15mm Forged in Battle Late War British Infantry

The first Forged in Battle figures I ever bought were the British HMG teams. I’d bought them just to see what they were like when I spotted them in Firestorm Games in Cardiff.

.303" Vickers HMG Platoon (The PC figure is from the Infantry set)

 They were good, so good I bought the 3”Mortar Teams the next time I went to Cardiff! Both the Vickers HMG and the 3” Mortar teams are all full of character and detail and each weapon comes with a three man crew.

3" Mortar Platoon (The PC figure is from the Infantry set)

Getting the Infantry to go with them took a little longer – they were never in stock! I finally bought them this March at WMMS and have just got around to painting & basing them all for Crossfire.

Close-up - Mortar Teams

Between all the packs there’s enough figures for a Company of infantry plus an HMG and Mortar Platoon.

British Late War Infantry Company for Crossfire

The figures are all well sculpted and cast with minimal flash to clean up. Most of the infantry figures are armed with rifles – there are, however, three Bren teams, four NCO figures with Sten Guns, an Officer with a pistol, 2” mortar team and a PIAT gunner.

Company HQ - CC + 2" Mortar Base

The detail of the weapons could be said to let the figures down a little – the rifle is supposed to be a No.4 Enfield, but looks like it was made up, and the Brens look OK from a distance but won’t pass close examination by a rivet counter.

PIAT Team within a Platoon

Where the figures win over is the posing. The Riflemen figures all remind me of those photographs you see in Normandy Campaign books of Tommy’s advancing, some at the alert and some more casually posed. There really are some very well posed miniatures.

Infantry Platoon

There are a couple of small details that grate– like the figure with the helmet straps hanging down like a GI – British MkII helmet straps were elasticated and don’t come undone - and the straps that appear on the sides of some of the ’37 pattern small packs. But on the whole this is another cracking set of figures from FiB.

They paint up well (the beauty of British Infantry is I can spray them Khaki in one go!) and the Vallejo wash really brings out the detail.

Nicely sculpted and realistically posed.

Finally to boost the Company I painted and based some Peter Pig Combat Engineer figures I’d had lying around since a Bring & Buy in back in May.

Combat Engineer Bases - Peter Pig Figures

Now for one of those Hit the Dirt Scenarios for Commonwealth forces…….