"10mm British & Italian infantry for North Africa" Topic

Good evening!

I'm looking for some advice about figure ranges for the North African theatre, as I work myself up to build a couple of platoons for Chain of Command.

I like Pendraken figures, and they cover desert British and Italian infantry well enough, though each pack of ten figures has maybe between one and three differing poses from what I've purchased from them in the past. That's not a big problem when the figures are so nice though!

Pithead on the other hand, I don't have any experience with them and from the photos on their site they look little lumpier than Pendraken, though still clear enough. Their infantry are packaged in convenient packs of 30 which (certainly for the British) gives me pretty much a full platoon from a single pack, with a good variety of action poses including prone LMGs. However their Italian range only offers greatcoated infantry and Bersaglieri.

Finally, Minifigs do both their own range and Wargames South figures. WGS are reputedly very nice sculpts for their size! But again, I have no experience with either range.

To make the decision harder, most of the manufacturers are lacking photos of the figures I'm interested in with Pithead being the notable exception there. Could anyone advise me on how the different manufacturers compare to each other and which ranges would be best suited to skirmish gaming the desert theatre?

Thanks!

Fletch

I don't have the two armies you're asking about, but the Minifigs packs I do have (US,German,Russian) contain an amazing variety of poses. Good clean sculpts,too.

Minifigs are beautiful figures, but while the same height as Pendraken, they are much slimmer figures. I don't use them in the same unit. I have lots of Pithead vehicles, but only use their infantry to fill gaps in the other lines. 10mm is the best WW2 scale. Plenty of table space for tanks, while the infantry and weapons are big enough to be recognizable.

I've been impressed with Minifigs 15mm ranges in the past but never seen their 10s, would you have any pictures to illustrate? And have you any idea of what variety of weapons/poses their infantry packs come with?

At £3.95 GBP for 28 figures in their 8th Army pack if it has the right mix that could be a handy platoon pack to individually base.

Also, do Minifigs include platoon weapons such as the Bren, Boys, and 2-inch mortar in their infantry packs? Or just the 'support weapons' pack?

Sorry no pics, WW2 is packed away but best recollection is that the support weapons are Vickers MMG, 3inch mortars and Boys ATR, I thinks Brens come in infantry pack, multiple shooting and advancing poses as well a officers included.

Also sorry for no pics. You can see SOME of the Minifigs Infantry on the website--click on the underlined packs. A couple of the US Infantry pics show painted examples. No Italians,though,unfortunately,but at least you can get an idea of the style.
As for pack content, I'd hesitate about giving any answers,as mine are the old GFIs. Tom Dye was apparently more generous with his packs: both Infantry and Support packs contained 36 figures. The Infantry pack had 9 poses (4 of each),all rifle or Thompsons,except for the 4 officers. The support pack had a mix of BAR,bazooka,30 caliber air and water-cooled,,mortar,flamethrower,and 3 guys with what look like satchel charges. Also spotters/officers with binoculars. I'm talking about the US packs,now.

I would suppose the UK packs contain a similar mix,but I do not know.
I hope this helps a little.

I think I was mistaken, the Brens are also in the support pack. No light mortars.

Thanks for the advice! I've emailed Minifigs for clarification, but I might order a couple of sample packs and see how the Minifigs Italians square up to the Pithead British.