Royston Papworth | 24 Oct 2013 4:54 a.m. PST |
I am thinking about 'doing' WWI in 20mm and was wondering about the available ranges and which one is the best? I know of Britannia, Lancer, IT and EWM. I have some Lancer figures and some Britannia ones are on the way. Haven't seen the EWM, but have seen some of their WW2 figures. So, what range is the most accurate and best sculpted? Which will I be happiest painting and give me the proudest feeling of owning? |
Steve W | 24 Oct 2013 6:42 a.m. PST |
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Green Tiger | 24 Oct 2013 8:03 a.m. PST |
Irregular do a nice range of 1914 types – the Germans are particularly nice, they even doo Belgian dog carts if I remember correctly ? |
Mad Monarchist | 24 Oct 2013 10:57 a.m. PST |
For 1914 Germans I like Lancer and Britannia. IT for 1914 BEF, 1914 German cavalry, 1916-18 British, and all things Middle Eastern. I don't like IT's Adrian helmets, so that pretty much rules out their French and Italian. Their Russians are pretty good, as are B&B Miniatures', but the Austro-Hungarians are simply awful. |
Mad Monarchist | 24 Oct 2013 11:11 a.m. PST |
The following link has a good discussion on IT Figures. link As for the pictures below, the figures used look to be a mix of IT, Hat, and Tumbling Dice. [imghttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t4T_tbpcDYQ/UE30MbE5XXI/AAAAAAAAAI8/z3Hoh2daI_0/s1600/DSC01916.JPG
Some pictures can be seen in the link below. crushthekaiser.blogspot.com |
Royston Papworth | 25 Oct 2013 4:34 a.m. PST |
Thanks Steve! Shame about the lack of photos on the site. Unforgivable in this day and age
Like the links Mad Monarchist. I was thinking either Lancer or Britannia for the 1914 Germans and Britannia for the British. I wasn't overly impressed with the Lancer British. However, for 1916+ I was thinking about Lancer for all. IT for Mespot/Palestine. |
crushthekaiser | 26 Oct 2013 10:47 a.m. PST |
The Fusiliers Marin from our game last year are HaT early war French, converted in FM for us by Sander van Straeten in Belgium. The Belgian gun crew are a combination of Irregular and IT Minatures. The guns are from EWM, who have a growing and excellent range of WW1 stuff. On our current "Miracle of the Marne" game most of the Germans are Hat infantry and jagers with uhlans from Strelets and dismounted cavalry from IT. The French are a combination of HaT early war French and IT Minatures. Basically we'll use whatever works for the games! My BEF are Britannia, Lancer and EWM. |
Royston Papworth | 27 Oct 2013 2:21 a.m. PST |
Cheers Crush! I was wonder about the French, Britannia only have a few listed.. Oh, and I have just ordered Over By Christmas.. 8^) |
Royston Papworth | 27 Oct 2013 3:56 a.m. PST |
oh, btw, does anyone do a suitable 20mm London Bus? I see that IT used to, but on the website it is marked as NYA
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crushthekaiser | 27 Oct 2013 11:35 a.m. PST |
Good to hear you've ordered OBC, hope you enjoy it! I have three London buses for my late war Brits, using the Keilkraft kit from the 1980s. It's actually a 1920 bus but by the time you've painted it up and added a few boards to the side it looks the part. It's easy enough to pick up on ebay, they appear every so often. I think there are some photos of them from our trench game in 2011 on the early part of the blog. IT Minatures do some Brits seated on the top deck of a bus and they fit in quite well, but I also used the seated limber riders from the Hat US artillery set (with their legs trimmed off a bit!). I think the driver came from IT Minatures as well. |
Royston Papworth | 28 Oct 2013 6:49 a.m. PST |
Thanks Crush. Although it will be early war first, I'll keep an eye out for those, in the hope I can pick a couple up by the time I move onto the Late War armies. Hopefully Lancer may make a nice resin one
hint, hint
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John Dixon | 28 Oct 2013 1:10 p.m. PST |
