Tell me about wargaming in the 70s

[tomrommel1]

Bending Airfix miniatures in 1/72 and 1/35 and of course Avalon hill games . No Internet then so ordering from Germany was a real hassle. Especially the long waiting periods between ordering and receiving a parcel . Sometimes up to 6 weeks.

[Cubs]

That's what I still have trouble getting my head around. Today, order from Amazon before 4pm and you can have something next day. What?! I remember those old mail order ads with 'expect at least 28 days for delivery' on them, and often it was longer. Having to go down the post office as a kid to get Postal Orders to pay for stuff through the mail because you didn't have a cheque book!

[Arlequín]

Well there's delivery by drone and before long there will be driverless delivery vehicles too.

No sign of the flying cars we were promised though. 

[Bugsda]

As a hobby, it didn't even come close to girls 

[sukhe_bator]

Having to go down the post office as a kid to get Postal Orders to pay for stuff through the mail because you didn't have a cheque book!

Cubs, I hear you! - Postal orders - when every additional charge meant fewer figures in your order. For me it was a 2 mile cycle from home there and back and then the seemingly endless wait for the small brown box parcel to arrive with the postie.

[zemjw]

The only way to find out about new stuff was to read adverts in the few magazines that were out there. Dragon, White Dwarf when it used to admit to the existence of other companies, Military Modelling etc.

Writing a letter (I'd managed to blank out Postal Orders, thanks for bring those back to mind ), remembering to mention which magazine you saw the advert in and then waiting up to 28 days. I now start to get jumpy if it's not here in three or four days

Still, there was something to be said for leafing through proper figure catalogues, although less to be said for the nth generation photocopies some companies used.

I still have a lot of my early figures in the loft - WW2 Airfix plastics (SS painted gloss black head to toe, because - baddies), Hinchliffe and Lamming Alexander the Great Ancient Greeks (Lamming figures with separate heads if I remember correctly), Ross & Heroics 6mm British WW2, painted brown all over.

Nothing got primed, just painted with enamels and gloss varnished. Bases were just thick cardboard rectangles, painted but not textured in any way. Units were composed of identical figures painted identically, even the irregular units. I don't remember acknowledging the existence of eyes until RPG figures appeared. Shading and highlighting didn't exist (at least not in my painting)

Happy, simpler times - got me all nostalgic now

[sukhe_bator]

zemjw,
I must have got into gaming when people were just starting to make the transition from bare cardboard bases to using filler and flock, though several of my early opponents used bare card. It was all about ground scale and exact base frontages if I recall...
Matt enamels paint-by-numbers style, primed with spray car primer, no shading and liberal coatings of gloss varnish - ah those were the days!
I only have a handful of my original figures left. Most of them are much converted Minifigs MiddleEarth Man Orcs...

[grant]

If you think the trend for tufts is big now, the 70s were like minis somewhere under all that bush. Very hairy times indeed.

[Harry Faversham]

The seventies, when I had a six foot square sandtable in the attic... proper wargaming!

 

[warlord frod]

I still have my first official toy soldier armies collected in the late 70's - Airfix civil war both Union and Confederates Infantry Cav and Artillery all purchased at about a dollar a box  . They are painted with enamel paints, mounted on card and flocked. While I have not played with them in about 10 years I have been thinking about getting them out again this spring now that I have a regular gaming group.

I did run some games at local conventions back in the day when 15mm was all the rage, My HO scale battles were quite impressive if I must say so myself. I love these so much I cannot part with them. I'm a toy soldier Collector after all (Who am I kidding I'm really a toy soldier hoarder  )

[mysteriousbill]

Working at the old Judges Guild I bought a fair amount of 1/285 Micro Armor (Angriff) and a bunch of the old Ral Partha (I think) Pikemen and Heavy Knights (Chainmail). Both were little played with, most of the miniatures gaming I did was at cons (mainly at college and junior college campuses). I still have most of my Micro Armor (early war so I didn't need a big table) but the Pikemen and Heavy Knights were sold or given away long ago.

[Harry Faversham]

Wargames table circa 1973!!!

 

All Airfix in them days. The French Voltijoors had plumes made from Kleenex tissues stiffened with model aeroplane glue. After every game the last thing cleared from the table (and glued back onto their owners 'at!) were piles of broken plumes!

[Harry Faversham]

Old soldiers never die... they just get re-based.
Same figures, piccy taken, yesterday!!!

 

[Harry Faversham]

Old Guard early seventies style. Airfix AWI British Grenadiers with French backpacks added. His Nibs is an Airfix AWI mounted American Occifer, he can be spotted in the b/w piccys with his troops at Waterloo The same process as with the plumes took place with the backpacks after every battle!

[Harry Faversham]

Then Airfix gave us some proper Old Guard, but we had to make our own Guard Artillery. All looks a tad different from wot we have today, don't it!!!???