At last! 15mm German WW2 Heads in Gasmasks

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Piotr has come up trumps with two new 15mm separate head sprues from Pole Bitwy......

Piotr stayed up till 4am in the morning to create several sample headswops including this figure from an FOW Mid-Late War German rifleman - definitely worth the effort too!

And this WWW2 themed wolfschutzen....

......At last, because I have a WWW2 project waiting in the wings, screaming for them!

POLE BITWY

Cheers

Mark

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NACHT DER UNTOTEN 15mm style!

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I've been playing Call of Duty: World at War Zombies on the train home in the evening this week. Had a blast with this and want to recreate the feel of these games in 15mm. So, I need some appropriate 15mm WW2 US troops to beat off my Rebel Minis Nazi Zombies.

A WIP photo from January

I was hoping the latest WW2 US releases from Flames of War including the Devils Brigade and Late War Assault Platoon would supply some cool miniatures - only find that they are essentially just repackaged and rebadged versions of previous miniature releases - with the odd new fig thrown in. All very much 'emperors new clothes'.

The 'fluff' on the FOW website for the Assault Platoon platoon says "They were specially trained in reducing enemy strong points and bunkers using demolitions, bangalore torpedoes, and flame throwers." Not so much fluff as 'fluffing' as there is not one demolitions, bangalore torpedo or flame thrower figure in the pack, but instead several guys on their knees with entrenching tools. Which reminds me of a sketch from Eddie Izzard's Definite Article live show.... "I got done for assault, and I was running away! Assault is motion towards, I feel… it takes an accusative".

Not the first time FOW has badged one guy with a shovel, three guys buying newspapers, four walking the dog and six weeding the lawn as an assault pioneer platoon or similar.

So we turn to Peter Pig, who have some really laudable WW2 ETO American Infantry. My favourites from the range and absolutely perfect for fighting Nazi Zombies are Pack 60: US with SMGs.


This pack just hits the button with some classic US soldiers in great poses which ooze character. Plus, the figures really look comfortable and experienced holding and using their weapons - not always true of Pig but more so with the many of the recent sculpts. But this can be said of and is often worse with other manufacturers lines. Anyhoo....a couple of the carbine troops, the LMG being carried and fired at the waist and we are done - ready for NACHT DER UNTOTEN 15mm style!

The video above from the XBOX360 game will give you a flavour of the game action. The iPhone version is subtely different, with more of a bunker setting than ruined farmhouse and much more claustrophobic as a result.

Cheers
Mark
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Email Intercept...... Attempt at WWW2 Zombie Humour!

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Master Chef:

"....the real threat to my Sci Fi gaming in the next couple of months is whatever FOW produce for the SS Recce at Arnhem Bridge - armoured trucks etc."


Mark:

"Those hastily armoured SS trucks will be great for Zombie hunting German (or Soviet) Survivors!"

Master Chef:

"!mein gott! der bridge is held by der britscher fallschirmjager zombie korps"

"ja mein oberst, they certainly save on der parachutes, hein?"

"Soldat! For that you will be shot!"


It's been one of those weeks!

Cheers
Mark
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WWW2 Germans

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Just a quick post to say that I've fired off a small order to Peter Pig before their prices go up on the 15th. I've asked for a couple of packs of WW2 Germans with Assault Rifles to use as WWW2 Nazis.

Peter Pig 15mm: PBI range pack 550

Peter Pig 15mm: PBI range pack 66

I've also included some Panzerfausts - not for tank hunting, they will be armed with proximity fused shrapnel warheads to counter the Zombie threat. Of course, a few months earlier the Panzerfaust warheads were filled with the 'Z' Virus and fired at groups of advancing Soviets to turn them into a mindless rabble. Nazi science could not predict the terrible wrath of Hell they would be sowing....turning friend and foe alike into ravenous, brain eating monsters.

A new battle is being fought on the plains of Poland and at the gates of Berlin. Not for victory or defeat but simply survival!

PopQuiz: If you could get a sprue of WWW2 german heads to convert these miniatures - what heads would you want? German helmets with gasmasks? Field caps with gasmasks? Field caps with goggles? Leave your own ideas below.

Issue Wehrmacht WW2
M35 helmet and gasmask

Cheers
Mark
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It's all gone a bit Abominable!

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Finished my Abominable Snowmen (Green Eyed Minis) - painted and based. God have they have turned out good! Heather thinks they are the best miniatures I've painted. But she said that after trudging through a snowstorm on the way home last night, so her judgement may be suspect!

Ok, so bouyed up by my success, I decided at 10pm to start painting Rebel Minis' Nazi Zombies. In the study I have second thoughts - too late to start paint spraying methinks....maybe, but sitting in the desk tidy waiting for a lick of paint is Herr Doktor Von Klumpenstein the projenitor of the Nazi Zombie menace!

