Plastic French infantry 1916-1940
Company: Wargames Atlantic
Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 32mm tall in beret
Era: World War I and early World War II
Price: £25.00 for 35 miniatures
Rarely does a set really impress me, but the new plastic French from Atlantic has. Not only do you get the helmets and weapons for the Great War (including Lebel and Berthier rifles, VB rifle grenade launcher, and Chauchat LMG), but the set also includes WWII weapons such as the MAS-38 SMG and the FM 24/29 LMG. There are two choices of backpack, plus canteens and gasmask containers. The head count is staggering – 42 variants! This includes Adrian helmets, kepis, M2 and ARS gas masks, and Senegalese heads. The variety of heads allows Foreign Legion, Senegalese Tirailleurs, and Harlem Hellfighters to be built too. You get five frames of infantry (with seven to the frame), plus six frames of additional heads and weapons. The assembly is numbered so is relatively straightforward. I’ll be adding the weapons and the odd Adrian helm to my Atlantic partisans too. This is a must for any French Great War or WWII player.
Horrible housemates
Company: Crooked Dice
Size: 30mm ‘foot to eye’ or 34mm tall
Era: 1980s (modern)
Price: £4.00 each or £15.00 for the set of four
Here’s another charming set from Crooked Dice – the horrible housemates! This set is a homage to a well-loved 1980s British sitcom about four university students sharing squalid accommodation. There are four of these young ones in the set. There’s the young punk (reading medicine), complete with baseball bat and beer can. Next is the wannabe anarchist (a sociology student) with the conceited attitude and the knack for bad poetry! Finally, there’s the paranoid hippy with a hole in his shoe... vegetable rights and peace! The last housemate, the Yuppie, was too cool to be seen in this line-up...! The only thing missing from this set is a homicidal Glaswegian hamster! The casting and sculpting are good, and the detail is excellent. Each model comes with its own slotta base. These will come as welcome reinforcements for 7TV and similar games, perhaps as not-so-innocent bystanders or as rather dangerous students!
Victorian sci-fi Aphid-class airship
Company: Things from the Basement/4Ground
Size: 28mm (L/W/H: 500X170X 300 mm from base to top of mast)
Era: Victorian sci-fi/steampunk
Price: £52.75
