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Re: Age thing


Despite being 57 years old, when it comes to toy soldiers I feel the same pleasure as when I was 12 years old. My father once said that I would no longer play with toy soldiers when I became an adult. I think he was wrong!

Re: Age thing

Collector and painter of 28 here. I started collecting at the age of 14 or thereabout. I must admit that I discovered the hobby by accident. I have been interested in (military) history for as long as I remember but never really encountered this hobby as a child. At home we did have a collection of antique William Britain soldiers which once belonged to my great grandfather. These little colourful soldiers had always fascinated me. This resulted in me collecting statuettes of knights and soldiers of the kind you might find in souvenir shops at historic sightseeing places. Yet I remained oblivious of the fact that there were actually figures available at shops that you could paint yourself.

One day I happened to be in a model shop with my father, who's into collecting model railway stuff, when I noticed an Italeri box with some nice box artwork (Highlanders and British infantry). I have been painting and collecting figures ever since (admittedly with interruptions), mostly 1 72 Napoleonics, though I do occasionally dabble into other scales and periods as well.

I think that my story shows that much could be won with better marketing. In my case all the "ingredients" for a painter and collector to be were already there in early childhood, yet I had to accidently stumble upon the hobby in order to learn about its existence.

Some things could be easily improved. I recently introduced my younger brother into the hobby and taught him most of the little tricks that I picked up over the years. He did, however, rightfully remark that it is strange that manufacturers don't include some of these basic tips on modelling on the box. Why is there no information on how to prepare your model for painting on the box (washing in detergent, removing mould lines etc.)? I had to find out all of this stuff the hard way and with a lot of frustration which almost put me off the hobby after just starting it.

Visibility of the hobby is another thing, as my story shows. Had I not wandered into that model shop by accident, there would have been no other way for me to find out about the hobby. Would outreach programmes at schools be an idea? Perhaps there should also be more starter sets; a few sprues of soldiers, some paint and brushes and a set of simple wargame rules and painting instructions, all in attractive packaging and not too expensive.

Re: Age thing

Interesting what CW says, most of us older ones were drawn in by seeing shop displays but that doesn't really exist nowadays and we need to find news ways of creating awareness.

Re: Age thing

48, and on occasion my teenage sons will play a wargame with me.

Re: Age thing

Strelets-R
Gentlemen,

may we ask you a question, if there\\\\\\\'s anyone here, who is below 14 years of age?

Same question for people, who are below 40 years of age.

We\\\\\\\'ve got a feeling that overwhelming majority of our customers are people of senior age. Is that the case?

Best regards,

Strelets
Hi Strelets,

I did a quick paper and pen count and came up with:

40's and younger - 19

50's and 60's - 57

70's - 2

It looks like you are correct. Have you come up with any conclusions or strategic ideas coming out of this thread? Just curious.

Cheers - GC

Re: Age thing

i'm 46 but my majority of armies except colonials are composed of vintage converted plastic minis such as Airfix and ESCI even subjects from golden age like original tarzan tribesmen set used as Egyptian rabble and trumpeters from Airfix Quenn's Guards enrolled in ACW units..so i should be rated an old man as i like, not only if we talk about minis, everything which is vintage

Re: Age thing

GC
Strelets-R
Gentlemen,

may we ask you a question, if there\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s anyone here, who is below 14 years of age?

Same question for people, who are below 40 years of age.

We\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ve got a feeling that overwhelming majority of our customers are people of senior age. Is that the case?

Best regards,

Strelets
Hi Strelets,

I did a quick paper and pen count and came up with:

40's and younger - 19

50's and 60's - 57

70's - 2

It looks like you are correct. Have you come up with any conclusions or strategic ideas coming out of this thread? Just curious.

Cheers - GC
the problem , according to my humble opinion, related to a decreasing interest from young generations as concern this hobby is:
- nobody care about researching history as a necessary basis to collect and game with toy soldiers..history and above all military history enjoy scarse appeal
- painting minis is a real burden for the majority

solution:
- make military fashionable even trough vulgarisation on media ecc
- somebody must transform totally this dove industry and find the way to mass produce already painted minis