Thoughts on Warlord's German Veteran Infantry figures

[a27cromwell 3207xp 1]

I preordered these as soon as they were announced . I have really liked the last couple of troop boxes  I’ve got , the UK/Canadians and Winter FJ , and  I was hoping the Veterans would be just as exciting . Unfortunately they’re boring . Yes there are a few interesting pieces ( arm/ weapon pairs , hands and the flame thrower ) , but the bodies , ho hum . I’ve built a dozen in the past couple of weeks and just can’t seem to feel motivated . I’ve put them away and worked on some summer FJ & Afrika Korp sprues from the last half price sprue sale . Now these figures I really like . No idea why , but they are fun to build and kit bash with spare parts .  Anybody else feel this way about the new Veterans ?

As a side note , I’ve got a couple of the Victrix Germans on pre order , they look really good with lots of weapon choices and 14 body poses . I hope Victrix expands their WW@ range with some winter Russians

 

[grantinvanman 2502xp 0]

I am firmly not a fan of Warlord. I’ve always felt that way; the faces, the weird proportions, I don’t like them. So yeah, I feel what you’re feeling.

Perry, and maybe now the new Victrix, are the gold standard in WW2 plastics. Gold.

Metals are a whole other story, but again, I’m a Perry fan. Empress too.

[limburger 21920xp 0]

Could it be that they’re just plain ol’ Germans @a27cromwell when compared to the other German infantry you’ve done?

Or maybe the expectation that there’d be more things to add to them has demotivated you a bit ?

It would be nice to see a comparison of the various plastic variants of a given troop type.
Victrix did a comparison with Warlord and Perry’s in their preorder, but I’m sure it was a bit biased and if they were comparing to the newer variants at all.

The Perry miniatures did look rather soft, but then they compared them to the Afrika Korps variant.
The British also looked rather sad by comparison, but those were old sculpts which doesn’t seem fair either.

However overall I’d say I’m glad that the sizes and scale appear to be similar enough between all 3 that you could mix & match without too many issues.

 

[a27cromwell 3207xp 2]

Yes Warlord plastics  are all over the place size wise .  It’s funny some of the older sets have better faces than the new ones IMO . I think I’ve had all the WW2 sprues at some time or another except for the US sets . A few pieces just go right into the trash with the rest sorted to the parts box .  I really like the design of the early sets ( except Brits – too small ) , arms with separate weapons  , especially the Russians . Lots of arms for kit bashing . They remind me of the old 1/32 scale Airfix Multi part  model figures I had in the 70s , loved those kits

Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the 30 or so metal figures I’ve painted over the last couple of weeks , Artizan Waffen  SS , snowsuit Russians and Bad Squiddo female Russians in greatcoats . These figures are on par with Warlord plastic so probably not scale 1/56 , but well sculpted and paint up nicely .

Maybe I’ll cut a few up and try some leg swaps , I could use a few more tank riders for a couple of Panzer IIIs I’ve got to build .

[limburger 21920xp 0]

I’d say that’s your ‘problem’ indeed.

If you’re only ever using one brand / material then you may not notice the difference in quality and potential for improvement as much.

And maybe you’re looking at them from too close a distance as well?
A lot of detail that makes sense up close becomes slightly less relevant at a distance once painted & assembled.

Which reminds me that I’ve got some May ’40 metals somewhere in my pile of opportunity. I’ve never had them next to the plastics in my collection. And then there’s the 1:48 scale minis somewhere in there as well. Probably best not to try and use them all at once.

[a27cromwell 3207xp 1]

I don’t think its a “tired of a brand ” type of thing , as some of the BA plastics really inspire  me . I think I’ve built 8 boxes of Russians ! Those figures are ripe for kit bashing despite the molded on packs and bed rolls ( note to Warlord , next Russian kit make those parts separate ) . I usually order a sprue or two of most new troop figures just to see the potential and if it inspires me , I’ll get a box .  I also really like the seated plastic Germans that come with the Opel Blitz , the molded together upper torsos can be cut apart to make single seated troops and the seated lower bodies with jack boots are great for making seated Russians .  The short booted bodies work as FJ . Maybe I have too much time on my hands

[grantinvanman 2502xp 0]

Am I crazy or is that a lot of infantry!

