Axis Miniatures
Alternative units for building a unique Axis major power army
Germany
Kriegsmarine
Warlord produces a nice section box of 10 kreigsmarine figures, including lmg. These are particularly good for late war as two of the figures are carrying panzerfausts.
Germany
Kriegsmarine
Brigade Games produces 5 packs of armed crew figures – 1 command and 4 infantry – divided between European and tropical packs. The range also includes an MMGs and 2 raft rowers.
Germany
Kriegsmarine
Artizan miniatures has 5 ‘crew’ figures in its Thrilling Tales ‘pulp’ rage. These figures are mostly SMG armed officers and NCOs, but also include an lmg.
Germany
Kriegsmarine
Barrage Miniatures produces a unique range of German boats and landing craft in 28mm - perfect for any Kriegsmarine force.
Germany
Volkstrum
Warlord offers a Last Levy box which is a great start to any volkstrum force, with a mix of men in civies dress, Hitler Youth and a couple of soldiers with the exclusive Krummlauf and Luftfaust weapons options.
Germany
Volkstrum
Offensive Miniatures has a large, and relatively new, Defenders of the Reich Range. This is a very dynamic looking range with a broad mix of volksstrum in civies and uniforms, Hitler youth, polizi and even panzerfaust bicycles!
Germany
Volkstrum
Empress Miniatures has a German Revolution range with several civilian and polizi packs which would also work well for bulking out a Volkstrum force.
Germany
Volkstrum
Miniature Figurines is a long-established UK company, but one generally known for smaller scale 15-25mm ranges. However they have a couple of 28mm ranges including 8 Volkstrum figures in their Matchlock Miniatures range.
Germany
Handschar
Warlord provides Handschar fez heads in thier SS plastic box set. The plastic heads are also good to use with the various warlord support packs and weapons options. If you need extra heads ask around, because people who have built an SS army, will often have these optional heads lying around.
Germany
Handschar
Brigade Miniatures: Because the Handschar were considered to be Gebirgsjaeger, or mountain troops, you can find two packs of Handschar Gebirgsjager in Brigade miniatures Ends of Earth Range.
Germany
Handschar
Askari Miniatures offers a squad pack of 9 and a separate command pack of Handschar figures in their Miniatures German Mountain Troops range.
.jpg){kind=small}
Germany
Cossacks
Crusader produces six packs of Axis Cossacks, which includes two mounted packs and 4 dismounted packs with rifles, smg, lmgs and command.
Germany
Cossacks
Matchlock Miniatures has a small range of 9 individual Cossack figures that can be used to provide some variety in a Cossack force.
Germany
Cossacks
Gothic Line Miniatures does a number of unique headsets for some more obscure forces – which includes Cossacks. I can confirm these heads work fine with EW warlord plastic bodies.
.jpg){kind=small}
Germany
Indian Legion
Askari Miniatures makes a dedicated 9 figure squad pack – including LMG - for the Indian Legion as part of their German Afrika Korp ranges. The Indian Legion was a unit of Indian Nationalists who fought for both the Germans and Japanese out of opposition to British imperialism in India
Italy
Reserve troops
Empress offers several pack of Italian infantry and support weapons in inter-war kit and Adrian helmets within their Spanish Civil War range. While phased out of front line service by WW2 this style is perfect for reserve units in Sicily and Italy.
Italy
Askari
Askari Miniatures does a number of packs of Italian Askari infantry covering Somali, Libyan and Muslim Askari infantry.
Italy
Askari
Empress Miniatures does several pack of Italian Askari, including LMG team, as part of their Italian conflicts ranges. .
.jpg){kind=small}
Japan
Airborne
Company B makes good ranges of miniatures for both Japanese Army and Navy paratroopers, including airborne support weapons, and navy uniform decals.
.jpg){kind=small}
Japan
SNLF
Warlord Games offers a full box set of 32 Japanese Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF) figures. The box uses the normal Japanese plastic figures with extra metal bits for heads and SNLF specific kit.
