"15mm Eureka Sci-fi Armored Germans Expansion Project" Topic

Good news everyone…
About a month ago, I emailed Nic Robson at Eureka about the possibility of expanding the line of 15mm Sci-fi German Stormtroopers. These figures are lovely armored troopers intended for Weird War Two games but suitable for other sci-fi settings as well. With all the recent interest in WWW2 gaming, this just seemed a natural suggestion.

Well the long of the short of it is that Nic seemed to be open to the idea and asked me to send him a list of possible poses that I thought might make good expansions to the line. I sent him the following list -

1. Officer w/drum-fed SMG advancing or standing

2. Junior Officer/NCO w/drum-fed SMG advancing and gesturing command

3. Communications w/long-range radio pack

4. Tankbuster w/Panzerfaust (variants?)

5. Flamethrower

6. Vehicle Gunner for use in halftracks, armored Cars, etc – standing figure with attached LMG

7. Sharpshooter w/IR-equipped scoped assault rifle. Not a sniper but simply an on-hand sharpshooter to support armored assault troopers

8. A re-working of the existing MG gunner to make the gun look more like an MG42 with a drum-fed ammo system and rename the existing MG gunner as an "Assault Cannon" – think portable support cannon developed from anti-tank rifles, etc.

Nic has since gotten back to me and is going to post these up on his site as Sci-fi Germans w/ Heavy Weapons (300CLUBSF07). He will be contacting those who put in orders for them asking which of the 8 possible poses they would be most interested in. Nic and his sculptor Mike Broadbent are pretty sure all of them are viable and possible. The intent is to try to get things rolling in the next three months. Not a bad timeline if you consider this isn't something they have been working on until now.

So, if you are interested in seeing Eureka expand it's Weird World War 2 stuff go and let your voices be heard.

Thanks,

-Eli

That's great news! I've loved the looks of those Germans since the first time I saw them, but decided not to invest because of the lack of diversity in that line. A specialist pack would go far towards addressing that, say a leader, two anti-tank troops, two heavy machine guns, an RTO, a medic, and a sniper. Or ditch the medic and have two snipers. Something along those lines.

If it were up to me, I would narrow the list to 4. That way it can be a single pack. I know, more poses and types are awesome, but the figures are more likely to get made if they are a single pack!!

I'd ask them to do a combined command/heavy weapons pack:
An Officer (#1 or #2)
Radio Figure (#3)
Tankbuster (#4)
Heavy Weapon (#8)

I think those four types might have the broadest appeal. As for the four I would leave out: The scope guy is easily converted from the existing figures, and the vehicle rider is a bit specialized. Plus within a weird war setting, its unlikely that the vehicle crews would be wearing this battle armor. Leaving out the flame thrower is a closer call, but I think a HMG and panzerfauste are much more common and useful weapons. Finally, I'd rather have a radio figure than a second officer, given the constraints of trying to do a single pack with four poses!

I'll second that list, Ivan, but I prefer the gesturing officer (#2).

Already converted a few Panzerfaust guys, so I want Panzerschrecks (oh, wait, already converted a few of those, too)!

(curse you… I've already bought 30 of each of the existing ones!)

*IF* the decision gets made to retire the current MG trooper, then I'd want the flamethrower. However, I'm assuming that option is unlikely, due to the mastering process.

Good idea! Here are the appropriate links ;-)

link

link

Could you enquire from Nic what is in the current Heavy Weapon proposal? I would be interetesed in some kind of ternch mortar like this:

picture
picture
picture

I've been hoping this range would be expanded for a while. I second the panzerschrenk vote!

Good initiative EMU!

PS. An additional pack of 4 generic artillery figures w/ gasmmask (no cannon though) might be useful to outfight existing WWI, WWII, or Sci-Fi artilley. Just a thought!

Baby steps guys.

The list you see there was my grab bag of pose ideas. When Nic and I were corresponding, he asked me for a quick list of what I thought would make for good poses.

