"Help getting started with 28mm ww2" Topic

I would like to start collecting,painting and skirmishing with 28mm miniatures.

Specifically I would like to create small units for the German 15th army, the First Canadian army, Polish 1st armoured division, British 49th, 52nd, 1st corps, 12th ss, and I ss panzer corps.

I am casting a wide net to see what I can create from whats out there.
Where should I be looking for minis, vehicles, and tanks? I am fine using die-cast (corgi), resin, or plastic models for vehicles but prefer metal minis for individual troops.
I would like to maintain some continuity in terms of mini/vehicle size. I prefer high quality sculpts but I will take what I can get or what works.

Can anyone make suggestions as to where I should look for these, which to buy, web sites with info etc? Is there a FAQ?

Thanks in advance

I would suggest that you concentrate on Artizan and Crusader for figures. The ranges are very similar in size and sculpting style. You can easily mix them in a unit.

artizandesigns.com
crusaderminiatures.com

Bolt Action have a good range but they are much smaller figures. I would not mix them with Artizan.

Black Tree Design are slightly bigger than Artizan but can fill in any gaps. Black Tree have some very good German, Russian and American figures but avoid the British infantry as the sculpts are not very nice.

Tamiya 1:48 kits give you a very good range of vehicles. Corgi 1:50 are nice but probably only available on Ebay now.

Mick

We're a Canadian based company and offer a wide range of 28mm/1/56 scale AFV's, German, U.S., Russian. Our Sherman V and Firefly Vc would work well for you Canadian and Polish choices.

diewaffenkammer.com

Cheers,

jeff

For Miniatures I would definately look at Victory Force.

victoryforce.com

Very nice range for Germans (Wehrmacht, SS and Fallschirmjäger as well as special formations like Pioniere and Gebirgsjäger), US (Army as well as D-Day and Market Garden Airbourne), Soviets and Brits / Commonwealth.

I use them together with Corgi & Hobby Masters die-casts as well as a number of plastic manufacturers (Tamiya, AFV, Hobby Boss, Skybow) and they look perfect. But that is because they were sculpted to match those lines!

They are anatomically super correct, have great animation and are 100% historically correct.

I know their Germans mix well with Artzinas later German releases. And their Brits do fine with BAM, if you really should want to mix.

Cheers,

Burkhard
dhc-wargames.de

I especially like using Artizan and Crusader.
I use the Crusader early war Germans against the Artizan stubborn French reisistance. And I use the Artixan Winter Germans and Americans, I really like that line.
It allows me to use a lot of my Lemax Christmas village stuff since it is Winter, brrrr!

Bolt Action much smaller? I'm not too sure I'd agree with that. I mix Bolt Action and Artizan fine.

Now if you were talking 25mm Battle Honours then maybe (except their French). The Black tree sculpts are a bit touch and go depending on who sculpted them, their original releases were very good but saying that I recently had some samples (about a year ago) which were pretty good.

As for tanks, I go 1/56. Usually the same price as a Tamiya kit (in the UK) but easier to build

Guy

Guy,

I would agree on the size difference between between BAM and Artizan. There is a lot of scale creep in the BAM line. The Richard Ansell sculpts are a good deal smaller (both in hight and heft) then the Paul Hicks sculpts. And then the Paul hicks sculpts are not 100% consistant in size either (especially in the British range there are noticeable variations. I can not comment how that has changed with the takeover by Warlord, but having yet more sculptors do the work sure will not help.
Now Artizan were always lightly bigger, but the later sculpts have undergone a slight change in style (more detailed) and from the minis i have I can say that they are a 1mm or two taler then the old ones.

Cheers,

Burkhard

Dear Guy,

I may not have a representitive collection of BAM. I have vehicle crews and some German artillery. However, I have lots of Artizan WW2 (over 200) and Black Tree WW2 (80 or so) and about 20 Crusader and a 15 Bolt Action.
The Bolt Action ones that I have are very much smaller than the Artizan and Crusader.

