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So my Christmas from Santa was 3 boxes of WGF plastics, the 2 survivor kits and the Red Army.

http://wargamesfactory.com/webstore/world-war-2
http://wargamesfactory.com/webstore/dark-futures

Between school and the twins who knows if/when I'll ever assemble or paint them but I can at least do a review for those who might be interested.

As some of you might remember I was a big proponent of WGF when they started out with their crowd-sourcing plan, up through the Chinese take over. The drama is over (thank God) and it's nice to see one of the truly popular ideas 'armed civilians' finally be realized. I have fond memories of death matches over whether or not chainsaws and cricket bats should be included, and angry rants about how the kit MUST have enough Ak-47s, AR-15s to arm everyone, and y'know while these kits can never satisfy everyone they ain't bad. In fact I'd go as far as pretty darn good.

The Red Army wasn't really on my radar but once I saw them I saw a lot of potential for using them as hoards of sci-fi or modern grunts. Unlike the German and Americans the Soviet uniform and weapons do not have as strong a recognition factor so they can look like generic riflemen in a way other WWII historicals cannot. And their SMGs could easily pass as some sort of sci-fi weapon. (As always your mileage may vary).

I'll be taking each in turn starting today with the Men.




So to start, what you get:

INVENTORY

3x The Men Survivor Sprue



10 bodies
5 sweat shirts/t-shirts
1 trench coat
1 suit
1 police officer/sheriff
1 heavy guy in shorts
1 kid
6 arms with rifles (2 M-16, 1 AK-47, 1 shotgun, 1 rifle, 1 bullpup assault rifle)
1 arm with crossbow
4 arms with melee weapons (bat, crowbar, cricket bat, chainsaw)
4 arms with pistols (3 automatics, 1 SMG)
1 arm with Molotov cocktail
12 open arms
15 heads (10 bare, 1 sheriff/cowboy hat, 1 police hat, 3 baseball caps)
10 25mm bases
1 pistol holster
1 quiver

1x The Men Survivor Weapons Sprue



2 arms with AK-47
2 arms with grenade launchers
8 arms with pistols (6 automatics, 2 SMG)
6 arms with machetes/knives
2 arms with Bibles
2 arms with cans
4 open arms
7 bullpup assault rifles
7 AK-47s
7 M-16s
4 SMGs
2 shotguns
2 rifles
2 chainsaws
2 grenade launchers
3 sheathed machetes
Numerous pouches, backpacks etc

POTENTIAL

It's a good kit with a ton of options, but, but, but (this is important) not very useful for anything but a random group of modern survivors.

There's really no easy to make them look like a military unit, a criminal gang or even unarmed bystanders. Sure you can trim off the weapons but the poses will look like guys carrying invisible guns. You might get a few out of the kit but not many. I would have loved some more pointing, screaming, talking on the cell phone type arms.

Most of them will work for a criminal gang but I'm a bit disappointed at the lack of 'evil' heads, No ski masks, no mohawks, no fedoras, nothing that really looks like a sterotypical criminal. Head swaps may help there.

Mixing them with GW bitz and models will be... not good.





As you can see the heights work but GW IG are just a lot bulkier and even the fat dude looks tiny next to one. And their more realistic weapons look like toothpicks next to IG lasguns. GW arms on them will make them look like gorillas.

On their own they'll be fine, or even more than fine. But not mixed.

So generally I give them three-four stars, a B, B+, they're a good solid kit but not one that lives up to its potential.

Next up the Red Army...

I thing the spare hands on the DFG accessory sprue could do a lot to liven the kit up. There are fists, pointing hands, Disneyland pointing hands, gripping hands and stickbomb hands that can be used for lots of things.

Also, giving them all skeleton heads or zombie heads painted with chrome bone could turn them into an army of infiltrating cyborgs. Or paint some ear beads and wires in to make under cover secret service types.

Cheers for the review, looks like a really interesting and fun kit. Liked the can of beans, which will no doubt please Day Z fans.

Wonder if it will probably mix well with the recent Native American set if you wanted a more 'mad max' style look?

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I thing the spare hands on the DFG accessory sprue could do a lot to liven the kit up. There are fists, pointing hands, Disneyland pointing hands, gripping hands and stickbomb hands that can be used for lots of things.

