Empress Miniatures release new WW2 ranges.

[commissarmoody]

Already asked for all the above a few times.

[Timotl]

WW2 is a pretty heavily covered period. That said, I would love to see some decent late war USMC, ala "The Pacific". Tattered uniforms, bare chests, 1000 yard stare. No one really does a good range of Jarheads, IMO. Brigade do a few that are nice albeit small (More early war too), Assault Group have some but I think they're awful, and Warlord metals are terrible and the plastics are worse. I'd certainly buy some...

[commissarmoody]

WW2 is a pretty heavily covered period. That said, I would love to see some decent late war USMC, ala "The Pacific". Tattered uniforms, bare chests, 1000 yard stare. No one really does a good range of Jarheads, IMO. Brigade do a few that are nice albeit small (More early war too), Assault Group have some but I think they're awful, and Warlord metals are terrible and the plastics are worse. I'd certainly buy some...

Late war Jarheads will also work for the Inchon landing, along with all the other little brush fire post WW2 conflicts that are forget about in the history books. China, Philippine hut rebels, Dutch marines in the Indonesian war of independence.
I would say that they would work great for US army in the Pacific also with out helmet covers, but I believe the USMCs uniforms only had one pocket on the breast instead of two. I will have to look back into that...

[BAMeyer]

WW2 is a pretty heavily covered period. That said, I would love to see some decent late war USMC, ala "The Pacific". Tattered uniforms, bare chests, 1000 yard stare. No one really does a good range of Jarheads, IMO. Brigade do a few that are nice albeit small (More early war too), Assault Group have some but I think they're awful, and Warlord metals are terrible and the plastics are worse. I'd certainly buy some...

The Brigade Games PacWar range is by no means small and The Marines and Japanese are all sculpted by Paul Hicks.

[carlos marighela]

Indeed. The Paul Hicks sculpted Brigade Games USMC  probably make more of the buggers redundant. US Army in the PTO are noticeably different. More use of gaiters and the HBT uniform had a different cut. It was originally designed as a fatigue/ work uniform to be worn over the standard wool uniform. No helmet covers.

Such a range would work for Rangers and others in the ETO and MTO especially the MTO and for Operation Torch. As I said earlier nobody makes such a range, which is odd considering it covers all major theatres and the full gamut from 1942 to 1945.

As for the new Empress troops, I'm happy with standard platoon weapons, some light company stuff like 60mm mortars, .30 cal MGs, bazookas and a 57mm RCL, which Paul really should have sculpted for the Red Star/FNG French. Speaking of which, these can't really be used as French in Indochina. Different weapons and other details. They could be pressed into service as proxies for some of the metropolitan French garrison troops in Algeria in the 50's, some of which were equipped with M1 Garands.

[commissarmoody]

The Brigade Games PacWar range is by no means small and The Marines and Japanese are all sculpted by Paul Hicks.

I was not aware that he made that range. I might have to give it a look over.

[Timotl]

The Brigade Games PacWar range is by no means small and The Marines and Japanese are all sculpted by Paul Hicks.

Yeah, the Brigade range is decent, but the Garands are wee and the legs and feet are off and too small. Look at them in comparison to the Empress figs in this post. The Empress ones are proper! The weapons look great, nice and detailed and the right size. The Brigade ones simply aren't. I knew paul Hicks did them, and they're not his top work IMO. I got some and was so dissapointed in the range that I never even painted them. The newer stuff in that range is good, the specialists, engineers, and raiders but the rest is just meh. Lots of room to improve and given how many ranges there are with good regular Army figs, more Marines would be very welcome. Of course, European theater is much more popular so maybe it wouldn't make sense from a business standpoint. But, the European theater is a pretty saturated market whereas the Pacific is not.

[M Blakey]

Just got mine in the post and wow they are a million times nicer up close if that's even possible! I know it's a brand new line but I Can't wait to see what's coming next! Come on Paul and Christine don't leave us hanging to long 

[Paul @ Empress Miniatures]

Next, and being sculpted as I write, will be;

4 x firing line to add to the ones released.

4 x advancing to add to the ones released.

4 x figures making two Bazooka teams. One firing one advancing.

4 x 30 cal with two firing and two moving.

Jeep just being cast but will need crewing etc. Then the basic jeep will be used for a number of developments such as ambulance version.

Then well we just keep going to be honest.

Cheers,
Paul

 

[M Blakey]

Just take my money!! Can't wait! it will give me time to paint up this lot first! 

[Tommy20]

Jeep just being cast but will need crewing etc. Then the basic jeep will be used for a number of developments such as ambulance version.

Awesome!  Then I have another request.  AFAIK, nobody does a recon mortar jeep:

[tomek917]

Recieved my miniatures here in Stockholm yesterday, I've never had anything arrive that fst from the UK before! So, cheers for that!

Oh yeah, the miniatures are amazing too! 

[Arlequín]

4 x 30 cal with two firing and two moving.

I've been trying to sit back and enjoy the releases as they come, but I have to ask, is that the bipod M1919A6, or the 'light tripod' M1919A4 and whichever one it is, will we see the other at some point too?

... and please, yes, just keep going.    

[ARKOUDAKI]

Okay, I like the figs, as I always like Paul's sculpting style and these are much better than the ones he did when he first started. You can really see more character and detail in his sculpting these days, so the young man is clearly getting better and better...and that is better for all of us!

All that said, I really think the decision to go with 1/50th AFVs is just a bad mistake. I read Keith's take on things and understand his point, but don't think for WW2 is works at all. To be clearer, Empress commissions modern AFVs in 1:50 and this made sense, as there is simple a dearth of modern AFVs out there in 1/48. Yet, for WW2 1/48 offers a load of options (Tamiya, Hobby Boss, Gasoline, AFV Club, etc). Moreover, you would be able to cross sell items (and figs) into the 1/48 model crowd. Back to Keith's view that the 1/48 AFVs don't look quite right compared to 28mm (well, many are bigger than this, especially when based) figs. For softskin items like Kubels and Jeeps, perhaps. However, for tanks and such, the figs look appropriate. In contrast, aside from the Perry WW2 items, which Keith rightly points out fit more with 1/56 AFVs, almost all the larger WW2 ranges (plastic and metal) look wrong with such tiny AFVs. That's just my take.

Less I digress, I just think Empress would be better off spending its resources on items that are more likely to sell. Many gamers either opt for 1/56 or 1/48 AFVs...so why decide to do your own scale of 1/50? It just doesn't make much business sense to me. I really want Empress to succeed, and in the past have encouraged a few small suppliers to use them as their UK reps.

Looking forward to seeing more of Paul's sculpts but really think the 1/48 AFVs would be a better way to go.

[ARKOUDAKI]

PS And I really think the Perry's made a big mistake with going with a smaller sized WW2 figs. Don't get me wrong, I love their WW2 Desert War range, and have loads of the figs (not the AFVs, as I really don't like these much...but some are nice). I keep the Perry's specifically for WW2 N Afrika games, as they are the only desert troops I have. The rest of my extensive WW2 stash (in 28mm and 20mm) are mostly geared towards Europe (generally the Ost Front), with some for the Pacific island hopping campaigns. So the different sized figs don't matter. Yet, if the Perry's had done with larger WW2 figs I really think they would have encouraged more sales.