I believe we can all agree that HBG and FMG have come out with some very impressive and detailed sculpts. However, as one who is in the process of “customizing” his game, I would like all the pieces I use to be of closely similar scale.
I just bought some HBG pieces and received them this week. Very, very nice and highly detailed… unfortunately (and I saw someone mention this elsewhere), the HBG sculpts are a little bit smaller than the OOB pieces. Enough so to prevent me using some of them in my customized set. Some are acceptable, like the F4U Corsairs, or pretty perfect (US Casablanca escort CV), but most are slightly undersized compared to standard pieces.
No knock on HBG, because I believe they are tailoring their product to both A&A and Memoir '44 and other misc. WWII games, but it looks from the pictures as if FMG has the same scale as A&A OOB pieces. Being particular about uniformity among my pieces, I find such a product more compelling.
Anyone have similar experience? Or better yet, if anyone has HBG or FMG pieces, they could take pictures of them next to OOB pieces for size comparisons and upload them here for all to see. I am just curious and want to be prudent on my future purchases; either from HBG or FMG.
I find the scale just right. No qualms about size and i am picky about AA pieces. I threw the P-38’s in the trash can and just use Hellcats for USA.
@Imperious:
I find the scale just right. No qualms about size and i am picky about AA pieces. I threw the P-38’s in the trash can and just use Hellcats for USA.
Whose Hellcats? The ones from A&A… because while not very detailed, I think those ones still look fine/right.
Let me upload some pictures and you can see the distinct scale difference.
Okay, allow me to preface this with the statement that upon further examination, or perhaps just getting used to them, the HBG size difference tends to be less noticable. There are only one or two sculpts which I might not use based on size alone, but not as many as I first thought. I stand (mostly) corrected by IL.
That said I have some pictures for comparison purposes anyway. And so all you people can see how very attractive the pieces are.
First is infantry. Left to right: HBG US Marine (w/flamethrower), HBG US Marine (w/Thompson), OOB US, OOB Japanese, HBG US supplemental set infantry.
(For all those in Rio Linda, OOB means Out of Box, or that came with Axis and Allies.)
FYI The OOB pieces are primed black for me to paint.
I actually had a better picture but the size was much too large for the attachment limit, but this one is nearly as good. It is extremely difficult to tell from the picture but the far right unit (HBG supp. inf.) is noticeably smaller than the others. If you hold it in your hand. The base is also a bit smaller than “normal”. However, it is still a good sculpt and you could paint it up and not tell much difference. The HBG Marines are pretty much exactly the same size as OOB infantry, and they look fantastic. Love the Thompson.
This is a Sherman from Anniversary Ed. and the HBG Sherman Firefly from the US Marines set. While you can see it is a bit shorter than the OOB piece, it is much more detailed and Sherman “looking”. Can’t say that this is much of a contest. If HBG starts selling these individually (at the time of purchase they do not) I will have to buy a couple more.
Here is an OOB Panther next to the HBG Sherman. The Panther dwarfs the Sherman, but I guess that is fairly accurate.
Sherman/Panther and HBG Hellcat Tank Destroyer. The Hellcat is marginally undersized, but not too bad. Odds are I won’t be using OOB pieces when all is said and done, so it really doesn’t matter. I know I am being nitpicky, and it is probably unrealistic to expect perfect scale between pieces, but HBG can chalk it up to free (and mostly positive) advertising.
The HBG Marine LVT is pretty much right on. Not sure of what application it can have in the game (haven’t looked at House rules for it), but it looks cool.
From left to right: OOB P-38, A&A Guadalcanal Hellcat, HBG P-40 Warhawk, HBG P-51 Mustang, and HBG F4U Corsair.
The P-40 is extremely small, and feels that way too. It looks almost the same as the P-51, but the P-40 is visibly smaller. Again, probably not unusable, but it really shocked me when I first saw it. It still feels quite tiny, though it is a much better piece for the Flying Tigers in China than some P-38 or Hellcat. It is difficult to see, but the side profile of the P-40 and P-51 are very accurate and visually distinctive.
Personally, I think the OOB Hellcat’s wings are a bit large.
I was less pleased with the Fw-190 fighters (middle) because they seem small and slight in construction. Painting might take care of some of that, but they are still obviously smaller than the OOB Bf-109s at right, and very much so compared to the Corsair.
