This post is primarily at the request of Kev - KEV's - HOBBY Site. (dwarfenrealm.blogspot.com) - an Australian blogger who has recently commenced a 20mm WWII project, but after my recent game report on our Iron Cross encounter, it may be of more general interest - if not, feel free to give this one a miss!
Valiant British Infantry - there are around 4-6 of each pose.
Likewise, the figures above and below.
Altogether there are around 60 hard plastic figures per box.
Plastic Soldier Company M5 halftrack - I have three
Pre painted Churchill infantry tank
Armourfast Sherman Firefly - packs of two
Armourfast Achilles and...
..... ditto Cromwell tank
I had a few extra figures and lots of spare peaked caps, so I made five MP's in classic "Red Caps", two each of the right and centre figure, plus the one with the Sten.
Russians next - this is a Zvezda ZIS 76mm gun and crew.
As Valiant do not make Russians, I had to use Plastic Soldier Company - slightly different style and certainly more genuinely 20mm figures!
There are again around 4-6 of each of the poses in a single box of hard plastic figures.
The above and two below are hard plastic 1/72 snipers by Zvezda.
Including the inevitable "Lady of Death!"
Armoufarst T34/85 with tank riders by AB Miniatures and a couple of PSC infantry for scale
I have two of these models.
Top layer of my 20mm storage box - British and Russian infantry
German infantry from two sets by Valiant - Classic German Infantry and also 1944 Normandy Grenadiers
A veritable Airfix Panther with tank riders again by AB Miniatures
A metal Kubelwagon
PzKfw IV - an Italaeri 1/72 kit
Metal and resin Opel Blitz truck
SdKfz 251 from PSC - I have three of these too.
75mm Infantry Gun by Zvezda
Another pre painted vehicle - I think its a Marder III
The recently assembled and painted Zvezda 88mm Flak 38
The German infantry plus most of the vehicles in the bottom half of the storage box.
A comparison of the "20mm" figures - Valiant British and German, PSC Russian and an unknown metal 20mm figure I have had for about 30 years!
Thought I might as well add this recently completed BMW staff car - its actually intended for the SCW collection and came with the recent ish order from Panzer Garage in Spain -a solid metal casting.
And just for interest, here is one of the magazines that Julian bought to get a few of his pre painted items - they were on sale here in NZ a few years back for $19.95 - about £10 - and you got one of these very nice hard plastic pre painted models with each issue - very good value indeed!
Thats my lot for this evening - take care wherever you are and have fun with your wargaming and figures!
Hi Kieth- Thanks for posting up the numerous photos of your very large WW2 Collection - very extensive and complete with great variety- I admire your ability to paint miniatures- super work there. Good to see the Collection and I appreciate you doing this- Thanks again. KEV.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome Kev! Like you, I appreciated the fact that in this scale, there are literally hundreds of different kit manufacturers to choose from, and you are not forced to pay "wargaming" prices for your vehicles!
DeleteEnjoyed the parade! Hope you’re going to use those redcaps as cannon fodder. Lol.
ReplyDeleteHaha....thought I might be able to use them in some kind of specific scenario one day, JBM...but so far, none has come up!
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ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the parade with my recent 20mm interests re-ignited. I like what you did with the red caps.
ReplyDeleteValiant are an interesting. They were oversized for 1/72 and for whatever reason they didn’t do the Russians, so having to go to another company meant there was a size mis-match.
Rapid Fire (part of Valiant …. Or the other way around!) have re-tooled their German infantry and support weapons to be a little truer to 1/72, hopefully this conversion will continue.
Hi Norm. I actually like the fact the Valiant figures were so big and chunky....the detail on them is great an much easier to paint than the PSC or AB figures! We don't really notice the difference on the table either.
DeleteI am aware they later "shrunk" their support weapons kits although I had the impression the core infantry boxes stayed as is, but I may be mistaken.
I will be following your latest 20mm activity with interest!
This is a useful illustrative reference even if I do not have a 20mm WWII collection (yet).
ReplyDeleteLol...Never Say Never, eh Jon!
DeleteIt's a good looking parade! Nice job on the collection. 😀
ReplyDeleteThanks Stew!
DeleteImpressive parade! Thanks for posting the size comparison photos. And then I was confused when I met with the names 20 mm and 1/72 ...
ReplyDeleteThanks Valentine...I guess technically, 20mm is not the same as the scale 1/72, but generally wargamers accept them as interchangeable...probably erroneously!
DeleteA lovely collection Keith and a great parade. I have a bunch of Britannia WWII stuff gathering dust and would like to get stuck into that at some point. Everything of yours seems to fit nicely together.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Lawrence...I have a few Britannia figures in my 20mm ultra modern collection...they are quite nice!
DeleteA fine looking collection Keith …
ReplyDeleteI’ve always been tempted by the desert war … but I think I would need a much bigger table 😁
All the best. Aly
Funnily enough Aly, the desert does not do a lot for me...perhaps because the wide, open spaces are often described as making tank warfare like ships at sea....and I don't find naval gaming particularly inspiring either...lovely looking models, but the actual combat doesn't excite me much!
DeleteWhat a great parade Keith and I remember when the Valiant figures first came out, which seems aeons ago now! What I liked about them was that they were solid hard plastic which gave lots of opportunities for conversions. I did dabble with the idea of getting some but in the end stuck with 10mm.
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve. I got them because Julian already had AB Americans and Germans and I wanted in on the action for CoC but without it costing an arm and a leg...so, mission accomplished!
DeleteInteresting collection. Eclectic, very well done and useful models. If you try Tunis as the theater, desert warfare becomes much less open space!
ReplyDeleteThank Joe...yes, I guess the same could be said of Tobruk!
DeleteGreat looking collection of 20mm troops, clearly a big range in what is 20mm , I've got the same Soviets scaled up to 28mm, nice to see the airfix panther in amongst them all!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain - I think it is generally accepted amongst the cognoscenti that Valiant were NEVER really 20mm - but whatever scale they are, I think they are really nice figures - and Warlord were able to invent their own scale for their Epic power grab, so why not Valiant?!
DeleteA splendid collection Keith 👍
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt...it is small, but beautifully formed!
DeleteGreat looking collection of 20mm WW2 figures and vehicles, Keith!
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Dean, glad you like them!
DeleteLove me a good WW2 parade and these looked fab Keith. The Marder is a 3 btw. :)
ReplyDeleteCheers Dai - good to know I got the identification right this time :)
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