[a27cromwell 3207xp 1]

I think I’ve got 15 various  tanks with kit bashed tank riders . Most Russians , 9 on a T-34 . Germans , 9 on a JagdPanther . Those seated lower German torsos really come in handy . I started out trying to fit as many as possible on a tank , fitting them around / on the stowage to match photos . These tended to be glued on . I later decided to built them in groups of 4 or 5 glued together in such a way to fit on a specific tank but removable . I thought of redoing the older glued on figures as removable groups but after a few breakages I decided to leave them be .  I tend to build multiples of tanks I like , hence the 30 T-34s . I started off as a scale modeler in the early 70s , so I have a large collection of  reference books to help fix/detail the Warlord & Rubicon kits . Plus 3 28mm T-34 take up the same shelf space as 1 -35th scale T-34 , so the big scale kits reside in the closet .

At least the latest Warlord / Rubicon tanks have separate hatches now , it’s wasn’t always fun cutting hatches off their older vehicles to add crew . Even more of a pain , deciding to open a hatch after the kit has been built and painted .  Done that a few times .

 

[grantinvanman 2502xp 0]

Oh, cutting hatches isn’t fun. Been there!

[elessar2590 18217xp 0]

I bought two boxes and I’m very happy with the minis. The one issue I have is that Warlord came up with this brick wall idea and let it influence the kit. The LMG shooting? Only one way to build it, using the wall. The same with the AT Rifle firing pose. I build two LMG’s with the grenade throwing arms as arms holding the bipod and made the shoulder fired LMG’s but it would be nicer to have a prone pose. Also the hand holding the MG belt is just weird, when we look at pictures we see the gunner holding the stock to support the gun not the belt like a Vietnam War movie star.

I really like the rest of the sprue, plenty of rifles, plenty of heads, and the most important part, there are support weapons and teams available, there’s nothing worse than a company making a box of infantry but they’re unusable because you can’t build a platoon with them.

[a27cromwell 3207xp 1]

elessasr2590  Yea those MG arms are a little strange . I’m thinking they might work better on a mg gunner in the 250 or 251 half track . The supplied figure is lack luster and went in the garbage . I’ve always liked the mg supported on the shoulder of the ammo carrier as seen in many photos . I bet a lot of those guys lost their hearing , mind you if that’s all they lost during the war I guess they did ok . I built mine using the summer kneeling FJ figures . The gun arm is from the 251 kit , the gunner’s left arm is frankensteined from 3 pieces . The loader’s hand holding the bipod is from the Blitzkrieg sprue .

grantinvanman  Here’s a couple of pictures of a few tanks I’ve done hatch  surgery on . I usually remove the hatch plugs from the hatches that can be show open , most of my crews are loose so when removed you can use the tank as a knocked out scenery piece

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 5 days ago by  a27cromwell.

[limburger 21920xp 1]

I must admit that after looking at the Victrix Germans and comparing them to the Warlord figures they do look a bit more active/alive.

It may be why the (Warlord) ‘veteran Germans’ don’t look the part (maybe they look better with paint?) ?

It will be interesting to see them both up close.

I guess that even with historical figures there’s a certain quality to sculpts that is hard to put into words, but that could add that little extra inspiration for your assembly.

[mkultra99Participant 824xp 0]

irrelevant – Cheers Victrix!

[elessar2590 18217xp 0]

Not really @mkultra99 since the Victrix minis are only usable for the Late War and these minis are probably the closest you can get to universally useful Germans.

[a27cromwell 3207xp 1]

Having built 24 of these so far , I’m thinking that a sprue or two would work great mixed & matched with a Blitzkrieg box , although they seem a smidge larger and have crisper detail . I’m sure some will really love these , its just not working for me .

 

[Author]

Posts