Review of FMG Italians and HBG Axis Minors

[knp7765]

FMG is coming out with a France set and they will have trucks in them.  Plus, they should be more appropriate looking.  Jeremy said the Italian truck was a one-time mistake as far as the size goes, the rest of the nations’ truck pieces will look much better.
Also, Jeremy may decide to do France after UK, Canada and ANZAC.  That’s not as far away as it seems.  ANZAC and Canada will use the British mold but be different colors, so they should go pretty quickly.

[CWO Marc]

@knp7765:

FMG is coming out with a France set

This is good news.  Is there an estimate of when it’s expected?

[dangermouse650]

Received my Italian set a few days ago, opened and inspected, while i’m happy with the detail there is a bit of work to be done, the battleships turret problem and all the subs are curved. To make matters worse, i had the dice on order they arrived as well, but i had the misfortune of my package arriving by courier. The box had been crushed, so there were a few broken infantry but can you believe they managed to break some of the dice……    :?   Oh well, win some and lose some. By the way the piece count was almost perfect. Thank you Jeremy, will put in another order shortly.

[Rorschach]

They broke the DICE?  WOW.  That must have been one hell of a hit to the box!!

Bent subs are easy enough to fix (warm them up to the point where the plastic softens slightly, gently bend back into shape, dunk quickly in ice water to cool and set them).

[knp7765]

@CWO:

@knp7765:

FMG is coming out with a France set

This is good news.  Is there an estimate of when it’s expected?

Afraid that’s kind of hazy right at the moment.  First they have to finish up Germany (grey pieces) and the new combat dice, which with any luck should be done by next month.  Next will be a run of Germany (black pieces) which shouldn’t take too long since they already have the mold ready.  Next we have to complete USA which still needs about half the sculpts, make the mold then into production.  After that is the whole process with England.  Canada and ANZAC will follow but be like black Germany, UK mold in differnt colors so that won’t take as long.
Then, depending on which way Jeremy and FMG want to go, either France or Russia will be next.
A good part is if the Chinese factory holds true to the contract that FMG is working out with them, ALL sets are supposed to be complete by the end of 2012.  So, assuming this is true and works out well, no matter which set you are really waiting for it should be within a year.  Considering how long it took us to get to finished product with the Italians, I think this is really positive news.

[lozmoid]

I finally received my FMG Italy Combat Units & Combat Dice!  :lol:

Piece count:

Rifle Inf: 10
SMG Inf: 12
Leader: 6
Artillery: 12
Mot. Inf: 6
Mech Inf: 12
SPG: 6
Tank: 6

Fighter: 12
Tac. Bomber: 7
Strat. Bomber: 6
Air Transport: 6

Submarine: 12
Transport: 11
Destroyer: 10
Cruiser: 6
Battleship: 6
Air. Carrier: 3

That’s 149 units. The numbers in bold are in question as to their correct quantity. How did I do compared to the rest of you?

First of all, I really love these units. I can’t wait to pre-order Germany.  :-)

However, I think there should have been more variation between the two Infantry sculpts as they are similar in pose. And in my opinion, the Rifle Infantry unit should have been the higher quantity of the two (as rifles were the mainstay of all armies) and the SMG should have been the lower (making these units more of the Special Forces/Elite type). But hey, no worries.

The Artillery is great but I would have liked it more if its barrel was pointing upwards a few more degrees. I think Artillery should be pointing up, and Anti-Tank Guns should be pointing straight forward.

As I’ve said before, the Mot. Infantry (truck) unit is too large for my taste but I’ll happily make do with it unit a smaller sculpt becomes available to purchase.

I think the Tank could have been a bit bigger but again, I’m happy with it. To be honest, I think 8 Tanks would have been better than 6, even if that meant sacrificing some Transports or Submarines.

The Fighter is, unfortunately, too small. And the wings should have been more tapered towards the fuselage. This unit is my biggest negative with the whole set.

I think the Cruiser could have been a LITTLE bigger. And if not, then at least a little taller. Its hull could have been raised a milimetre or two (it virtually sits flat on the sea).

And finally, it would have been awesome to get 8 Combat Dice in a set as opposed to 6 but I can dream!

But those are my only critiscms. Other than that, I’m loving it. Thank you for all your hard work, and I hope you take note of all the players’ ideas regarding unit type/size/design etc.

Lozmoid

[Tall Paul]

Lozmoid,

I’ve decided to use the “Half-track Truck” from HBG’s “Axis Minors Set” for my Italian Truck. HBG has now released the “Axis Minors” units for individual sales and this makes the truck replacement possible.

I think your opinions are noteworthy and I believe that both FMG and HBG are “listenning”.

“Tall Paul”

[Tall Paul]

Here’s a pic of the sculpt. I think it looks really cool, and great for the African desert.

“Tall Paul”

[lozmoid]

Thanks Tall Paul. That’s a really nice looking unit and I might have to buy some Axis Minors from HBG soon. However, I wouldn’t know whether to designate it a Motorised or Mechanised Infantry unit piece! It seems to be half and half to me. Nice though, and a worthy addition.

By the way, can anybody please point me in the direction of the topic/thread regarding the correcting of the FMG Italy pieces in terms of the bent ships? I can’t seem to find it and several of my Subs, Destroyers and even Battleships came with their ends hugely distorted! lol  Thanks very much guys.  :-)

[Rorschach]

@Lozmoid:

By the way, can anybody please point me in the direction of the topic/thread regarding the correcting of the FMG Italy pieces in terms of the bent ships? I can’t seem to find it and several of my Subs, Destroyers and even Battleships came with their ends hugely distorted! lol  Thanks very much guys.  :-)

Heat very gently (and slowly) with a hair dryer, bend just as gently into shape, dip quickly into ice water.  That should fix any bent plastics.

