" Best of Class WW2 vehicles in 20mm?" Topic

If Money was no object, what are the coolest and best executed WW2 vehicles out there?

They dont HAVE to be the most expensive but price shouldn't be a deterrent. It might be that there are several overlapping makers which fall into the best.

Some of these categories might help with a response but they are by no means the only criteria:

Nicely sculpted

Can be easily constructed

Robust for Wargaming

Enough diversity of selection to create, maintain and expand a given major power's force.

Well proportioned, to scale and fits in with other makes easily.

If this has been covered ad nauseum already, please give me the links, the search function on here isn't quite what I would like it to be.

Hat Industrie/ Armourfast for price, ease of assembly and robustness. They also have a pretty good selection.

The diecast plastic/metal ready builds are good value, no building to do and often well painted, usually as cheap if not cheaper than many kits……

1st place Milicast, 2nd Place Milicast, 3rd Place All the Rest.

You know, I just discovered this MMS Models and they're already out of business?

I checked out Milicast. Resin? I thought resin was both brittle and liable to be pitted with both casting holes and irregularities?

Resin casting requires more care than metal in many ways, so some resin requires a lot of clean up (hole filling).

As for brittle, yes, it is relatively fragile compared to metal, and plastic kits. In my limited experience, worst case for resin is it shatters, while other materials may be salvaged in many cases.

That said our club uses a ton of resin, some of it going on 20 years old….

Dragon 1/72 die cast models are wonderful. Wish I had bought them when they were cheap in Target!!

For fast construction, well modeled vehicles, my go tos are as follows:

Plastic Soldier Company
ArmorFast
Early War Miniatures

If I buy from anywhere else, it's because of specific model availability.

Not all resin is brittle and holey, we use polyurethane which is a plastic feeling resin, much stronger, and use a vacuum chamber to get rid of the holes
lancerminiatures.com

1. Milicast
2. Plastic Soldier Company
3. Brittania
4. Ready to Roll
5. Armourfast (lower because of limited models)
6. Early War Miniatures ( No 1. For early war vehicles and figures.)

JMHO
I play late war Normandy.

@wrgmr, this Ready-to-Roll stuff comes solidly cast onto a base?

People seem to like this Milicast; they must be very high class of model?

Also, any love for the all metal kits like SHQ?

link

I find the all metal kits difficult to assemble. The tolerances inherent in metal casting make the fit somewhat rough. Also, too much superglue makes my eyes itch. I'll still do metal model though if I need a specific vehicle and SHQ are among the best.

For me, Milicast is what I prefer although there can be a lot of extra parts making them a bit unfriendly to excessive handling. The pieces are cast very well and in all the kits I have there have been no issues at all. They are a bit pricey though.

Early War Miniatures (EWM) is also worth a look. Their kits are also very well done and a number come almost or completely assembled and ready to go. They are also much easier on the wallet. They were quite prolific for awhile but have slowed down.

I agree with Rich on potential issues with metal kits. If the fit is poor they can be a real pain to assembled.

Since I retired 3.5 years ago I've spent about £3,000.00 GBP pound on Milicast, spent another £1,500.00 GBP in the MMS closing sale, Milicast is gorgeous, can't wait to get some of the centurions he has done

Years ago Johnny Lightning made a US M3 halftrack mortar carrier that was really great -- and cheap! Used it right our of the package; it's diecast. They are probably out of production but get one if you see it on eBay or whatever. Luckily I bought two and was able to give one to a friend (the OOB scale we use -- Command Decision -- only requires one of these per US tank battalion).

Well I am almost certainly going to pay someone to assemble and paint these things for me, thus, although the information of easy assembly and ready to go out of the box die-cast vehicles is no doubt of great interest to many, I personally am looking for the most handsome models that are robust enough to survive handling.

Revell and Dragon
You will be tough to beat the dragon diecast that many have mentioned. They could use a little weathering but your not going to beat them

I hate resin with a passion

Tough call, rather depends on how you define 'robust'. The Revell kits are brill same for Dragon but often in my experience let down by the rubber band tracks Dragon use. The Tiger I/II tracks are a serious pain though solved with some OKB resin replacements.; I tend to PSC for gaming these days but I like the fettling :)

PSC models

Dragon and Revell

PSC

And as people say some of the diecasts are hard to beat, couple of big sellers that have all sorts of makes.
L

Can one use 15mm buildings for 20mm WW2?

Since I play Command Decision with 1 stand= 4-6 vehicles, all my buildings are nominally 15mm. If you're doing a 1:1 game, I"d stick with 20mm buildings.

Who makes the nicest and least brittle? Sdkfz 250s, M3 Scout cars, jeeps, Opel Blitzs and 2-1/2 ton trucks and American jeeps.

I was looking at the rapid fire ready to go models and they seem a bit largish for 20mm?

Also, are the Milicast wheeled vehicles brittle at the wheels? I tend to be a clumsy creature.

Here's a good blog discussing 1/72-76 buildings:

link

Revell and Dragon AFVs for detail, then the rest. I agree with some of the comments above about fit and finish on Metal and with Resin being brittle.

Do you guys repaint the Dragon Brand vehicles or use them as they come in the box?

I use them (and other companies such as Hobby Master and Easy Model) right from the box. Some folks will alter the tank numbers for a bit of variety and others I have seen on here weather the vehicles a bit more. Hard to improve on the Dragon paint jobs.

It seems the armourfast models are very smooth. Is that a benefit for a wargamer? I suppose you can laden tanks with stowage.

Does anyone have a considered opinion of Italeri Fast Assembly size comparison with Armourfast? Are they compatible?

How do people feel about SHQ vehicles and tanks?

They do some excellent stuff, tends more towards the 1/76 side of things but with the usual 'dont mix em in the same unit' with 72nd scale stuff they are really very nice.
L

I see. So who makes a good Crusader III? I see people make Crusader I and II but in 1/72 but who makes a Crusader III kit that's not too hard to construct?

I would imagine a Crusader III is key for 8th Army.

I think theres one done by S-Models, havent looked in the box but made a few of their kits and there pretty good. Theres a rumour that PSC are working on one. Theres a Hasegewa one look em up on Henk.
L
Useful search site
scalemates.com

It looks like there are upgrade kits for S-Models, including one to make a Crusader III:

link