Here are all aircraft types together.
From left to right back row: P-38, Hellcat, HBG Corsair, HBG Fw-190, Bf-109.
Middle row: HBG P-51, OOB Zero, HBG Avenger, OOB Avenger, HBG P-40.
Front: HBG B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, OOB B-17.
An overall comparison… The B-25s are nice. The HBG Avenger is much more detailed than the OOB piece, complete with ball turret and panes of glass in the cockpit canopy. It is very barely smaller than the OOB Avenger, but that is not a bad thing; more contrast between the tactical bomber and the strategic bombers, plus it might fit on the carrier more easily.
Second picture is a different shot. The only addition being the middle plane in the back row: HBG C-46 Commando Transport plane.
Here are the HBG Nevada class Battleship and Casablanca class Escort Carrier. Both match up well against OOB pieces in terms of size. The Escort Carrier is particularly cool. I can envision a decreased cost but ability to carry only one aircraft or something like that.
Here are the escort carriers with planes on for reference.
Picture 1: The OOB carrier at bottom has the OOB Avenger. The black plane is the OOB Hellcat.
Picture 2: Overhead shot with the top right CV carrying the P-51 and the one below carrying the P-40.
From the HBG Axis Minors Set, here is the HBG Pzkpfw III next to the OOB Panther.
Even though the Panther is a great deal larger, the Pz. III is a very nice piece.
Here is an overall shot with mostly everything I purchased.
The vehicle line from left to right:
OOB Sherman, HBG Priest Self-Propelled Artillery, HBG Hellcat TD, HBG Stuart Light Tank, HBG Sherman Firefly, HBG Marine LVT, OOB Mech. Infantry halftrack, A&A Battle of the Bulge supply truck, HBG supply truck, HBG Pz. III, OOB Panther.
So, if anyone wants to do the same with their FMG pieces, I would greatly appreciate it.
Despite some very, very minor size issues on some pieces, I wholeheartedly recommend purchasing from HBG. Good operation and pretty quick order filling.
One question for Jeremy from FMG, if he looks here: does FMG have any plans to allow single piece purchases like HBG? I would like that option, even though I will probably buy full sets too…
First off, thank you for the great review and pics of everything! That info should prove most helpful to others who are interested in the pieces of both companies.
As for individual purchases, we have both the HBG US Supplement Set pieces and the FMG Italian pieces that can be purchased individually.
One easy mod I ended up doing for the Shermans was to carefully clip off one of the two barrels on the turret so I could replace all the OOB Shermans.
Coach is very particular when it comes to the size of the pieces. We are a millimeter off from OOB here and there but we do this in some cases to make room for future unit types that need to fit in between.
Coach is very particular when it comes to the size of the pieces. We are a millimeter off from OOB here and there but we do this in some cases to make room for future unit types that need to fit in between.
Oh yes, I understand. And my compliments on a great product. Look forward to all future incarnations.
I did not check to see if FMG pieces were available for individual sale on your site. I just assumed it was like on the FMG site where you have to buy the whole set for $40. Very good to know. Thanks!
to me the P-51, P-40, and Fw-190 seem alittle undersized Army and Navy units look great the rest of the airforce units look great too but those 3 seem alittle small. The acid test is how to HBG’s Shermans look next to the OOB Shermans. How do the HBG’s T-34s look next to the OOB T-34s and as far as the Shermans go it’s dead on.
HBG vehicles are proportional to the size of the actual vehicles.
This explains why the OOB panthers are larger than HBG’s panzer III.
Ive compared HBG and OOB vehicles against the very accurate 1/285 GHQ vehicles and have come to this conclusion.
the Sherman is around 1/285 but is longer because the running gear is too large. Everthing else is proportional
except the gun due to the needs of durability as game pieces.
The older Panthers are also 1/285 but the newer ones are more around 1/300.
The Japanese is way out of scale.
The Matilda is 1/285, the T-34 is 1/285, the mechanized units are 1/300. The Tiger is 1/300
Haven’t measured the scale of the ships or planes.
The battleships have grown a bit larger except the Yamato which is WAY underscale. It is the only battleship which has
retained it’s size from the second generation AA games and the more modern AA games. The Yamato was THE largest battleship ever built.
