Who makes the best USMC in 28mm?

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

Ok, this is a bit of a rant -- I friend of mine wants to do PTO, and I have a ton of 28mm TAG Japanese that I got painted on eBay, but I didn't have any USMC painted up. So he can't get his USMC done in time, and I haul out the Warlord-BAM USMC figures I bought some time ago and go to work.

Holy carp!

1. Packing sucks: A platoon in a box, with no foam padding of any kind so the figures are jumbled up and barrels are bent, etc. Lost a bunch of barrel tips, rifle grenades snapped off and such.

2. Poses have too many kneeling figures: Ok, some of the poses are nice and dynamic, yelling, running, etc., kind of Sgt Rock-like -- but HALF the figures are kneeling! What the heck?!? It's ok if SOME of the figures are kneeling to add some flavor to the unit, but HALF of the figures in the box!?!? I'm gonna have my little lead soldiers storm Tarawa on their knees?

3. Too much Flash: Then I start cleaning flash, and there's a TON of flash -- flash on the feet and toes, flash on the gun barrels, on the canteens, on the "Separate head" helmets, on the sides and bottom of the base, odd chunks here and there I have to carve off with care because the figures are also BRITTLE as hell!!

4. I hate Separate Heads: You have to cut each head off a sprue, clean the flash off of them and then glue them onto the torsos. Yikes, extra work! And a couple super-dynamic poses have separate *arms* as well as a separate head. What a pain, more glue and glue fumes.

Overall, I'm not impressed and wouldn't buy these again. The old BAM Soviets that make up most of my collection are much better than these in terms of quality and ease of painting. Can anybody recommend 28mm USMC figures with better quality if I want to expand my collection? The TAG Japanese I have are good, what about their USMC? How are Brigade Games' USMC figures? Other manufacturers? Thanks!

[infelix]

Yea the Warlord stuff seems to be kinda hit or miss sometimes. While I don't have any myself but I've heard good things about The Assault Group (http://www.theassaultgroup.co.uk/store/home.php?cat=17).

[Commander Vyper]

Have to agree re: TAG, Pete has some nice sculpts and the quality of his in house casting is top notch.

The Commander

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

Cool, thanks, I'll look at TAG's stuff.

[Helen]

I'm sorry to read you were disappointed with the Warlords USMC. I find them very good with loads of charm, however the packaging is a concern. I would contact Paul at Warlords and let him know. I know from past experiences that this has occurred, but once informed, Paul has spoken to the orders department. The extra flash does require a liitle effort to remove and the figure-heads is a good idea. It allows for folks who wish to have variation in their miniatures the ability to do so without resorting to the exacto blade. Not everyone is confident with conversion work. The figure-head system is thumbs-up in my view. Warlords USMC box set was their initial release. They always have some sort of theme and I guess in this case was hitting hitting the beach so yes I suppose a few more kneeling miniatures would be found. I could be off target, however we all have our own opinions on miniatures and how we received them.

The Assault Group USMC are very nice and Richard has designed  some lovely miniatures that will look right alongside the Warlords USMC.

The Brigade Games/Company B PacWar USMC are very good. Loads of charm and character and fit nicely alongside the two former companies. I've them all and they look good together.

You can have all the variation you need within the three companies and have a wonderful looking collection ready to sort out the Japanese.

I hope this message has assisted you. You can find some of my USMC within the board. Not many, but you get the idea. My focus is on the Solomon islands and not the later South-Pacific, however I'm sure that will follow.

Cheers,

Helen

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

Hi Helen,
I was frankly surprised at the amount of clean up and fiddling I had to do with the USMC figures, since my experience with the Soviet figures was quite different. To each his own on heads, I suppose, I would find it easier to chop and pin a couple of heads if I wanted to customize them than glue dozens of little heads onto my figures. And the kneeling thing I didn't notice until I started basing them and said, "Huh...that's odd...why are so many figures in a kneeling pose??" Just looks weird to me to have half the figures kneeling. Anyways, I'll try a few packs from TAG and Brigade to see how they look next to the Warlord stuff.
Best,
-John-

I'm sorry to read you were disappointed with the Warlords USMC. I find them very good with loads of charm, however the packaging is a concern. I would contact Paul at Warlords and let him know. I know from past experiences that this has occurred, but once informed, Paul has spoken to the orders department. The extra flash does require a liitle effort to remove and the figure-heads is a good idea. It allows for folks who wish to have variation in their miniatures the ability to do so without resorting to the exacto blade. Not everyone is confident with conversion work. The figure-head system is thumbs-up in my view. Warlords USMC box set was their initial release. They always have some sort of theme and I guess in this case was hitting hitting the beach so yes I suppose a few more kneeling miniatures would be found. I could be off target, however we all have our own opinions on miniatures and how we received them.

The Assault Group USMC are very nice and Richard has designed  some lovely miniatures that will look right alongside the Warlords USMC.

The Brigade Games/Company B PacWar USMC are very good. Loads of charm and character and fit nicely alongside the two former companies. I've them all and they look good together.

You can have all the variation you need within the three companies and have a wonderful looking collection ready to sort out the Japanese.

