Plastic Miniatures

28mm Plastic miniatures seem to have come of age recently. Or maybe they have been for some time and I’ve only just noticed. Either way I was struck by the number of manufactures of plastic figures that seem to have sprung up recently.
Most non-gamers would associate plastics miniatures with companies like Revel or Airfix. Within the hobby (or within my limited view of it anyway) I have long been aware of Games Workshops wide plastics ranges. The quality of these has seemed to get better year after year but of course their ranges have been limited to their core games Warhammer, LoTR and WH40K. But this year I have seen a number of excellent ranges from companies like Victrix, Warlord Games and Perry Miniatures that have used this technology to create high quality plastics ranges for Historical periods. Primary amongst these are Napoleonic, ECW, ACW and Ancients (Imperial Roman/Celts). There are probably more available but these are the ones that I have noticed.

This all creates a bit of a dilemma for me because I am tempted (Oh so tempted) to buy these and start painting like mad. But I have an insurmountable problem before me. Which period to pick? The quality of the models is very high and each army has something to lure me in. My mouth is drooling just thinking about it! I'd love to paint an Imperial Roman army but I also have a keen interest in the American Civil War period. I saw both Victrix and Perry's Napoleonic miniatures in display games at this years Salute and both ranges looked spectacular.

Then of course there's my painting speed (snail paced at best). I'd never get an army finished! Maybe I could focus on just painting a unit, for display purposes... hmmmmm... how much were those boxes again?