I recently got my hands on a box set of Warlord Games: Waffen SS from their Bolt Action miniature line. The box contains 20 metal Waffen SS figures for $47. That ends up being about $2.50 a figure. In the box you get a 81mm mortar team, a HQ section with officers, a medic, and radio team, and a squad of SS with one LMG team and two figures armed with assault rifles. One thing the box did not contain was bases, which you will have to pick up on your own.
The figures in the Waffen SS box set are two part figures, consisting of a body and a head. Warlord provides a variety of SS heads from their optional head system. The optional head system allows you to do minor customization by swapping out heads. That way if you buy two sets you can mix up the heads so avoid repeat figures.
(HQ Section; Officer, Medic, Radio Team)
In the box the figures were pack tightly into blisters, which resulted in one of the barrels of an MP44 breaking off. This was easily fixed with superglue. I did spend a fair amount of time cleaning flash off the figures, but it was nothing too egregious. There was some hidden flash that I did not pick up on until after I primed the figures, which required me to do some additional clean up in the middle of painting. I plan on running these guys as Veteran SS, so I broke them up into two six man squads, and gave them an unshaven look. Everyone knows veterans don't shave.
(first squad; SMG, LMG, 4 x rifles)
(second squad; SMG, 2 x AR, 3 x rifle, panzerfaust)
The figures are finely detailed and full of action. I could picture these figures as characters in a comic book or graphic novel about the War. While some people might not like this, I dig it. The figures have character and are easy to paint. In fact some of the figures remind me of the old Easy Eight Enterprise figures. The figures also have over exaggerate details, which I'm guessing makes these figures 28mm "Heroic Scale". I like the over exaggeration because it makes the details easier to paint and see on the table.
These are excellent figures and reasonably priced. If you are looking for Waffen SS figures for your Bolt Action force definitely check out the ones from Warlord Games. I give them 8.5 out of 10 optional heads. I would have given them 9 heads, but not having bases in the box set cost them a half point.
My German army, so far.If you want to talk about this article or any other article on the WWPD network make sure you join the conversation on the WWPD Forum by clicking the link below.
“Craig Baxter is the Director of the WWPD Northern Research center in Anchorage, AK. When he’s not contributing to WWPD.net he is busy blogging, painting, modeling and rolling dice. You can find more of his work and articles atfrozengamerak.blogspot.com.”
