Above, a Victrix 1/144 (12mm) Sherman (all images clickable).
Over the past 6 months, Victrix have started to crank out their new line of 12mm (1/144) WWII hard plastic miniatures. Initial releases were the Sherman, Cromwell, Panther, StuG III and Panzer IV.
German and British infantry now join the line-up, with the Hanomag 251 and Tiger I next out of the blocks.
This post looks at initial experiences with the kit and includes a couple of painted examples.
Please use the ‘read more’ tab for the rest of this post.
10mm has been a ‘thing’ for WWII for a long time, with Pendraken Miniatures probably being the most prolific producer. So what does Victrix bring to the party?
Curiosity got the better of me and I bought some of the vehicle packs from the Wargame Store (UK - a fast and friendly service, see link in the Resource Section) to try them out. These got my interest, so I fancied a look at the infantry.
I found SGS Model Store on e-bay, who sell single sprues of the infantry, a good way to dip the toe in the water (UK based, also with a fast and friendly service, see link in the Resource Section).
Looking at the vehicles first. These are hard plastic kits, with relatively few parts (i.e fast build). They need gluing together. They are well machined and detailed. Scale wise, they match up quite nicely with the latest updates that Pendraken are doing to their 10mm metal armour range, though are bigger than the original Pendraken vehicle models.
Above - The Victrix Sherman 75 has turned out rather nice. This has a Russian Green (Vallejo) paint job, a wash and then a sponging of Russian Green mixed with a trace of Field Gray to ‘wear’ the vehicle and calm down the decals. So they quite simple and fast to do. The tracks have had Vallejo mud applied with a bit of static grass mixed in, plus a bit of artists modelling acrylic. I can’t decide whether to base these or not.
They come in bags of six and include decals (thank you Victrix), though I am not sure as this series continues whether I would always want six of everything. I tend to game at the lower densities, so for years I have survived with putting on games that use say just two tigers or three of the main vehicle types such as Shermans or Panzer IV’s, but I know plenty of gamers use 10mm / 12mm scale to game at the battalion level (no doubt the soon to be released ‘O Group’ rules by Dave Brown will drive more of this) and Flames of War gamers, who organise their forces by the platoon, will be delighted.
One problem that I did encounter was with the StuG III. While cutting the separate guns out of the sprue, I broke one of them and weakened another, because they are quite fine.
It turned out not to be a such a problem with this model because each sprue also has the 105mm gun as an alternative, so I just used them instead, but it does occur to me that going forwards, Victrix might consider putting an extra gun barrel on the sprue to cover against clumsy fingers like mine! On the other tanks, where the gun is moulded as part of the turret, I have not had a breakage.
Above - comparing the Victrix Sherman (right), with the new upgraded Pendraken model (left). For the shot, I rested the Victrix tank on a spare base to match the other and overall these are a very close fit to each other in terms of dimension and would be fine on the same table.
Each infantry sprue has one half of the sprue providing the support weapons and the other half the various poses for the infantry sections. I think if you buy the official packs, you get 4 such sprues.
These are nice, slender, well proportioned figures that have realistic poses and are undercut in a way that allows highlights to be easily put in, lifting the figure to make an average paint job look good. I found that a base colour, followed by a wash and then just dabs of highlight to catch raised areas, gave a good effect.
Above - A rifle section using 4 infantry from the Victrix sprue on a 40mm x 20mm base. The animation looks good to my eyes.
My single German sprue from SGS Model Store, contained a small mortar, a large mortar a tripod mounted MG42, a prone bipod MG42, a carried MG42 (all with crew), 2 panzerfaust figures, a panzerschreck figure, a radio operator and a collection of 30 or so infantry, officers, NCO’s in various poses, including 4 prone.
I am basing four infantry to a base (including a mix of the panzerfausts, panzerschreck, LMG’s) to represent a section, while basing the weapon sections independently, so my little sprue gave me, (for £7.95), 9 infantry sections and 3 weapon teams (HMG and 2 mortars) and a recon / artillery spotter (radio). I was pleased enough to follow this up with an order for the British sprue, followed by another order that ultimately gave me three sprues for each side.
Above - I base my heavy weapons team on a smaller base (20mm x 20mm). The weapon here is clearly defined and the firing soldier has a realistic pose, with his left leg placed around the rear left leg of the machine gun.
Above - This is the Victrix infantry (left) next to my existing Pendraken base (right). My existing bases have 5 - 6 figures on them and I think I prefer that density in representing a section, so my next Victix base will have another figure added to see whether the slightly bigger figure will look alright at 5 to a base. The Pendraken are slightly smaller in height (at 10mm) and chunkier. Both have heir own charm, but I don't think I would mix them by choice.
Above - This is the Victrix Sherman (right) next to my existing Pendraken Sherman (left). Note, this is one of the updated vehicles in Pendrakens range, which are slightly bigger than the older models and it is a good match scale wise, with the Victrix model. My Pendraken vehicles are based, so I have slipped a base under the Victrix model so that the comparison here is fair.
Anyway, there we are.
Resource Section.
the Wargame Store (UK). LINK
SGS Model Store on e-bay. LINK
https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/sgsmodelstore?ul_noapp=true
My sister webspace COMMANDERS has a collection of shorter AAR’s and game pictures. Link.