The figure is a Flames of War 15mm WW2 German Officer. He was available a couple of years ago in a command figure pack - 2 different command figs for £1. I bought two, the other specifically to be Kurt 'Panzer' Meyer (as he appeared at Mariupol, 1941).

With only a small conversion - turning his MP40 into a Blaster rifle, he would make a great Sci Fi Commissar or Commander figure!

Nazi Zombies on the workbench tomorrow night!

Cheers
Mark
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Roll Out The Barrel: Late WW2 15mm Toms from FOW

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Bought a pack of FOW BR812: British Guards Rifle Platoon (NW Europe) via Maelstrom Games which arrived along with a selection of Vallejo paints and basing textures ahead of the Christmas Hols.

The British Guards Rifle Platoon are EXCELLENT! FOW's photos don't do the miniatures justice. Full of character, helmets cocked to one side in that jaunty tipping a thumb at Jerry fashion, the Brens and riflemen simply ARE 1944 British Toms!

The Way Ahead (1944) has been on TV twice in the last week just as I got in the door from work. Each time I collapsed in the sofa, watched and enjoyed it - prompting me to order these minis.

Overall, these are THE best WW2 LW Brits on the market if you want character. OK, I'm disappointed that the PIAT gunner is sauntering - I mean WTF?, but I have lot's of spares to replace him with. The officers included in the pack are fine but not up to the quality of the privates in their posing, so I'll be replacing them with figures from Peter Pig's pack no.493 Brit LW Platoon Commanders and promoting those from BR812 to Company commanders. .

I would happily take these Toms out of a pure WW2 role to use in Gear Krieg or a Quatermass style pulp sci fi setting. But for Dr Who, or facing Nazi Zombies, then BR790 British 7th Armoured Motor Platoon still retain the edge, given you could easily imagine them as a 1940's/50's version of U.N.I.T.

Cheers
Mark

p.s. I know one of the presents Heather will get me for Xmas - it's either FOW's Villers-Bocage or Montys-Meatgrinder (from the local Hobbycraft store) - so the Toms will come in handy.
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Eureka Sci Fi Germans - Support Weapon Choices?

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My mate Eli of I See Lead People fame has received an email from Nic at Eureka regarding plans to extend Eureka's current pack of Sci Fi WW2 Germans with heavy weapons.

Eli has posed a topic on TMP here:

"New Heavy Weapon Troopers for Eureka Sci Fi WW2 Germans"

Nic is wondering what suggestions potential customers have for up to four heavy weapons, before the final decision is made and figures sculpted.

Eli himself suggests:

1) Panzerfausts armed troops.

2) Flamethrower.

3) Heavy anti-material/sniper rifle with scope.

4) "Death Ray"

Me? I think they'll be too vanilla for my Weird World War 2 tastes. But, a big F.O. retro flamethrower and a multi-headed or multi-exhaust Panzerfaust would be fine.

Pop over to TMP and have your say!

Cheers
Mark
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15mm WW2 Red Army female soldiers

Whilst on the Neo-Soviet theme, Soldadets (TMP nom de guerre) has submitted WW2 Red Army female soldiers to the Eureka Miniatures 300 Club program.

You can read more about it here on TMP: "Eureka 300 Club: WW2 Russian female soldiers" Topic

It's going to be interesting to see what sculpts come out of the project, and if there will be any potential Soviet WWW2 Zombie fighting heroines. I'll pop for 10 minis for my WW2 Soviet collection, not an earth moving number, I know, but it helps Soldadets project along.

The Red Army Heroine in the photo on the left would be fine in 15mm and could be enhanced by the addition of a Plash-Palatka rain cape.

One of my favourite ever wargame minis was a Platoon 20 Soviet figure standing with a PPSH, wearing pilotka sidecap and Plash-Palatka. He was just the epitome of Soviet soldiery.

Now, I also came across the box art below from a set of 1/35th scale Soviet WW2 miniatures.

If you can image our heroine in the photo above, in same pose but given skirt and boots with overcoat draped over shoulders in a similar manner to the female soldier in the box art - would this make a better character figure? Or should the figure in the box art be an additional figure representing a female Red Army survivor, armed with a PPSH?

Would you prefer a more combatative pose - stalking forwards perhaps, PPSH at the ready?



Cheers
Mark


p.s. A present has arrived this morning in the post, a gift from Heather, as a small token for letting her have the cats and subsequently enduring this reaction to them....BLOODY STREETS: The Soviet Assault on Berlin, April 1945 by A. Stephen Hamilton.

I have no excuse now not to forge on with my Götterdämmerung. Bum! I can feel a Race to the Reichstag game coming on....oooh - FOF or Crossfire, FOF or Crossfire? - wait, I have an idea, something else entirely.......!

