User:Grubbiv/Wargaming History

Early Development
In the 19th century, advances in the method of production brought down the price of toy soldiers, and as a result just about anyone who cared to could assemble an army. H.G.Wells took up wargaming with Napoleonics, developing his own rules which he published in Little Wars (1913). Wells had access to toy breechloading cannons that used a spring to fire and which could knock down a soldier at a distance of nine yards. These soldiers were, in all likelihood, hollow lead castings by William Britain's Ltd, approximately 54mm in scale. Wells built terrain and buildings on the floor. Each player would move as many of his pieces and fire as many of his cannon as he desired, subject only to a time limit which was imposed to give a sense of urgency and keep the game moving. Wells initially used a coin toss to determine the results of two infantry men engaging in melee, but ultimately he decided to have them always kill each other.

After Wells, the British Model Soldier Society, founded in 1935 in London, conducted wargames, though the focus of the organization was on collecting. Wargaming clubs probably existed around this time at Oxford and perhaps Cambridge. The book Shambattle (1929) was aimed at boys, but shows that wargaming was being conducted in the US as well. Unlike Little Wars, Shambattle uses a six-sided die to resolve cannon fire and melee, an approach preferred by modern wargamers, who don't want to risk damaging their miniatures.

Manufacturers of Wargaming Miniatures
A postwar development was the the appearance of manufacturers, mostly in the UK, of 30mm and smaller scale miniatures that permitted wargamers to conduct battles between armies on tabletop.

Greenwood & Ball
The Shropshire partnership of John Greenwood and Katharine Ball began selling 40mm figures in 1938: Greenwood did the casting and Ball the painting. They made an innovative switch to 20mm scale in the 1940s. Though highly sought out by collectors, the figures had a limited impact on wargaming because of their high cost. Greenwood introduced a cheaper line of figures in 1959 in response to the plastics of Airfix, Ltd. When Ball left the company in 1961, Greenwood began selling unpainted figures.

Jack Scruby
A giant in American wargaming, Scruby started casting figures from molds of heat resistant synthetic rubber in 1955. Since such materials had just become available, he was one of the first to do so. Rubber took a better impression than the sand molds used by Greenwood, and as a result Scruby did not have to smooth his castings with a file, an important factor in reducing the cost of his figures. Scruby Miniatures of Visalia, CA would sell individual unpainted figures for 15¢ from 1957 to 1965. Up to 1963 Scruby used type metal for his figures, an alloy with a very low melting point (about 100°C). This permitted Scruby to use a synthetic rubber called C3 "Supermold", which peeled off the master figure like a glove!

More than a manufacturer, Scruby did what he could to promote the hobby. In 1956 he organized a wargaming convention in California, which was attended by 14 people, and the following year he sent out the first issue of the newsletter War Game Digest to 40 subscribers.

Other British Manufacturers
Hinton Hunt (Marcus Hinton and Simon Hunt) began selling 54mm metal figures in 1957, and was producing 20mm figures by 1965. Scruby considered these figures to be big, and produced a range of 25mm figures to match them. Hinton Hunt started with Napoleonics and American Civil War, adding Norman Conquest in 1965, Crimean and Zulu Wars in 1968, English Civil War in 1971, and a variety of ancients in 1972.

Airfix is better known for its model airplane kits, but also introduced inexpensive plastic (polystyrene) figures in 20mm scale, starting with British and German WWII infantry in 1960 and 1961. American Civil War sets followed in 1962, and Robin Hood and Sheriff of Nottingham sets were produced in 1964.

Miniatures Figurines, Ltd started up in 1964 and became the dominant manufacturer of wargaming miniatures in the 1970s. The company claims to be the oldest maker of wargaming minis still in operation.

Don Featherstone
Featherstone was British wargaming's foremost stateman in the 1960s. He edited the UK version of War Game Digest in 1960, and started his own Wargamer's Newsletter in 1962. The same year he published War Games, the first of many hardcover books on wargaming that he would write. He organized the first UK wargaming convention in 1961, and appeared on the BBC to promote the hobby.

Media Coverage: 1965
Sports Illustrated ran an article on miniature wargaming in 1965, and the hobby was also featured in a CBS television spot by Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace. Scruby noticed a large increase in orders and inquiries as a result of this attention, and the number of people engaged in the hobby was now in the thousands.