Low cost wargaming

Wargaming, miniature wargaming, can be an expensive hobby, expecially if you don't live in England or in the United States (well, maybe it can be expensive if you live there too !!)
This page has been written to show you a low cost solution to play miniature wargames.
Plastic 20mm (1/72) miniatures, usually called toy soldiers, allow you to play tabletop wargames without too much expense.

Why plastic minis ?

Miniature wargaming isn't a common thing in Italy (especially in the south) ...
There are a lot of reasons: mainly people don't know anything about historic 15mm or 25mm simply because there are no sellers !! And I live in a largest town...
... and there are not wargames magazines or clubs or conventions or open days. Well, you are in the picture !
In the whole Italy there are only 2 or 3 mail order shops, with little stock and impressive supercharged prices! Playing a civil war battle require a very big budget.
So if you wanna still play there are 2 ways: mail order in England or cast yourself minis (ie. copy miniatures !).
The last is blatantly illegal, every little piece is copyrighted and, btw, it is a crime to copy minis.
Mail order can be a good idea but:
  1. we have a very bad money exchange rate, even with the Euro :-(
  2. you have to pay high transport and bank/post fee;
  3. it is not an easy thing if you don't have a credit card !
But luckily (!) plastic 20mm toy soldiers are always on the shell in modeler's shops !!
Just buy some boxes and your "plastic legion" will save your budget and you can still play tabletop wargames (in the cheapest way !).

I read 3 wargames magazine printed in England and only in one, Practical Wargamer, I found notice and interest in plastic figs. However there are enough reviews in order to know what is on the shells and I found a series of articles with a lot of useful product lists, painting and basing tips, storage information and more.
Sadly Practical Wargamer is not more published (but I read that you can buy a compendium called "Practical Wargamer Yearbook" with a lot of interesting articles).

Drawbacks

Yes, I know... playing with plastic toy soldiers is not like using lead minis...
Keep in mind that using 20mm plastic soldiers is a shortcut for playing.

  • Plastic 20mm soldiers have less details than lead 25mm miniatures, but 20mm are reasonably detailed; they looks like big 15mm, so you can paint them like 15mm rather than 25mm !
    Well, simply I have no time for painting hyper detailed army, Game$ Work$hop's style, so I'm not much concerned about details. I paint to play with my armies...
    In my humble opinion painting a hyper detailed army is a task beyond normal possibilities !

  • You must buy a box of 40/50 pieces and cannot choose poses, you have to pick up the whole box !
    But you surely need more than a single box for your army, so buying more boxes allows a reasonable mix of poses. You can assemble a good army and you can use unfailing 4-5 silly poses for conversion.

  • The biggest drawback is that sometimes you can't find, or it is difficult to find, what you need to "complete" an historical army of a period,
    for example this was the situation an year ago:
    "in order to play the American Civil war, you can buy Union and Confederate infantry, Union and Confederate artillery... but cavalry is hard to find !!! Cavalry is on reprint ! You must convert some Napoleonic cavalry to ACW cavalry ! Otherwise you can buy 20mm lead miniatures in England !!
    Luckily plastic conversions are an easy job to do with a good cutter... I have several ACW cavalry squadrons converted from Nap's Scots Grey (they look good and, above all, fight good !!)"

    Well now the situation is better, a lot of out of print boxes have been republished and new industry are enlarging the new products range (like the HAT industry).

    What you can play

    Plastic 20mm toy soldiers covers many historical periods, so your battle's range can be from Romans to our days.
    Ok, you must convert several types of troops, for example, a canadian friend of mine, mr Douglas Shand can convert a Hong Kong copy german WWII infantryman into a roman spearman... you can convert your little troops too !!
    I want to thank mr Douglas Shand for his precious suggestions about converting figurines !
    Take a look to the Hat Industry page for more conversion's ideas.

    What you can play is a matter of taste !!
    But consider that you can deploy big napoleonic battalions with a modest expense, so you can use 20mm to play periods unaffordable with metal figurines.
    So you can play those huge Zulu's horde storming versus the british thin red lines !
    Or you can deploy Acw regiments with all the figures per stand as required in the rules !
    Plastic figures allows you to play a new period or a skirmish with little expenses, so you can vary your games.
    With some work and some creative paintings you can obtain all the unit types you need to play without selling your house !!

    In Internet you can find several rules system too, and they are free !
    Visit my Free rules page in this section to find a lot of link to rules ready to download !
    Email me if you have more info/links about free rules.

    Painting tips...

    Quick and dirty:
  • wash your 20mm to clean them from stamping-grease
  • Use spray primer, I use everytime black primer
  • DO NOT paint directly on the plastic
  • coat your soldiers with Pva white glue to avoid paint crumbles... it works !! PVA glue dried is like a trasparent matt varnish onto figurines
  • base your 20mm miniatures

    • Page created: 08/25/1996
    Last update: 12/05/1999