Valiant Minatures 1/72 American GIs

I've just finished off four more of the freebie Valiant WW2 GIs I got hold of on a distant (pre-FOW) Wargames Illustrated. I really like these figures as they offer great value for money, with over 60 figures in a box, including HMGs, mortars and anti-tank weapons.

There is also a selection of additional heads, personal weapons and equipment, with a number of figures having separate arms to allow a lot of customisation. 

The figures are well made in hard plastic with crisp detail and very little flash throughout.

Here they are in front one of the Dave Graffam's excellent card buildings, whose range I'm increasingly using in games.

There is one fairly major downside to Valiant's range however, regarding their scale. While they are marketed as 1/72 scale, they are in reality quite bulky and closer to 28mm as seen below when compared to Plastic Soldier Company . This inevitably causes problems with scale compatibility and  limits you to using them solely in infantry-only encounters against other Valiant counterparts.

If this isn't a problem to you though, I would say the Valiant troops are among the best hard plastic troops currently available and would recommend them to anyone looking to field a cost-effective and well-equipped force,

That's it for now,

Monty

Scratch-Built Terrain Part 2

Despite over 90% of my available spare time (which is admittedly  decreasing anyway due to a multitude of reasons) being dominated by the (IMHO) brilliant Battlefield 3 multi-player, I have been able to knock together some more scratch-built terrain and bits for use with either my 20mm, or, at a push, 15mm stuff.

Production and painting generally have been pretty non-existence lately due to a variety of reasons, apart from the xbox, so these few items are pretty exceptional, I suppose, if nothing else by the fact they actually got made!

My latest building and the largest so far, which I have dubbed 'The Reichstag' :) 

It has multiple areas and flooring layers to allow skirmishes to occur 'room-to-room' but more importantly gets around my lack of table space...

I went for a burnt-out look and wanted to contrast it against the other similar buildings I have made which I intend to use during the same games.

'The Reichstag' has the largest footprint (4 beer mat/coasters) of all my scratch-built stuff - most occupy singles or at most doubles - so this one stands out compared to the others.

Next up, my latest attempt at barbed wire entanglements - the last time I tried this was back in '96. This example is made largely from polystyrene, beer mat/coasters, cat litter and picture hanging wire. 

Smaller version, which I made first to see how they would turn out...

Finally, an urban rubble 'bunker' with barbed wire frontage - again using the same materials as above; this will provide a worthy objective during  forthcoming encounters...

I think I probably now have enough bits 'n' pieces to finally stage a small 1/72 Nuts! skirmish game - bring it on!


That's it for now - right, where's my joypad gone?


Monty

20mm Britannia Afghans

Progress continues at a snail's pace on my Britannia 20mm Afghan fighters/enemy/Taliban-types. I seem to have so many pulls on my time these days with work and various other compulsory distractions that things seem to take an age. This means I have to restrict myself to relatively unambitious projects that allow a reasonable balance between painting/making and playing. I suppose I'll get there in the end...perhaps...

The two 'elders' as I have termed them cautiously advance through my scratch-built structures...

Reinforcements arrive ...etc; the buildings are the usual foam board and beer mat remnants, liberally sprinkled with sand and dry-brushed.



Sneaky, sneaky goat herds...

The goodies (us Brits in this case,) wait in ambush - 'watch and shoot - watch and shoot!' ...

The enemy receive critical int via their network of local dickers and, wanting to avoid direct contact, back up...

As quickly as they arrived, they melt away into the back alleys and side streets, due the presence of overwhelming NATO forces and lack of painted comrades...

More to follow,

Monty