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Thursday 28 July 2011

1/72 Caesar Modern US plastic figures compared to 20mm Elhiem pewter figures

While there are many 20mm (or 1/72) sources to get figures from it seems that Elhiem and Caesar are somehow the most common to be found on gaming tables recently. The questions occurs again and again - how do pewter figs from Elhiem compare to "true" 1/72 scale plastics?

Brian (from the Hobbyden - see link in the right column) has done a nice shot to compare them both and allowed me to use these pictures (thanks, mate!).

First off, Brian started to show us what comes with the cheap box of Caesar's 1/72 "modern US" set. There are some really nices poses included and for the really good price of just a single box they might be good for a lot of people to get started with "moderns". The cost of a single box of Caesar figures should be lower than 10 Euro and it holds 42 (!!) figures. Caesar figures are in perfect 1/72 scale. What Brian doesn't like about them are the helmets - in his opinion they could have been done better.

Now with the second pic, Brian shows us that Matt's pewter figures (Elhiem) are a perfect match of the plastics. While they are a tad chunkier (due to the material used) in my opinion they would mix perfectly. After all, humans come in different sizes, too. I have an US Army force that uses both, pewter figs from various sources and also Caesar's plastics. While opinions differ, I think especially the plastic sets from Caesar are a good way into the hobby. You can also get "insurgents" in a box of around 40 figures.

What troubles me with the Caesar plastics is the strange way how they include weapon options into their sets - the "modern US" for example includes the heavy .50cal sniper rifle but no spotter figure. It also has no M249 SAW included but M240 Medium MGs.

To build correct forces with those boxes you'll need to get yourself the other sets available from Caesar - just for some SAWs. :-( But when you do, you get various weapon options for a good price. Caesar plastics aren't as flimsy as others (Revell for example), they paint up rather nice.

6 comments:

Norsechiild said...

This is the combo of figures I used to play Ambush Alley (not moved into FoF yet) and when painted they fit pretty well. Also you can use a couple of the "get over here" arm over head figure, and a bit of knife/hot water wizardry, to make a pretty good solider carrying wounded squadmate mini.

Anonymous said...

nice post. they do mix rather well. could you post later with them painted with painted Elhiem? that would be great!

Disgruntled Fusilier said...

I am a huge fan of Casear 1:72mm Miniatures and the metal ones look great next to them! Thanks for putting them side by side with the Elheim.

Steve

Thomas said...

I've many of Caesar minis and I'm very pleased how they fit with Elhiem's figures. I'm playing with both sets of figures and it's really hard to say differences between them.

cheers
Thomas

Josephus66AD said...

Caesar Plastics include some unusual figure/weapon choices in their boxes, but no worries, there is a great site that lets you buy individual plastic figures or even whole sprues. Not every pose is available but you can check back over time as the numbers can go up and down. Also you can see other boxes and sometimes you can buy individual poses out of one box to make up for deficiencies in other ones. http://www.bat-hor.com/en/loose_sprues.html

Mick said...

I've just recently taken up FoF and although I've been using plastic figures so far (Italeri and Caesar), I really fancied getting some of those awesome Elheim figures and wondered exactly what the comparison would be....you'd just made my mind up, they look perfect!