MINIATURE FIGURINES IN THE OLD DAYS

A short film showing how wargames figures designing used to be done, followed by a "How to Wargame" section with Ian Dickie

We are still going strong
wwww.miniature figurines.co.uk

[@Donjon_keeper]

As a Southampton native, there's really no surprise that my life has been filled with wargames from a young age. Must be something in the water. Lead probably...

[@Senbei01]

iirc, Ral Partha used to run their EU branch out of a shop down on St Mary's Street... at some point in the late 90's. Always seemed to be closed when I'd pass in the 00's though.

[@Donjon_keeper]

@@Senbei01 I used to buy Ral Partha from the Graham Road premises.

[@daviddelossantos6075]

❤

[@cetx]

That's exactly how I play wargames. In a 3-piece suit, the way it was meant to be played.

[@TheBigMclargehuge]

None of them are wearing a 3-piece.

[@BattleBrotherCasten]

@@TheBigMclargehugewatch them again at them playing at the table. One of them does have his jacket on.

[@TheBigMclargehuge]

@@BattleBrotherCasten He's wearing a contrasting vest, it's not part of a 3-piece. A 3-piece-suit is matching pants/jacket/vest. Why do clueless people talk?

[@peka__]

​@@TheBigMclargehuge Yes, why do they talk? Seriously, why do they have the right to talk? Why do they dare open their mouths? Why do they talk??? Seriously... Is there no law???

[@DougWIngate]

minis aside, I miss how chill the news used to be. No sense of urgency or attention grabbing. Just 'hey, let's check out these people doing this thing'.

[@SarthorS]

Back when the news was a public service rather than just another way to make money.

[@shootmcrunfast]

And no opinion either. God I wish the news had no ones opinion on it any more, just fact will do for me.

[@fargoretro]

Thanks capitalism!

[@SarthorS]

@@fargoretro You mean thanks Fox News. I'm pretty sure they were the first major network who really turned it into a for-profit enterprise and then everyone else followed suit.

[@jacktadash]

If they make news stories like this nowadays conspiracy theorists tell you it's to cover something crazy up.

[@Zhool]

Sculpting in metal is f'n hardcore

[@ashley-r-pollard]

Yeah that's why it's not done that way nowadays.

[@HO-bndk]

I sculpted my first ever figures out of compressed paper. 😊

[@herculeholmes504]

Phil and Iain gave a brilliantly simple explanation to non-gamers of what the game is about and what's going on - all explained in 30 seconds.

[@BajkonurBobby]

Yeah. Back in the day when words meant something, and the schools taught people how to use them properly. 👍

[@vermilion7777]

Good ol days when wargamers were packed from lifting those 2000pts lead armies.

[@fckprc8149]

Those 2 nerds here were packed how exactly?

[@vermilion7777]

@@fckprc8149 Don't underestimate wiry people.

[@Jackdaw5]

@@fckprc8149 FFS, it's called a joke. Do all witty remarks pass three miles over your head, you humourless bore?

[@thecappeningchannel515]

Its a joke. Models are plastic now. But used to be heavy lead.

[@vermilion7777]

@@thecappeningchannel515 Yeah, I'm always surprised when I handle one of my 90s Warhammer armies.

[@nielschristianwithmller138]

When I first saw the men around the gametable, I was thinking - a Monty Pythons sketch

[@dogtags2010]

I really really miss the way news used to be presented. Purely facts, no taking the piss. Just showing how it is. Wargamers are some of the nicest folks going about.

[@LastBastion]

I still remember when the modern news anchor made fun of the Tetris player that "finished" Tetris classic

[@cyberleaderandy1]

Absolutely but even gaming has 4:46 see people try to use it for their own agenda rather than just having fun

[@sgw8903]

But this isn't news.

[@michaelmartin9022]

Britain's decline began with the Obscene Publications Act and concluded with the abolition of RP, the rest is just the corpse twitching.