Also, giving them all skeleton heads or zombie heads painted with chrome bone could turn them into an army of infiltrating cyborgs. Or paint some ear beads and wires in to make under cover secret service types.

I don't have the DFG accessories but I do have the female troopers, I'll give it a look and post pictures but I suspect it would have the same gorilla arm effect as mixing in GW bitz.

They do mix well with the Red Army so I suspect they'll mix well with native Americans and other WGF historicals, maybe Perry or Bolt Action as well.

GW skulls will look a bit bobble headed on them (again see the pictures I posted) but maybe WFG skulls would work.

I don't have the WGF orcs, but that might also be a good source for conversion.

Post-Chinese takeover, all the WGF stuff have been in a pretty consistent "truescale" 1/56. Which makes them pretty darn compatible with everybody but GW.

For example my friend's AWI British and colonial forces all mix Fife & Drum, a few Foundry, some Old Glory 2nd edition, Perry metals, Perry plastics, and WGF plastics, and they all work well together.

Nice Job.
I'll be curious to see how they look and mix with the red army guys. You're right on about the GW compatibility, but that's not surprising.

First of all, I really enjoyed the review and look forward to reading your thoughts on the Red Army kit.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I thing the spare hands on the DFG accessory sprue could do a lot to liven the kit up. There are fists, pointing hands, Disneyland pointing hands, gripping hands and stickbomb hands that can be used for lots of things.

Also, giving them all skeleton heads or zombie heads painted with chrome bone could turn them into an army of infiltrating cyborgs. Or paint some ear beads and wires in to make under cover secret service types.

I don't have the DFG accessories but I do have the female troopers, I'll give it a look and post pictures but I suspect it would have the same gorilla arm effect as mixing in GW bitz.

They do mix well with the Red Army so I suspect they'll mix well with native Americans and other WGF historicals, maybe Perry or Bolt Action as well.

GW skulls will look a bit bobble headed on them (again see the pictures I posted) but maybe WFG skulls would work.

I don't have the WGF orcs, but that might also be a good source for conversion.

The DFG accessories include hands that are not on any arms. They look like gloves if the fit isn't perfect on the wrist, at least on the female survivors.



WGF orcs have slightly bigger heads and longer arms.

OK tonight we'll take a look at the Red Army box, surprisingly my favorite kit of the three.



CONTENTS

You get the bitz to make 31 WWII era Soviet soldiers including up to 4 women.



3 x WWII Red Army Sprue

9 bodies (1 kneeling, 1 prone)
1 set of kneeling legs with male and female torsos
3 SMG arms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PPSh-41)
6 rifle arms
1 MG arm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degtyaryov_machine_gun)
1 grenade arm
9 open arms
10 helmet heads, 5 cap heads
10 entrenching tools
10 25mm bases

1 x WWII Red Army Command and Accessory Sprue



1 female body
4 female heads
1 officer head
11 SMG arms
5 rifle arms
4 MG arms
1 pistol arm
3 Molotov cocktail arms
16 open arms
5 SMGs
6 rifles
2 MGs
1 25mm base
Pouches, ammo etc

I really love the look of the SMG, it's not as famous as the US Tommy Gun or the German MP40 and can easily pass as some sort of futuristic blaster or slug thrower.

(sorry I don't have a good close up ATM, I'll add one next time I take some pictures)

POTENTIAL

As with the Survivors, these will NOT mix well with GW bitz.



The arms, guns and bodies are much thinner and more realistically proportioned.

But they have some good options for posing and of course they actually include women so kudos.

One drawback is some arms are meant to go wtih some bodies and the tabs are really hard to read. This also limits conversion potential.



They also mix splendedly with the survivor's weapons so AK47s and RPGs are a definite posibility.



I would say if you want a hoard of modern/sci-fi henchmen or grunts this is the kit for you. You get 31 guys for $25, they're generic enough to pass as anything from IG conscripts to factory workers, to henchmen, to mercenaries, to 3rd world conscripts.

I just wish there was a Cold War version of them, or that WGF made their survivor weapons sprue available seperately.

It might be a few days till I get to posting the women, I haven't actually assembled any yet but it's another solid kit with some cool additional options.