Regards
mick

I agree, Victory Force is a highly detailed and very historically accurate miniatures line second to none in my opinion. The line also has separate hands so you can arm your minis in pretty much any way you want so no minis will look the same in your force. Huge line of Russian, German, American and they just released the beginning of the Brit/Commonwealth line. These work great with 1/48 model kits or 1/50 die-cast stuff. VF also has a cool Weird WWII line so if you get board with the same old thing you can mix it up with some jet pack equipped Hitler Youth to slow down the Red Wave.

victoryforce.com

Check them out,
Brian

I have also very good experience with victory force miniatures, they look great with interesting poses , casting is high quality!

I only collect Victory Force these days. The detail and accuracy are superb with some really great poses, not just the generic pointing rifle you see everywhere. The sculpter,James Bland, takes Yahoo! pools at least once a year to see what customers want to see made and is very active in the community.

I really appreciate all the advice. A bigger and faster response than I expected. Cheers to TMP members.

I haven't responded sooner because I have been looking at web page after web page of minis (and enjoying it!). I realized this is not going to be one stop shopping, no matter how I look at it I will be frankensteining something together.

The victory force miniatures are dynamic and nicely proportioned but they fall short of what I need to create Canadian, British and Polish units. If the germans work well with Artizans I will mix and match them in.

If the Crusader and Artizan minis are the exact same size as Mick is saying then that is the direction I am going. The variety of troop types won me over.

It looks like some of the vehicles are hard to find and I might as well forget about finding them all in the same scale.

JTFM enterprises looks quite good. I can't believe you're a Canadian company and you don't have a Sexton or a Kangaroo for shame… j/k

Thanks all, I am on my way.

Dear Rhino,

Here are Crusader and Artizan Fallschirmjager side by side.
Left 8 are Crusader, right 8 are Artizan.
link

My Gallery
link

Mick

Geez, those are pretty much bang on.

Nice camo BTW

I'm sold.

My favorites are Artizan and Crusader, hands down. Mike Owen and Mark Sims both apprenticed at Wargames Foundry and their styles are very similar. I heard that they collaborated closely to make their lines compatible, at least early on.

I also like BAM, but their offerings are inconsistent as some have pointed out. I agree that their Germans are noticeably smaller than Artizan/Crusader, but their new Airborne seems to match Artizan's better.

If you choose VF, don't get anything else because they are the biggest 28mm and only mix with other VF figures. Jim has vastly improved his sculpting since his old EE days.

BTD is not bad, but there are better choices out there.

It's a curious thing between Paul Hicks (BAM) and Mike Owen (Artizan, BEF) sculpts – Paul's work always looks much smaller, but stand them against an Artizan sculpt, and they're near as dammit identically sized.

The main difference, if you're being picky, is that Paul's work on webbing is much much smaller than Mike's slightly bolder style.

It's simply a matter of personal preference.

Another Canadian (Toronto-based) 1/56 company is Army Group North Miniatures:
agnminiatures.com

I also disagree about Bolt Action Miniatures being too small.

I mix the Crusader, Bolt Action, Artizan, Black Tree Design (which seems to be the biggest) and Wargames Foundry with no problems.

picture

I also suggest you check out Mainly 28's

they have a scale checker to compare actual figures

link

It isn't so much that the heights between BAM and Artizan figures are different, 28mm being equal. It's the little things, like size of kits, helmets, limb thickness, etc.

The BAM Germans (and BTD's as well) are thinner limbed with smaller kits (bread bags, mask canisters) than Artizan's. But the 'deal breaker' for me as far as mixing BAM with Artizan are the disparity in helmet size. BAM's German helmets are too small compared to Artizan's and Crusader's. Sorry, the size difference is just too glaring.

My collection includes Bolt Action, Black Tree, Artizan, Crusader, Battle Honours, West Wind, Alpha, Foundry.

In terms of size – Bolt Action, Black Tree, Artizan, Foundry and Crusader all work well together. Battle Honours and West Wind are smaller, but I mix them with the others and don't mind. Alpha fits in the the first group but no longer produces WWII so it's a moot point.

In terms of sculpting style – Of the first group they are all similar except for Bolt Action, which are finer detailed.