[@norm977]

Fab, it must have been a long time ago because the player's backs are good enough to be able to play over a knee high table :-)

[@PhilipMackie1]

So true I think it was around 1992 ish.And I had dark hair!

[@Washeek]

What do you mean "I had dark hair"? Are you one of the chaps in this clip or was that simply a sigh over the inexorable march of time?

[@bharland85]

@@Washeek 😭look at his name. What a strange, small world it is where you ran into one of the guys form that old interview in the comments. Check his channel out, unless he's _really_ selling it (with someone's personal video featuring the same guy) that is indeed the Phil Mackie from this interview. Surreal.

[@thehangman3105]

Both of those times this man has heard of somebody punching somebody were both peachy in a car park.

[@goulvenlagree5404]

Typically English interview, the commentators never try to get the person look dumb or eccentric. Thanks for the upload.

[@scotsbillhicks]

Casting miniatures was my job before my current one. Over 30 years ago.

[@MrVuvuzaala]

Ah-ha! Fred Dinnage, Hampshire's very own Alan Partridge!

[@TheBigMclargehuge]

The Alan Partridge Project.

[@lukecanavanreid250]

​@@TheBigMclargehuge fred really is a fantastic man.

[@cyberleaderandy1]

One of the members of How ! With Jack Hargreaves as well 😊

[@DH.2016]

I marvel at the skill of the sculptors/designers of these figures.

[@cyberleaderandy1]

They were really bice figures in the mini figs ranges. I had a lot of ACW and English civil war.

[@thecheese4255]

That guy was amazing. The patience & steady hand for that scale is exceptional. His skill with that soldering iron was fantastic.

[@gunner678]

Good old Minifigs. Wargamer for 50 odd years.

[@cyberleaderandy1]

Remember them in my younger days, before GW and First Corps took over.

[@attentionspanlabs]

Last year, I bought 40lbs of 15mm Napoleonics for $140, most of them MiniFigs. Seeing them made is a beautiful thing.

[@gorlestondoug]

Fred Dineage was awesome, we just don't see his ilk anymore, a true reporter who just told you what was going on.

[@dr8576]

One of the classic combovers

[@KT-dj4iy]

“Was”?

[@jeffholt9437]

How was Fred "awesome"? 😊😊😊 (and yes, he's still with us!)

[@gunner678]

Reporter is a bit of a stretch, but he was a good presenter.

[@gunner678]

@@Yidhra23 about his level to be Frank. Certainly not a reporter bless him.

[@Mr01tfan]

I remember the Minifigs factory shop in Graham Road well. I spent many a lunch break from college in there back in day. And I still have all my painted 15mm Napoleonics somewhere.

[@gunner678]

Good for you😊

[@darthknight1]

"A closet wargame, if ever I saw one."

[@catcadev]

"Looking quite magnificent" is really nice! Nobody ever says that about my models 😂

[@StigPrice]

And then someone said, wonder what would happen if we put this in space...and that's how I got addicted to plastic crack.

[@FuhkuckingGangleboosh]

"You want a mini? let me log in and register on the website then we just download the file and edit it before we use the 3d pri-" *Grabs soldering iron* "Move aside youngblood"

[@TheEldarGuy]

I remember when a pack of 'miniatures' came with blobs of metal to melt down, some molds for the soldiers, clips, and a weird clamp tool. For some trivia: this 15mm scale was the official Napoleonic scale. This is also where the D&D and AD&D scale of 1"=10' comes from.

[@HO-bndk]

Prince August?

Wargamer since the early 70’s,worked in a model shop in North London,just as telegraph pole pikes moved to squiggly wire.Always thought Hinchcliffe,separate,wire pikes were a better option,but the Minifigs were better designed.

[@gunner678]

Me too. Do you remember John Tunstall's soldiers, a shop in London? Just can't remember where. I bought minifigs and Hinchcliffe figures there in the mid 70s. Still in the hobby, although focus mainly on 28mm Perry's and 1/72 still. Great hobby!

