Collecting WarGame Miniatures

I have been fascinated with miniature lead soldiers since i was a kid. i used to collect 1/72 scale plastic armies of Airfix napoleonics and the large scale WW2 soldiers, plus Britain's Ltd. knights, civil war and cowboy and indian sets - i still have them and my kids play with them today. i loved seeing displays of huge miniature armies at museums and toy shops. Influenced by my dad and uncle, i started painting larger scale lead figures - naploeonics are still my favorite - that period had the best uniforms. I stopped for a while (other teenage interests and hobbies took precedence) but when games workshop released their Warhammer 40k figures in late 80's i was intrigued again, so i started painting fantasy miniatures.

Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy battle figures are cool but i never got into gaming with them. just couldn't get into the math and dice rolls - took the fun out of it. i did try playing a war game with English civil war armies at a local shop but still just couldn't get in to it.

I had been collecting a large army of Warhammer figures and to make room for others - i sold a few on eBay and was AMAZED at how much the painted figures sold for. so i ended up selling all my fantasy figures to finance my own eBay addiction. I began to buy figures just to paint and sell, it's satisfying to paint something and have others enjoy it instead of it sitting in your display case. People started asking me for commissions and i took certain projects - but only if i enjoyed painting the figure. i didn't want it to be a chore.

meanwhile i started collecting and painting my own personal armies from my favorite historic periods. Currently i have: Dark ages Viking army, Romano- British army (arthurian age), English Civil War - new model army, and my pride and joy - a Large Russian Napoleonic army. Collecting historical figures is very interesting as you have to research the uniforms and the history surrounding them. as for the historical figures - the best out there are from War Games Foundry and Perry Miniatures (the Perry brothers used to sculpt for foundry and created the Napoleonics i have).

For fantasy figures- i LOVE Rackham's line of figures. other really nice fantasy figures come from Privateer Press and Crocodile Games and of course games workshop. A great site to see and rate mini's is Cool mini or not - i have figures there and it's a good cross link for selling on ebay to target miniatures collectors.

i am starting to post my collections on iTaggit currently i have my Rackham Confrontation set (i don't own them - all were sold) and will post more soon. meanwhile you can see more on my personal site - www.beyondbeyond.com. If you have your own armies, fantasy or historical please post them on iTaggit we'd all love to see them.

Happy Collecting!