Long live 1/72 scale placcy soldiers! ...and so say all of us.
Products by Period
The 1/72 Scale Plstic Figures and Low Cost Wargaming Site
Products by Manufacturer
Common Wargames With Plastic Soldiers

   
This site is devoted to the use of 1/72 scale plastic soldiers/figures for war gaming or modelling.  The aim of this site is to list all plastic soldiers produced by various companies (such as Revell, ESCI, HaT or Italeri) in the scale of 1/72 so that wargamers can see what is available in his or her period or chosen nationality/side.

  To this effect, it will list the figures by
period instead of as by manufacturer as most similar sights do.  It will also list products by manufacturer for those who are interested.  Most of the products should still be in production or still available in hobby/ model shops or on the net on one of the many online model shops popping up all the time. 

  The purpose of the site is not to delve into obscure, out of production brands that are of interest to collectors.  This is a practical site for wargamers to use as an information source for collecting plastic armies, although I do hope that collectors will find it useful and inform me of any irregularities, missed details or useful and relevant information so I can share it with the growing legions of plastic wargamers.

  I would just like to thank Dominic Goh, who's web site,
Napoleonic Nuts Of Singapore, got me back into war gaming and inspired me with this site.  I would also like to thank all the people who's web sites I used to collect this information, most who are in the links pages.

The first question is probably - why plastic figures?  This is well covered in many other sites that are devoted to the subject so I won't go into too much detail.

Advantages:

·
Cost- The first and probably most pertinent reason is cost.  Plastic is so much cheaper to buy.  Whole armies can be purchased at relatively low cost.

·
Availability- The next reason is availability.  As with many want-to-be wargamers in far flung regions of the world (ie not in Britain or the US) it is still very hard to find metal figures in most periods of wargaming.  Plastic figures were always readily available at the corner toyshop, even if only in a limited range. 

Disadvantages:

· Range-
up until recently plastic soldier manufacturers only produced a limited range of figures in each period.  This would be OK if they produced generic forces that could make up the bulk of the army, but, as many know, this wasn't the case.  This lead to armies that were made up of obscure units.  An example of this is the Napoleonic period.  Every producer and their dogs seemed to bring out a version of the British Scots Greys or French Polish lancers.  That's great but there is only one regiment in each army, and depending on the ratio of figures to men you would only need to buy one or two box's to make that unit in your army.  If on the other hand they brought out British Dragoons of French Dragoons then collectors could have bought all 12 odd British Dragoon/Dragoon Guards Regiments or 32 French Dragoon regiments, which participated in far greater battles in greater numbers.  The fact that there are 4 different makers of Scots Greys and Polish Lancers, and that they were the only units available defies logic.  Also during the 80's and early 90's many manufacturers stopped producing or went bust (no wonder!).  This lead to even less availability.  However there has been a real resurgence in plastic figure manufacturing lately thanks to the likes of HaT, who saw the deficiencies of the past and pounced to fill the void.  Also many of the moulds, which sat around in disused warehouses for many years have been bought up by various companies and put back into production.  This is great and makes interesting research following these moulds as they make there way around the world as one company gives up and sells up.  Today it is a different story with most types of troops being produced or on the drawing board, as you will see from the following charts.

·
Painting- Painting plastic is a problem if not done properly.  This can be overcome quite easily. Please see the links page for coverage on painting information or click here. for painting tips at Nick Grants excellent site - DBx Wargaming with 20mm Soft Plastic Figures.

·
Feel- Well you got me here.  They don't feel as good as metal products but hey, if you got the money then buy a metal army.  I suppose the only argument for plastics is that they weigh a lot less and are therefore easier to transport around.

·
Positions- When buying a pack you cannot chose the positions or poses of individual soldiers.  This is difficult when you want a unit that is all in one position (especially in Napoleonic and similar periods).  I've found that the way to overcome this is to buy a whole lot of boxes and combine all soldiers in a similar pose into one battalion or regiment.  This is possible because plastic soldiers are so cheap and you will find that you build up a large army very quickly. There are also a few producers of metal figures in 20mm that produce quite a large range of soldiers.  This allows you to buy units that you can't get in plastic, as well as personality figures.  Also, some periods allow for soldiers to pose in many different positions in one unit.  This makes plastic soldiers perfect for these periods.

·
Scale- 1/72, which is the equivalent of 20mm, is a bit of an odd scale.  The figures are too small for the common 25mm and too big for 15mm armies.  Some periods of wargaming are quite common in this scale, such as World War 2 and possibly the American Civil War.  This is probably the case for the former because so many plastic model vehicles are produced in 1/72.  Personally I find the figures a really good looking scale.  They look proportionate as well as realistic, but I would say that wouldn't I.
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By Patrick Shoesmith
Constructed on 25 February 2000