First World War 28mm Germans

I spent much of my hobby time in October and early November working on three batches of 28mm Germans for The First World War/A War Transformed.  This was six each of Great War Miniatures metals, Wargames Atlantic plastics and modified Second World War Warlord Games plastics.  I worked on them simultaneously which proved to be an interesting comparison exercise.

First up are the Wargames Atlantic (WA) plastics.  I'd made 18 of these a couple of years ago and bought another frame to pimp up for A War Transformed.  However, after being less than impressed with the rules I decided to build them as straight First World War.  I compared each against the existing figures I'd made and then fiddled about with the arms and heads to make each one different.  

In the main they go together well.  However, as with all plastics some arms don't really work with some bodies and there's no instructions or suggestions.  The MG08/15 arms are truly awful and I couldn't get them to work with any of the bodies.  Otherwise they are straightforward enough to assemble and paint up nicely.  

The Great War Miniatures (GWM) models seemed  quite chunky, but are actually well proportioned sculpts.  I think this was due to having worked on so many plastic 28mm figures this year that I'd forgotten how metal figures feel when working on them.

There was a fair bit of flash to clean up on each sculpt and the end of the rifle muzzles were exceptionally fragile.  Annoyingly, I broke two and they were impossible to reattach so those two soldiers were equipped with carbines!   The deep and clearly defined detail on each sculpt meant they were easy to paint and I really enjoyed doing them. 

Finally I did some work on some Warlord Games (WG) Second World War Winter Germans.  I'd made these as some sort of Diesel Punk thing a few years back using the gas mask heads from the WA First World War Germans.  

I removed the arms that were carrying Second World War weapons (MP40 and MG34) and replaced them with spare WA ones and rebased them to match the other First World War Germans.  I also modified the personal equipment, removing all the fluted gasmask cases and trimming off the cup on the top of the canteen to look more like First World War kit and added some WA entrenching tools and bayonets and a few ammo pouches.  I only had to paint the new parts and I repainted the gas masks. 

So how do they compare?  Size wise I'd happily mix all three.  The photos below from left to right are GWM, WG and WA.  Style wise is where you have more of an issue.  

The shoulders on the WA figures are bizarre, being of comic book proportions.  The bread bag and canteen that are moulded onto each of  the bodies is very poorly sculpted being little more than blobs.  If these  issues and the MG08 arms were rectified they'd be very good figures. With the exception of the gasmask heads I think the heads are excellent.  The gasmask heads don't look right to me, the droopy nozzle makes me think of elephants!

The GWM are what I'd term as "classic" metal figures, like Copplestone, Artizan etc and they fit in superbly with those manufacturers.  They share the same traits with quite chunky weapons and kit, but it's very well sculpted if on the large size.  After all, there's only so much thinning down you can do with metals to make them viable for moulding.  The difference in size between the WA and GWM MP18 SMG is ridiculous.  I suspect that somewhere in between would be about right.  The hands are big like a lot of metals, but overall I think they're well proportioned figures.  They're easy to paint as all the detail is so well sculpted.  

Finally the Warlord Games. These aren't a true direct comparison as they're not intended to be First World War soldiers and are all clothed in greatcoats.  The sculpting is crisp and all the equipment bar the belts and Y straps is separate.  It's very well done and in my opinion is the best of the three being of more realistic proportions.  The rifles (albeit K98 rather than the G98, of the other two manufacturers) are also the best. 

In summary the Warlord ones are probably the best in terms of proportions, but you have to use WA parts to make them into First World War soldiers.  So really they're not that viable.  The main advantage of WA is price and if you're really into kitbashing.  I find that all plastic kits have a few parts that just don't really work and there's a definite best fit for each torso and arm combination.  The metal sculpts being one piece are more cohesive and are far more convincing poses than the WA. 

Knowing what I know now and if I was starting again I'd go for Great War Miniatures.  There's enough packs in the GWM range to have a platoon of unique poses, greater than the amount of good unique ones you'd get from a WA box without an awful lot of work.  The GWM poses are natural looking and there's a wider choice of weapons.  They also offer a complete range with cavalry and support weapons.  WA just provide the basics  unless of course you have access to a 3D printer, which is the way their business model appears to be set up.  Of course you could use the WA to provide the riflemen for your force and use GWM for your support to keep costs down.