This blog is about the world of gaming miniatures, as seen from my perspective. I've been collecting and painting for over 30 years now, and while my primary focus is miniatures for D&D, I also enjoy many other games that use minis, so we'll be covering those as well. Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, August 2, 2013

When Men Were Men And Tanks Were Lead

I recently picked up 10 blisters of Heritage Panzertroops, and they arrived in the mail the other day. Have I previously mentioned that I really like these little war machines? They were sitting around in someone's garage, and it shows - most of the cards were beat to hell and back, the blisters in rough shape, and the foam in the blisters had long since petrified and now easily crumbles. Still, the models are in pristine condition and none the worse for wear after 30 years, give or take a few. It is a mixed lot of American, British, and German models and quite armor-heavy (9 of the 10 blisters are AFVs). They are as follows:

 The usual suspects, rounded up for viewing.

American
1x M5A1 Stuart Light Tank (2 models)
2x M3 Grant Medium Tank
1x M47 Patton II Medium Tank


Stuart - small and boxy.



 Grant - 75mm not in place.



 Patton - 90mm goodness.


I'm curious why they included the M47 and other post-WWII tanks in their lineup - most of the vehicles are WWII, but perhaps they thought gamers would want to play Korean War battles with the late-model US and Russian tanks?

British
1x Daimler I Armored Car (2 models)
1x Matilda II Infantry Tank
2x Crusader II Cruiser Tank


 Daimler - not so boxy.



Humber - boxy personified.



Matilda - Queen of the Desert.



 Crusader - Cruiser tank.


German
1x Sd.Kfz. 251 Half-Track
1x Infantry Assaulting

 Sd.Kfz. 251 - MGs included but not yet mounted.

This purchase expands my overall Panzertroops inventory quite a bit. Previously, I only had a Humber II (read about that one here), two M29 Weasels, the Infantry Assault boxed set, and some loose troops on foot. I suppose if I painted up the Stuarts and Grants in British 7th Armoured Division livery, I could have a decent 8th Army force. Hmm, what to do, what to do.

 Patton with ruler.

And I thought they were quite a good deal at just a bit under $4.30 per blister (price + shipping factored in). To compare that to Flames of War models, it looks like those retail for $12.50 each, so even if you can find them on sale for half price, you would still be paying more. Maybe that's apples and oranges, but I'm always looking at the bottom line on my expenditures. Still, it would be nice to compare the two brands side-by-side. But that's going to happen because the last thing I need to do is start collecting FoW!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This takes me back.

After the American Revolution plastic soldiers from the back of comic books-Heritage Panzertroops were the first miniatures I ever got. It was a sort of introductory set-Americans and Germans with an infantry squad, weapons squad and some officers for each side.

I built a little diorama of what I thought an Italian looked like and fought solo battle all over it for a couple of years. Then came D&D. I got distracted for a while.

TopKat said...

@SAROE: thanks for the comment! One of my childhood friends (and later our gaming group's first long-term DM) and I used to fight North African battles in 1/72nd scale with old Matchbox and Hasegawa models - lots of Humbers, Matildas, Daimlers, Crusaders, etc. vs Mk III, IVs, Tigers and the dreaded 88. Hours and hours of childhood fun :)

The Panzertroops set you mention may have been the Infantry Assault boxed set.

Anonymous said...

I'm shocked that those thin tank cannon are still intact!

Nice models.