Friday, November 18, 2022

Revisiting Soft Plastics in 1/72?

Into the category of What am I doing? falls this next post.

Like many of my age cohort, I came into the miniatures wargaming hobby via Airfix 1/72 scale soft plastic figures.  Later, ESCI and Italeri figures were added for a variety of periods.  Those were the early days.  Once I discovered metal figures, I set off in a new direction and, really, rarely looked back.  Long gone are several large boxes of plastic Napoleonics and Zulus.  Until recently, that is.
A return to plastics (hard plastics, that is) began with a recent dabble into Perry Miniatures' War of the Roses figures.  By now, I have built up enough to field two standard armies for the period.  These armies still await their first battle.

OK. That dipped my toe back into the plastic ocean.  
Having fought a number of battles over the last two years hosted by a HUGE advocate for soft plastic toy soldiers (Graham, I am talking to you), I figured it time to head out on a small diversionary expedition of my own.  If nothing else, I can see what the figures look like up close when the view from the webcam is small and fuzzy.

With a semi-regular foray into gaming the War of Spanish Succession remotely, the WSS seemed a reasonable test ground.  At Graham's encouragement, I ordered three boxes of Strelets French dragoons in both mounted (two boxes) and dismounted (one box).  From three boxes, I could field two dragoon regiments of twelve figures each in both mounted and dismounted formation.
Reviews for these figures can be found at Plastic Soldier Review for

As the reviews illustrate, the figures are quite nice and posing good.  There is some flash and trim-up required but the figures look good to my eye.  I am especially impressed by the dismounted dragoon set of figures.  Excellent variety of poses and the horse holder with three horses is a superb addition.
After consultation with another blogger (thanks, Tony!) on uniform details for several potential dragoon regiments, I settled upon painting Regiment Villegagnon for the first of two regiments.  The figures paint up easily and I am happy with the results.

Is this the start of a new project? Unlikely, but one should never say never... 

59 comments:

  1. A very nice job on those Jon. Like you, I too am of the airfix generation and have at times pondered getting some of the 8th Army and Afrika Korps figures. I have no use for them games wise, but that nostalgia pull is strong alongside the desire to do some of the conversions seen in the Airfix magazine guides. Maybe one day but I'd need to get a magnifying lamp first!

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    1. Thank you, Steve! I likely have no use for these figures (or the second regiment waiting to be painted) but this was a useful exercise and a different painting diversion.

      I reckon if you can paint 10mm figures you can easily perform surgical work on 20mm plastic figures.

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  2. Those look very nice and importantly, the bases make good use of the multi-posing that comes with these type of figures, without it looking ‘wrong’.

    I love this scale and have said it before, but I wish the hard plastic revolution had gone for 1/72 instead of 28mm, but that boat has already sailed, so enough of that.

    I have had several dabblings with soft plastic napoleonics and each time given up, this has been largely due to the mix of poses, including the strange and the unlikely, plus a bit of softness in the sculpting (I have been spoiled by the sharp undercuts in hard plastic) but I have seen stunning results on the net.

    Most recently (last month), I order a 20mm French metal starter army from Newline Design, plus from Tumbling Dice, a bag each of 1066 Saxons, Wars of the roses bill, ECW musketeers and some ACW.

    They do seem the perfect size for wargaming on the domestic table. I am a bit put off by my Newline, due to the work that has to be done to get the bases clean and flat. Other than that, the proportions and poses are really nice.

    Nice to see your work though, as it makes me want to get all of the above out again, which was only packed away 3 hours ago, simply because of those bases!

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    1. Thanks, Norm!

      I am a bit of a Metal Head when it comes to figure material preference so an aggressive foray into soft plastics is unlikely. Still, it was a fun exercise.

      Do not pitch your Newline figures just yet. I am very fond of their 28mm Ancients and Biblicals. The sculpting style will grow on you and the figures offer great value. Newline makes some of my favorite figures of all. For the uneven bases, I use a heavy duty xacto blade to carve the base flat (or mostly flat).

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  3. Hard plastics have improved so much since the 80's when I first played with WW2 Airfix sculpts. THese have some really nice detail and I love that their poses are so varied within the unit.
    As to the painting and scheme, whilst I am ignorant of this period in general, I like the red and blue's and wouldn't be adverse to seeing this take off as a brand new full blown project - that YOU paint up! :)

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    1. Plastic sculpting and production has increased markedly over the years. Just look at the Perry and Warlord figures as examples of far technology (and skill) has come. There is a lot of variety in each of these boxes. As Graham notes below, no unusable figures either.

      If I was to tackle WSS, I always had my eye on doing the project in 10mm. That could change though.

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  4. They look really nice. Excellent paint job, and very good looking figures. Good poses, nice selection and nothing unusable. I need to invest in some boxes of those. As I said to you, I think they will do nicely as Imperial Hussars, more or less.

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    1. Thanks, Graham! I thought you might enjoy seeing these two boxes painted up. Of the two boxes, the box of dismounted dragoons is my favorite. both are solid and useful troops. I await to see what you do with French dragoons as Imperial Hussars.

