Today, I managed to take a detour from a family journey and call in at Victrix. This was pre-arranged by phone. They are very nice people, who politely allowed me to interrupt their business routine.
The reason for the visit ….. impatience! They have just added three new additions to their 1/144 WWII range (12mm) in the past 24 hours and I was very keen to get them into my hands.
My last purchase was the Soviet T-34 pack and infantry with support weapons, so this new purchase allows the new S.U. 76 to add variety to that force and the new Pak 40 (75mm Anti-Tank gun), will give German defenders some non-vehicle firepower in up-coming scenarios attack / defence, which I will base around 1944.
The third pack in the new trio covers British 6 pounders and their Loyd Carrier transports.
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| Pak 40 sprue |
Pak 40 (above 1 of the 4 sprues) - there are 4 gun models and crew, complete with their Sd Kfz 11 transports. The transports have passengers. On the sprue, the personnel have both standard uniform and smocks, so the modeller can choose which to use. This set also comes with sandbag sections, so that gun emplacements can be built.
6 Pdr - there are 3 gun models and crew, complete with their Loyd carrier transports. On the sprue, the personnel have both standard and airborne uniforms, so the modeller can choose which to use. As with the Pak 40, there is additional stowage and ammo boxes. (Note - Victrix have British and German airborne infantry in the pipeline)
S.U.76 (above) - there are 6 models in this set. The crew come with standard uniform or winter uniform, the gamer can choose which. Also the early model or late model (76M) can be built. With this chassis done, the T-70 pack will be added in the future.
The anti-tank guns in particular are important additions to the range, as they add in a new dimension to attacker / defender scenarios, by introducing an important weapon platform.
I can’t remember the channel / link, but there are a couple of YouTube tutorials that show these models being painted, they will give you a close up view, so that you can see the very nice detail.
The scale is well suited to the ‘O’ Group rules and the Boots on the Ground rules, both are sold by Victrix, with the latter also supported by some very good scenario books.
I plan to use ‘O’ Group, plus my own rules and also the new Rapid Fire Reload rules, with my basing making infantry density look a bit meatier.
Above - A scene from my own collection. I base the Victrix infantry on 40mm x 20mm with 6 figures per base, which allows the base to look quite ‘section’ like. The support weapons go onto 30mm bases, just so that they are clearly and immediately differentiated from infantry sections.
The vehicles are Victrix Panthers, very easy to put together and as you can see, paint up well. The transfers do come with the packs.
For the record, the bridge and building are from Battlescale’s 10mm range, the road is latex from TimeCast, the river is from The Last Valley and the mat is from Geek Villlain.
I popped into Kendal (the local town) for lunch and supporting some local shops, I picked up a GW Wraithbone base paint from Boyes and then went to Games Workshop (Warhammer) and bought a pot of Contrast paint - Militarum Green, which looks useful.
While in GW, I asked if there were any other hobby stores locally and the gent kindly said ‘Victrix’ :-)
Resource Section.
An earlier post that shows Victrix Shermans. LINK
https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2021/02/victrix-12mm-world-war-ii.html
An AAR showing Victrix figures in a play test of my own rules LINK
https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2022/10/1944-henris-farm.html
An AAR showing a small platoon level game of ‘O’ Group. LINK.
https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2021/09/assault-on-strassengabel-o-group-game.html
My sister webspace ‘COMMANDERS’ is being re-configured to showcase various figure and boardgame systems that I am enjoying and gives a flavour of where current projects are up to. Link.