WW2 Figures –
Recommendations and thoughts on ranges
Presented in ecreasing size.
1/35
I wouldn’t have thought of 1/35 for wargames
until I saw a demonstration game put on with enormous figures. There’s quite a
range of 1/35 (54mil)stuff available and if you are into detail then Tamiya etc
can provide it.
Get a large bag full of cash ready for
buildings and tanks if you’ll be buying them.
Infantry can be quite cheap and there are bendy plastics available which
are intended as toys for kids but not so bad.
42mm
Irregular do a ‘toy soldier’ range of
malformed figures which I think is intended to be used in your back garden. I
can recall playing games of this sort for hours back when I was about 10, I
also recall a stiff back, sore knees, broken and lost figures.
Mow your lawn every day for a couple of
months first, ban players from hiding figures, shoot the dog and keep an air
rifle handy to drive off cats.
25 / 30mm
Ever since GW started feeding their role
playing games figures on steroids back in 1981, they’ve encouraged over-sized
25mm. The ranges of these figures are limited, some are of really bad quality
and I see little advantage over 20mm. If
you really must have 28mil then I reckon the Blacktree figures are the best.
20mm
This scale has been around for so long that
there are a huge variety of figures and models available, this is my preference
for skirmish sized games where infantry is individually based.
Hence you can see a number of pictures of my 20mil
on the site. I’ve tried to present these
as squads so they also serve to illustrate OOB.
For infantry I particularly like FAA, SHQ are
very nice but a bit too finely cast making them rather fragile. Britannia can
be quite nice but are rather cartoon like. I have a number of British Commandos
by Britannia who have Bren guns the size of hockey sticks. I like these figures, but I can see why some
find this larger-than-life aspect unattractive.
Revell are now making some excellent detailed
kits, these are little works of art but time consuming. Buying in lead can work
out rather pricey at up to ten pounds or so per tank, and if you are rich or
buying small numbers then MMS are the best bar none for lead.
SHQ do a fair selection, but I have had
problems with missing parts and fitting the damn things together. FAA do
reasonable artillery, but with no instructions you need a source or good
knowledge to enable you to put them together.
Their tanks are also quite nice.
Britannia vehicles are OK, but I find an
impressionistic approach to tanks rather more noticeable and less acceptable
than for infantry.
Hinchliffe (Minifigs) are quite interesting,
some of their vehicles are nice… some not so good. Worth checking out as the
range is HUGE. Their infantry are cheap but average to poor with 70s sort of
detail to them. Again, the range is good. Take a look at the range of
"dead" which come with separate weapons, helmets on rifles, rats and
all-sorts. I use these for wounded in Stargrunt based games.
Frontline do very cheap resin vehicles which
are useful if you want quantity. The turrets either need to be glued down or
drilled and a piece of kebab stick (or something similar) inserted to act as a
pivot.
Raventhorpe do nice, crisply cast resin and
lead vehicles, the ready-made line is inexpensive and surprisingly good other
than they come with a base cast on. Their infantry are not so hot, but they do
some interesting ones such as the 8 men "company" in Zeltbahn.
Compound interest is a real killer - you only get 8 men for your company
nowadays.
By far the best ready-made are Cromwell. These are resin one or two piece castings
with absolutely incredible detail.
Small scale accessories do rub down transfers
which are very good, much thinner than decals, less problems with trapped air
producing silvery effects, go on right where you put them… well worth a go.
15mm
I personally see little point in 15mm for
ww2. If you and your group are starting from scratch then they are worth
considering, otherwise go a scale up or down.
The things is that the infantry are too small for individual basing to
work well and you may as well go for smaller if you want to base in
elements. YMMV.
Some of the vehicles I have seen at shows are
awful, so check them out first!
Minifigs and Peter Pig do 15mm ranges.
10mm 1/160
This is a relatively new scale, ranges are
expanding rapidly but incomplete.
Be aware that there are several scales
referred to as 10mm, which are 1/200 or so, and another referred to as 12mm
which is compatible.
I like this scale. Infantry are recognisable,
the tanks look pretty good and there are excellent N gauge buildings available,
intended for model railways. Check out Kestrel plastic buildings.
There are three main manufacturers to
consider: Pendraken, Chariot and Minifigs.
I feel that Pendraken infantry are by far the
best, they are rather more ‘chunky’ than the others, which in turn look too
small against the vehicles. Minifigs infantry are easily the cheapest, although
the 32 figures in a bag could mean that you end up having to buy extra to get
the right mix. Minifigs are very spindly, although there is a fair bit of
detail there, they have a tendency to look like they are wearing Lycra. There
are often pictures of Minifigs "12mm" in Miniature Wargames.
I was very disappointed when I got hold of
some Chariot infantry, the moulds are usually offset sufficiently to make major
work on the figures necessary, and there is little detail on the oval figures.
Offset between mould halves is very difficult
to avoid in spin moulding, so all figures tend to show some effect from this.
The bigger the figure, the less damage this’ll tend to have… another plus for
Pendraken.
Rating the different vehicles is rather
trickier than the infantry since each of the manufacturers have their own strengths.
Pendraken tanks come in two pieces: turret and hull. Slap one on top of the
other and you’re away.
Chariot come as a kit with each suspension
separate from the central hull, and hence need constructing.
All the ones I’ve made go together well with
no gaps or awkwaard reconstruction work, which is more than can be said for:
Minifigs come as kits with more parts,
separate 50 cals on
Whilst Minifigs are probably the most
detailed, they can be tricky to put together, a 1/160 scale 50 cal is very
fragile and there are a few other gotchas. The scale and accuracy is somewhat
varied, metal entry points for moulds are often badly sited, obscuring detail.
Early models (at least) suffered from poor quality metal meant that gun barrels
needed to be replaced.
Pendraken vehicles are cheapest and once
painted up the greater detail of Minifigs is not noticeable.
Which you choose will depend on how much
detail you feel is noticeable and whether your budget and time make the
difference worth paying for.
Micro
I used to play ww2 micro a lot. Nowadays I
prefer skirmish sized games so I have not myself bought any of this scale in
the last 25 years, or thereabouts.
If I were to re-invest in micro, there are
two manufacturers I’d buy off: GHQ and Adler.
GHQ vehicles are very crisp, with exaggerated
detail which comes up well with a bit of dry brushing, their infantry figures
are not so nice. Adler infantry are a bit oversized but have a lot of detail.
Those who object to the undeniably high
prices of GHQ or the ‘pumpkin heads’ of Adler should check out
2mm
Irregular Miniatures do 2mm infantry (!) and
tanks. The infantry come in strips, which when you examine them closely do
appear to have little chaps lying down on them. The tanks are recognisable as
being particular vehicles.
Overall, this is an excellent scale for games
where a counter represents several tanks. Often players ( and rules designers,
for that matter ) seem to forget that there a model represents several of the
real thing.
It’s hard to make out what they are from any
distance, and perhaps this is another added plus as your opponent across the
table would be denied their usual 100% intelligence on your troops.