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I'm currently in the process clearing out my Warhammer collection with a view to moving onto something else.

With the starter box coming out this week, Flames of War is catching my eye and I've been looking at the website to see what the rest of the range looks like. Now I love all the tanks, but many of the infantry pieces look awful, particularly when compared with the infantry in the starter set.

It occurs to me that these are only 15mm in height and maybe I'm expecting too much from miniatures that I'm not going to be looking at in close detail, but it's an off putting factor at the moment. Does this bother other people?

I had the same concerns when I got into it at first, generally speaking though soldiers are modeled in groups, so one tends to judge the look on how the group looks rather than the individuals, I found a good basing job goes further than award-winning painting.

Also most people just oogle your tanks anyways

They aren't the best TBH, at least the ones I have. But they aren't "bad". Mixed in with other companies (Peter Pig is the one I always recommend, as that's the main one I use, but there are others.) they generally look fine. And even just BF on their own look ok with a decent paintjob. As the minis are not individuals and based as a team.

The tanks are generally pretty good, although running an infantry heavy force I don't have many

I play German FJ. (Infantry) I only have BF minis...

It is true that once they are painted and based they look great. Until that is finished they look meh at best.

Keep in mind when moving on from GW systems that historical gaming, particularly WW2 gaming in this case, is not limited to Battlefront products and Battlefront rulesets; they have no monopoly of the market in the way that GW has in its own respective arena. You are encouraged to utilise miniatures selected from a variety of companies and experiment with different rulesets. Battlefront are not the 'official' or 'dominant' manufacturers of WW2 minis, irrespective of how desperate they may be to portray themselves as such.

Battlefront have produced a hell of allot of 15mm WW2 minis over the last 10 years and I assume they have multiple sculptors. It's inevitable that there will be some variation in quality. Some Battlefront miniatures are amazing and some are downright awful. Most are somewhere in-between. One think I have noticed it that Battlefront's miniatures require allot of cleanup work, the flash-lines being particularly obvious. This is odd because Peter Pig and Forged in Battle, which are much smaller companies, require next to no cleanup work at all. They are a joy to put together and paint.

Personally I've no particular 'brand loyalty' when I need a platoon of something I look at all the various manufactures and pick the one I like best. Currently Forged in Battle are winning me over most of the time when it comes to infantry and guns and the fact that that are always cheaper than Battlefront certainly doesn't hurt. The new Open Fire plastics however look very nice indeed. If the future releases are half as good I'll certainly be picking some up.

Thanks for the tip LuciusAR.

Been looking at Forged in Battle - much nicer minis

Just one thing to be aware of re 15mm/100th scale is that there is some varience in size dependant on manufacturer especially when it comes to vehicles. I have in my armies peter pig, qrf, BF,PSC, I just make sure that a unit is made up from the same manufacturer


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Also must admit Forged in Battle are nice and cost effective

Battlefront's new plastic soldiers simply cast up better and don't suffer the same casting issues metal figures would. They are just getting into this though, but expect the range of plastic offerings to quickly expand.

Plastic Solider Company also offers an expanding range of plastic figures.

Battlefront has had multiple sculptors and so the quality can vary. Keep in mind, a solider in 15mm is about as big as a boltgun in 40k. You can only expect so much detail and finesse.

I feel Battlefront's quality matches the price, but it is on the higher end. I've got plenty of figures from companies that pre-date Battlefront and I don't think they as good of a quality, even if cheaper.