[@sergioc.8739]

Those great minifigs miniature, some are still in my collection and i still love them

[@gunner678]

I sold all my 25mm minifigs 30 years ago I'm sorry to say. They were beautiful figures.

[@saron95662]

Wow the respect that is shown in this is telling of its age. Imagine if an interview like this was done on prime time news today

[@FieldMarshall3]

"What does your wives make of this sort of behavior" Implying that there is something wrong with this. We really have come a long way since "the old days".

[@ghoulrush]

Ah yes. We have finally gotten rid of the wives so we can focus on what really matters.

[@donwalsh9426]

Have a strategy, and general plan, a system. If details fail, the plan does not. Never lose focus of the objective.

[@titanomachy2217]

Good old toy soldiers. Some of my favorite memories from childhood involved playing with my dad's old set of army men and tanks and cannons and such. He had one set that was based on the Napoleonic Wars (Redcoats and the Grand Armée) and another that was based on World War II with British troops painted in green pitted against German troops, half of which were painted grey and the other half were painted tan, like the Afrika Korps. He even had a V2 rocket on a rocket launcher platform, a few armored cars of various designs I am unable to find the names of, and what I am pretty sure was meant to be a Centurion tank with its gun broken off. They were all from when my father was a kid in the 50s. The soldiers were plastic but all of the tanks and cannons were metal and the cannons had little latches on them you could pull back and that would prime a spring inside the barrel of the cannon, allowing you to launch nails out of the cannons by sliding them into the barrels backwards. The nails would fly out head-first so it was relatively safe, but they would never allow toy designers to make toy cannons like that nowadays. Hell, it's hard to even find toys that are still made with metal. The tanks, armored cars and cannons were so lovingly created, with metal bodies and real rubber for the treads or wheels and real functionality for the cannons combined with a level of realism that you would be hard-pressed to find in toys for kids nowadays. Now, the only places marketing high quality toy soldiers are marketing them to adults, more or less. I mean, adult men have always been involved in wargaming from its inception, but I feel like you don't see kids playing with army men like they used to do. Video games seem to have supplanted the role toy soldiers played for me as a child. As long as kids have something to bond over with their fathers, I am happy, but I feel like most kids playing video games aren't really playing them with their dads. I am saddened by the thought of little boys missing out on that all-important male bonding time. Another thing that brought my father and I closer was watching war documentaries. We had two whole shelves of war documentaries on VHS in our movie collection and I think my dad and I watched them all together, learning about the World Wars in great detail.

[@OldFrontLine]

Absolutely marvellous and nice to see Iain Dickie in it too.

[@VonBek2009]

Oh the days I spent in that shop, they had a shop in Six Dials then moved much later to the factory in Graham Road. Happy Days

[@NickNab]

So this is the birth of the STC.

[@TheEldarGuy]

H.G. Wells codified the rules of tabletop wargaming about 1910, and published something called Little Wars, a few years later.

[@Kutulhu]

God bless those that came before us to blaze the trail and light the way,

[@Ratstail91]

The gaming part is great, sure - but I love the painting part too. I played Warhammer 40k during 9th edition, and I found that the process of painting was quite pleasurable. I've even bought models from games other than 40k just because they look fun to paint. Sadly, the models can be super expensive, and my budget is non-existant these days...

[@bashsibda6289]

So polite. And interesting.

[@LordEriolTolkien]

Making and Painting all your own lead troops: Now that's soldering.

[@jonbauml225]

What an absolute treasure! So glad that bit lives on

[@adventussaxonum448]

Southampton used to be the hub. Minifigs, Don Featherstone and Tony Bath.

[@AquaTeenHungerForce_4_Life]

The days before the internet but after the atom was split. Quite an interesting part of history really.

[@andycourtney1274]

My word a few years back Mr. Dickie looks very young. Probably 1980's.

[@AyebeeMk2]

1880's!

[@stevenwintersnight1036]

Bless the giants in the field!!

