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| Sherman Sprue |
As you no doubt know by now,
Battlefront's new starter set "Achtung!" dropped recently and includes fully plastic kits for 3 British Shermans and 2 German Stugs. Of course we're all excited about Battlefront's jump into plastics, so let's have a look!
What's in Achtung!?
First up, it's worth mentioning just what you get in the starter set. The set includes one A4 complete mini rulebook, a 16 page full color guide to getting started in the hobby, 3 green "allied" dice, 2 grey "axis" dice and the afore mentioned Shermans and Stugs. Also included are 6 magnets for your shermans' turrets.
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| image courtesy of Battlefront Miniatures |
At a mere $40, Achtung is definitely a great starter set. Though we don't know when (or if) plastics will be available individually (or what they're price point will be), this bodes well! Though the set isn't really a complete game like some of the GW starter sets are- I've heard rumors that something like this may come about soon.
The focus of this review is going to be on the plastics themselves, since by now you've heard about the mini rulebooks and I doubt you want to hear our thoughts on dice! I am going to focus on the Shermans as Dirty Jon swiped the StuGs almost immediately!
As you can see form the pictures of the sprues, they managed to pack quite a bit on there! Aside from the main chassis and turret (with 2 hatch options and a very well sculpted commander) there's tons of options for stowage and a nice and chunky .50 cal.
The Hull is comprised of 4 pieces. The track and hull sides, the deck, and the superstructure.
The pieces are very thick, giving the model a lot more heft than most plastics I've dealt with. The only minor quibble I had is that the track/hull side pieces really needed to be dry-fit and carefully placed as the hull sides tended to be slightly off at an angle...
...which could easily leave a large gap between the deck and hull sides. Manageable, but you need to catch it (see more below).
With only 4 big, chunky pieces, assembly is easy!
The hull comes together decently, but the pieces aren't really precise. Unfortunately it's nearly impossible to get the deck and hull sides to line up perfectly- there were small gaps on all 3 of my models. That's unfortunate since I really like the chunkiness of the plastic, but if it's at the cost of precision- I'm not so sure.
The turret assembly has a few more pieces: turret structure, 2 pieces for the mantlet/gun shield, gun, and 2 options for the hatch (open or closed). Also included is the optional .50 cal which is nice and thick.
The turret and hull are made to perfectly fit the included rare earth magnets. I really really like this addition. It does, of course, force you to use the magnets or else the turret won't stay on, but I really don't see that as an issue- magnetized turrets rule!
Some people had complained that the plastics were too large. Here it is next to a Sherman III (only Brit shermans I own). Non issue, it seems.
Here's Dirty Jon's Stugs:
No commander included or option for open hatches, but the stowage options are very nice and the MG is very thick and sturdy.
StuG 700 has the 'ton of stuff' stowage option. It has tarps, a box and fuel cans all in one chunk -- I like it!
So I like this set a lot. Easy to assemble, nice and chunky, few pieces that clean up easily. The sherman needs a bit of work- the gaps between the sides of the hull and the deck are unsightly and difficult to fix. It's a pretty large blemish on an otherwise solid model. The magnets for the turrets are great, and the detail is crisp and clean. Of course, we also don't know if these are going to be available separately, after all judging Battlefront's resin line on the offerings in Open Fire would be unfair. They are starter models in a starter set.
So it's hard to give these a real rating until we know what the individual price point is- but for $40, 5 tanks and a mini rulebook is a pretty darn good deal, especially for beginners where precision modeling might matter a bit less. Achtung! is certainly a great buy for new players, plus you can get 2 buddies together, each buy one, and now one of you has 6 shermans and one has 4 stugs and you each have a rulebook!
