Bolt Action - Panzer Grenadiers! (Part 2)

Having decked out my halftracks (most of them at least) it is time to look at the infantry.

There are 6 'body' sprues in this set, the standard infantry box contains 5 of these sprues;

Each has five bodies (I think I was a little hasty and clipped one off before taking the photo), one running, one kneeling and three standing poses, so quite a bit of variety can be gained in each squad.

Also there are a bunch of heads, more than enough are helmeted for every model to have one, plus one in an officer's peaked cap and one in a forage cap.

There is even a selection of back packs for your squad.

A couple of things disappoint me about this sprue, firstly there are very few arms designed to hold the MP40 or MP44, which is a nuisance for players using late war squads heavy in automatic weapons.

The second thing is the massive heads, almost as if they went true scale on everything, but decided to go Heroic on the head. It reminds me of the 'Big head mode' cheat on the original Hidden and Dangerous. Here are a couple compared to Tamiyas 1/48 Russians;


 



Its a shame about the heads as the one thing they really managed to scale back were the guns:

  Metal figures often come with guns three times the size they ought to be and so blobby as to be indistinguisable except as a generic rifle or SMG.

There are four of these sprues in the box (if I remember correctly), and they are very neatly detailed.

6 K98 rifles (one scoped, one with bayonet), a single G43 semi-automatic rifle, 2 MP40 SMGs, one MP44 assault rifle, one MP34, one MG 42, a Luger, a Panzerfaust and a bunch of other assorted bits.

Excellently scaled, the rifles do tend to snap if you aren't careful.

The Good
Far more detailed than the old metal models, especially the guns, with lots of optional extras.
Enough models to make a whole platoon, at a reasonable price.
Lost of variety for the unit.
These were the first plastic Germans in this scale on the market, but they are no longer alone.

The Bad
Silly bobble heads!
Guns are fiddly to attach, the rifles break rather easily

Overall a good set, although I doubt I will add any more to my collection. I am tempted to pick up a box of Wargames Factory's Germans for a comparison, or better yet wait for The Perry Brothers Afrika Korps to come out.

The army so Far

Command and some spare panzerfausts

 

Kneeling Rifle squad

 Standing Rifle squad: The MG42 gunner is from one of the half tracks

 Standing SMG squad: Converted grenade bundle

 Running SMG squad

  Since the SS nabbed all the cool camouflage schemes I had to content my self with lowly Sumpfmuster, basically the same colours as the half-track camo.

Next update will be after my PSC order arrives, time for some Flames of War I think.


~ Bob