Miniatures Talk

Old Figures

Posted by zulu`s 1000`s of em on 24 Jan 2022, 23:11

In defence of modern figure manufacturers V`s Airfix , Airfix had no competition and they, Airfix were a rapidly growing business with good cash flow and able to run multiple projects simultaneously , in multiple scales and that was just in our spectrum of interest ,never mind all the other stuff they did. But technology has moved on and there are few excuses for some of the poor quality stuff we have been given over resent years, even if the market has shrunk.
zulu`s 1000`s of em  United Kingdom
 
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Posted by Kekso on 25 Jan 2022, 11:28

zulu`s 1000`s of em wrote:even if the market has shrunk.


This is a good point. Are there fewer of us each year? Are we dying species?
Do youngsters have less and less patience for this kind of "material" or "non computer" hobby?

Sorry if this is off topic... tell me if yes so I can delete myself :xd:
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Kekso  Croatia

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Posted by Susofrick on 26 Jan 2022, 10:49

I think we are a dying breed. Even if younger ones, like you, come into the hobby there are too few of us. We are like ents! And it is not off topic!
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Susofrick  Sweden
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Posted by Flambeau on 26 Jan 2022, 11:04

There are multiple reasons, I'd guess: Wargaming for instance has expanded in other directions/scales. There was no Games Workshop here when I was young, nor were there any Perry Miniatures nor Gripping Beast or anything else. Larger scales were all metal, all had to be imported from the UK and all were very expensive - at least for kids, so 20mm plastics was the first choice. Nowadays we have excellent 28mm or 30mm plastics, which lend themselves to conversions in ways we could only dream of with 20mm plastics way back then. So I'd guess a lot of people today just use another scale.
Then of course, now we also have computer gaming, streaming etc. a whole range of diversions that were not available when we were young. Add failing eyesight to this and you have plenty of reasons why there are not so many people collecting 20mm today then back in the 70s or 80s. Reading also isn't as fashionable todayas it was back then - which may be MUCH bigger problem ... ;-)
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Posted by DerkleinePUC on 27 Jan 2022, 21:57

Hello and Good evening,
so I bought a collection of old and semi-old Artminiatures from an elderly gentleman in the south of Germany and from another lots and lots of REVELL TYW figures for avery low price and the experience of buying and buying complete collections it is fact: dying out!
My first set was Airfix US paratroopers in 1979. Six Marks it costed. My whole pocket money. But it was worth it. The real thing are old metal figures. Not the Hinton Hunt ones in glossy shiny colours but the real rare one from the 1990s. Made by small companies, enthusiasts.
Now there are 60000 soldiers waiting to get painted. Old and new.
Maybe we are DoDos. The last breed is impossible because of the missing girl (Ice Age film).

Good night - good fight

Patrick
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Posted by Mr_White on 29 Jan 2022, 05:37

steve_pickstock wrote:On the other hand I am in complete awe of sculptors who produce masters in 1-to-1. The poor chap working for Alliance/Strelets/Red Box/Linear A (I reckon he is only allowed out for daylight occasionally and then they chain him - if it is a him, if it isn't, I apologise - then they chain him back up) is a freaking genius with the level of detail acheived in those figures.


I don't know much about the background of minis at the scale besides the old Citadel Dark Future line. Is it only one person doing the minis Alliance/Strelets/Red Box/Linear A or is this an in-joke?
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Mr_White  United States of America
 
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 29 Jan 2022, 10:55

Mr_White wrote:I don't know much about the background of minis at the scale besides the old Citadel Dark Future line. Is it only one person doing the minis Alliance/Strelets/Red Box/Linear A or is this an in-joke?


I don't know if I am the only person who thinks this, but I noticed a couple of years ago that there are common elements in several ranges by different figure producers. Alliance's historical Amazons and Linear A's Amazons were very similar in style, so much to me that it looks like the same sculptor. To my eye they also share a lot of similarities with Linear A's other ranges - the Sucessor ranges for example.
Similarly the Red Box 1745 Range and Strelets' WSS share a lot of similarities, as well.