[@richardwhite3522]

Spent many a time visiting the shop in Graham rd in the 80s wish I still had my collection

[@dowhilegeek]

back when men were men, and minis were lead

[@coppershark1973]

Love it! Incredible old school skills.

[@fenthedog]

Ahhh! back in the day!

[@Cyber-Riot]

I love the subtle but brutal riposte "It could be worse. We could be at the pub." I might have added ". . . getting drunk and watching someone else play a game on TV."

[@damuses1452]

Good to see your company is still alive and kicking. I hope these "SARS-COV 2/COVID-19" quarantines gave the wargaming industry a healthy boost in sales. 'Tis a very fun endeavor/hoppy collecting armies, painting armies, and then fielding the army in a miniatures wargame. Bring the wargaming table/mat, and I'll bring the ale!

[@zedeyejoe]

They did at the time. My business was 25% up and other wargames businesses told me the same. Of course we are down now because of the state of the UK economy and Brexit (which has made exporting more difficult).

[@EryxUK]

Nice little TV article. Thanks for posting.

[@MasterofTongs]

They had me with the Pink Floyd interstitial for a small news piece. Good matchup too.

[@ApocryphalDude]

Is that a Pink Floys instrumentals playing in the background? It sounds like something from "Delicate Sound of Thunder".

[@adicren]

Close, it's from A Momentary Lapse of Reason!

[@6milphil975]

Fred Dinenage - King of TV!

[@keithscholes6158]

Remember him from watching How on TV when I was a lad.

[@leeshackelford7517]

I've had multi-thousands of mini figs in my life. From Alexander and Classical Indians to Napoleonics... Nice figures

[@westburywargamers2539]

So nostalgic

[@CenturionsReview]

This sculptor is masochistic sculpting with metal instead of epoxy putty or something softer. He does good work though.

[@PhilipMackie1]

His brother Dick Higgs had been the original designer of MiniFigs and he did use epoxy putty - Milliput. It may have been extended use of the product that may have contrinuted to his early death.

[@accountnamewithheld]

@@PhilipMackie1 Yeah... definitely worse for you than breathing in solder fumes every day... lol

[@martinevans9757]

Lovely!!! And look at how much hair Ian Dickie has. :)

[@Th0ughtc4tcher]

And then one day, you find yourself in the grim darkness of the far flung future, where there is only war.

[@nicholastaylor9687]

And progressive politics. Remember "There have always been female Custodes."

[@obnoxiouspedant]

Oh my God touch grass it doesn't matter ​@@nicholastaylor9687

[@alexc6324]

We used to get this news programme in Reading, Berks but it NEVER mentioned us for years. Even when RFC got good they just snubbed us. It was always about Southampton or Portsmouth or Winchester. Reading was too common for them I guess.

[@doctoronishispsychosislab1474]

The speed that guy was pouring would let the metal cool down too quick. Also no gloves when taking the mould out. Also sculpting in solder is impressive

[@sturmhalo]

The magic of television.

[@craigyoung9097]

God, even then they got a what’s your other half make of it jab. Somethings never change. 😂

[@orinm4128]

The host is hooked.

[@thedalewardens9106]

Minifigs is a great company.

[@waterloocrusade7600]

Always popped in here weekly to buy figs in the eighties

[@Kimchi_Studios]

I need to order a vest

[@tobyCornish]

From the thumbnail, i mistook this as a kids in the hall sketch

[@j453]

Very cool, thank you.

[@ThroatSore]

A beautifully written report. Quality reporting 🙂❤️

[@Pixtureske]

I thought this was going to be a snippet from a comedy sketch when I saw the thumbnail, not an actual news story. 😂😂

[@Artmesa]

That was amazing.

[@theophrastusbombastus1359]

I wish the news was still like that

[@OEFarredondo]

This is my future. My 40k armies will endure lol

[@MrTrenttness]

🔥🎸🔥 Thanks for sharing.

[@thomasblunt3404]

I like that they used Pink Floyd in the background

[@BreezeLeg-mo4jh]

Wow, wargaming in the past was chad

[@DarkNekoStudio]

Classy wargamers

[@lgjm5562]

Imagine how big is his pile of shame.

