"WW2 Valiant Miniatures" Topic

Are any companies plastic or metal compatible, size wise, with Valiant figures. Just startng off in this scale. I have some FAA figures and the Valiants I ordered seem huge compared to them. Valiant hasn't released anything new in 3 or 4 years so I don't want to go down a dead end road with their figures if nothing is compatible.

Raventhorpe and ahh ………Raventhorpe Miniatures really.

Valiant has just released 3 new A/T guns with crew and the German 75IG with crew. They were also promising the release of metal British paras on TMP earlier this year.

It really depends on your area of operations if its NWE upto october 44 Valiant have got most of what you need (other than paras) anywhere else or year I'd choose another manafacturer HTBH.

I haven't found anything myself.

In fact I saw a chap using them with Westwind's 1:60 Tanks and they looked quite good.

This is slightly off topic, but the HAT Armourfast vehicles look good next to Valiant miniatures. The figures are still look a little bit big, but not as much as with other 1/72 vehicles.

I painted up a bunch of Valiant minis and really like them. They are great value for money.

Valiant released the AT Guns and crew recently, they are metal and very nice. They also have metal British Para's for sale too, released just a few weeks ago. They are releasing a German platoon cart soon too, the in progress pics are on their website. If they would release a plastic box of Russians I would be thrilled. The metal mini's are only available on their website, but they offer free shipping so you can't beat that.

I use Valiants with Italeri and Armourfast vehicles and they look great. Check out Valiant's website for pics of them in use with 1/72 vehicles. link I just crewed an Armourfast Sdkfz 251 Hanomag with Valiant mini's and they look fine scale wise. As far as scale goes, I have a box of HAT 1/72 Pak 40's and didn't like them due to the soft plastic so I ordered the Valiant Pak 40 and it is virtually identical in size. One thing I do to all my Valiant mini's, including the metal ones, is to cut them off of their attached base and then mount them to a thin washer. This really cuts down on their height which helps them blend right in with pretty much any 1/72 vehicle. They are great figures, with infinite poses and options and I am a big fan.

Don't know about the Germans or Brits but the Valiant GI's are HUGE (even next to Italeri), with grossly out-of-proportion heads making them even worse. I gave mine away in disgust. Yes, they are easy to paint, but so was my spare bedroom.
That's a nice conversion on that 251 mortar carrier, but the basic vehicle held a full squad of ten grenadiers; it doesn't look as if ten of the Valiant figures would fit in the Armourfast 251
To answer the OP, most plastic and metal figures are scaled around 20mm (e.g. Airfix,Caesar, SHQ, while Valiant are 25mm, which is over a scale foot taller….the new Italeri GI's are 25.5mm according to PSR link but are by far better proportioned if you don't mind the weird poses like 'waving at a mortar'….

The Valiant range is to be re-launched (i.e. new packaging) within the next couple of months.

That being said, the limited edition metal UK Paras have been released and may be the forerunner for some plastic UK Paras in the future.

The German IF8 Cart, truly unique in the 20-25mm plastics field, should hopefully be released within the next six weeks.

A theme box (VM005) focusing on Crete 1941 is also in the hopper. Rumour is that it will contain x8 early war German Fallschirmjager and x8 early war UK/Commonwealth Infantry. The initial plan was to release this in the early summer of 2011, however I would expect that we may have to wait until late 2011/early 2012 for these.

Keep in mind that 1/72 and 20mm are not the same thing. 1/72 is closer to 25mm and 20mm is more like 1/87. That being said, the Valiant mini's are large for 1/72, sort of a "heroic" 1/72. They are more like metal miniatures in that regard. I much prefer them to the spindly 1/72 plastics, but that is personal preference obviously. As far as fitting 10 in the back of the half-track, obviously not possible in the action poses that they come in but if they were molded in a seated position with their rifle between their legs I bet you could get at least 8 in there side by side. Here are some good pics from the Valiant site showing some impressive mods as far as crewing vehicles.
link
link

Scale, like beauty is in the eye of the beholder (and doesn't account for the pumpkin sized heads on the GI's). 25mm is actually 1/68 scale while 20mm is 1/85….

Now personally I think eight figures shoe horned into a vehicle that should happily accommodate ten just looks flat out wrong, so do four figures spilling over the sides of a jeep like overweight WW2 reenactors (before anyone complains about that, I know what I'm talking about because "I are one") But some folks can live happily with that.

I like my guys to look in scale, even though they may not be. Hulking infantrymen that tower over vehicles belong in my Axis & Allies board games. But each to his own – we've presented the OP with our different viewpoints and now he can choose which one suits him best.

Scale, like beauty is in the eye of the beholder (and doesn't account for the pumpkin sized heads on the GI's). 25mm is actually 1/68 scale while 20mm is 1/85….

You nailed it. That would explain the words "closer to" and "more like" which I used in my post. Now that we've spelled it out, which of those two is closer to 1/72?

"If they would release a plastic box of Russians I would be thrilled"

I wrote to Valiant before I ordered my PSC Russians, and they confirmed to me that they had no plans for any Russkis.

A shame, as it must be a huge opportunity for them, and I just love their figures. I have more Normandy figures than I can possibly use….but at £9.00 GBP or £10.00 GBP a box Im happy for field forces for club players getting into WW2.

You will see a discussion on an earlier thread where Valiant more than justifies its figure height. They are true 1/72nd, and 20mm metal stuff is generally undersized, but we have got used to it being seen with 1/72!

As for jeeps and crews etc, I prefer to buy mine with the half-track etc already moulded in.

