My first 15mm PSC infantry

[Fitz]

I recently got some stuff from the Plastic Soldier Company. They were doing a slightly-cheaper deal on a box of early WWII German infantry and one of infantry heavy weapons to match, so I paid my money and they eventually arrived in the mail. These are the first of PSC's plastic 15mm infantry I've seen.



This is from the infantry heavy weapons box — the leIG 18 75mm infantry gun.

Everything is mounted on a 32mm fender washer, and I mounted them before painting, which was an error.The figures have no bases, which makes them problematic to hold while painting, but even so I think I would have been much better off trying it, because painting them in situ was a major pain in the Gentleman's Area.



Amongst the set is this flamethrower figure. From what I've seen so far, it's fairly representative of the standard of PSC's infantry figures.

Size and proportions are generally OK, though there are some odd quirks, like the bulginess of this guy's back to the right of the flamethrower tank. Detail is pretty soft though, and the poses tend to be quite flat to cater to the limitations of injection moulding. They're intended as wargaming figures, and in that role they serve perfectly well. They're not in the top rank of quality as far as detail and animation goes, but for their intended purpose they don't really need to be. They do take a bit more painting than figures with crisper, cleaner detail, so be prepared for that if it's something that is important to you.

I've yet to see any of Battlefront's plastic figures, PSC's only real competitor so far in the field of 15mm plastic figures, so I can't make any comparison except on price. The BF plastics are considerably more expensive and less comprehensive than PSC's offerings. If you want superior detail, metal figures will probably have the advantage, but again you'll be paying a lot more for them, and quality there is far from guaranteed — I've seen some truly awful metal figures.

In summary, I think they're OK. Not stellar, but OK, and worth the asking price.

[MartinR]

I've got quite a few of the PSC figures (German, US, Russian) and they are hard to beat for the price although some of the poses and figure mixes are a bit odd. The US weapon mix seems to be based on Kelly's Heroes, but it is easy enough to chop them around.

Despite the limitations they are astonishingly good value, especially the artillery and heavy weapons sets, and sit fine with my metal figures.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice paint jobs.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

They look very good but fantastic when you realise that they are 15mm

Are you highlighting the jackets in a blue green shade?

Regards

Mick

[Ballardian]

 Very nice, the 75 is a cracker

[Fitz]

Are you highlighting the jackets in a blue green shade?

It's Vallejo VMC German Uniform (not to be confused with VMC German Field Grey, which I use for later stuff). It's a decent match for the very early German uniform jackets up to 1940, but after that the colour was restricted to dress uniform.

[Fitz]

The last of the PSC early-WWII German infantry heavy weapons for today are the tripod-mounted MG34 and the 80mm mortar.

The MG34 seems to be being served by the world's most incompetent loader, since he appears to have just jammed the belt down under the loading cover rather than actually feeding it into the loading gate. I didn't notice that I'd mis-positioned him until after I finished painting the team. Ah well, next time.

Both of these were, again, mounted on fender washers before, rather than after painting. That's not something I'll try again. I'll probably be moving to flock for the bases rather than static grass too; I prefer the way flock handles and looks, not to mention that it's a lot hardier.

[Fitz]

The last of the teams on the PSC 15mm Early WWII German Heavy Weapons sprue is the PaK36 37mm anti-tank gun. I put this one together and painted it, not because I need more PaK36 right now, but because I thought I might as well just to see how it looked complete.

It's a fairly creditable little model, I think. Very simple to build, and it looks exactly like what it says on the tin.

Unlike the other team weapons from this set, I painted the crew separately and then added them to the base (a 32mm steel fender washer). That made them a million times easier to paint, and I think I did a much better job on them. I had to glue them to little bits of plastic card to make them handleable, as they're not moulded with bases — which I think isn't actually a terribly good idea, but there you go.

I think I might as well do the remaining three in the set, as my existing PaK36 teams are all SS, and I hate those pricks.

The crew appear to be generic rather than PaK36-dedicated, so their shells are much too large for the gun. I can live with that, but it would have been nice to have their ammunition a bit closer to the proper size.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

Your painting is fantastic for 15mm

[Tim]

I like your work very much, Fitz.

[Fitz]

Thanks very much