Japan
SNLF
Company B miniatures makes a number of SNLF infantry packs, including lmgs and mmgs support. Interestingly Company B makes the range in both early war (for Japan) and mid-late war flavours. The early war figure are sculpted with a more British style sailor uniforms which were seen extensively in China.
Japan
SNLF
The Australian Company Wartime Miniatures produces a range of nice SNLF metal figures including support weapons.
Japan
SNLF
Pulp Figures produce 5 packs of early war SNLF in sailor style uniforms with both caps and helmets, plus some colourful character figures (as you would expect from a pulp gaming company).
Allied Miniatures
Alternative units for building a unique Allied major power army
US
Early War
Company B has released a large and growing range of 1941 US troops, which includes US and Philippine squads, mounted and dismounted cavalry, support weapons and several EW vehicles and tanks, plus General MacArthur.
US
Early War
Brigade Games Caribbean Empires range includes several packs of US marines in Montana hats who work well for EW. The range includes BAR and lewis LMG figures.
US
Early War
Steve Barber Models has also been slowly releasing a small range of early war US figures which now includes several packs of infantry with rifles, smgs, and a BAR gunner.
US
Early War
Pulp figures is another source of early Marines, doing several packs of Marines with Montana hats and helmets, as well as MMG support in their American Adventures Aboard range.
US
Sailors
Company B does a dedicated US Navy Seabees range which includes navy figures in soft caps and helmets, as well as the iconic Seabee dozer and decals.
US
Sailors
Pulp figures does a number of US sailor packs in cap and helmets as well as a Lewis gunner who can fill the LMG role.
US
Sailors
Tiger Miniatures produce three packs of US Navy figures – including a 10 pack of infantry which helpfully includes BAR gunners. This range is inspired by the movie Sand Pebbles.
.jpg){kind=small}
US
Raiders
Brigade Game produces 2 packs of marine raiders in their early war ‘black panamas' made famous in the Makin Island raid.
UK
Home Guard
Warlord Games do licenced ‘Dad’s Army’ box with both uniformed and civilian versions of each character from the TV show. Linked with the Sea Lion and Gigant books they also do a number of additional packs covering LDV and armed civilians; period specific support options - such as the northover projector and smith gun; and vehicles like the Beaverrette and Armadillo.
UK
Home Guard
Foundry produce the oldest range of Home Guard figures. While they have been around for a while, they are still very nice sculpts and include some unique minis like a BAR gunner, home guard on bicycles, and a home guard spotter using a red-telephone box.
UK
Home Guard
1st Corps is new to Home Guard, but have been rapidly expanding their Home Front range both in terms of figures and vehicles. In addition to infantry they produce several armed civilian vehicles, a number of motorcycles and my personal favourite – dummy sentry scarecrows.
UK
Home Guard
Bad Squiddo games offers a pretty extensive range of female home front figures. Some of these will just add colour, but there is a number of armed figures that can be used for home guard proxies, while some of the WREN and ATS figures can be used for command and spotter substitutes – plus there is also a nice 20m bofors and crew.
UK
Home Guard
Eureka Miniatures has created a range of Aussie Home Guard figures. These very colourful figures can be used to defend Australia or to flesh out British LDV/Home Guard units. The range include Molotov cocktail 'bowlers' and hessian sack snipers.
.jpg){kind=small}
UK
Warlord produce a 10 figure metal Royal Navy section of sailors in full rig.
Sailors
UK
Sailors
Pulp Figures produce 2 packs of armed sailors, one in caps one in brodie helmets, plus one pack of deck crew.
UK
Sailors
Badger Games is a newer entry in the miniatures market, but they have a British Naval Landing Party range of 6 packs from the former Regiment Games. These figures were inspired by the British Black and White movie “We Dive at Dawn” and are very nice and include SMGs and Bren lmg options.
UK
Sailors
Empress miniatures produces three packs of Royal Navy figures which offer a bit of variety by virtue of the fact they have been sculpted with full webbing for onshore action.
UK
Highlanders
Pulp Figures offers 3 packs of WW2 highland infantry (infantry in Kilts!) in their British Empire range. These packs cover Infantry, special (support) weapons, and command/characters (including a bagpiper).