[lozmoid]

Thanks, Rorschac. I thought there was a post or thread regarding dipping them in boiling water or something and then putting them into cold water. If no such thread exists, can anyone with some experience in this process please give me some advice re the water method? I don’t have a hairdryer. Thanks!

[Rorschach]

Boiling water should work as well.  Let them sit in it for a few minutes at least.  Basically what you want to do is soften the plastic up gently so that it’s pliable and then slowly bend it into shape while it’s still warm.  Dunking it into the ice water will cool it off quickly allowing it to retain its new shape (most of the time.  I’ve had it bend back a little on me some times but then you just repeat the process).

If the bend is really bad you’ll need to do it a few times just a bit at a time.  The last thing you want to do is bend too far and snap the piece.

[lozmoid]

Thanks again. I am referring specifically to the FMG Italy units here and I have found that they are all made from some kind of very pliable plastic. I tried bending the Battleship tail and found it moved with no chance of snapping. Good quality stuff, FMG. Now just to get 'em straightened out.

[knp7765]

Those Axis Minor halftrack units will work especially good once Coach gets the new ones in Italian brown.  Should be in by the end of this month.  He got them in December but they were the wrong color so he made the factory do it again.  They should be the same color as FMG’s Italians so those trucks should work beautifully with your FMG Italian pieces.

By the way Lozmoid, looks like you got a fairly decent piece count.  Both infantry should have been 12 pieces each so the rifle inf and the SMG inf are actually equal in quantity, not one more than the other.  A couple of your rifle inf apparently got lost in the process.
I ordered 5 sets for myself and one set was missing 4 out of 6 aircraft carriers.  I thought that was weird.  That’s like the biggest piece in the set.
Personally, I would just go over to HBG and buy any missing pieces individually, if you want to fill out your set.  Also, if you want a few more of certain units, like rifle infantry or tanks, you can get them there too.  HBG has them priced pretty reasonable and it’s just a simpler solution.

[Tall Paul]

Guys,

All I can say is,…that if you want exactly WHAT,…and HOW MANY you ordered,…purchase your units from HBG like I did. I got EXACTLY the right amount of the types I wanted of the FMG Italian units from HBG.

I’m a very satisfied customer as you can tell!

“Tall Paul”

[lozmoid]

knp7765, thank you for the useful info. I will take yours and Tall Paul’s advice and buy any extra requirements from HBG soon, although because I live in the UK I have to be careful with shipping costs. I wonder if it’s better to wait until I can order Germany + Dice from FMG, and then get extra FMG Italy + Dice from HBG… so many options!

[Tall Paul]

Lozmoid,

Concerning the “Half-Track” Truck from HBG.

Since it is a Truck with a covered bed I think it represents a Truck very well.

And since it doesn’t have an armored exterior then it shouldn’t be confused as a
Mech. Infantry(A.P.C.).

Just my thoughts,…maybe it’ll help you.

“Tall Paul”

[lozmoid]

That’s cool, Tall Paul. I appreciate that and yes, I will definitely use it as Motorised Inf. Maybe it could be a technogical upgrade to the FMG truck peice - sort of a halfway step between the old motorised truck and the newer half-track infantry, I don’t know.

In other news, I had total success with the water method of re-shaping some of those FMG Italian Combat Units, and it was easy! I was even more impressed with how the Artillery units came out. See for yourself; the barrels are pointing upwards now as opposed to staright forwards. This is the posture that I personally prefer artillery to have (sorry that it’s blurred!)

[Viracocha]

Since there are already quite a few reviews of the FMG Italians, I’m not going there… and the title of the thread mentions reviewing the HBG Axis Minors - yet it was HBG’s U.S. supplement set that was released first, so I thought I’d post a few thoughts on those.

First off, awesome.  I’m old school, having played the Nova with chits - so all of this is good stuff in my opinion.  But this thread is constructive criticism, so I’ll just say Awesome again and move on.

The Corsair is just a bit too big, and the cockpit is too far back… Nice detail.
The LVT is excellent… seems perfect sized and nice detail.
The Marine with the M1… ok, the infantry themselves are too big*, but besides that I believe there’s some elements that could be improved upon.  The sculpting itself, fine detail, but the proportions are off.  His legs are too short compared to his torso - which is way too long.  Kinda like a gorilla, but not in a human-like beefy way, but a gorilla.
The Sherman - really cool… can’t wait to paint it.
The Marine with the flamethrower… too big* again in my opinion, but nice detail. But whoa!  Look at the size of his head! It’s like a pumpkin head.

• = in regard to the infantry being ‘too big’, totally a personal opinion, as I could see benefits as well, like the size difference indicating different stats and what not.  And if you’re not using OOB or FMG pieces, I suppose these sizes wouldn’t look so large.

So yeah… good stuff overall - and if I didn’t paint my figs I’d be happy with the green, they remind me of the big ‘gummy’ army men I played with as a kid.

[Tall Paul]

Viracocha,

Your opinions are good stuff. I’m glad that you share them with us. I truly believe that constructive criticism can only HELP. I agree with most everything you’ve said except about the size of the Marines. Remember,…these represent MARINES !

Aren’t we all so lucky that we have HBG and FMG both producing such well detailed quality units for us.

“Tall Paul”