All the ranges have good and weak areas. I have armies for early and late WW1. For late period I have mainly IT Germans and French, and lancer British but including EWM who do a great set of late war British highlanders. My support weapons are EWM for British (check out the teams carrying mortars, Lewis guns and Vickers mg) with IT, Lancer and Tumbling dice for German. For early war I am using Britannia and Lancer for the German infantry, Britannia German artillery and machine guns and lancer for the British and Highland infantry. Britannia do fantastic limbers and limber crews for brits and germans. The best british field guns are Lancer/EWM with crews from both mixed together. Tumbling dice are a bit small in comparison to lancer/EWM and have less detail in my opinion. But they are the only company to do Indian infantry. IT are also a bit smaller then EWM/Lancer. Britannia are a bit bigger than EWM/Lancer Britannia and lancer both do good detailed cavalry for British and germans For tanks I use EWM for their great range of late war/1919 tanks and also Emhar/Riveresco What I cannot find are deployed limbers for field guns and staff cars/lorries etc All the companies above have very good service and are always pleased to help. For rules we have played Kaiserbosh, Crush the Kaiser, Square bashing and Through the mud and blood. All give a good game, my personal fav at the moment is square bashing (peter pig) hope that may be of help. The armies showing off all the above for early and late war will be taking part in our game at Salute 2014. |
Royston Papworth | 29 Oct 2013 5:07 a.m. PST |
Thanks for the reply John. That helps. So you mix Lancer and Britannia. That is good. Come Salute, I'll be along for a good look. Only 6 months to go! 8^) |
crushthekaiser | 29 Oct 2013 1:08 p.m. PST |
Hi Bindon and John I agree about Tumbling Dice, they do come up a bit on the small side, I think as they are 1/76th as opposed to 1/72nd. IT do have both Sikhs and Punjabis in their range, and I have used some of their figures to mix in with Hat's WW1 Indians for my Mesopotamia and early Western Front armies. Don't forget Bindon that you can use buses for the early war too, and in some ways they look better as they can still be in their original livery! I have some staff cars converted from toy cars that I found at a bootfair, perfect scale and one is even a Vauxhall Prince which is the right car! I've found that Lancer, Britannia and EWM all mix ok. IT are a little smaller. I'm sure that WW1 will be popular at Salute next year given the approaching centenary! We will of course have a WW1 themed game – I guess you'd be surprised if we didn't! Getting ready to go to Crisis at the weekend, a show we always enjoy. |
BlackWidowPilot | 30 Oct 2013 3:14 p.m. PST |
Reviresco makes a bunch of very nice 1/72 scale white metal kits of AFVs, softskins, and artillery pieces for the Great War. You can look 'em up here: tin-soldier.com
Pegasus makes 1/72 scale plastics that are extremely useful for filling out the rank and file, and HaT Industrie makes a whole plethora of Great War subjects in plastic, from ANZACs to Turks, Russians to British to Austro-Hungarian heavy weapons, et al.
Hope this helps! Leland R. Erickson Metal Express metal-express.net
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crushthekaiser | 31 Oct 2013 1:10 p.m. PST |
Reviresco do make some very nice stuff I agree. I have a couple of their armoured cars that I picked up at bring and buys at shows over the years. But if you are based in the UK (as I am) shipping costs from the US for metal kits, especially if as a wargamer you want them in quantity, make them hard to afford. That's why I was soooooooooooooo pleased when the great folks at EWM produced their WW1 tank range – the St Chamond and Schneider are superb, and they make the only kit that I know of (for a reasonable price) of a MkV. Amiens 1918 anyone? |
Royston Papworth | 01 Nov 2013 2:33 p.m. PST |
just picked the Keilkraft kit off ebay
. 8^) Thanks again for the pointer Crush! |
John Dixon | 01 Nov 2013 2:45 p.m. PST |
Ive got some trucks and French tanks from Riveresco, solid kits but hard to put together, lots of filing and preparation. The EWM tanks are easy to assemble. The Mark IX, Mark C and Liberty tank are unique kits. They now are producing the FT17 command tank – great kit |
number4 | 21 Jun 2015 10:12 a.m. PST |
I like the look of the BEF figures from Lancer and have some on order, but their Huns just don't do it for me…. Are any of the plastic figures compatible with Lancer? |