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  5. Very nice figures, I admire many of the plastic ranges but have no patience building them, although I can see the advantage in price.

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    1. Thanks! With these 1/72 Strelets figures, no assembly is required!

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  6. Nicely done Jon, I have never been adverse to plastic although the older ‘soft’ plastic can be a challenge. They have painted up nicely. I am increasingly of the view that armies in any scale look good when based well and brought to the battlefield en mass. Choice is then a combination of cost, availability, storage and paintability. 🤔

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    1. Thank you, Matt! You are right in that any army (and any figure) painted and based can look terrific en masse. Even old Scruby armies in bulk look impressive (from a distance).

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  7. Nice! The lace/piping really sets them off.
    Chris/Nundanket

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    1. Thanks, Chris! This is a size of figure (and material) to which I have not put brush to in a very long time.

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  8. I am firmly in your camp when it comes to plastics Jonathan, partly out of habit but I much prefer the weight of a metal figure. In the hands of a skilled painter such as yourself though, it is impossible to tell the difference and these look terrific. I still have over a hundred boxes of Airfix figures in storage, including a box of Napoleonic British Hussars which my father bought me when I was five or six and which started the whole thing off.

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    1. Lawrence, Metal Heads unite! I prefer the weight of a large stand of metal figures too. Very satisfying to have them "plop" them onto the table. Something this heavy ought to put up a solid defense.

      Over 100 boxes of Airfix figures in storage? Lawrence, Perhaps I don't have a problem?

      Thanks for your comments!

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    2. I must point out that I was a pure metal head, and I still do favour 15mm in metal. The Damascene moment for me was in about 1999 when I played my first game of Armati, and then went into the local model shop. They'd just had in Hat's new release of their Punic Wars range. I had no project on at the time and it was like fate. I'd enjoyed Armati way more than any of the WRG games I'd played, and I'd always wanted a Republican Roman army. The final thing that won me over completely was mdf 2mm bases, which give sufficient weight at the bottom of the figure to stop them accidentally being knocked over.

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    3. Ah, a metal head whose distraction into plastics became the main focus over time. Fate intervenes...

      I wager a number of us have been inspired enough by an interesting game to launch a new project. I am not ashamed to declare that I am included in this lot.

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    1. Well, at least one more regiment of French dragoons since I already have the figures.

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  10. These figures and your style of painting them are looking excellent. I had to buy the figures too. Will you add the dragoons by Zvezda to your collection to get more variation?

    I wish you to get infantry as well because many sets of Strelets WSS-range are sold out in online stores in Germany.

    I feared that you would mention myself and your friends would argue about my fault to bring you into the world of plastic miniatures... :-D

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    1. Thanks so much, André!

      Since painting these dragoons was meant more of a one-off experiment, I have not looked at any other manufacturers. Out of curiosity, I ought to look at the Zvezda figures.

      I still see the Strelets infantry for sale here in the States. Maybe they will be restocked in Germany soon.

      No one is to blame for my brief dalliance into 1/72 plastics. This is primarily to satisfy my curiosity. Well, perhaps you and Graham (Trebian) share some responsibility.

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    2. Sounds very good. Some muskets of the Strelets infantry are looking a bit too short. But you can see how some French infantry are looking painted on my French infantry. I can see that you will realize that many of the WSS-battles are very interesting from a tactical point of view and some are managable such as the battle of Saragossa with not too large armies on both sides. And the armies are looking very colourfull with a mix of Dutch, Austrians etc. vs. French...

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  11. These look very nice Jon, as one would expect from your painting desk. I have painted a (very) few HaT soft plastic figures recently for my SCW collection and they seemed to turn out ok. I guess two or three things contributed to most of we Airfix generation abandoning soft plastic.
    1 subconcious pressure to use "grown up" figures like we saw adult gamers using and which appeared and were advertised in the magazines available at the time
    2 the convention at the time that regiments should consist of 20 or 30 figures all in the same pose ...and the unusabllty of several poses in many Airfix boxes
    3 issues with paint adhesion.

    There are lots of people, like Graham, who persevered with soft plastic, and mostly, their painted figures look just as good as metals ( as you have proved) Sculpting on later Airfix figures was as good or better than anything in metal, to be honest....I think at the time, it was just accepted by most that "real" wargaming required metal figures!
    Strangely, for some reason, plastic always seems to have remained popular in Europe, as has the 1/72 scale....not sure why...maybe because almost all the metal figures are produced in the UK or US?

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    1. Thank you, Keith! You are most kind.

      Your three reasons to move away from soft plastics make sense to me. Having to buy a number of boxes of Airfix figures in order to get enough figures for a 36-figure French infantry battalion all in the same pose was one deterrent (but it did not stop me!). Paint chipping and flaking was definitely a detraction. In those days, I knew nothing about undercoating before painting and clearcoating afterwards. Perhaps if I had gone that route, I would still have my large collections of 1/72 plastics?