[@jwchampagne1]

Seems like ancient history itself sometimes...

[@Death-np9yz]

this is the birth of wh40k, aos, lord of the rings, fucking wild man, humanity is so fucking cool, i wish i could live to be a thousand years old :/

[@georgeduncan-yx1xj]

"we could be down the pub" lol. nope , as a wargamer, i can confirm that i dont have the spare revenue to afford alcohol ! lol

[@orthoff123]

SEHR GUT!!!! GREETINGS FROM GERMANY!

[@danjones1710]

4:04 so great.

[@MakuJippiDesu]

*After the Camera turned away* 1 : I use 1 CP and now these grenadiers can only be wounded on a 4+ 2 : that only works with s8+ weapons 1 : no it doesn't 2 : what does the book say 1 : it says f- u 2 : btw were you cheating by knocking those mini's forward at 4:43 *Hello and welcome to Auspex Tactics and today there's been another cheating scanda-*

[@scottovegtable]

So cool

[@ShowerOnceYearly]

I like painting cool Warhammer40k guys and sexy demon ladies and scantily clad female warriors in general. Odd to think that it all came from normal military figures.

[@joelwashere5382]

Awesome 🤘

[@JCTooL1]

I nearly whacked my phone at the end

[@mykediemart]

Cool video The game of true gentlemen

[@crocgator3693]

That looked painful when he was sculpting the mini. Good thing most miniature makers use plastic injection molding now.

[@andybrace9225]

Still more metal miniatures than injection plastic

[@stg.wendigo1655]

Wait no wargaming in pubs? The GamesWorkshop store in my city has days where we have wager matches for a pint of beer a match? Loser has to buy a pint of beer for the winner in the pub across the street.. also i've seen cuban cigars thrown in as wager.. is that a weird thing?

[@gunner678]

Very civilised I'd say 😊

[@apropercuppa8612]

I have actually seen a portable tabletop game designed to be played in pubs. So there is that.

[@burner9147]

Oh this is interesting thanks for sharing

[@Ironfrenzy217]

This is nice.

[@titanuranus3095]

Do we know when abouts this was from?

[@khublaklonk4480]

The presenter mentions "Meridian", a member of the ITV network. Meridian picked up the franchise in '93, and ITV subsumed all the sub-channel identities in the early noughties, so that gives us a range. From clothes and haircuts, I'd say early 90s.

[@fenthedog]

@@khublaklonk4480 I concur, I remember the presenter

[@kerriefearby9542]

While i marvel at the makers skill isnt working in close contact with lead without PPE injuring to your health?

[@AgressivePigeon]

Simpler times.

[@soledude]

👍👍👍

[@Senzotan]

"Simply, how do you play?" Proceeds to give IT technician explanation that will be lost on half the audience.

[@JV-ll1cu]

It is difficult to give much simpler answer without sounding like this is just kids playing with toy soldiers

[@willtijerina5149]

Love this. Which set of rules were they using?

[@SkullyTheHypnoSkull]

Back when war gaming was respectable.

[@richardmullens4707]

Why do you consider it isn't respectable now?

[@SkragorSkumdreg]

It's not what it used to be, that's for dang sure!

[@greyarea6688]

I really miss... Nah, 43 this year and don't care about how the news was. People who complain about how the news was are the same people who say "keep politics out of my hobby". All the while preaching their politics proudly to everyone else in the comments section.

[@benjaminwaterhouse4879]

Bravo, don't know how I missed this, what year was it?

[@CarlHeyl]

I too am super curious as to the year of production for this video.

[@SunburntHands]

Production and fashion makes me think about '90?

[@fenthedog]

Early 90`s

[@PhilipMackie1]

I think it was around 1992. The terrain was a1mm = 1 yd model of the battle of Lobositz and I made that in 1991 to take to Colours in September of that year. A pity I didn't get around to finishing it.