture, gubbins and civilians.
Black Hat do 54mm kits where you can mix and match heads, hats, tunics, arms etc to get the look you want.
Then there is scale link that whilst mainly railway related does narrow gauge WW1 era stuff like the narrow gauge engines and associated gubbins that were so popular on the Western Front.
Similarly Langley Minatures do various bits and bobs whilst perhaps aimed at the railway market is going to be useful for the war games modeller.
Irregular Minatures do a few ranges in metal and also do bits like doors and windows suitable for conversìom and maki g your own buildings.
Don't forget Hinchcliff
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The Weymouth club did CW in 54mm man years ago. We each (7 of us) built about 40 figures. Using the then DETAIL range along with various other bits. the problem was n ACW guns. Now there seem to be plenty around from China etc. Probably pirated BRITAINS ones.
We played quite a few battles . They were battles, because the infantry and cavalry were in units, rather than as individuals.
Our biggest game was "Crampton's gap" historical re- fight.
Plusses
Visually very appealing.
Nice to handle
Minuses
We had to play on a floor with the risk of crushing.
Dice rollling was all over the place.
Buildings etc took up a lot of storage space.
We used a lot of Britains Oak trees, which may not be available any more?? Bits regularly fell off them too!
Les put on a great jungle game at club in 54mm. Buckets of scenery.
In my view 54mm is where wargaming gets silly. Scales smaller than 20mm are great but large models no matter how well painted look like toys to me. The 54mm fanboys should stick to building dioramas.
54mm is probably more suited to games wherein ranges are smaller. i would like to do ancients in 54mm. Greek hoplite warfare springs to mind.
Mike when some of us started gaming 54mm was just about all that was about. Soft plastic HO was pretty poor by comparison, you could convert using Plasticine and banana oil!!
We did a part of Bunkers Hill, Breeds hill on one flank. To get the grenadiers for the British we had to cut the heads from the drummers and add these to the infantry bodies. The drummer figure was the only one with a bearskin in the box.
54mm the one true scale for gaming.
Think I would be inclined to replace the last word with 'playing'.
Not uused/played with since late 1960's but did buy some Airfix 1/32 last Christmas for my 5yr old Grandson.
Wow, strong dislike for 54mm there chaps. I am surprised. I can live with "playing" and "silly", no worries to me.
I would like to do some battles in 54mm. Might start with Peloponnesian war, pitching BC period hoplite formations. Thinking of 200 figures, 6 units a side type size. Might also like to do "Longships" using 15" squares? Might never happen, but it is good to think about things? Conte figures look ideal for these two.
I don't mind helping if people want to have a game with painting figures, I quite like 54mm figures myself. It would be good to see them being used but I may just want to observe rather than get involved in the game.
I have a load of Western figures painted, 50 odd. With buildings. We used them 20 plus years ago to do the" rules with no name" game. We used the same ranges as the 28mm range and thought the gun fights looked more realist, 10 inches between figures ! Rather than what it does in 28mm ! As the 6 shooters were notorious for not being that accurate !!! Looks better as well.
We used 54mm metal and plastic figures for a Zulu game or two. Looked excellent. At Historicon I took part in a WW2 Normandy game with vehicles and figures of really top quality, again great to experience but cost and storage is an issue.
That WW2 game was massive Mike. It was also very late, past bedtime. He (chap and his son) was using king and country figures which in themselves are expensive.
54mm gaming is great and their are as many figures, periods, as there ever have been no more banana oil needed to harden the Plasticine!!