Old School Or Just Ignorance

 OK, admittedly I've been in this hobby for over 4 decades, so I've seen a lot, but at the same time it's felt like two minutes have passed.

However, I've noticed that there are many companies who are now considered 'old school'  and 'lost' who are still in business and what's more produce miniatures which can still hold their own with, if not beat to a pulp, more contemporary models.

Essex are of course wee known still for their 15mm lines, but I remember when they were pushing their 25mm ranges which were (and are) well detailed, clean castings with a lot about them to like.

Their adverts were great, because you always found something new to spend your money on. I have never fallen out of love with them, and their horses are amongst some of the best you will ever see. Remember that these are 30-40 year old models, but they don't look dated in the least. I have 140 of their ECW cavalry in my current New Model Army because they still hit the mark and look nicer than the stuff you can get elsewhere. They are dynamic and clean poses, and the variety of horses available means that a unit will really stand out if you want it to look as if it's charging at full tilt:

 Whenever I start a new project, I check out Essex, because there are so many real gems in the ranges. When I began the NMA project, I initially went with Warlord Games plastic cavalry, which were nice but were just so 'vanilla' and they were built, considered and quickly sold. True, the Essex cost me more, but they look great and are more authentic looking than many of the Warlord figutres, which I have to say appear to be an amalgam of different disparate sculptors ideas of what the troops of the ECW looked like. I love variety, but you need to have an over arching design philosophy and a strong oversight to pull it off. I actually ended up breaking down my ten Warlord NMA sets, discarding about 60% of the command and replacing them with a mix of Perry and Essex to get the right look.

Please, if you haven't checked out the Essex 25mm ranges, do so... Your armies will thank you.

Then, you have Denizen Miniatures, who produced some of the finest sci-fi and fantasy models you could get, in the 80s. And guess what? They still do...

They have the best range of Dwarves you could wish for, being multi-part castings. The Citadel FTD range were equally good, but they are not still available.

The Denizen Sci-Fi range still knocks any other range into outer space. It's not large, but boy, does it have all you need for some great games. The prices are realistic and very attractive, and you'll not find crisper castings despite the age of these models.

I sometimes wonder why companies like these have become so disregarded and indeed unknown in the 21st century. I guess it's down to exposure in the press, but could it be because the modern gamers turn up their noses and consider anything 'old' as being poor product? Surely this kind of behaviour is really just ignorance of their hobby's history?

If you don't go back as far as some of us Grognards, spend a few pounds on some random gaming and modelling mags from the 80s, and look at the advertisements. You'll find that many of those advertisers are still trading, going about their business with quiet diligence.

Order a few samples and see what you've been missing.