Airfix Battle of Waterloo Diorama Set - HO/OO Scale 1/72 Fully Painted 

This really does bring back wonderful and happy memories of a time when i a very happy child. I played with Airfix soldiers for hours .

I remember fighting Napoleonic wargames with my mate, his mum and dad spoiled him so I was often facing 13 regiments of cuirassiers whilst I was stuck with 2 or 3 Highland battalions. It was my first experience of Elgar, we used to have "Pomp and Circumstance" on as background music. Happy days

Oh my goodness. This was the box I had as a kid. So much good playtime. Unforgettable.

I had that set, or an extremely similar Airfix set. It didn't come with paint, and the figures were a plastic that paint wouldn't adhere to well. That was around 1975-ish. Absolutely loved that set. I would set them all up on the floor, and my sister would come by and stamp her foot to make rhem all fall over. We emigrated to the US in 1977. I was mortified to learn that, (I learned later this was due to the Vietnam war), all the toys/ GI Joe etc, were all adventure and rescue type figures, and not military. Wonderful job painting those tiny figures!

As a wargamer, I started out with the Airfix figures, it's great to see these old figures given some love!

Fantastic post. I have that set & multiple boxes of other Napoleonic Airfrix & other 1:72 Napoleonic makers. My figures now number in the hundreds. At 72 I’ve had an obsession with Airfix figures since childhood. I’ve set myself a winter 2024 task of painting them up. Agree that RU-vid is your friend in getting useful tips. I’m fortunate that I have a friend who is going to help with the project. I’m going to use the BlackPowder gaming manual for Waterloo battlefield play. They use 28 mm figures. You’ve done a good job on painting the 1:72 scale.

Thanks for flying me back to my childhood! I own also planes and tanks...

WOW that brought back very fond memories. I moved on from Airfix to Minifigs, and various other manufacturers, always trying to fulfill my dream of having a table filled with Napoleonic figures. Only on finding 6mm metal figures did the dream finally come true, 10,000 figures later...and it all stemmed from those glorious days playing with the Airfix plastic figures. Wonderful times

I LIKE the gloss look. It gives them the toy soldier look that brings me back to what the hobby is all about.

Never had one of the big sets, but had plenty of Airfix boxes of figures from Napoleonic to WWII over my young years. Was a treat for myself after finishing chores or homework to set them up on my desk and have battles. Now I collect and hold them for my boys when they're old enough to appreciate them.

Wonderful stuff. I'm currently building some of Airfix's 1/76 tank and vehicle kits that I did as a lad. Just such a great nostalgia trip. 🙂

What a smashing video. Brings back fond memories of me as a little boy in the early 1970's playing with the various Airfix Waterloo figures on the dining room carpet.

I had this as a child. I never painted it, just set it up and played with it a lot.

I my brother had bought the Waterloo Farmhouse seperately in about early 1976. And built his on diorama around it too. All those Airfix Napolonic H0/00 scale figures dispicted above he bought in boxes previously seperately, as well, at Christmas of 1975. He & I painted them too. We had great fun doing so. I bought the much bigger 1/32 (54mm) scale Airfix figures too later that year in 1976 & also painted them. I so love the Napoleonic period, still do to this very day.

It's amazing how people can paint something so small coz Airfix 1/72 were dead small very well done 👏

Excellent video! There's nothing wrong with gloss! 👍🏻🎅👍🏻 Back in about 1990, a family friend and early mentor to me, painted several hundred 25/28mm late Medievals to wargame the Early Italian Wars; they were painted in vivid colors with ruddy complexion skin, with Historically accuratehand-painted flags and all sprayed in a good glossy finish ( original formulae Krylon Crystal Clear). It went undefeated for over 100+ games using Professor George Gush's "Wargame Rules for Fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries (1420-1700)" 2nd edition, published by Wargames Research Group (WRG) which are still available on Amazon 45 years on and in an e-format! So, glossy is perfectly fine for toy soldiers! 👍🏻🎅👍🏻

I had this. I bought loads more Waterloo soldiers and had huge battles set up. Played for it for years. Loved it.

