As promised in the last review, here's the scoop on the new Battle Honors new 25mm. World War II line of Vehicles As the hobby seems to he getting older (me faster than anyone else), 25mm seems to be a little easier on the eyes in the painting department. Bearing this in mind, skirmish gaming has really come into its own, specifically the BATTLEGROUND set for those of you who enjoy WWII. This makes the BATTLE HONORS World War II line the greatest thing since sliced bread. Not only are they big enough to be paintable, they are very nice. There are six variations of Hanomags (all metal), two Stug IIIs. two PZKW IIVs, a Marder II, a late Tiger I w/zimmerit, a Nebelwerfer with crew, and a PAK 40 with crew. On the Russian side, there are: a T 60, T-70, T-34/76 and 85, a KV 1, an SU-85 and 100, a 57mm AT with crew, and a 76.2 AT with-crew. For - the American, there are two variations of Shermans and a M3 halftrack. There are also German, Russian, US, and British tank crews. And by the time you read this, there will be at least thirteen more kits released. These people have really been busy'. The tank kits use a cast resin-hull with metal tracks, turret, and accessories. Not being a big fan of resin kits. I was really impressed by the quality. There is the usual amount of flash and mold marks which take all of about 3 minutes to clean off and I have yet to find the first pinhole that usually plagues resin kits. The metal pieces have a little flash but this too can be claned.up in about 5 minutes. The kits have anywhere from 7 to 15 parts, so assembly time is about another 5 minutes. Give yourself 2 minutes to admire your work, and you are ready to put a primer coat on in about 15 minutes! There is a down side to this line. Number one is the only kit that have any instructions is the Hanomag Nebelwerfer There really needs to be at least a diagram of the AT guns and where all the little breech parts go. We have sold about 15 of these kits and not two have been assembled the same. Stuart at BATTFLEHONORS tells me that they have repeatedly asked the designer in England for this, but as of yet, nothing has been forth-conung. Problem number two is that there are no 50 caliber machine gun for any of the American vehicles. BATTLE HONORS decided not to delay the release of the halftrack or Shermans and will be supplying the guns when they come in to those of you who already bought. The final thing: art decals. There aren't any. However, there are plenty of 1/48th scale aircraft decals on the market and Woodland Scenics makes dry transfer numbers which work fine. The kits are priced from $5 for the tank crews to $30 for most of the tanks. Definitely not a scale you would want to play COMMAND DECISION in, but for around $40 per side, you could have a great skirmish game. While talking about Battle Honors, we ought to mention the line of battle damaged buildings in 25mm which ARMORCAST-TERRAFORM manufactures. While this fine manufacturer is primarily known for making what our good friend Bryant Williams identifies as "Space Monkey" stuff (man-eating plants, Skull Obelisk, etc), they have a very nice line of resin cast busted-up buildings. Mostly in corner sections from 1 to 4 stories tall, the prices run from a reasonable $5.50 to $14.00. Take a look at them next time you are in your local shop. My valued associate, Baxter, has started working on his 20mm WWII Norwegians. Get your skis and kippers ready.... We're going to Norway! FAA has released their new 7 pack range comprising of platoon HQ, light-machine gun team, riflemen firing & skirmishing, Maxim heavy MG, mortar crew (use the French 81 mm GUN-29), and command post - Figures are up to FAAs uuual quality with a mixture of helmets and ski caps. By the way, the uniform color is the Howard Hues 933 Field Gray and the uniform piping is red. Barrett scale is their usual 20M. Prices run between $3.40 to $4.40. So for those of you who share Baxter's off the wall taste in armies, you can't go wrong with these! Also lately released in the 20mm WWII scale is Battle Miniatures, (formerly Drew's Militia) Handschar SS figures in fez's. There are two packs of infantry, an MG42 on tripod with crew, command, pioneers, and an 81mm mortar with crew. They scale- out at about 21H on the Barrett scale. The examples that I have seen are well cast with very little flash and carry the proper German equipment. Prices run between $3.00 to $4.65, depending on the number of figures. Dang, everything we seem to be gaming lately is World War II in some shape or form. We PROMISE, next month we will try and review something else. Back to Dispatch Dec. 98 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com