Review: Offensive Miniatures

 

Heyhey, it's been a while since the last review, right? So here's a quick one about Offensive Miniatures' WW2 Waffen SS range.

A while ago I had the joy and honour to paint a lovely, big collection of German WW2 figures (100+ infantry and gun crews, bunch of flak and cool stuff like Kübelwagen, captured Jeep, Citroen staff car, etc. More on those later) for Arnheim. A synphony of pea dot, oak leaf (spring/summer and autumn) and field grey.

A mix of Empress' new figures and Offensive's. The first time I got to work with Offensive figures, and thus I thought it's a good occasion to have a closer look and compare them to other 28mm WW2 Germans ranges out there.

Offensive Miniatures have been around for quite a while now, and if you ever leafed through Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy magazine you surely remember the full-page ads for their figures. They offer Napoleonic (solid French range, comprehensive Spanish range [very much worth  a look], a basic range of Polish infantry and for British infantry in the Peninsular), Near Future (basically rioters, hostage-taking terrorists and riot police and SWAT. [Extremely interesting if you're looking for that sort of stuff] and World War Two. I think it's safe to say that this Elite range it's their most well-known range and certainly the largest one. 

It covers US/British/German paras, Volkssturm, a basic collection of Italian infantry, DAK, LRDG/SAS in North Africa including the vehicles, Winter Germans (ski troops! Tank Riders!), Soviet infantry in summer dress and late war German Waffen SS. And quite a lot of it. Apart from infantry with various weapons we get Pioniers, some support guns, tank riders, some vignettes and guns. 

The Figures

I got to do some of the infantry and the Pioniers. They come in little plastic baggies, without any bases. So far, so regular. There is some minimal assembly involved, usually the infantry is a one-piece cast.  The fit of the parts is perfely good. 

The figures are cast well, some might be a tiny bit 'wobbly' around fingers and faces. In general, the figures are sculpted in a slight or 'realistically proportioned' way. 

Here's a comprarison shot with some other manufacturers' figures:

As you can see, the Offensive figures are rather thin compared to others like Warlord's or Artizan's. They will mix better with Empress', Perrys' or the original metal Bolt Action figures (even though they might be a bit taller than those). Even with Rubicon's figures they should mix well. Offensive Miniatures offer a great overview of comparison shots of their figures with other ranges on their website (which I only realized after taking my own comparison shot).

Verdict

Poses are nice, especially in terms of variety, historical accuracy looks to be spot on as far as I know, and the details are lovely. If I was to mention one thing I do not love as much it would be the faces, which sometimes can lack a bit of definition. Somehow noses especially seem to be one button-y side, but maybe that's due to the more realistic proportions. 

Overall though, these are lovely figures and certianly a manufacturer to have a look at especially if you're a 28mm WW2 wargamer (possibly with a taste for airborne troops). The figures will very nicely supplement many other ranges, do keep the proportions in mind though.

Offensive Miniatures cost GBP 2.00 per figure, which in my mind is OK for 28mm metals and are available through their website.

Right, I hope you enjoyed the review and found it interesting. If you have any questions, comments or indeed commission enquiries, feel free to let me know via the comments section, the Battle Brush Studios Facebook page, on Instagram or via e-mail.