Monday, August 9, 2010

The ideal 20mm/1:72 WWII sprue

I got to thinking the other day what would be the ideal setup for a 20 mm hard plastic sprue for wargaming.

I could start with some parameters.

German Heer, summer, mid war, one sprue, approximately 15 - 20 figures per set. Some separate heads and weapons. Bases may be separate but figures should have a peg to attach. Figures to fit a platoon (zug?) without heavier weapons. So mg 34 or 42 on bipod mounts. Rifle grenades? Possibly 50mm mortar.

So MG on the ground prone or kneeling on a bit of ground with the gun propped up. 2 crew.
MG on the move with two crew.
Riflemen kneeling, firing/grenades or observing, some of these could double as mortar crew. x 6
Nco's with seperate arms, mp40 or ppsh, map case, pointing etc, 1 kneeling, 1 moving.
Riflemen moving with weapons ready or ammo for MG and weapon slung. 3 - 5

Seperate arms could have grenade/ bundled potato masher/ teller mines/ ammo boxes/ extra weapons/ dinner (chicken). Seperate heads would include caps/ bare heads/ helmets and covered helmets.

Valiant have had a pretty good go in the last couple of years. Their Classic German Infantry page is here. The set was put together specifically for the Rapid fire ruleset. You get four riflemen advancing, an mg 42 on tripod (2 crew), a soldier carrying an mg42, a radio operator, an officer, several nco's with mp40 and five figures with seperate arms for the variety of included weapons. 17 figures per sprue. The only draw back I can see is the scale they are bigger than most plastic 1:72.

The Plastic Soldier Company is looking promising if he can deliver true 1:72 scale he'll be on a winner. My t34/76 are waiting with their engines idling for the appearance of the Russians. Having been lurking for months? I've finally found a photo of the test sprues on the net at Benno's figures.

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