It seems that the 2nd edition of Europe 1940 has many Italian sculpts in common with the FMG Italian combat set (particularly the ships). Are the FMG pieces significantly different and more detailed than the normal Axis and Allies pieces?
I own a set of the FMG Italian sculpts, which I bought way back when they first came out. I haven’t looked at them in a long time, but as I recall they’re a mixed bag. On the plus side, they have some nifty features like rotating turrets on some warships. On the down side, they have quality-control issues like warped ship hulls. And they’re out of production, which means that in terms of convenient availability there’s no contest: Europe 1940 2nd edition wins easily, with the Anniversary reprint being usable as a supplement to provide a few other unit shapes (though mostly of non-Italian origin).
@CWO:
I own a set of the FMG Italian sculpts, which I bought way back when they first came out. I haven’t looked at them in a long time, but as I recall they’re a mixed bag. On the plus side, they have some nifty features like rotating turrets on some warships. On the down side, they have quality-control issues like warped ship hulls. And they’re out of production, which means that in terms of convenient availability there’s no contest: Europe 1940 2nd edition wins easily, with the Anniversary reprint being usable as a supplement to provide a few other unit shapes (though mostly of non-Italian origin).
By rotating turrets, do you mean that you can physically move the guns on the sculpt?
It seems they’re available on iwillnevergroup’s website.
@CWO:
On the down side, they have quality-control issues like warped ship hulls and they’re out of production, which means that in terms of convenient availability there’s no contest: Europe 1940 2nd edition wins easily, with the Anniversary reprint being usable as a supplement to provide a few other unit shapes (though mostly of non-Italian origin).
What he said… good luck finding FMG Italians to begin with… much easier to get your hands on 1940SE Italians, which are unique Italian sculpts of the same quality as other OOB units. As for AA50 “Italians”, I think aside from the infantry and tanks, everything else is just German or Japanese equipment recolored in brown plastic… not very Italian at all.
By rotating turrets, do you mean that you can physically move the guns on the sculpt?
Yes, meaning that – at least on the battleships; I can’t remember if that’s the case for other ships – the turrets housing the main guns rotate on the fixed barbettes on which they’re mounted. Nifty, but not enough in my opinion to compensate for the curved (rather than straight) ship hulls on the defective units.
I recall the tanks having turrets that rotated, but its been a long time since
It seems they’re available on iwillnevergroup’s website.
Yessir. 220 sets + 50 to 100 of each unit individually available. However, when they’re gone they’re gone unless FMG somehow happens upon another case somewhere (to the best of our knowledge we have in stock all that are and ever will be available)
@CWO:
By rotating turrets, do you mean that you can physically move the guns on the sculpt?
Yes, meaning that – at least on the battleships; I can’t remember if that’s the case for other ships – the turrets housing the main guns rotate on the fixed barbettes on which they’re mounted. Nifty, but not enough in my opinion to compensate for the curved (rather than straight) ship hulls on the defective units.
Tank and Armoured Car turrets rotate, yes.
Regarding the warped ship hulls, those that are warped (not all are warped it seems hit or miss on which packs are) can be straightened by using the boiling water/ice water method in most cases.
I never liked the artillery with the spindly feet but those tanks with the rotating turrets are cool
Cool, I might just buy a set or two.
BTW, what happened to FMG? Is it really true that their Chinese factory shut down and stole all the molds?
The infantry and plane sculpts alone are worth this purchase. I took the Italian officer model and combined it with a HBG ‘Blackshirts’ roundel, looks fantastic. Italy doesn’t always play a huge part in the overall game, but the pieces sure look nice even if they never leave their tray.
In all their glory…
BTW, what happened to FMG? Is it really true that their Chinese factory shut down and stole all the molds?
In short, yes that’s basically what happened and began the hard fall.
They’re still around but they no longer do direct to consumer and I Will Never Grow Up has taken over their product lines (Even the FMG website links back to our webstore instead).
(Long story short, FMG is now a wholesale distributer/R&D/Manufacturing point of contact, IWNGU is the exclusive retailer of their product).
