Review of FMG Italians and HBG Axis Minors

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”

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

“Tall Paul”

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.  :-)

@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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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”

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!

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”

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!)

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.

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”

I loved everything about the pieces and I like HBGs inf size more than FMGs which I believe is a little too small.