I have a genuine fondness for these vintage Airfix figures, especially the 'Battle of Waterloo' set, including the 'La Haye Sainte' farmhouse kit. Fifty years ago, we used them to stage epic battles in the sandbox. While there are highly detailed figures from other manufacturers today, this set, along with the 'La Haye Sainte' farmhouse kit, holds a special place in my heart due to its unique charm.

OMG mate thank you so much. Had this when was a kid. Hours of amazing fun. Such a trip down memory lane.

Airfix got me into wargaming, as a kid, we used the Guards marching set for the British ,many many years later still wargaming , thanks for sharing

Love Airfix, I'm of the the same time, old times, great times.

Accept some applause from this fellow member of the Arfix Generation. :) You got a lot further in painting your HO/OO armies than I did!

This all brings back some great memories. Back in the day I had several of each of Airfix's French and English Waterloo figure sets, and the farm house, and spent hours and hours painting them all up. I remember my favourites were the highlanders, and the French cavalry. Never got around to picking up the Prussians for some reason. Thanks for the great drift down memory lane!

Fantastic collection, love these. I have the British First Corps painted, 1 figure represents 33 men as per Bruce Quarrie Napoleonic’s wargame rule book from my teens. Over the last 40 years I appear to have amassed the full Dutch, Nassau, Prussian, French regiments plus boxes of commanders, generals, Marshals, aides de camp etc from European makers Italia or Atalia I think they’re called.

I was 14 in 1976, I loved Airfix but didn't have parents with deep pockets. It was a Paper-round for me supplemented by fruit picking in the summer holidays. I earned £6.50 a week which was good enough to allow me to buy the beautiful 1/24th scale aircraft kits, the huge Stuka being my favourite, I also had the large Imperial Guardsman along with the Bengal Lancer which looked impressive when painted. I have to compliment you on your painting, very well done! Did you find your modelmaking spurred an interest in history? I had all the Waterloo figures and the farm house, I also had the Roman Fort and Ancient Britons figures purchased with a weeks Blackcurrent picking. Happy days …as an old man of 61 I find myself wishing to go back to my youth and relive simpler times.

Thats a lovely set to give an aimpression of the battle scenes. My older brother made a diorama on the late 70s which was really great on a large piece of hardboard. I still have the Farhouse and ive included windows in the frames but will use it for a 17th Century diorama..Painting them was a big job with cuffs and laces on the uniforms not to mention Tartan ,great video and many thanks ,

Yep. Happy memories. The farmhouse has been available separately off and on over the years and during the 'off' periods could fetch stupid money on ebay. The scale differences between some figure sets was always irritating and extended into their WW1 and WW2 ranges as well. Many thanks for showing this.

This really takes me down memory lane! I had them in HO scale and also 1/32.

I was like all the rest of you chaps. Bought a load of these Airfix (and Italeri) figures with the intention of doing a Waterloo diorama. Definitely bit off more than i could chew 😂. But, when i think back, i think i know where the blame lies for my over ambition. Back in the day, we used to have decent programmes for kids on during the Christmas and Summer hols. I remember a show called "Model Magic" with Bob Symes. All sorts of modelling and wargaming was covered. That fed my enthusiasm i suspect, but my skills never caught up. Wonder is that show here on RU-vid...must look 😊

So many souvenirs...Thanks for sharing!

Als Kind waren in den frühen 70er Jahren die Airfix Figuren meine ersten.Was man mittlerweile fast nur noch findet ist die Marke 'Italieri' die aber auch sehr schöne Figuren liefert.***Dein Video hat mir sehr gut gefallen.*** Vive Napoleon !🇨🇵

So cool. I had hundreds of airfix soldiers in 1\32 and 1\72. sooooo coooool

Bravo. They are really nice & I share your pain in using the old Tesoro’s and Hebron enamel paints. I painted up a “regiment” of the Airfix Washington’s Army from the American War of Independence range. That was in 1972 & I was 16. I still have it and subsequently added more todo a bit of AWI tabletop gaming. I appreciate Airfix for sparking our imaginations and our desire to paint up the figures.

