Wargaming is progressing so fast that I have a job keeping up with it! "Looking Around" this month tells of new and other interesting publications brimful with information. I worry how they can afford to buy enough to keep up with all the latest developments! In addition, some of these magazines list new ranges of wargames figures and accessories in numerous scales. Books (besides those I have written) come out frequently and, with the high cost of publishing, are priced perhaps beyond the means of the youthful wargamer's pocket. H. G. Wells, playing scientific soldiers At a most enjoyable Hull convention recently, I met innumerable wargamers from Clubs that I had not known existed and whose ability in painting and modelling together with their enthusiasm impressed me immensely. On the surface, all this may appear to be a fine thing for the hobby but it is causing an entirely new complexion to come over it. To keep up to date with everything that is going on, the wargamer will need to spend far more than he can afford on magazines and books (but that may be handled by clubs taking out subscriptions and circulating the magazines and books on a rota to their members). Then there is the angle of so many magazines bearing so many well-worded and nicely illustrated advertisements concerning innumerable ranges of wargames figures. With the exception of Airfix, these are all metal figures and, without decrying for a moment the value for money, priced so that it costs a considerable sum to establish an army of any realistic proportions. This means that if the wargamer buys the magazines and books then he cannot afford the soldiers and vice-versa and if I know wargamers they are going to go for model figures rather than written words. But, like everything else, the price of materials and labour continues to rise rapidly so that the young wargamer, for certain, must consider what he can afford in the way of metal figures. Airfix, whose cheap plastic figures are responsible for about 75% of the new entrants to the hobby, could make it possible for the wargamer to have both figures and literature but for their seemingly slow rate of production of new types and periods of soldiers. But their moulds cost huge sums of money and, with each box containing such a variety of figures, production is a lengthy business. I wish it were possible for Airfix to quadruple their production and to employ an experienced adviser who will aid them in planning a systematic programme of production of wargames figures. In this way they could make it possible for the wargamer to build up armies in the most popular periods with the correct proportions of infantry cavalry and artillery and save him from going mad by trying to convert Tarzan figures, Robin Hood and his Merry Men and astronauts into Napoleonic Line Infantry or whatever else he requires! Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 113 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1971 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com