Mark

Weird World War II - Retro Neo Soviets

If you remember, I made a post about Weird World War Two just a week or so back. I subsequently placed my first order with Maelstrom Games which arrived in double-quick time the same week.


I have to say that if Battlefront's Soviet Roto Razvedki Universal Carriers (with crew) lived up to expectations then Soviet Leytenant A V Pyl’cyn and Submachine-Gun Company surpassed them. Excellent miniatures sculpted by Evan Allen, they are closer to the original Battlefront figures than those blocky ones which have appeared in recent years. With this Submachine-Gun company you feel that you are getting a whole army, there are so many figures. There's something very satisfying about opening a blister with 40 or so miniatures which make up a complete unit rather than a ziplock bag of 8-10 figures.

Anyhoo....for ages I have hankered for decent Soviet WW2 assault engineer-sappers in camo suits and body armour. I think mostly because there's just something vaguely retro Neo-Soviet Sci Fi or even alternative history about them. They are the sort of soldiers I'd expect to see in a latter day interpretation of Shakespeare. More Ian Mckellan in Richard III (1995) than Kenneth Branagh lovey-lovey.

Not only can I use these as Late WW2 Soviets, but this retro Ne0-Soviet look encourages me to use them both as Zombie-Nazi hunters and also some kind of cheap but plentiful Low-Medium Tech Sci Fi urban combat force, inspiration coming from the photo above.

Well, the good news this week is that Battlefront announced Soviet Engineer-Sappers as upcoming releases on 16th May! Huzzah!

Engineer-Sapper Battalion (SBX13)

and Flame-thrower Company (SU804)

Looking at the photos on the website it appears that Battlefront have pulled off another classic flanker on the other 15mm WW2 manufacturers! Now don't get me wrong, when Battlefront releases something bad it is usually very, very bad. But when good, it's generally GREAT! And SBX13 looks like one of Evan's greats!

Like the Master Chef, I used to turn to Peter Pig to come out with figures that had this sort of uniqueness and character and I'm sure the WW2 wargame fraternity would have hailed the Battlefront Soviet Roto Razvedki Universal Carriers as a stroke of genius if issued by Peter Pig. However, like them or loathe them, in my opinion Battlefront have been at the forefront of turning out some fresh and interesting WW2 miniatures in recent years.

The Soviet Engineer-Sappers Battalion boxed set has 134 figures with loads of decent poses/weapon types including Panzerfausts and plenty of characters, especially amongst the NCOs and officers. The boxed set also includes two generic 1930-40's trucks - useful for Pulp games. You can see from the photo above that the Soviet Engineer-Sappers in body armour and camo suits just look out of the WW2 norm and are well worth being considered for use in a different context, be it Weird WW2, alternate history or Sci Fi.

Cheers
Mark

Weird World War Two

With the end of the month this week, pay day is approaching fast - phew! So, I'm planning a slight body swerve from my more usual hard sci fi gaming this month.

I have a strong interest in apocalyptic survival and therefore have to admit being fascinated by the dying gasps of the Third Reich, especially the last few days in Berlin, which is summed up so wonderfully in Oliver Hirschbiegel's film DOWNFALL.

Add to this a love of Zombie movies ever since a teenager and you can imagine that games involving Nazi science trying to forestall the inevitable but instead create the ultimate Götterdämmerung of walking dead, have an appeal I find difficult resist.

Well, I can resist it no longer. Battlefront recently released a natty little pack containing 3 Soviet Roto Razvedki Universal Carriers (with crew) or £9.50, though you can pick them up in the UK from some stockists for less than £9.00. £3 per vehicle including crew - bargain! I love the dinky toy look of the Carrier, one of my favourite all time historical AFVs, so this set is a definite must have!

I'm ordering these as part of a Soviet Zombie Hunter force for WWW2 Götterdämmerung games, along with the Soviet Leytenant A V Pyl’cyn and Submachine-Gun Company pack to provide the dismounted element. They'll also make a nice tabletop force for Ambush Allet: Force on Force and potentially some low tech militia too.


If the budget stretches, I'll buy the Soviet LW flamethrower platoon too this month but I am going to have to get some German WW2 Zombies first.....these will mostly be derived from Peter Pig's LW Germans surrendering pack 446 and one of the greatcoated mortar crewmen in pack 552. I'll bend the arms and pop the heads forward or to one side and even replace some of them with Peter Pig's separate 'skull' heads.

Now, I'm just wondering which fully armoured Sci Fi miniatures would be best for elite WWW2 Soviets. I'm tempted to field yet more GZG New Israelis but this time with Peter Pig separate heads wearing pilotka sidecaps or Soviet tanker helmets? Or again with headsops, possibly ex-MJ Space Troopers from The Scene?

If any of you are doing or thinking of WWW2 in 15mm I'd welcome any input.

Cheers
Mark