I hope this message has assisted you. You can find some of my USMC within the board. Not many, but you get the idea. My focus is on the Solomon islands and not the later South-Pacific, however I'm sure that will follow.

Cheers,

Helen

[axabrax]

I am going to chime in here and second my disappointment with the casting quality on the USMC box.  I have almost every figure made by Bolt Action before they were acquired by Warlord, and the casting quality was always quite good and clean. My first Bolt Action purchase ever with the new Warlord Bolt Action range is the USMC box, and the casting quality is horrible: flash everywhere in the worst places (e.g., across the face), prolific mold lines, big spurs on the bottom of the bases, etc. This is a real disappointment--although I do like the figs. Considering the top notch quality of the competitors for 28mm Pac War figs, Warlord needs to do a better job with the casting.

[Helen]

Thanks for your responses about Warlord. Please keep banging away to Warlords about their casting issue and hopefully you will see a positive outcome.

Cheers,

Helen

[BAMeyer]

I am biased becuse I participated heavily in the development of the Brigade Games PacWar line.  The sculpting for the USMC and the Japanese was done by Paul Hicks who needs no introduction.  The line is the most complete by far.  The packs are set up to allow building platoons over the various changes in TOE with maximum variation, minimum duplication, and little waste.  Mike Broadbent sculpted the Aussie forces for PacWar with the same eye for pack makeup.

In addition to the standard platoon the PacWar lines includes a good number of specialty troops.  USMC engineers, Raiders; Japanese AFV assault troops, war weary jungle troops and even troops on elephants.  The Japanese, USMC and Aussie lines include a full range of support weapons and crewed artilley.

The PacWar figure range is supported by Company B producing a wide range of Japanese, USMC, and Commonwealth vehicles and vehicle crews.

Sorry for the passion       

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

No worries, thanks for the info on the extent of the product line. Raiders would be cool to have, plus some coast watcher and melanesian guide types.

[brigadegames]

Here is the link to the Brigade Games/CompanyB range which is quite comprehensive.

http://www.brigadegames.com/Pacific-War--WW2_c_30.html

Additionally, here is the link to the CompanyB vehicles for Pacific War:

http://www.brigadegames.com/WW2--Pacific-War-Vehicles_c_123.html

Enjoy

[brigadegames]

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Use coupon XMAS and apply it to your order on checkout.

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[Helen]

In addition to the standard platoon the PacWar lines includes a good number of specialty troops. Japanese AFV assault troops  

That's new! Something your not telling us Bruce? Do you mean anti-tank troops?

Hope you are enjoying sand, surf and water.

Helen

[Agis]

While I do like BAM minis, some of the later releases (after being acquired by Warlord) also have a strange "ring/ vibe" for me.
I do not know where to put it, maybe the poses and faces are now too much Comic style...

As far as the Warlord USMC Box is concerned, I recently bought it and was delighted, some flash but not more than usual in the industry. The poses are unique and just love the separate head and equipment options. Very easy to build hardened Raiders out of the box!
I have painted one already (will show him this weekend).

I was always very interested in the Brigade PacWar line, the prohibiting US/EU custom regulations have always stopped me to get into it big time.
I have the Japanese Anti-Tank/Demolition Team from the Brigade range and liked them the most from all the Japanese lines (West Wind, TAG; haven't seen the recent Warlord release - but I do not like them for the same reasons from the pics I saw) I have or saw.

[Kane]

Guess I'll put my coin in the bag too: I think it's a good thing that Warlord is growing to be one of the bigger producers of miniatures and I'm quite happy with the fact that they have an enormous range available (and the swapable heads is very good idea), but we should get a good standard quality in place and that is definitely NOT the case.

I collect US Airborne and got me some from Artizan, some from Offensive and some from Warlord. All 3 are very nicely detailed, where Warlord is the most completely detailed in my opinion. But I do have to agree with the others that the models are very poorly packed which results in alot of crooked weapon barrels. Same squad (of 12 minis, of which 2 are a 30. cal team), happened to contain 5 (!) times the same model and another 3 times. I was dissappointed but I mix them in various squads, so I can live with it, but it is a pity. Same for my opponent. He got that trooper firing a Panzerfaust. The thing was bent and twisted in all kinds of ways... When comparing casting, Warlord is by far the worst. Artizan and offensive are both really good. Hardly any cleaning up or mold lines.

On another positive note: The Sherman I got from them was however very well and cleanly cast. Only the bottom side had some small bubbles, but hey, nobody sees that. Thing that annoys me the most however, is that I have E-mailed Warlord twice with various questions, never getting any reply. One of those questions was the possiblity (which they offered!) to pre-order some stuff to collect from a fair in Antwerp.

So for me it is simple: I'll order with Artizan (no remarks there) or Offensive (which offer an absolutely outstanding service! And have mixed squads so you don't have doubles) and for the vehicles I intend to buy them from Die Waffenkammer. I already contacted Jtrnka here with a question and got an answer straight away (thanks man!). Just maybe I'd order a vehicle from Warlord, but that will depend solely on the fact wether I can find it somewhere else or not.