Most of my poses focus on mobile elements as I tend to play these guys as elite assault troops – fast moving, heavy hitting and unencumbered by static weapons. I'm not saying there is no room for other poses, but I imagine that artillery and mortar teams might be less-armored and that such support would be from regular units.

If you have other great ideas, please send them Eureka's way. The more obvious support there is, the more likely Nic will run with this.

-Eli

I have a bunch of these guys and need some heavy weapons so I placed a pre-order. Hopefully they get enough to get some made.

Jeff

More news on the Eureka SF Germans:

link
TMP link

Question:
Would those figures work for this scenario?
TMP link

Dan

EXCELLENT NEWS! Nic from Eureka emailed me last night to see how many of the NEW Sci-Fi germans i'd want to order, as I'd pre-ordered the heavy weapons troops thru the 300 club.

Well, they're sculpted and he sent PICTURES! The pictures are on my home computer -- so i'll have to wait until this eve to post them.

Anyways, the line is expanding by *12* new sculpts, for a total of 16! And, they're fabulous! They are:

300SCI01 Sci-Fi German Stormtrooper with assault rifle (7)
300SCI02 Sci-Fi German Stormtrooper with Section Automatic Weapon SAW (1)
300SCI03 Sci-Fi German Stormtrooper Officer (1)
300SCI04 Sci-Fi German Stormtrooper with 'flamer' (1)
300SCI05 Sci-Fi German Stormtrooper team with Light Anti-armour Weapon LAW (1)
300SCI06 Sci-Fi German Stormtrooper with Auto Cannon (1)
300SCI07 Sci-Fi German Stormtrooper Sniper (1)
300SCI08 Sci-Fi German Stormtrooper Spotter (1)
300SCI09 Sci-Fi German Stormtrooper comms (1)

The original sculpts have been split into two codes -- the LMG-style trooper is 300SCI02 SAW, and the 3 Assault Rifle troops are in 300SCI01 with 4 NEW SCULPTS! One is crouching & firing, one is running, the other two are advancing IIRC.

The LAW team is two figures – the gunner w/ panzershreck/bazooka style shoulder tube, and a loader. The Auto cannon is a LARGE tripod-style heavy weapon in a style similar to the SAW. The LAW and Auto cannon cost the same as two individual figures.

The sci-fi germans are probably tied with Khurasan's aliens for my absolute favorite 15mm troops. So i'm understandably ecstatic for these new releases.

It sounds like they won't be added to the website for a couple months however.

Weird, I didn't get an email on this at all. Cool news though.

I got the email as well.

The one troop type I would have really like to have seen in that list is a trooper with a more portable panzerfaust style weapon rather than the Panzershreck. It strikes me as a more dynamic weapon better suited to assaults and only requires a single man to operate it.

In fact, back when I put in the proposal for the very first 300 Club entry for these, I suggested that the troopers all be cast with a panzerfaust slung on their backs as part of their standard kit. At the time I was imagining them as assault troops mainly and having every trooper with a panzerfaust would make them extra hard-hitting.

-Eli

"It sounds like they won't be added to the website for a couple months however."

With pics, I hope.

Dan

Nic is good with the pics man. You might even see them painted :)

-Eli

Here's the pics!

link

OK. I'm sold!

Dan
TMP link

Looking good!

-Will

Oh, damnhell… That just about doubled my order size! Or maybe I'll just rebuild the 101st gepanzerte Jaeger company with more variations in figure pose.

"Images of the Lost Battalion" indeed!

Curse you, Nic! My bank account is begging for mercy!

How about a Panzerschreck sold in packs so that we could glue them to which ever trooper we wanted. Or does someone make them in 15mm?

Doug,

Do you mean Panzerfausts? I have not found anybody who sells seperate panzerfausts in 15mm.

-Eli

Actually, it's pretty easy to make a 15mm PzFaust from a couple pieces of styrene… I just need to remember which size I used for the warhead!