      Yes, Graham sticks with soft plastics and he is a vocal proponent of their versatility and economy. Perhaps André (Amtmann) above can shed light on why soft plastics and 1/72 remained en vogue in Germany?

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    2. We should also remember that these days we use the more forgiving acrylic paints, in those days it was good old hard Humbrol enamel.

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    3. True. I remember using Pactra enamels when I first started painting figures.

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    4. James at the Chauvinistic Blog is in the same camp as Graham - I have had this discussion with him too - too late for me to be tempted back to soft plastic - another difference nowadays is the wide variety and range of subjects covered. In the 70' s in the UK I was basically only aware of Airfix - so there was a real lack of variety for most conflicts eg Napoleonic, which is more or less where I started (if you exclude WWII)

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  12. Agree with Gents. Looking really great!

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  13. Really nice--and the French Dragoons in stocking cap are world beaters when it comes to looks on a table. Given that I've resolved (so far successfully) to hold the line on starting new eras/collections, I'll enjoy experiments with the new generation of plastics, such as these, from the sidelines.

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    1. Thanks, Ed! This is a distinctive uniform with the pokalem cap. For now, I am not planning a new project. This was just a test. Honest.

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  14. Painting 20mm plastics - you re going full circle with your new WSS period.

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  15. Very nicely turned out there Jonathan. Whenever I see boxes if 1/72 plastic figures I am almost always tempted to buy a box for old times sake.

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    1. Thanks, Phil! I am drawn by the same pull. Fortunately for me, there are no local stores carrying 1:72 plastic figures!

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  16. Super paint job Jonathan. With plastic hussars in my 28mm French Rev army, some painted airfix WW2 cowering in a cupboard and MDF 6mm armies amongst my collection, I am clearly not wedded to metal. Though I will concede that there is something satisfying about the heft of a base of metal cavalry.
    I'd be interested to know how you went about painting your soft plastics. I've tried a couple of different approaches - mostly concerned with prep and undercoating.

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    1. Thank you, Richard! I agree that the heft of a large metal stand offers a satisfying experience.

      For prep work, I simply trimmed off any flash, washed the figures in a bath of dish washing liquid, let dry and then undercoated all with a coat of spray black primer. After painting, I brushed on Minwax Tudor wood stain to add shading. After that dried, I sprayed all of the figures with W&N Matte Varnish to dull the gloss that the stain leaves after application. Really, this is the same process I use for metals too so no difference.

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    2. Just thought I'd ask as I know that there are some who add a little PVA glue to the primer for soft plastics. Perhaps as an extra key on the figure... who knows?

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    3. Time will tell if my process prevents chipping, flaking, and cracking. I guess if I never get them to the table, they will remain in pristine condition.

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  17. They look great, Jon. Not going to plastics myself, but if I were starting from scratch it might be a consideration.

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    1. Thank you, Peter! Well, I am not going to plastics either but this was a fun diversion.

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  18. I still have a soft spot for soft plastic. For a decade straddling the turn of the century 54mm plastics in 9 periods stretching from Ancients to WWII. It was primarily the loss of my 54mm opponents and a need to shrink my table and reduce my storage space that ended that spree.

    However, 1/72nd soft plastic ACW somehow turned into the largest (numerically) of my collections. The shortage untill recently of themed sets (eg firing line, marching, charging etc) used to be balanced by the low price so one would buy multiple boxes then sort by poses.

    These days, as my eyes dim, my 22mm are my 15mm or 10mm equivalent when painting! :)

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    1. Thanks, Ross! I reckon many of us of a certain age still hold a soft spot for soft plastics. Multiple boxes and sorting and building units by pose. Been there; done that!

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  19. They look lovely Jonathan…
    There is a bewildering array of 1/72 available now… lots of temptation… although I still have a soft spot for the original Airfix ACW.

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thank you, Aly!

      A quick browse through the Plastic Soldier Review shows a bewildering choice of plastics figures in 1/72 alone.

      Temptation. There is always temptation.

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  20. Lovely colors, I'm not plastic but they look great!

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  21. Beautifully painted figures, Jonathan. Yes, this scale is overlooked by most in the gaming community. It's also one that has a lot of nostalgia too.

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  22. Nice work Jonathan, but will that small diversion become a full descent into a black hole? I guess time will tell.

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  23. Very nice minis Jonathan! Plastics can make very nice figures but I find assembly tedious at times. I wonder if you feel the same?

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    1. Thanks, Mike! These 1/72 figures have no assembly needed. For 28mm hard plastics like Perry WotR figures, I have been enjoying making the figures. It can be tedious but not insurmountable.

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  24. Great looking dragoons, soft plastic or not!
    Best Iain

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  25. I sort of went the same way. I had a lot off WWII 1/72 plastics as a kid. Then discovered the lead minis in the late 70s. Then I started back with the soft plastics around 2008 and really liked working with them again. They were certainly easier on the pocketbook! Of course then I discovered Napoleinic Naval, haha!

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    1. "Discovered Napoleonic naval"...and the rest is history!

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