Patrick Carroll
Member
I first discovered miniatures wargaming at a convention in Grass Valley, California, in May 1972. A teenage friend & I had been playing board wargames and some PBM games for about four years by then, but we'd never heard of miniatures.
What we saw at the convention shocked us. We stood watching grown men playing with toy soldiers, and we couldn't help but keep our distance and giggle in mild derision. The most memorably degrading scene of all was a 1/32-scale wargame: now the grown men were on their hands & knees pushing toy tanks around on the ground, shooting at their opponents' models with rubber-band guns!
For a week afterward, my friend and I persisted in ridiculing the miniatures gamers behind their backs. Then another week passed, and we simultaneously changed our tune. Our telephone conversation went something like this:
"Y'know those miniatures games we saw?"
"Yeah . . ."
"Well, I know it sounds funny but, well . . ."
"Yeah, I think I know what you mean. In a way, they looked pretty cool."
"Yeah. I think I want to get into miniatures."
"Me too. Let's do it!"
Typical of our different personalities, he went right out and bought some miniatures (1/72-scale tanks & infantry), while I started a search for rulebooks and struggled over which period to get into. Soon I knew a lot about miniatures wargaming, while he knew next to nothing. But he had the miniatures and a simple set of home-brewed rules that we actually used once or twice.
He eventually dropped out of wargaming, and we drifted out of touch years ago. Me, I made several false starts into miniatures wargaming but never got far. I still have a box of miniatures (only a few painted ones) and a stack of rulesets to show for my abortive efforts.
But to this day, I still find I have the same mixed feelings about miniatures as I had back in the beginning. Every time I play Battle Cry or consider getting into miniatures, part of me feels silly--like a grown man playing with toy soldiers. At the same time, however, I appreciate the substantial, 3D look and feel of miniatures, because I always felt board wargames were too two-dimensional and cheap-looking (all that paper and cardboard).
So, I wonder if you have to have something of a model-railroader's mentality to enjoy miniatures. Me, I've never been the least bit attracted to model railroads. As a kid I slapped together a plastic model or two, but it was more a way to fight boredom than anything I was really interested in doing. As a younger kid, I did play in the dirt with toy soldiers and toy trucks and tanks and such--and that's still a fond memory, because I had great fun doing that with my neighborhood friends.
It's not the stigma that keeps me from getting into miniatures; it's more the facts that (1) I'm not a do-it-yourselfer and (2) I'm not interested in joining a club or turning friends on to wargaming.
Still, I'm curious about how others feel about miniatures. Have you ever been aware of any "stigma"? Or have you always enjoyed modeling and military history, to the point where miniatures wargaming is a natural hobby for you?
What we saw at the convention shocked us. We stood watching grown men playing with toy soldiers, and we couldn't help but keep our distance and giggle in mild derision. The most memorably degrading scene of all was a 1/32-scale wargame: now the grown men were on their hands & knees pushing toy tanks around on the ground, shooting at their opponents' models with rubber-band guns!
For a week afterward, my friend and I persisted in ridiculing the miniatures gamers behind their backs. Then another week passed, and we simultaneously changed our tune. Our telephone conversation went something like this:
"Y'know those miniatures games we saw?"
"Yeah . . ."
"Well, I know it sounds funny but, well . . ."
"Yeah, I think I know what you mean. In a way, they looked pretty cool."
"Yeah. I think I want to get into miniatures."
"Me too. Let's do it!"
Typical of our different personalities, he went right out and bought some miniatures (1/72-scale tanks & infantry), while I started a search for rulebooks and struggled over which period to get into. Soon I knew a lot about miniatures wargaming, while he knew next to nothing. But he had the miniatures and a simple set of home-brewed rules that we actually used once or twice.
He eventually dropped out of wargaming, and we drifted out of touch years ago. Me, I made several false starts into miniatures wargaming but never got far. I still have a box of miniatures (only a few painted ones) and a stack of rulesets to show for my abortive efforts.
But to this day, I still find I have the same mixed feelings about miniatures as I had back in the beginning. Every time I play Battle Cry or consider getting into miniatures, part of me feels silly--like a grown man playing with toy soldiers. At the same time, however, I appreciate the substantial, 3D look and feel of miniatures, because I always felt board wargames were too two-dimensional and cheap-looking (all that paper and cardboard).
So, I wonder if you have to have something of a model-railroader's mentality to enjoy miniatures. Me, I've never been the least bit attracted to model railroads. As a kid I slapped together a plastic model or two, but it was more a way to fight boredom than anything I was really interested in doing. As a younger kid, I did play in the dirt with toy soldiers and toy trucks and tanks and such--and that's still a fond memory, because I had great fun doing that with my neighborhood friends.
It's not the stigma that keeps me from getting into miniatures; it's more the facts that (1) I'm not a do-it-yourselfer and (2) I'm not interested in joining a club or turning friends on to wargaming.
Still, I'm curious about how others feel about miniatures. Have you ever been aware of any "stigma"? Or have you always enjoyed modeling and military history, to the point where miniatures wargaming is a natural hobby for you?