"Raventhorpe and ahh ………Raventhorpe Miniatures really. "

Are they still producing figures? Ive been looking for some 20mm Russian inf to match up with my Valiants and go with my new PSC T34s, but apart from Ready to Roll vehicles there doesnt seem to be anything advertised for Raventhorpe in UK.

20mm seems to be in a bit of a mess right now if you are trying to buy stuff.

1815 guy

Raventhorpe have zero web prescence but are apparently still out there. There is a link to an e-mail address for contacting Raventhorpe on the Rapid fire website.

rapid-fire.uk.com/links.htm

"I wrote to Valiant before I ordered my PSC Russians, and they confirmed to me that they had no plans for any Russkis."

Bummer, I emailed them a while back asking about lots of stuff, including future plans and specifically about Russians and this is what I was told: "Next year should see some guns and crews and a German platoon cart …and a 'Battle for Crete' set…..Russians are on the list but a little way off." That is a direct quote from an email exchange in October of last year. I hope they haven't changed their minds.

I am not a big fan of the PSC poses and sculpting but they sure are moving forward quickly with lots of different stuff. I wish Valiant would do that.

I don't disagree with you Tim, but I would contend that you would be hard pressed to duplicate the actual "real" look of a half-track or truck with just about any brand of miniature in just about any scale (except maybe the real little ones like 2-6mm). I did not mean to imply that those pictures represented reality, just that I thought they looked good and represented a Jeep or Truck loaded with soldiers. I too have been in the back of a deuce-and-a-half and in a military jeep and at 6'5, 250lbs my impression of their relative "roominess" is probably different from yours. I felt just like those Valiant guys look when I was stuffed in a Jeep. Wargaming isn't about if the proper number of mini's fit in a vehicle, it is about a visual representation of what is being played out on the battlefield. It is about what looks good, and yes, that is very subjective.

Scale has been beat to death here on TMP, and one of the major factors, which you pointed out, is not necessarily the height of the figures that cause the discrepancy, but the girth. Maybe I have just been warped by many years of "chunky" miniatures, but the Valiant mini's look good to me, and in the end, that is all the I really care about.

Buzz, I'm in complete agreement with your last comment there; I don't care whether a figure is billed as 1/72 or 1/76, even 1/87, if they look right to me, I use them. And it really is the overall proportions, not the height from base to eye or top of the head measurement that matters.
I don't doubt that Valiant are "true" 1/72 scale" (whatever that is but the bottom line is they are vastly bigger overall than everything else I have, and the proportions of their helmets and especially the M1 rifles are way off.

"Russians are on the list but a little way off."

Hi Buzzkill, I see you are in USA! If I can translate that Valiant text for you from the original UK English it means.

"Hello, I don't want to offend you or be impolite, but you have absolutely no chance of seeing Russians from us before your Grandchildren get to voting age".

Its a sort of English understatement thing going on there!!! :o)

They were a bit more garrulous & direct with me, and I quote

"Nothing in the near future but hopefully one day. "

That means even longer than when my grandchildren care to vote. Possibly when we successfully colonise Mars, and world peace breaks out…..

Like you, I love those Valiant figures. I just cant stop buying them. I hear that these are the same guys as are behind Victrix, so if that is correct I can understand that they have their hands full on other lines. And I can see a common style approach!

Thanks also for the link Prince Rupert, I dont know if Raventhorps do Russian inf, but if they do I'll be getting a load to fit in with my Valiants.

Or I might fudge it with PSC plastics when they do their support packs for the Russians. Guess I have time to wait and see, I haven't received my PSC T34s yet, ordered 22nd Feb.

Weird really, but if it wasn't for Valiant (and Armourfast etc) I wouldn't be back into WW2. I don't know if I'd go for Valiant metals or not… as you might guess from my sign in name WW2 is not a main period for me. So I tend to keep with plastics given the number of games I play. So I kept with plastic for my 6pdr a/t guns, even though the Valiant site has a pleasant metal one.

All the best,

"I would contend that you would be hard pressed to duplicate the actual "real" look of a half-track or truck with just about any brand of miniature in just about any scale"

AB make them auction
And Hinchliffe picture
and picture

The lack of Russians is stopping me from buying.

I would not rule out the Russians completely. That being said, I would not count on seeing, or even hearing about them, until at least 2013!

I would not rule out the Russians completely. That being said, I would not count on seeing, or even hearing about them, until at least 2013!

Excellent! At the rate I am painting my Western Front stuff, that should be just about the time I am ready to start with the Eastern Front!

1815guy Thanks for the US English to UK English translation. I was afraid they were letting me down gently…

I have Valiant Brits and theyre great figures, but theyre a pain to match anything else to, and easy to paint.

I have the PSC Russians in 28mm and the Valiants are better figs IMHO, but at least I can find vehicles to go with them

Great opportunity missed :-(

PilGrim, how well the 28mm PSC Russians looks besides Valiant figures?

I was planning to purchase a PSC box but not sure if 20mm (although smaller than Valiant) will fix better or 28mm will do.

Anyone seen any pictures of the Brit Para??

I see valid points from both sides, but like them anyway.

I have a 1:1 Brit/Canadian company f Valiant troops and three platoons of Germans in 1:1 scale. I think they very nice sculpts and casts, but they are somewhat large.
I'll be interested to see the ATGs.
Weaselhoffen.

So PSC russians on the table vs Valiant Germans – yes or no!!??

:o)

Iñm going to purchase both Soviet and Germans form PSC. When they arrive i´ll post comparison pictures.

Gracias Ruben

there are a LOT of Valiant users out there, and if PSC will match up reasonably OK it will be the natural choice for those peeps.

My STC Jerries are dimunitive even for conventional 20mm sizes.

Just asked about the Soviets and the answer is still negative.