The majority of my models are Black Tree because when I started out that's what the local shop carried. They now carry Crusader instead because they get supplied by Old Glory.
Black Tree are mostly very nice, the casting on my guys could have been done better, they required cleanup and creative painting -- but I got these 7 or 8 years ago so I don't know if that has improved.
Bolt Action are nice but I am not such a fan of Wargames Factory style so I don't know where this range is going. A year ago I would have told you to stick to Bolt Action as much as possible. Now we'll have to see.
Artizan are well sculpted and cleanly cast. The early ones were largish, but the newer ones are closer in size to Black Tree. The equipment can still be oversized (even for 28mm) on the newer ones.
I just started buying Crusader. They fit in with Black Tree and Artizan, but the sculpting style is a little crude in my opinion. The hands on some of my new Soviet guys are atrociously sculpted (not a casting issue). These are cast by Old Glory which do an adequate job but expect mould lines.
West Wind can be nice but are blocky.
Battle Honours are not my cup of tea. Sausage fingers galore.
Foundry are very nice but too expensive and limited to build up a large force on.

If I had to start over, I would look seriously at what Bolt Action, Artizan and Black Tree offered.

For vehicles I prefer 1/48 kits and 1/50 diecast. When I get around to Pacific (hello Brigade Games and The Assault Group!) I may have to go with 1/56.

I hope this is going to be helpful. Didn't intend on the length.

Thanks for the extra information.

I would have guessed Foundry were too small, and yes they are steeply priced, especially in Canada. Some cool poses though.
I have looked high and low on the web and quite frankly I don't see how I can't mix scales on vehicles. I have been surprised by some finds however. I am more of a figure painter than a military modeler so assembling Tamiya kits holds a little less appeal than resin or die-cast models.

I still haven't made my big purchases yet, but I will be spending some real loot in the next two or three days.
Cheers

There's actually very few vehicles you can't buy in 1/56th 28mm scale.

Maybe my searches are poor because I am looking for the names of the Canadian vehicles I know. They may have different nomenclature elsewhere.
Have a go yourself.

GM Otter
C15TA
Sexton GPO
Sexton
Priest Kangaroo
RAM Kangaroo
Ford Lynx Scout Car
Chevy C60L truck
Wartime Dodge Trucks
Archer Tank destroyer

I woundn't mind finding a few Polish Late War minis with 'P' Style helmets and pixie suits for amoured units.

But yes I have found multiples of some of the mainstays in 1/56.

Ah, well yes, you'll find everything except the obscure Canadian stuff ;-)

Having had my own 28mm tank making firm, you have to stick with the mainstream – the master mould and first run costs normally rule out anything which will sell less than 20 models.

An Archer would appeal to probably four people, myself included, but given there's never more than £5.00 GBP profit in a £20.00 GBP tank, there's no way it'll repay the £300.00 GBP first run costs (not to mention mastering costs).

JTFM has just released the ubiquitous Dodge truck (the six wheeler, if that's what you're after).

The Sherman cut-downs you'll have to modify yourself from existing models.

As a proud Canadian it makes me sort of sad that the 400,000+ CMP trucks aren't recognized in model form.

I know what you are saying though. Who wants to paint a softskin truck or armoured car when they can paint a Jagdtiger, Sturm Tiger, Grille, Luchs, or Elephant even though the chance of meeting one on the field is pretty much nil.

Perhaps one day I will pay to have them done up myself and put my money where my mouth is.

Cheers

I have mixed BAM and Crusader Americans without too much trouble. And BAM makes certain things that no one else does like a regular infantry (not airborne) M1919 A6 .30 cal LMG -- for dome reason everyone else only makes the M1919 A4 on the tripod.

I do, howver, agree, that the Artizan BAM do not mix well -- I picked up some Artizan Germans with StG-44, something BAM does not make (except in Waffen SS), and they were noticably larger. On the positive side, I saw a new BAM Panzergrenadier master at Historicon and it was very nice -- but can't say where it fit in terms of size since there was nothing to compare it with. Moreover, it seems as if BAM has lots of plans, including Polish Paras whereas it is my impression that Artizan and Crusader in particular have not released as much WWII recently. BAM is also releasing a good number of vehicles.