Sunday 4 June 2017

The Brit the Yank and the Hobby Episode 23: Cold War Gone Hot with Simon Elliott

In Episode 23 Simon joins us again, to talk to us about some Cold War gone hot scenario ideas, real world history and equipment, and general gaming ideas for the period

You can listen at the following places




Don't forget to join us at the groups facebook page too, to join in the discussion and share your hobby projects! 



Plastic Soldier Company 20mm Afrika Korp review

Today I'm taking a look at one of my favourite subjects, the Afrika Korp. Having picked up the new PSC platoon set at Salute, I've been eagerly working on Afrika Korp ever since.










I opted for the platoon set after admiring a few of the figures in blisters, and decided that I wanted them to make up the bulk of my infantry forces in my growing DAK collection. The set contains 39 white metal figures, wearing a mix of steel helmets and M40 tropical caps, no pith helmets are included.

For equipment, the 39 figures include the following,

3 NCO's with MP40's, split across two poses. One wearing a helmet and pointing, the other advancing bracing his weapon.

6 machine gun teams. Each team consists of the men, and wear a mix of helmets and tropical caps. These figures can also be freely intermingled to create some variety, and are posed either standing and advancing or prone firing.
 
 Worth mentioning is the separate bipod for the prone gun team, as this adds and extra level of finesse to the finished models. Each team comprises one gunner, and two loader/assistant types.

The rest of the set is made up of riflemen, wearing the same mix of head gear. All are armed with K98 rifles, and have a pleasing variety of field gear and skirmishing poses. between  the mix of head gear and poses, I think there are about 10 different poses, and look nicely varied when assembled.






The figures are white metal, and casting was for the most part very clean, though I did have a few mould lines and areas of flash to clean up, however this didn't take long and lines were in accessible places and didn't interfere with any detail.

It took me a little while to notice, however several of the figures wearing helmets have their field caps tucked into their belts, which I thought was a great little touch. Unforms are all the standard tropical issue stuff, with everyone wearing long trousers and tunics.

In terms of compatibility with other ranges, the figures are very close to AB in proportions, however they also mix very well with Kellys Heroes, Brittania and Italeri. I do not have any Wartime Miniatures DAK to hand at present.

At £40 for the set, I think this is good value as it's provided me with the bulk of the infantry I'll need for my Afrika Korp project, and I'm hopefully the range will sell well and we can see it expanded with command and support weapon options. For now, I've added those elements from Kellys Heroes and Britannia ranges, and find the over all effect most pleasing.

You can get your own platoon of DAK from the PSC website here, and listen to our podcast episode where we speak to one of the minds behind Battlegroup Tobruk, Mr Piers Brand here.
Finally, you can see more of my work or contact me regarding commissions at Volley Fire Painting Service