Nostalgically cool! 👍🏻

This brings back great memories. Building dioramas with Airfix and other figures was a favorite pastime of my childhood. It's great that you were able to keep all these figures. Unfortunately, most of mine have been lost over time.

It's nice to see that I was not the only one to have this as a goal! You have come a LOT closer to fulfilling my childhood vision! Well Done!

great vid i had some of the model soldiers way back in the 1960s they were hard to get the paint to stick to them might be better now with better paint look forward to seeing moor of your work happy modeling old boy

G'day to you!! Great Fun,I too made the Mistake of using gloss some 50 odd years ago,as Luck would have it I was shown the Error of my ways, I learned to soak the Figures in Washing up Liquid, which helped and not to use Gloss Paint, now I spray them a;; Matt Black before Painting and when they are finished I spray them with Matt Varnish, All my 1500 figures are 1/72 ACW! from Pert West Aust!

Great to see these figures painted. Much better than my efforts backin the mid 70s😊. The difference in size is quite noticeable when comparing the various sets together. I believe that as the sets were primarily aimed at wargamers they were moulded in OO/HO. OO equating to 1/76 scale and HO equating to1/87 scale. Generally the Infantry were larger (0O) and cavalry (HO). But not always.

Slowly going through this set for my lad. Taking so long he's probably too old now.😂

Loved this set, and the commando pontoon bridge set so much as a kid. Never painted them though. Went to 1/300th scale tanks and did spend hours and hours painting those however. I agree the painting was at least half the fun.

Brought back many memories for me too ..... Airfix along with Triang Hornby was such a large part of my childhood too. PS. The squad of soldiers in the French Artillery set was I assumed, the gunners marching along their limbered guns on the move - that's what I thought anyway

Yes Airfix Waterloo set was a rerun. Came out in the early 80's I was lucky to get as a big present, many years of fun and hunted down again years later to paint

Thanks for bringing back all those memories. Started off as a wargamerwith these after seeing them in a catalogue, fought with them via the Bruce Quarrie airfix book, Napoleonic Wargaming. Later of course got into metal figures and more detail. But still got em and take a look once every couple of years. Cheers mate 😂

I purchased the Blandford books which had pictures of the various uniforms and used those to paint up the troops. I remember trawling through the pages looking for uniforms that bore resemblance to the soldiers so I could paint up figures to represent other units.

Nice collection and display, I have this set must be over 20 years old and I’ve only painted the highlanders and hussar’s, must dig them out, anyway well done on the video and painting.

Airfix was never very consistent with figure scale, mainly because they considered their Waterloo range as children’s toys. They were apparently surprised to find that a huge portion of sales were going to adults who used the figures for wargaming. The French Imperial Guard figures were certainly among the best in terms of accuracy but were far too small when placed alongside the standard Airfix British and French infantrymen; they were the only box I never got round to painting. Never did buy the Prussian infantry as they were also hopelessly undersized.

Great collection,the painting looks good for soft plastic figures,still got all of mine from when they came out,think i had about 5 boxes of each,but never really got a lot of them painted,maybe one day,but great vid and wonderful nostalgia trip.

Well done they look great. I’m collecting these figures. Last couple of years collecting 28mm black powder figures. There great to paint slightly bigger

Well done! They have a certain charm to them and certainly you can take credit for having persevered and completed painting and mounting them. I loved the Airfix figures and have boxes and boxes of them myself. I started painting the Waterloo British cavalry Hussars but I noticed that the Humbrol matt paints I used began to flake off over time. I liked the accurate colors of the Humbrol paints but the flaking just put me right off and I never painted any other figures using them unpainted in my wargames. I was disappointed in this as none of my armies just didnt look right in the various molded plastic colors and I eventually lost interest in them. Still have them somewhere in my massive hoard of modeling collection. I read somewhere that guys had better luck undercoating their plastic figures with PVA glue, letting it dry and then painting over the glue, but I never got around to trying this method. I even heard of some guys modifying their figures by cutting off various features like hats and weapons and gluing them to other figures. I tried that, but never found a glue or cement that would stick to the plastic used to mold the figures.

