I made the mistake of purchasing some more figures from Aventine, just a couple of odd bits to finish of the Pyhrric army. Now these couple of bits cost me a fair bit of wedge, and looking at what I got for my hard earned wonga, I decided to look at smaller figure sizes in an attempt to save myself a bit of cash!!!
From left to right, we have 10mm, 15mm , 20mm and 28mm, well these are the sizes they think they are, but reality, and a ruler states them as 12mm, 18mm, 24mm and 31mm!!
My next mistake, was looking at the Braille scale forum on Missing Lynx http://www.network54.com/Forum/47210/ Ohhhhhhhhh look, 20mm, now thats a decent scale, and depending on the period, there are some decent choices around. I was thinking WW2, but the lads at New Buckenham have 15mm, 6mm, 20mm and 28mm WW2, so its a no go really. Then I saw this.
A rather stunning T-72 by Alex Clark, yes it is 1/72nd scale!!
Aha, thinks me, how about a nice Cold War goes Hot collection? Plenty of decent kits in Plastic, Resin and Metal, options for me to do a bit of scratching too, just need some figures to go with them.
Over to Google Fu, and I find this little company, who appear to have some of the stuff I'm looking for
A couple of sample packs could do no harm, surely?
So, I get myself some National Volksarmee figures ( East German army) from the WARPAC range,
and, some Bundeswehr (West German Army) from the NATO range
Both sets are for the 1980s period, and I'm thinking around 1982 to 1989 as the basis for what I want to do.
Lets have a quick review of the models themselves. Gamers call this size of figure 20mm, these lads are not 20mm, they are 24mm from the soles of their feet, to the tops of their helmets. This makes them a good 1/72nd scale height.
They are really quite good, in fact I would go as far as saying, they could knock spots off some of the 28mm ranges around. A good selection of sensible poses, and just about enough variations to make up a full section of different models. The NVA lack any heavy weaponry, and I would have preferred a PKA as the squad support LMG, but beggars can't be chosers.
The guns on these models are quite flimsy, and I have had to replace two gun barrels already, not a deal breaker for me, but it could be frustrating for cack handed gamers with no modelling skill. However, if the weapons were thicker, it would ruin the overall effect.
The models are well cast, with a minimum of clean up required, the metal used is quite hard, and not too pliable ( henace the broken barrels)
Proportion wise, they are bloody lovely, none of your overweight fat lads here!! They could even fit in with some of the plastic ranges from the likes of Revell and Zvesda.
Overall, if you are looking for suitable figures, for the modern period, in 1/72nd scale, then I would heartily recommend having a look at their ranges, there is a lot of good stuff to choose from in it.
Now I have a bit of light reading to do
and, then its off to the various discount model kit providers on t'internet, for the purchasing of some plakky kits for me to arse about with.
Found some Le0pard1+2s,T-55s, BTR60s and T-72s already, and have started to scratchbuild a backdated 1A2 hull for the Revell Marder 1A3, that I shall cast up for myself, and use the other kit bits to detail.
Next off, I shall order some Soviets, and BAOR models from Elheim, and some nice resin FV432s and BMP1s from Cromwell Models
Happy days Comrades, happy days indeed!!!!
Those Elheim figures look very nice and 20mm is an nice scale and rather retro these days too. Personally I think 20s is a scale for both skirmish level and company level games.
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