When I look at my collection of miniatures, I'm always surprised at how many eras and scales I own. I already came out as a wargaming butterfly in one of my last articles. This at least explains this extensive collection a little, if not necessarily justifies it. I think I'm in the top group of wargamers in terms of the number of painted and, to my shame, unpainted figures. I only really noticed how many there really are during the last "Great Wargaming Survey". Which of course doesn't mean that I don't need any more new miniatures.
Of course I have my favourite eras, who doesn't? For me, the Napoleonic era with all the grandiose battles is my number one favourite. And I don't necessarily focus on Waterloo or the Spanish campaign, but on the contrary on Wagram, Borodin, and Leipzig. You can let off steam here, there are lots of colourful uniforms and, above all, the most diverse nations.
Vistula Legion Lancers availeble in 18mm and 28mm
My favourite era is closely followed by the American Civil War. It couldn't be more different. On the one hand, colourful uniforms and masses of magnificent cavalry, on the other hand, plain grey or blue uniformed infantrymen, and even the cavalry doesn't really look that great. And yet I like the sight of the blue and grey masses on the playing field. But here too, I find it exciting to replay the big battles, even if often only in parts, since I don't have the space for such large gaming tables.
Union Iron Brigade in 10mm
Of course, I also have the other classics in my collection, such as WW II miniatures, which is how most of us got into the hobby, even if they were often not really figures for tabletop games, but the good old Airfix or Revell miniatures from the model shop. I have to admit that I am a tiny bit too old to get into the hobby via Games Workshop, as the chain's stores only appeared near us when I had already dedicated myself to historical tabletop and although I thought the fantasy miniatures were great, I was more interested in the historical background of the real conflicts.
So of course, I also own Romans and Germanic tribes and recently also Dacians and many others, which I can proudly call my own.
And this is where size comes into play. As already mentioned, I have an extensive collection of miniatures, most of them in 28mm. Who doesn't? After all, this is the most common scale in the historical field. With this size of miniatures, you can still see the details of the figures both when painting and then on the playing field, even without glasses, although I personally have the feeling that the figures are getting smaller or my arms are getting shorter.
The figures are also quite easy to paint. However, it takes a while to get a playable army painted. Which is of course a clear disadvantage of this scale.Another is the need for storage space. Over the years, I have unfortunately found that although I can always buy new miniatures and paint them, I am slowly running out of space for storage, especially given my preference for large armies, so recently I have been increasingly flirting with smaller scales. For example, in 18mm scale I can put almost twice as many figures on the table or in the cupboard as in 28mm. And if the miniatures are even smaller, say 10mm, there are almost no limits to the size of the armies.
Comparion of 18mm Austrian Grenadiers and 10mm Swedish Musketiers
Up until now, the tiny details of the miniatures have always put me off with the small scales. The figures are so small that I can hardly see them on the painting table, and how am I supposed to paint them?
The WoFun miniatures are a real revelation for me. They are not only small, but also very detailed and, best of all, they are already painted so that I can start playing straight away.
Up until now, it has always been a long and arduous journey from the idea to the finished army and the first games, and far too often my fellow players have lost interest on the way to the goal and started a new project. Yes, I don't seem to be the only one suffering from butterfly syndrome. For this reason, for example, I have a 28mm pike and shot army, a small Prussian troop for the Seven Years' War, French knights for the Hundred Years' War and a lot more, all in 28mm of course. All of these projects saw the light of day in the circles of my old hobby club, only to die halfway through. And that's not because my friends didn't buy miniatures. They did, and usually even more than I did. But that was often the problem: after painting a few miniatures, they lost interest in the era or the battle they were aiming for and preferred to buy new miniatures. OK, they didn't paint them either, but at least they were busy with a new project. This experience also led me to limit myself to a few eras and always set up at least two playable armies for them, so that my work was at least somewhat worthwhile, because we could play with my miniatures.
When I imagine that the WoFun miniatures had existed earlier, how much more time we could have spent playing in our club. Of course, you can upgrade or pimp your WoFun miniatures, but I assume that many players just play them straight out of the sprue, which is what makes them so appealing. When I think about how quickly I set up my 10mm army for the Thirty Years' War, I'm still speechless. The whole thing took just three days and the drying time for the designed bases was the longest. Yes, I pimp my miniatures.
10mm Irish Scottish Regiment
In the time it took me to make the army, I probably wouldn't have painted a single unit with conventional figures, and I'm not a slow painter. And here too, the small-scale suits me very well, because the pikes are much smaller and the pike blocks therefore take up much less storage space. So, I got almost the entire army in three WoFun boxes, and they are not only nice to look at, but they can also be stacked very well.
So, it makes sense to flirt with smaller scales. Especially with the pre-painted figures from WoFun. Here you can quickly build large armies and start playing before the other players run out of energy or energy. My next WoFun project will be a 10mm Napoleonic army, so that I can finally feel like Napoleon - and by that I don't mean Ridley Scott Napoleon, but the real general who will hopefully lead his armies from victory to victory.
It clearly depends on the size, at least with miniatures, and I think we can agree that the smaller the figure, the bigger the army.
Although, maybe WoFun will also bring 54mm figures onto the market? That would be quite exciting, wouldn't it?
I hope I was able to give you some ideas.
See you soon,
Yours, Martin