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Monday 13 July 2009

The ‘Nostalgia’ Project

I have mentioned my so-called AIRFIX Project a couple of times, and several of you have asked for more details … so here goes.

Firstly – and most importantly – I have renamed it the ‘Nostalgia’ Project for reasons that will become apparent.

Secondly, this project is a product of my age. As I grow older I look back to my earlier wargaming exploits for inspiration … and because they were FUN! That is not to say that my current wargaming is not fun; it is just that, with hindsight, the wargames of my youth have acquired a probably totally unjustified sense of importance in my mind. They now seem to have been epic struggles that lasted for days, whereas the truth is that they probably lasted a couple of hours and had to be packed away in time for the family’s evening meal.

Thirdly, it is a reaction against the seemingly endless progression of new ranges of new figures in a variety of scales – 6mm, 10mm, 12mm, 15mm, 20mm, 28mm … and more! My boyhood wargames were fought with a very restricted range of 20mm/1:87th scale figures and models – almost all came from AIRFIX and ROCO Minitanks, with the occasional Matchbox vehicle thrown in for good measure. The models were basic – and there was not a lot of choice – and the figures were small and the detail was minimal. Oddly enough, this made them easier to paint using what was then the ‘standard’ method of painting – blocks of colour with no shading.

So I am planning to indulge myself by creating a series of 20th century imagi-nations (just like the two I had as a boy: Opeland and Upsland) that will be ‘armed’ by AIRFIX, ROCO, and any other manufacturer of ‘proper’ 20mm/1:87th scale models. They will recruit their ‘armies’ from suitably sized 20mm/1:87th scale figures, and the uniforms will be generic.

Interestingly I know that I am not alone in going down this path. Chris Kemp outlines on his NQM (Not Quite Mechanised) website how he ran a Summer Holiday Toy Soldier Campaign in his youth, and lays down some very helpful rules for doing the same thing now.

Ross Macfarlane has done something similar, and has recently added a battle report to his website With Macduff on the Web.

I am currently acquiring suitable models and figures (including raiding the boxes of models I found in the garden shed), and hope to begin work on this project when my enthusiasm for developing WHEN EMPIRES CLASH! begins to lag somewhat (I find that it is always a good idea to have several projects on the go at the same time just in case).

So the ‘Nostalgia’ project is now officially underway … but don’t expect too much to happen in the near future.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Bob, I had a sneaking feeling the Airfix project would 'morph' into something like this!I must confess that it makes a change from 18th century 'imagi-nations'and IIRC Charles Grant in his Battle! Practical Wargaming (one of my all time fave wargaming books)used Airfix Russian Infantry with Roco Hanomag halftracks. Will this be a WW2 era set up? All the best, Ogre

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  2. Ogrefencer,

    I have not yet set the time frame for the project, but I expect that it will be mid-20th century i.e. sometime between 1935 to 1965.

    Many countries were using WW2 surplus kit right up to the end of the 1980s (and beyond in some cases), so I can use almost anything from the AIRFIX/ROCO ranges.

    As they say ... 'watch this space' for further developments.

    All the best,

    Bob

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