Military Miniatures / Battle Front figure It is new & exciting! In addition, it has Bernie's personal, best endorsement for new figures. Yes, you are right. It was for sale on his Emperor's Headquarters Table, at Wargamers' Reunion, and I had money. What a great combination! Now, the hard part, Major Bill gave me 2 packs of these excellent figures for free. If I would write a figure review for the HMGS MidSouth Dispatch, the opinions are entirely my own, and you are welcome to purchase your own figures and review them for Major Bill. I am sure Major Bill will not complain it you do. I have no idea if the figure assortment is standard in the packages. I can only report what I found when I opened the package. Battle Front, World War II Miniatures, 15mm, 1:100 scale models and figures from Crusader Distributors Limited, Unit 4, 136 Maruna Road, Ellerslie, Auckland, New Zealand and available from better hobby shops or by mail from A.T.A.K. Miniatures, 38 Shady Ln. Mercerville, NJ 08619, atak@nerc.com. WWRI01 Russian Infantry Advancing. 7 poses, 20 figures. #1: Officer, pistol in hand, lanyard clearly visible, in soft cap, (1x). #2 submg-er, barrel drum magazine held in left hand firing, in soft cap (2x) #3 Carbine held at port arms, in soft cap (3x) #4 Rifleman, helmet, weapon at shoulder level, very good equipment, sleep roll, and ammo pouches (2x) #5 Carbine, helmet, weapon at port arms, lots of ammo & equipment pouches (5x) #6 Submg-er, helmet, weapon at port arms, left hand holding gun barrel next to drum magazine (4x) #7 Rifleman. helmet, weapon at waist level, (3x). All poses appear to be moving quickly, except the Officer, who is moving more at a walk than a jog. #7 is definitely moving at a jog. All the others are moving between long strides and a run. Animation overall is very good. The detail on the figures are excellent, the same pouches for ammo and equipment and blanket rolls are clearly visible on all the figures except the officer. On all the soft cap figures have excellent facial features discernible to include eyes, ears, nose and mouth. as well as clear articulation on all the fingers. The helmeted figures have complete faces except for where the helmet would normally cover those details. WWRI03 Russian HMG Teams (6 per pack), 4 poses, 14 figures. #1 HMG-er, helmet, sitting with one leg on each side of the weapon, he is slightly leaning back suggesting he is rapid firing his weapon, the HMG ammo belt is clearly articulated, and the Machine gun barrel is very well articulated. Good weapon shield in front of the weapon, the shield is curved on the right, and straight on the left. The wheels are in good proportion to the weapon. (6x) #2 Loader, helmet, prone position, with a large ammo magazine pan with the ammo belt & bullets easily matched to the HMG-ers ammo belt. They look well done where the belts come together, articulation of the pouches are not as clear as most of the other figures, but still visible enough for painting (6x) #3 Carbine, soft cap carbine, in firing position, good articulation on uniform, great attention to detail on facial features (1x) #4 Submg-er, helmet, possible officer figure, walking, waving with his right hand to signal the advance of troops, submg is on left hip and left hand is holding the barrel at a 45-degree angle, no bed roll, crossed belt straps on figure, (1x). In comparison to other manufacturers, of 15mm World War II Russian figures. These Battle Front are not as thick in the limb as Quality Cast foot figures. Battle Front Russian helmets are a bit more pointed than Quality Cast Russian helmets. In comparison to Old Glory Russians they are easily interchangeable, even on the same bases to add variety and effect. The limbs and height of the figures are close to Old Glory. you can discern the artist techniques from one another, and they are complimentary in style. Battle Front Russians appear to come more from the artist poster propaganda files and publicity shots that I have seen as opposed to some more realistic photos of life as an infantryman. The amount of detail on the Battle Front miniatures is equal to or better than in general to the Old Glory Russian figures I own. Now back to my first paragraph, of this article. Sergeant of Arms Bernie, from Emperor's Headquarters was so persuasive that I bought more of the Battle Front line of miniatures. I bought some Russian vehicles, BT7's, T26's, SU85's, Dodge Weapon Carriers and a 2 112 ton truck and a German triple AA SdKfz 251/21 halt track. I believe that these models and miniatures paint up very easily. I know so, because I saw that Major Bill had a whole lot of this brand of miniatures painted up and ready to play at the Wargamers Reunion. I know because I witnessed his purchases from Historicon 98. He had to point out which models were which, when he mixed them together with his other models for his Desert British, American and Afrika Korps World War II collections. Perhaps Major Bill has another lucrative offer for me to review some more of these excellent BATTLE FRONT miniatures. Now if I can only get them assembled and painted before the next time I run into Bernie. Perhaps then I can get caught up on my unpainted lead to painted lead ratio..... Thanks for reading! Just to let you know, Grant found out recently that he is promotable to Major, so we may be hearing good news soon. MB Back to Dispatch Jan. 99 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 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