This is a surprisingly uncommon scale since it seems to mesh so well with the model railroader’s HO scale allowing access to all the wonderful HO scenery and buildings. But it never seems to have caught on in a big way and figures in this scale are a bit hard to find other than for WWII.
American Civil War
- Confederate Cavalry
These are the first metal figures I ever purchased. I bought them to supplement the absence of adequate Confederate cavalry for my set of Airfix American Civil War figures. These are by K & L Thomas who offered an extensive range of figures. They advertised in the hobby magazines I read and had I had more money, I would certainly have purchased more figures. The last entry for them on TMP is listed for 2008 so it is likely the figures are no longer available.At that time, I had barely enough money for a few boxes of Airfix figures. I had coaxed a friend into purchasing and building his own army and even conceded the far more attractive Union side to him. But his interest soon waned and I found myself without a gaming opponent.
The painting on these figures is what I could muster at that early age. It is not the best but it was good enough. How I could get even this level of detail with the kinds of brushes I had back then I could not guess.
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“This is a surprisingly uncommon scale since it seems to mesh so well with the model railroader’s HO scale allowing access to all the wonderful HO scenery and buildings. But it never seems to have caught on in a big way and figures in this scale are a bit hard to find other than for WWII.”
THIS STATEMENT IS ABSOLUTELY FALSE and should be withdrawn.
Why is that, Terry?
I am not sure what Terry’s concern is so will expand on what I said since I enjoy prattling. 20mm is still not in vogue. There was a nice selection of figures available for the American Civil War that was I think produced by Musket but I am not sure they remain available. Otherwise, the variety seems slim even when compared to a less standard scale like 10mm, surprising considering how long figures in the scale have been around.
My remark concerning an equivalency of 20mm to HO mirrors past references. Actual figure size is dependent on the manufacturer. A quick dive into Wikipedia yields the following:
Civilian and military vehicles. Often used to describe HO scale. Original nominal 25 mm figure scale; though a 6-foot human in 1:87 is closer to 20mm.
Further exploration yields the following entry:
Highly popular for World War II wargaming, as the figures are of roughly the same scale as OO model railways. Seldom used for RPGs. Airfix made a considerable range of figures in this scale: historically they were labelled on the box as “HO & OO scale” but are now described as 1/72 scale.
Not surprisingly, Wikipedia offers up some ambiguity and this is probably the most accurate reflection of scale where the contributors finally decide that 18mm is perfect for HO:
‘Heroic’ 15 mm, such as the Napoleon At War range. Roughly HO scale.
My own set of Stadden 20mm WWII figures and K L Thomas figures puts them close to HO in my eyes but so are 18mm AB figures. To make matters worse, I pair my range of Essex 15mm Medieval figures with HO scale card buildings published by Usbourne.
So it would seem that the best approach is to use one’s own judgement. I have given mine and anyone is welcome to ignore it if they please.
The Thomas range was complete, accurate and correctly proportioned, and if I remember right, scaled to fit with HO 1/87 scale model trains and scenery. The fellows I started gaming with (1966) used them for a long running ACW campaign, with maybe 250 for for each side. We’re still using them.
When I was about 12 there were 3 of us collecting the 20mm Thomas Civil War Soldiers, and building dioramas. It was an exciting time to be civil war buffs as we lived outside of Washington D.C., and the (then) Washington Star newspaper would reprint the original articles from the 1860’s.
I still have all my soldiers and have been thinking about building a new scene.
It is a shame no one is producing the soldiers anymore as I am sure someone still has the molds!
They surely were fun times!