My Miniatures History

As I ponder my next purchase for my Francesia campaign, it dawned on me how my miniatures collection has changed over time. Here’s a run-down.

• 1/72 (20mm) plastic – I began my miniatures gaming career with 2 boxes of ESCI French and British Napoleonic infantry for use with the Complete Brigadier rules. I don’t think they ever saw battle.
• 15mm – I didn’t like how long it took me to paint the 20mm figures so I tried going down a scale. I picked up some 15mm American Revolution Brits. I never managed to paint their foes so they never made it to the battlefield.
• 10mm – I then picked up some American Civil War figures in 10mm. I managed to finish 2 down-scaled armies (infantry units were 8 figures) and play some games before other periods and scales drew my attention.
• 5mm – I then went on a 5mm Heroics and Ros kick, and painted up small armies for the following:
• Seven Year’s War Austrians and Prussians
• Ancient Romans, Gauls, and Carthaginians
• Vikings and Saxons
• WWII Americans and Germans

I played numerous battles with these figures. I ran a 1730s Italy campaign where my Prussians stood in for Spanish (and the Spanish drove the Austrians out of Italy). De BellisAntiquitatis battles raged on my boards and American forces drove inland after the landing at Normandy.

Eventually, due to space considerations, I decided I wanted to go small so I sold off my 5mm collection. I rather regret it now; I’d really like to have those figures back.

• 2mm – I picked up these up from Irregular because I was moving into a place with lack of storage space. I needed miniatures (and associated terrain, etc.) that would fit into a small space, and 2mm worked for that purpose. Nevertheless, there are other reasons why I liked 2mm:
• figure scale is much closer to the ground scale, so games look more like battles with masses of men rather than skirmishes.
• En masse, they really look great (although I never managed to get that many painted up).
• Uniform details are not really visible so it's easier to create generic armies. For example, I had generic blue and red horse and musket armies, which could do duty as American Revolution Americans vs. British or Napoleonic French vs. British (or Francesia's Bluederians vs. Redgravians).

As my eyes get worse, 2mm is losing a bit of its attraction. Furthermore, as I focus on my imagi-nations, I can mix and match from different periods without worrying about historical accuracy.

• 15mm - When I decided to resurrect Francesia last year, I decided to go with 15mm from Irregular. It was also my pick for my medieval project. Alas, I never got far with those figures. I had more success with my 15mm Space Marines project, using figures from Rebel Minis and Khurasan.
• 10mm - I picked up some Risk figures to use as a short-term fill-in for my Francesian armies, but now I've decided to go full steam using these figures. Several years ago, I picked up some N-gauge Historifigs samples for a Battle Cry variant but never really did anything with them. I may use Historifigs to supplement my Risk armies.

So this is where I stand today - with some 2mm armies, 15mm sci-fi (plus a couple of abandoned 15mm projects), and a 10mm/N-gauge horse and musket project.