Plastics

Something has been gnawing away at me for some time and that is plastic figures. I am not talking about the super dooper, new fangled, latest wargames craze totake over the known world releases by the Perry twins or Warlord. I am on about Airfix, Hat and the like.

A mate of mine has been collecting plastic armies (filled out with the very occasional metal 20mm figure) for years. Thats Martyn by the way who you can see in previous posts. He gave up on mainstream metal years ago when a 25mm figure reached 80p. Then there was a very nice website years ago by I think a bloke called Steve Burt. Lots of interesting content on ACW, WW2 and other bits all played out using vast hordes of plastic. Thats not to mention

http://www.willwarweb.blogspot.com/

which if ever anyone needed inspiration to have a go at plastic then this is it.

Oh and an article in a Slingshot last year (maybe the year before) by Graham Evans on trying out the rules in Neil Thomas' Ancient and Medeival Wargaming book using 20mm plastic figures.

Now I have played and painted with 15mm Peter Pig for several years almost exclusively. Call me a fanboy but the RFCM rules and PP figures have covered everything I have needed or wanted for some time. But I have had a festering thought that a bit of diversity keeps the mind and soul fresh. So I have ordered Neils book. I have had a look for Grahams article but I think it may have been thrown out (heresy I know). I have perused

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/

I will speak to Martyn to see if he has any spares. I seem to remember on the Society of Ancients website something about a show demo using plastics letting you have a go at being Alexander or Hannibal. More investigation required there. Maybe Graham will help me?

To be honest I have always been put off by Ancients. Full of literate bookish gaming snobs. Not my words but I partially agree. DBM and the like have always seemed like too much hard work. So this maybe the thing I am looking for to break me in gently.

Then maybe, just maybe I will by a couple of boxes and have at it. Probably go for Macedonians or some such. I have a large unpainted mound of Peter Pig Romans and Germans that I got very cheap off Ebay last year. Maybe Punic Wars. I wil have to see once I've got the book. From research it looks a bit like DBA where there are near set army lists of a certain number of units so hopefully if I do dive in it wont be much of an outlay. Plus there is a greta model shop close by in Stoke on Trent that sell lots of figures.

No promises or deadlines. But it may be a nice little sideline.

Anyway back to the big push!