Back to the beginning - micro armour

I started in this hobby more than 40 years ago with 1/300th Heroics & Ros and then Skytrex micro armour.  Happy days fielding  historically inaccurate battalions of  King Tigers.  Although in more recent times I've collected a thousand or more Baccus 6mm Seven Years War and 19th Century figures, I've not looked at micro armour since those early days.

What's left of the old Skytrex army

All of the 20th Century games I play are squad or platoon sized and infantry focused.  Much as I enjoy these, for the last few years I've had an itch to look at doing more armour games and something at a larger scope.  My main constraints have been ones of space (small table size with no dedicated gaming area and ever decreasing storage) and cost.  15mm and 20mm AFVs aren't cheap anymore.  These constraints have led me back to micro armour.  

When I first looked at this a couple of years ago I ordered some samples from Heroics & Ros (H&R) and some from Butlers' Printed Models (BPM).  As usual I was then distracted by other projects and I didn't do anything with them.  The smaller scale, larger scope itch has not gone away and I recently dug the samples out.

I used a Sherman, Panther and Chieftain to do the comparisons.  BPM on the left and H&R on the right in each case.  

The quality of the photos aren't great but they give the general idea.  Here's the summary of my findings:

• H&R models are true 1/300th.  BPM models are listed as 6mm so more like 1/285th scale and are therefore larger.
• The H&R models have much crisper detail.  Some of the BPM models look very "soft" and indistinct.  The BPM versions I have are their standard (PLA) ones, I guess the high resolution (resin) are better in this regard.
• The BPM gun barrels are quite flimsy and without care would be much more prone to breakages. The metal H&R tend to bend rather than break and can be bent back into shape easily.
• There were quite a lot of what I assume are print lines on the BPM models.  Once you get some paint on and then drybrush to bring out some detail they are very noticeable - although not from the wargamers 3ft table distance.

As regard costs:

• The current price of the H&R Sherman or Panther is £0.75p.  The BPM equivalent is £0.89/£1.46 respectively, albeit you now have to buy a minimum of 3 so that will cost you £2.67/£4.38 for 3 as opposed to £2.25 for 3 H&R.
• The current price of the H&R Chieftain is £0.85p.  The BPM one is £1.46.  
• The cost of the BPM High resolution tanks is £1.73/£2.31 each, once again with a minimum order of 3 at £5.19/£6.93.

Conclusions

For me between these two manufacturers, there's really no decision to make with H&R the clear winner.  In my opinion the only advantage of the BPM models is that they are larger so have a little more "presence".  I expect that the high resolution resin versions have crisper details, but the pricing moves them far nearer to GHQ (£14.00 a pack of 5 at £2.80 each), which are the Rolls Royce of micro armour so you may as well get them.  For me GHQ are prohibitively expensive so lovely as they are I won't go down that route.   

I haven't seen Baccus 6mm WW2 but I understand they are mid-way size wise between H&R and GHQ.  2D6 Wargaming are apparently GHQ size and almost comparative quality at half the price, but they don't do British late WW2 armour at the moment which is one of the possible projects I'm looking at.