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One of the things I really like about Battlefront is that they don't demand you play exclusively with their minis. So, I was looking online and found some alternate miniatures such as Old Glory Command Decision, Quick Reaction Force, and some others. Does anyone have any experience with alternative minis for Flames of War, or 15mm WWII in general?

Thanks,

The Walrus

In my experience, you get what you pay for. Yeah, Battlefront's minis are a bit on the steep side, but few companies can match the quality of their sculpts.

I myself tried out the Point of Contact miniatures available from the Warstore, but the scale of the miniatures don't quite match Battlefront's. They are closer to 1/87 than they are to 1/100, and they are poorly constructed with horrible paintjobs for being "prepainted" minis. On the plus side, each box of 5 came with 3 sets of decals virtually identical to battlefront's, and I only paid 19 dollars per box (I ordered during a sale and got an extra 5 percent off).

I have heard good things about some of the alternative miniature companies, though you have to be sure of which ones. Peter Pig is a popular one from what I gather, but you aren't really saving any money. Do a google search and you should find some comparisons between company's products.

Ive used several different company's figures in my army.

QRF, Peter Pig, Gaming models, The Tank Man and Forged in battle all make an appearance.

All of the above make some great and some not so great models, the trick is to find what you want at the price you want.

If I had used exclusively BF models my army would have cost DOUBLE what Ive paid and I ain't that rich.

My only experience is the Russian Infantry for Plastic Soldier Company- really fits well with Battlefront stuff (without its "pumpkin head" syndrome as well ) , much cheaper and very good quality in my opinion, even if bit of pain assembling few multi-part models in the pack (most of them aren't multi-part though). Havent seen sprue of their t-34 tanks yet, but it looks good on pictures and the test model I have seen matched BF quality completely, whilst being much cheaper.
As for other stuff- Forged in Battle looks good and has good opinions in general, havent seen any myself in person yet- only problem i have is that there arent too many poses for inantry.
QRF is just wrong size in my opinion, same for Skytrex.

Zvezda started doing some tanks and artillery, but have to yet see them to judge.

If you look at my Early War Soviets thread, the mortar teams and HMG teams are Forged in Battle figures.

I've been looking at www.gamodls.com, but I don't know how the quality of the miniatures are. They don't look too bad, considering the guy sculpts and casts them all by himself. At 4 bucks a tank, I'm willing to try them out, so I'll let you know good they are for FoW.

Again if you look at my Early Soviets the T35s are Gaming Models.

Some of their stuff is OK and some not so good, if you email the guy before you buy he will send you good photo's of what your interested in.

But like you said, $4 each? You cant go far wrong.

I think that Battlefront is priced right for the quality you are getting.

You can pick up some of the singles from the Axis & Allies collectible mini game for very cheap, and some of these are actually decent models.

If you can get Old Glory for the 40% discount (www.warweb.com) then some of them are okay. I've never been a fan of Old Glory, their sculpts always seam very short. While their dimensions may be closer for a true scale model, it makes for squat looking gaming miniatures. Also some of the molds are really showing their age now and you have to deal with a large amount of flash or poor quality on the details. The white metal mix they use is also one of the softest I've dealt with and tank barrels bend unacceptably easy.

Peter Pig are very good models with top notch detail, but since they are imported if you are in the US you're going to pay easily double the cost of a Battlefront models for what is by comparison only marginally better detail work.

The Gaming Models I have seen were simply horrific. Again, importing and shipping costs put them at the same price as the 40% of OG models. What I saw were solid resin pieces, while they might have been good sculpts they were simply horrible casts. There was no detail to speak off and the brittle resin was pockmarked with air bubbles.

Same price as the 40 percent off OG models? You pay 4 dollars a tank, plus 5 for shipping in the US. That is not bad, especially if you have large orders. I totally agree on the quality though.

I dunno, I have a bunch of OG germans, and they are pretty good quality. Certainly look to be more proportional than BF stuff.

Yeah, I definitely like My OG stuff compared to BF. BF is highly overated and priced (I only bought them on clearance where I could get close to a 50% discount) especially when there are tons of 15mm WW2 manufacturers out there. Painting tends to make the big difference- decent paint makes pretty much any of it look good.

BF are indeed overrated...plenty of flash and ill-proportioned a lot of the time but I do love the sheer range they give you.
Peter Pig are local to me and are great figures but don't mix too well size wise with BF...esp. their SS range
QRF are also local to me but are poor for infantry so should be avoided but one or two of their vehicles are ok but that's a lottery depending on how old the mold is by the looks of them.I have a few Wasps by them and they are pretty good as are there Typhoons but can't say anymore from direct experience.
Command Decision in my opinion are the best all rounders by far especially considering the pose variety on offer...UK price of £9 for 50 troops is not to be sniffed at although their vehicles are the same as most other manufacturers price wise the molds are very good with sharp detailing.
Forged in Battle are very similar in style to BF with similar flash attachments and as previously said have a more limited pose ratio however their vehicles are approx. £4.50 per tank when bought in multi pack so a bargain considering their quality...I have just bought some and am very pleased.
For me having just got into DAK I have plumped for Command Decision troops with Forged in Battle tanks and BF vehicles to fill the gaps the others can't provide.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Kev

Another alternative is to go up a scale and use 20mm figures with 1/72 scale models.

There are various pros and cons of this.

The quality of kits will be excellent, if that is your main concern.

I actually just placed an order for some Forged In Battle EW French infantry. $55 shipped to the US for 2 full Fusilier-Voltigeur Platoons, an HMG Platoon, and a Mortar Platoon.

From what I've read on the TMP boards, they're supposed to be very nice figures. Other than Peter Pig, they're also the only company I've seen that does VB teams.

The Plastic Soldier miniatures are great for the price. I know three guys who are going to start FoW if Plastic Soldier expands their 15mm offerings. They are DIRT cheap compared to battlefront.

Just recieved a 15mm Zvezda T26 kit. 5 parts, snap together and very detailed. £2.47! Its better then the BF one.

Zvezda have also released a Pz111, Pz11 and an early T34 all at the same price with Sdkfz 251's, BT-5's and Soviet 122mm howitzers being released shortly.

Saw the PSC T34s for the first time in the flesh yesterday and they were excellent too.

If I was BF I'd be very, very worried, the train is leaving the station and their too stupid to jump on board.

Edit: Check out this site for a list of future releases

http://models2u.co.uk/Shop/contents/en-uk/d1656.html

Any US retailers that you know of?

Yep, check out Dragon Models

http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodmidh.asp?tlcode=ZVE