Although I have been a historical gamer since the early 70's, I did not start playing miniatures until 1994. The group that gave me my introduction/incloctrination used a lot of different sizes of figures and vehicles, as fitting for the game. The largest they used, though, was 25mm. I have painted 25mm and smaller over the last few years, and as you know, it can be quite a tedious job. It is difficult and time-consuming for me, and I paint to at least an "average" standard. It takes an awful lot of time. I have come to realize that I would rather play than paint. I still play other scales, especially with figures I have a steady painted(!), but I am a game-player first, and after that come things like miniatures painter, historian, and stickler-for-cletail. This brings me to my first point for using 54mm figures. 1. YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAINT THEM. I know this is absolute heresy to lots of you, but I find that the variety of colors that plastic 54mm figures come in allows me to *tell the difference" when I play, and that is all I need to do. Certainly I may paint dwm as time goes on, but I can play right away, and I sometimes do so on the same day the mail-order package arrives. 2. THEY DO NOT NEED TO BE BASED. These big figures come on large bases, since they are made to play with and stand up on their own. Lots of metal figure manufacturers have proportionately tiny bases, knowing that customers "must" put them on larger (and terrained) bases, like washers, balsa, etc. 3. THEY CAN BE SEEN AND HANDLED WITH EASE. This may only be important to &gm of us getting older (hey - that's everybody!). I use unit sizes of 6-15 figures, usually no more than 10, so the table is not too full unless I really want it to be. I gum on a 5x9 foot ping-pong table. 4. THERE IS LOTS OF TERRAIN AVAILABLE. Just this last Christmas season, I was able to get several nice palm trees from nativity sets. I also got a Bethlehem town set at Wal-Mart with three buildings that work well for FFL and other 19th century frontier scenarios. I have a variety of little artificial evergreens, sold at craft stores for tabletop Christmas trees; they range from 8" to 24" in height and they can really make a game table look great. Real rocks, up to fist sized or so, can be placed/piled for fun riverside or mountainous terrain. Lots of plastic or formed-foam terrain pieces for 54mm are available to. It may seem weird, but I actually DO some touchup painting on some terrain pieces, even though I do not do it on figures. 5. THEY ARE CHEAP. At least, proportionate to their size they are. Cowboys and Indians, or "army men", from Wal-Mart average about a nickel each. Some quite nice figures run up to about $1.75 each. There are some that are more expensive, but I generally do without those. The cost for unpainted 54mm plastic figures is a "bargain" for the size when compared to white metal figures. That extra size (we're talking EIGHT times the volume for 54mm vs. 25-28mm) usually means they are heavy enough to feel right when you pick them up. Like some others, the heft of 20 or 25mm metal figures is somehow much more satisfying to me than the lightness of a 1/72 plastic figure; you can get that same feeling of weight in a larger plastic figure. 6. THEY DON7 TAKE UP ANY MORE ROOM THAN 25mm FIGURES. This may sound strange, but since you don't have to store them as "carefully", you can probably keep just as many in the same space. Instead of neatly placing each stand of 25mm figures in a box or drawer, you can just kind of pile unpainted 54mm figures in there without damage. WHERE DO YOU GET THEM? To obtain figures: Wal-Mart, flea markets, etc. are places to pick up generic toys. There are nice historical figures out there, too, if you know where to look. The Internet is a great help. Here are a few websites that I often return to, to go shopping. Check them out, and tell them where you heard about them, especially if you order something. I consider all of these companies to offer good value. armiesinplastic.com These are the folks who manufacture Armies in Plastic. Other companies sell them, but these people make'em. They have inexpensive 19th C. colonial, and some Napoleonic artillery, mostly in hard plastic (the artillery is a new product as of this writing, March 2002). barzso.com Run by Ron Barzso, the figures from this company are made of an interesting resin material. If you follow his links, you can see the (metal) miniatures company that does his sculpting. He has F&IW, American colonial and frontier, ACW, and Treasure Island (pirates!). conteco.com This is for Conte Collectibles. They have WW2, Zulu War, French Foreign Legion, medievals, and more. They have soft plastic figures, almost like rubber. michtoy.com This is the Michigan Toy Soldier Company. They carry everything, including Armies in Plastic, Barzso, and Conte. They also have Marx reissues, and other products, like metal figure collector kits, GI Joe size toys, antique toy soldiers, and much more. Back to MWAN #117 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com