"Full Metal miniatures" Topic

Anyone familiar with these? How do they match up to Empress or Gringo40s?

fullmetalminiatures.com

Never heard of this company.

Never of them either but I'm keen to try them out when they restock their Australian forces.

See the review here which suggests that they are on the large side of 28mm (oh good) and would so fit better with Gringos40 than Empress I suspect.

link

Clearly early days as much is promised but most figures that do actually carry a photo are out of stock. Some clever choices though. Catherine Leroy the war photographer is a great idea. The stretcher party I have long been tempted by.

For once the maker has specified the scale of the vehicles at 1.56th. Very welcome

I have searched a bit further and found a comparison of one of their figures with an Empress Miniature in a similar pose. I think this does show the massive difference, but they might well fit in with Gringos40, which I went for right from the start. Still tempted.

I was however immediately struck by the odd helmet shape and the curious blooper. Read the comments and they feel the same
link

Liam, thanks for the side by side.

Scale creep at its worst.

I really don't understand why they would produce a line so far out of scale with other figure ranges.

Must stress the really nice photo is not my work but copied from that link.

Hard to judge but the weird helmet shape may appear in only a few of the small range, to judge by the rather small photos on the homepages. Certainly some reviews suggest they are much better than their own publicity suggests!

Scale creep could allow one to pack in far more detail, but it seems odd to tie these big figures in with 1/56 scale vehicles. I would have to remove that awful head and swap it for a Gringos40. The blooper…..I guess I would have to live with that monster. I am tempted by the stretcher party and esp Catherine Leroy, the photographer. If I do get some shortly I will post some comparison photos.

deadhead, thanks for the links and photo. I went with the Empress figures because they were right in front of me:-) but I'm not disappointed.
That photo pretty much rules these out.

I agree. Way too big for me also.

I get that a lot……

in my dreams anyway.

It is all a matter of taste or possibly pure chance, as to which line one started with. I have rarely ventured outside Napoleonics, indeed the only exception in 20 years was my Missouri ACW Bushwhackers! I have had my obsessions over the years however eg Pearl Harbour, Bay of Pigs, Waterloo, Second Free French Armoured etc….but Khe Sanh was always there since school days.

I am huge fan of Paul Hicks and think his Saxon heavy cavalry are amongst the best in my collection. But the larger Gringos40 figures suit my style of slap it on painting. I think these would mix with Gringos but suspect an expensive need for an upgrade on some eg head swaps

Must again say thanks for pointing me towards this company that I too had not heard of. I only put in a small order (the photographer and the stretcher party) but certainly cannot fault the speed of service, especially over the Christmas break.

Folk did raise the worry about these 28mm figures being big lads and they certainly could not go with Empress Marines. Sheer genius is the Catherine Leroy figure; she was tiny in reality and the sculpting is amazing.

The stretcher party comes with many a separate limb, but, for once, these have decent pins and sockets to aid adhesion. They are the same height as Gringos40, but the impression is of stockier build. I think they can be combined easily. The helmets? Some I do think need a little bit of filing for the correct shape (clever that the medic with the IVI even has a plastic toy octopus in his headband…all he needs now is an M48).

These are just simplest flash photography of what arrived in post an hour ago and do not do them justice of course. Even a simple undercoat would greatly enhance the appearance, but here they are with a Gringos40 LT.

deadhead, thanks for the comparison shots.

I have to say, as a total Gringos 40 fan for VN, the few figures I have from this range have also impressed me (I do not have shares in the former I must stress).

The helmets on some (stress some) are truly awful. They need much filing (transforms them) and simply anything in the helmet band on both sides hides many an error in shape. They are the same height as Gringos 40, but much "stockier". There is no other word. But they are within the range of human physiques in practice. Every single one is a super heavyweight. Tonight's UFC from Las Vegas…. they would be the main event.

I think in any wargame they would mix together….on slightly separated bases though. I was impressed by the delivery service. New company I think…needs our support

I have a platoon of their NVA.
Height, girth and weapon wise they match my Baker Company.
They do appear mildly chunky due to being loaded down with rucksacks and kit. also pith helmets covered in cloth.

The being burdened down with so much kit and the cloth covered helmets probably make them best for use as either troops moving down the trail or say 1965-67 period if you paint them more in the early war khaki colours rather than green.

Or maybe I have seen reruns of "The Green Beret", movie too often?

SWMBO swore and cursed at her very finest (and bear in mind we worked in Rock and Roll for a very long time) putting the bicycle porters together, but they were well worth effort and have appeared in a great many of our games. The stretcher team fits very well with the rest of her company which is all Gringo40 – loads of pics on our FB group page 'S.P.I.T. Wargames'.

Strange, I use their loose packs of M16s for all my 1st Corps USMC conversions to asian troops quite well.

I like their NVA troops quite a lot, yet I am not fussy over their US troops. Could be the helmets???

Haven't got any of either the ANZACS or VC though.
The owner is quite nice to deal with.
Thanks Uglyfatbloke.

Didn't intend to necro-thread, just a bit more on a company that we don't quite hear of too much.

You were quite right – and the owner is a very nice bloke to deal with. SWMBO went 'all Gringo' because she found having several different sizes of M16 irritating and I followed suit for the same reason. Gringos are far and away the widest variety of poses – enough that she can have a platoon of kneeling figures without them looking too repetitive…this is practice she likes so she can easily identify one platoon from another where the scenario calls for it. I have to say Ged was exceptionally helpful with the whole project.

uglyfatbloke
appreciate the kind comment about my
28mm Vietnam War figures and the service.

regards
Ged
gringo40s.com

Well merited Jammy Four.

Just to add my tuppence worth, I use Gringo figures and find them much easier to paint than Empress, plenty of variety in pose and a large enough choice to spoil the most pernickety gamer, plus I tend to agree with one of Ged's larger customers for Vietnam stuff in our opinion of the owner of Empress and his rules. I also use some of the Full Metal figures for civilians as there is a large range when they aren't OOP, and the VC with bicycles which I also found fiddly but well worth the effort to put together.

I love the Gringos figures too for very much the same reason.

If I already didn't have an infantry company each of a defnct companys' US infantry and NVA, I would have gone hog wild buying Gringos.