Searching for 28 mm Polish Cold War and Beyond

[Ursus Maior]

Hi folks,

for an ongoing project, I'm looking for 28 mm Polish miniatures of the Cold War and beyond era. Most importantly, I need iconic heads and headgear, but complete figures would be appreciated of course. I got my vehicles covered, thanks to some fantastic models by BPM, but I need infantry...

[carlos marighela]

It's rumoured that Under Fire Miniatures will be doing 1980s era Poles but if and when are unknown to me.

Until that happens the closest proxies I can think of would be the Under Fire East Germans with some minor conversions to webbing and head swaps, mostly replacing the NBC suit roll at the rear. 

The Soviet SSh-40 and SSh-68 aren't identical to the Polish WZ-67 steel helmet but they are quite close enough in this scale to stand in as proxies.

That's probably as close as you well get for the moment. If you do go down that route just remember that the Poles didn't use the RPK so you need to select the PKM packs for your squad machine guns.

[Ursus Maior]

It's rumoured that Under Fire Miniatures will be doing 1980s era Poles but if and when are unknown to me.

Until that happens the closest proxies I can think of would be the Under Fire East Germans with some minor conversions to webbing and head swaps, mostly replacing the NBC suit roll at the rear. 

The Soviet SSh-40 and SSh-68 aren't identical to the Polish WZ-67 steel helmet but they are quite close enough in this scale to stand in as proxies.

That's probably as close as you well get for the moment. If you do go down that route just remember that the Poles didn't use the RPK so you need to select the PKM packs for your squad machine guns.

Thanks, if UFM would do Poles that would be fantastic. I like their miniatures so far. Solving the wz. 67 helmet problem is an issue, though. Maybe, I'll have to build a couple of airborne troopers and give them berets to gloss over using Soviet helmets.

Not sure if I want to chop up NVA models for the Polish project, though. Any thoughts on Mongrel Miniatures and their Russians or especially Syrian Commandos? They have webbed helmets.

Thanks for reminding me of the PKM, I had that on my list as well. By the way, does anyone produce PKM tripods in 28 mm? I think the third squad of each platoon was issued some of them for support work.

[carlos marighela]

The Mongrel Miniatures Syrians would work as proxies. I contemplated them myself when toying with the idea of a 1981 and the Soviets intervene in Poland scenario. The ones with netted helmets and field jackets being particularly apt.

The problem is though that the packs are rather diverse in terms of contents, you only really get one, maybe two, figures in any pack you can use with minimal work. A lot of the figures are in shirtsleeves, others are wearing trainers. A lot of putty work and a lot of buying duplicate packs if you wanted to field a platoon's worth.

Then there's the postage from the US. US postal rates mean I rarely buy anything form the Estados Unidos. Combined with the above it made it unfeasible for me, hence the UFM suggestions. Less work snipping off gas rolls and replacing heads than doing major work on the Mongrel chaps.

Do let me know what you settle on as I am still keen to field some Poles myself.

[Ursus Maior]

I'll keep you posted. Indeed, postage (25 %) and 19 % VAT/import tax isn't cheap. The Syrian commandos available seem fine though. Headswaps with webbing on Soviet helmets would sure be nice. What to do, well...