why do you wargame in 54mm?

Good question! I started 1/32 scale a few years back after I was offered a joblot of Blue Box Elite Command Romans and from there one thing led to another and I now have several ancient armies. I find them a nice change from smaller scales (which I also collect) and easier to paint. For me the main challenges are storage, size of gaming table and finding suitable figures. Although for the latter I do like converting figures and tracking down what I need so it adds rather than detracts from the enjoyment.

54mm is THE toy soldier size and since I wargame with toy soldiers this is what I use, and always have since the '60's.
It does have its' challenges as the makers don't like to finish off ranges as they don't understand the business , but this can prove to be quite a satisfying part of the Hobby , which includes modelling and painting, working out how to fill gaps.
Also it's too late to change to another size now, too much stock lying around

54mm games look more impressive on a table and you don't need a lot of figures, accessories or a large table to have a interesting and fun game.

This is the short version. In early adulthood in the early 60s I discovered that you could actually play wargames with rules, as opposed to moving a few 54mm figures about and blowing them up with fireworks (outside!) as I had done in my childhood. This was Airfix 1/72 and Don Featherstone's first wargames book. I stayed with the smaller scales, and went into metal as well as plastic, different periods, stared a wargames club in Bristol...

A wargaming buddy wanted to fight the Gunfight at the OK Corral, another friend voluntered to write some 1:1 figure:man rules and so then all we needed were the figures.

They didn't really exist in small scales - Airfix cowboys just didn't look right with 4 on one side and 6 on the other - and there were no buildings anyway. The best toyshop in Whiteladies Road was Dawsons, near where one of the others lived - he recalled seeing some Britains and Timpo Cowboys there, and even some buildings! He funded a raid and...the rest is bunkum as they say.

Still PLAY in all other scales, but only collect and make in 54mm, 60 years later, don't regret it for a moment.

Since 54mm is "army men" scale, and those are what I grew up playing with in the sandbox, I just never *stopped* playing and so 54mm it is.

Plus, you can't take those namby-pamby, painted-and-glued-together "scale model miniatures" out in the dirt and stick 'em in trenches without some delicate part breaking off

Some people call it chess with a thousand pieces...I call it playing with toy soldiers.

We've just played a great scratch SF Judge Dredd vs Daleks game using a mix of board game tiles, floor tiles and cut up plastic shelf lining for corridors. Did it look great? No, not really. Was it a great game? Absolutely!

When in doubt - improvise.

Found this on you tube a while ago. Looked like a fun game in 54mm and makes good use of terrain I reckon

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YpbJforPeQ

When our son developed an interest in toy soldiers at around the age of 5, I realised that resistance was useless and the appeal of the one true toy soldier scale was irresistible. They look good, they paint easily they convert well and they game like true toys should. 24 years later the old 25mm metal stuff is still in the loft, and the plastic invasion continues.....