I admire you for having had the perseverance to paint all these model soldiers, for my part I have dozens of them , british, french, russians, prussians but very few of them are painted. Greetings from France !

Great vid. Loved airfix as a kid and since the madness of lockdown have started acquiring figures mostly from eBay and painting them great way of ignoring the bullshit going on in the world

I got the original set whilst on holiday in Ostend in 1979. Took it all the way back to Aberdeen by ferry and train. Wargamed using battalions of between 32 and 40 figures on my friends sitting room floor throughout the 1980s. The gloss varnish gives them a 'toy soldier' look, which is a positive in my mind. I paint all my old type 1 Airfix figures in a simple style.

My mates and I had all these ones and even more... but no paint, no dioramas down my road... just playing away all day long to our heart's content! :) PS - we never used to Prussians because they came out very late for us, and they were quite ugly anyway

i collected American civil war, still got over 2000 troops blues & greys painting was a bit "dodgy" as was 12 or 14 when did them, now 30+ years later still got them, mounted troops, artillery and wagons, buildings etc. mounted troops flags are a bit bent though. lol (worth a pretty penny now i imagine, all metal bases and mostly made in 1971 or before) bit bigger than your models as well. and I got 1 Gatling gun fires tiny bb's when turn handle (its rare) and very delicate.

I always thought the Prussians were more detailed than others. However, like you say they were strangely out of scale. Could never seem to get hold of the French infantry. When I did get some, I bought about 8 boxes from a toy shop in Blackpool. Only just recently parted with all that I painted when they got sent to Sweden. Brings back a lot of memoirs of wargaming and happy hours sat painting them. I used enamels and as you say they weren't the best paints for the job. Thanks for the video and well done on your collection.

I remember these from when I was a kid. As a teenager I collected and painted hundreds and hundreds and actually made a game to recreate battles using dice and charts and measuring tools for firing ranges and movement per turn. It was tedious and time-consuming but fun. I only did it for a few years and lost the patience to continue. They are still in boxes in my mother's garage, along with the rule books and die charts.

You're right the french imperial guard are a great set 👌 they just stand out even when their unpainted for me the set is still nice

As a kid I had a lot of the same period and a fair few WWI figures as well. I played a very simple form of 'war game' that I termed 'Dice Wars'. The only strict rules were that rolling a 5 killed 1 enemy and a 6 killed 2 (1-6 for cannon shot). Who fired and when at what range and movement etc. was all just on the basis of what seemed to make sense to me at the time. Great fun! And when I didn't have the patience for that, a rubber band came out to shoot them down.

Super job

I had that set. Back in the 70s we used Airfix 1/72nd for every Napoleonic army. lots of conversions.

Fond memories indeed. I had the castle set with Normans/Robin Hood's men, Foreign Legion/North African fort, and Romans/Ancient Briton set, along with numerous individual kits. Thanks!

I remember these figures from childhood. I also had scottish grey and polish lanciers. Great fun back then.

The airfix Prussians set were the best mold.

Lots of memories here. Great to see all these again. I did manage to paint all of mine - using Humbrol matt paints, perhaps some 500 in total, but no Prussians as they only became available much later, and the Airfix armies by that time had been relegated to the back of the cupboard!

I think you did a great job in painting these figures and models. Thank you for showing us these items. Stay Safe.

Looks really cool!

These are great! 8:31 I always wondered why there's no piper in the 1/32 scale "Waterloo Highlanders" set. Seems an obvious thing to include, but that was Airfix for you. 😊

Congratulations on completing a childhood project. You can see how you improved as a painter. Happy hobbying. Bill

The gluing makes the skins under the saddles more real

You can just spray them with a matt spray. It will take the gloss off and give them an extra coat of protection.