.jpg){kind=small}
UK
Burma
Warlord produces a nicely comprehensive range of infantry and support units for the Burma Chindits including some unique character figures and a mule team!
UK
Burma
Assault Group Miniatures makes a large range of both Chindits and Ghurkhas (including another mule team!) which complement the Warlord figures nicely and allow you to build out a large Burma force with duplication
UK
Burma
Wargames Foundry produces a smaller range of 4 Burma packs. Three Chindit – although interestingly all with SMGs. Plus a 4th Pack of royal marine commandos – which are unique to Foundry at the moment.
Soviet
Airborne
Warlord have now produced a 10 man soviet airborne box to allow player to put these long neglected troops on the table.
.jpg){kind=small}
Soviet
NKVD
If you want to field a full NKVD force start with the Warlord squad box which come with 10 figures in the unique NKVD cap.
Soviet
NKVD
Black Tree Designs produce two packs of NKVD riflemen as well as 3 mmg support options (just to ensure no one retreats)!
Soviet
NKVD
Gaddis Gaming, which has taken over the old Battle Honors line of miniatures, produces 10 man squad packs for summer and winter, and a special weapons squad with sniper, flamethrower, ATR and panzerfaust.
.jpg){kind=small}
Soviet
Naval Infantry
Warlord Games offers a 10 man Soviet Naval Brigade Squad, with lmg, in their distinctive caps and black uniform.
Soviet
Naval Infantry
Artizan Miniatures have released two 10 man Soviet Naval Brigade Squads with lmg. These packs offer some more variety with sailors sculpted in both the black uniform as well as blue naval rig. Some figures also have helmets in addition to caps.
Soviet
Naval Infantry
Black Tree Designs produce three packs of naval infantry plus a maxim lmg team – although it is notable that all the infantry are smg equipped.
Soviet
Naval Infantry
Copplestone Castings has sailor infantry, command and MMG packs in their ‘Back of Beyond’ range. While these are technically intended to be for RCW, their uniforms and equipment are fine for early WW2.
Soviet
Early War
Brigade Games makes a range of early war Soviet and Mongol miniatures. These minaitures have been sculpted with the distincitve inter-war helments that were being phased out by the start of WW2, but were still in use during the Battle of Khalkhin Gol in 1939. Mongolian allied forces include cavarly and the range also includes several vehicles and support weapons.
.jpg){kind=small}
France
Goumier
Artizan Design make 4 packs of Goumier Moroccan colonial troops: three of infantry and 1 command. These figures are all sculpted with traditional robes.
France
Goumier
Askari Miniatures make 2 squad packs of Goumier, each with 11 figures including command and BAR figures. One pack is sculpted in Turbans and the other Brodie helmets.
.jpg){kind=small}
France
Tirailleurs
Warlord offers a 10 man Senegalese Tirailleurs Infantry section which includes LMG and rifle grenade figures.
France
Tirailleurs
Perry Miniatures also makes Senegalese Tirailleurs Infantry, offering a range of 3 infantry packs, command, mmg and mortar.
France
Tirailleurs
Crusader Miniatures produces four packs of Senegalese, including lmgs and rifle grenadiers
France
Vichy
While most French minis can be used for Vichy forces, Perry miniatures produces a dedicated range, better reflecting the older styles of equipment that continued to be used by colonial Vichy forces which were largely cut off from France and had little support from other Axis powers. The range include support weapons and alternative heads for different theatres.
France
Mortorised
Crusader produces has a large range of 17 Dragon Porte packs with infantry, command and support weapons sculpted in their distinctive uniform. Crusader also produce two motorcycle packs for Dragons, one with motorcycles and riders.
France
Mortorised
Gaddis gaming also produce several packs of mechanised troops and support weapons giving options to field this force.
France
Chasseurs Appins
Gaddis Gaming's French range has 7 packs of Alpine, Blue Devil, troops including heavy support weapons and 75mm gun.
.jpg){kind=small}
France
Norway
Gorgon Studios does several packs of unique French Foreign Legion troops sculpted for Norway in 1940.