Things I noticed was the images of the masters - all made in that same coppery-brown coloured medium. Sculpting styles - you can drop figures from one manufacturer into a unit with those of another and not notice the difference. Common masters for horses is another indicator as well.

It's not an earth-shattering revelation and I don't want people to think that I am saying that this is a bad thing. Far from I really admire the sculptor's work, I am a big fan, but in the same way that people celebrate Ron Cameron - who did early Airfix sculpts like the DAK, or the chap who did the ESCI sculpts - I think this sculptor should be celebrated.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by Mr_White on 29 Jan 2022, 20:32

I agree. I've been collecting the Dark Alliance line (you can see over in my Dragon Rampant thread) and I wish I knew who to credit for the work.

I'm not familiar with all the lines yet to tell if they're the work of one or different sculptors. Thanks for your observation.
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Mr_White  United States of America
 
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Posted by zulu`s 1000`s of em on 30 Jan 2022, 20:36

The market shrinking is not just about us getting older and sadly some of us passing. We have factors like, storage space, table space, display space, we have choice so can pick and choose what we buy and few have the time and space to collect every era as we would have done with Airfix and even those that followed like Esci or even Hat. We also have the realization that collections are bigger than time to paint left in life, my eyes at 60 are not as good as they were twenty years ago and they will probably be not much use for detail in another ten years even if I am still around. But I am still an avid collector ,buyer and painter, I am more selective and whilst I often admire stunning new figures if they are not in my area of interest I no longer buy them, but twenty years ago would have done.
zulu`s 1000`s of em  United Kingdom
 
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Posted by zirrian on 30 Jan 2022, 22:29

To answer the original question - I feel nostalgic about Esci's German and Soviet infantry, as I played with those as a child, then when I became a modeler, my father gave them to me. They are still not painted, but one day...

Other than that, Revell's Brits, as those kickstarted my interest in WW2, and they formed the backbone of my first historical wargaming army. Couple of years ago I bought a full box to make them properly again and play some Hammer of Democracy or similar, and I found a bunch of loose figures from the kit too.
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zirrian  Hungary
 
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 13 Feb 2022, 16:34

So that is 60 or so Litres of "Ancients" sorted. Ancients = evrything up to the 1500s. Loose figures have been sorted and figures have been de-sprued, to make it easier to bag them. It's not all of the Ancients - I know there are caches of figures spread about the place, either in their original boxes or in boxes where they have been sorted for stalled projects.

16th/17th/early 18thC - there are still bundles of those to be sorted.

WW2/20thC figures - largely sorted with some more to find.

And today I started on the 19thC box. Bagged a load of Airfix Napoleonic British Line and Highlanders, and a load of Airfix US 7th cav.

The technique I have found useful is to unload the crate into crrier bags - one with all the loose figures in and several with sprues in them, using this as an opportunity to sort and group the sprues. Once this is done, I go through, seperate and bag all the loose figures working on different types - eg all the British Line figures, Any British cavalry and so on. Once those have been done, then I work through the bags of sprue, and de-sprue any remaining figures. Breaking up the sprues like this reduces the amount of space that the figures take up, and bagging them makes them easier to manage.

On the "old figures" side of things, going through the 7th Cavalry figures brought back some memories - Terry Wise's conversions in Airfix Magazine. Plasticene and banana oil, tissue paper and cellulose dope creations of everythng from Roman cavalry to Khitan Liao.

We are so blessed these days, and I know Strelets hve done so much but I feel that Hat need some credit for sets like the Carthaginians. They were a particularly useful set to off-set the existing Italeri/Esci figures, and if course the rest is history.

These 7th Cavalry figures - I may strip the flaking paint off them and see what I can do to paint some of them using modern techniques.

Stay safe all - cheers Pickers.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by Bluefalchion on 13 Feb 2022, 17:36

What a project! I sometimes dream of acquiring huge caches of figures like the one you are currently processing, Mr. Pickstock.

In my dreams, however, they are usually wholly novel sets that have not (yet) come into existence.
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Bluefalchion  United States of America
 
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