You could try using a matt coat varnish which will certainly tone down the gloss and shine a bit! 😉👍

Each ‘wave’ seemed to have its own designer.1:Cuirassiers,Highlanders,French Artillery.2:British Infantry,British Artillery,Hussars,French Infantry,3:Imperial Guard,Prussians.The best bit of the Waterloo set was the wagon and accessories.Quite a while later for other manufacturers to make ‘accessory’ sets.

💚💚💚!

To address the annoying gloss, have you tried spraying Matt Varnish over the affected pieces? This should fix it. I think I was married and and in my late 20s before I finished painting my original Wargame Set. Over the years I have slowly added to my armies with Esci/Italeri, Revell, Zvezda and Lead sets. They are all on display, but never played with. Fair Play to you on your painting. Pretty darn good.

I've not read the comments but if this has been said then I apologize in advance, if you put a mat varnish over the gloss that will take the shine of it, It does however take me back to my childhood good old airfix thanks for sharing,

I had a Cadbury Roses tom full of Airfiv 172 scale from all periods never got round to painting any of them

I actually think the shiny gloss finish looks great on these old figures, it gives them that ‘ old school’ look.

great job mate , im stil hoping airfix wil come up with not an other reisue but a brand new set of waterloo set or even two

I had this...no wait I still have this set only its a little beaten up. When I was in high school 🏫 I wrote to Airfix and asked them to put together a Waterloo set and they did I bought mind in 197??? Anyway, it's a really good set, I had lots of fun with mine. Good video 📹 🎄, enjoyed looking at the different figures. Did you show us the curassie (spelling), the French cavalry with breast plates 🍽🤔??

the husars of the french are italeri or esci who first made them and then later on reprocudced by italeri they also had other french britisch and yep pruisian sets and then came hat waw what the made even brunswick en dutch belgian units

Gloss varnish is stronger and, if i remember my own nightmare with paint peeling off, more resilient. You could always spray them with anti shine spray from Army Painter but you’ll have to retouch ant metalic painting as this goes very dull.

I had moved on to girls by the time this set came out, in fact I think I had been working for a few years ... I never understood Airfix's idea for Waterloo. You can sort of understand the no Dutch, aspect, as French figures would suffice, but why Hussars and not Dragoons, or Life Guards? Lights against Heavies is never going to end well. You would have thought Napoleonics would have been a big seller, but no Polish lancers, no French cavalry except the Cuirassiers. Disappointing. The Imperial Guard were my favourites, so much better than the others, crisp models in realistic, ish, poses. I hold these figures in much higher regard than perhaps they deserve, as they got me into wargaming. How could I not love them?

true it give's it that shine but , the paint does get stronger that way so after i give them a shine varnish i over spray them sligtly with mat varnisch stil strong and les shyni

I could be very wrong but I don't think your French infantry at 10:25 are Airfix. I was very frustrated back in the mid 70s that Airfix did not do British heavy artillery or French light artillery. Also no French line infantry (apart from some in the artillery pack..... see above am I wrong?). Also no British heavy cavalry or French light cavalry. No good really for a Horse and Musket wargamer at the time. The Prussian infantry seemed like a pretty random addition without any supporting units. Also I vaguely recall that in a catalog in the mid 70s Airfix showed a Napoleonic diorama but later had to admit that the models used were by Hinchcliffe and not their own!

Had this set in the 70s, painting as a 10/11 year old wasn't brilliant. Collected many over the years have over 2000 figures with around 1200 painted.

These Airfix Napoleonic figures seemed good back then. But they are vastly inferior now to the likes of Italeri, Revell and Zvezda.

At 12 years old I knew more than this guy, he has the amazing figures from the 70s/80s unfortunately no knowledge to back them up😢

Solve the size difference by putting the Prussians on a larger base.