Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Bazin]

I'm looking to start playing some Weird War II and want to pick up some nice minis for the Wild Cards and some decent map tiles for the era.

Anyone have any suggestions on where to look?

[robert4818]

[Bazin]

Scale isn't important to me for the minis. I'll be using Memoir '44 minis for the opposing forces. I just want something that will give me 6-8 distinct minis for the Wild Cards.

[Jordan Peacock]

Here are a few ideas:

Heroscape:

(Image source: Flickr)

The Heroscape board game had some paratroopers ("Airborne Elite") in the original boxed set. They're in the 30-32mm scale range with thicker proportions, and pre-painted. Price varies, since these were originally part of a board game that's now out of print, but I've occasionally gotten a few as part of minis lots and trades.


Reaper Chronoscope:


37009 - American NCO with Tommy Gun
37010 - American Machine Gunner
37011 - American Infantry (3-pack)
37012 - Sergeant Mack Torrey
37013 - Corporal Mike Dana
37014 - Pvt Bob Hanks
37015 - Pvt Max Dansworth
37016 - Pvt Tim Hernandez
50075 - WWII American Infantry (3-pack)

These miniatures are around 30-32mm scale range -- the same scale as the official Savage Worlds (Deadlands) minis released so far, and the Chronoscope range. They're close enough to fit on the table top with Heroscape minis, though Heroscape minis look a bit "chunkier" by comparison. There also happen to be a number of undead German soldiers. Price is around $4.99 per figure or thereabouts.


Wargames Factory:

Wargames Factory 28mm Infantry Platoon - Late War

I've gotten a few plastic minis from Wargames Factory, and the quality varies a bit; I don't own this set, so I don't know whether these have sharper features. (I found the zombie and Roman Legion sets to have fairly shallow features, whereas the sci-fi Greatcoat Shock Troopers had nice, sharp features.) These come on the sprues for about $20 for 30 figures. It's 28mm scale, so these guys are noticeably shorter than Reaper, and especially look shrimpy next to Heroscape minis. (Your mileage may vary.) However, if you're using 28mm on the table all around, they'd look just fine.


HeroClix:


Occasionally, you can find HeroClix minis available as singles from various online miniatures sellers, though by now a lot of the "singles" are heavily picked over. Sgt. Rock and his Howling Commandos provide a few possibilities for WWII soldiers; they're pre-painted, but would need to be re-based unless you're willing to put up with the bulky dial bases (which are about 1.5" diameter).

From the "Cosmic Justice" set, there's Sgt. Rock (#20-22) and Easy Company Soldier (#001-003).

From the "DC 75th Anniversary" set, there's another Easy Company Soldier (#001) in a different pose than the one from Cosmic Justice, and "Sgt Rock" (#017), which is just a re-paint of the same mini.

Depending on how you get them, these might be cheap (i.e., $1-$3 each) compared to metal minis, though the shipping-and-handling charges have to be considered.



I'm sure others will chime in with a lot more in the way of options, but these are just the brands I'm most familiar with right now.
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[Darq666]

28mm Scale = 1/56th, 25mm = 1/60th
Tanks from Army Group North
Various Soldiers and Armor from Brigade Games
Character Models (Including Kelly's Heros) from Pulp Figures
Weird War II (Zombies and Werewolves and Robo-apes Oh My!) from Secrets of the Third Reich
More West Winds Production Secrets of the Third Reich
A Whole Collection of Links to 28mm scale WWII at WWII Miniature Showcase
Greman WWII Vehicles at Die Waffenkamer
Large Collection of 28mm WWII soldiers and Vehicles in the Bolt Action line of Warlord Games
More Wierd War II at What the?! Games

[Fury]

German plastic zombies from Studio Miniatures.
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"We are the Queen's shield. We are the nation's shield."
—Sir Nicholas Fury, 1602

[Evilgaz]

Westwind Productions do some character figures and also "seperate head system" troopers so you can mix and match a bit in thier Berlin or Bust series.

Wargames Foundry has some interesting odds and sods, although its just British and Germans, no yankee-doodles.
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http://basstoneslap.tv

[Sean-Khan]

Axis & Allies miniatures will give you a huge variety of prepainted 15mm minis. At some point the scale of the vehicles changed, I don't remember if it's the Africa (something?) set - I had stopped collecting at that time after having enough minis. There's also a good amount of uncommon tanks etc, but Tigers and such are rares.

If you want to see terrain inspiration & tutorials, I have several articles on my site: http://maker.e2ogame.net/tags/axis-and-allies
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Shaper & Maker - modelling, gaming & a lot of other stuff

[Bazin]

Thanks for all the great options everyone!

I'm sort of thinking that the Axis & Allies minis might be my best bet, since I don't really have the time to assemble/paint a bunch of minis.

Does anyone here have any they want to sell/trade?

[Sean-Khan]

Check out singles stores like troll and toad or strike zone online. As you're not interested in their stats, I think you can collect nice collection at affordable cost.
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Shaper & Maker - modelling, gaming & a lot of other stuff

[Bazin]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll take a look, but most times with those stores I find the shipping to make a good deal look not great (since I'm in Canada), but after a quick look, shipping for the minis might not be too bad...I'll definitely have to consider it!

[Snate56]

Can we save this thread?


SteveN
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"We've got a blind date with destiny... and it looks like she's ordered the lobster." <The Shoveller>

[kronovan]

Late to the thread here, but for WW II figures I just use readily available 1/72 scale miniatures from companies like Airfix, Italeri, Pegasus and Caesar Miniatures. The individual figures range in size from 22-25mm; most of them are closer to 25mm. They're smaller size makes them more difficult to paint than 28mm (1/60) fig's, but they do give you the best bang for the buck. I usually pay $9-$15 per box of 30-40 figures in my Canadian city. Most of the boxes have about 4 or 5 unique fig's, so those are the ones we use as Wild Cards. They're also carried in just about every hobby store anywhere.

The painting isn't a big deal for me as 1 of the players in my group is into military modelling in a big way and usually takes care of that. The only other thing I've had to do with them is glue small washers to the underside of bases to weight them done better. The one big advantage with them is there's heaps of inexpensive 1/72 scale models (1/76 are close enough to work too) of aircraft and vehicles available, so it gives you a nice option to just using flats.

Italeri Miniatures page

Pegasus 1/72 Figure Sets Page

Caesar Miniatures website

Airfix 1/72 Figures page

[warrenss2]

Where are you located, Bazin? Countrywise...
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[Bazin]

I'm in Canada.

[Bobble]

If anyone has seen the Commanders At War series on the Military Channel, they do reconstructions of battles on the show but they use these very simple cardboard models of tanks, trucks, planes, etc. (actually, the ones on the show are slightly TOO simple for my taste). I'll follow up with an image in the next post.

It's something I think would be great for SW World War II -- relatively simple, 3D papercraft models. Most "real" papercraft models are probably too involved for a casual gamer who only really wants the finished product. Maybe a model with no more than a few separate pieces that takes maybe 20 minutes to assemble. Certainly not a 100% faithful reproduction of the original but enough to tell the difference between a Pz-III and a Pz-IV.

[Bobble]

Here's the image for the previous post.