One of the issues I find with many packs of WWII 15 mm figures is that the mix of units is not always what I need. When that happens, I turn to one of the smaller manufacturers of 15 mm WWII miniatures, including Peter Pig. The Peter Pig pack 08-0078, LW German LMGs standing firing, is a good way to get some MG42s employed as LMGs.
The Peter Pig Late War MG42 LMG Pack
German MG42 LMG – Peter Pig 08-0078
Normally Peter Pig packs contain eight figures in two to four poses. This pack contains eight men in five figures with two poses. Confused? No problem, just check out the photo I”ve conveniently attached to the right.
Three of the figures consist of the gunner and assistant gunner on one base with the assistant bracing the barrel of the MG42 on his shoulder by holding the bipod base while the gunner fires the weapon. (I know which position I”d rather be in!) The other two figures are stand-alone gunners firing their MG42s from the hip. Probably not the most effective method, but in wargaming there”s no detriment to accuracy, now is there?
Often Peter Pig will have three poses in a pack but not this time. A prone gunner with prone loader would improve the pack, as that”s a pretty standard position, but given the sculpts of the figures there is no question of their quality. With one exception.
Quality of the Peter Pig Late War MG42 LMG Figures
The Two Sculps from Peter Pig 08-0078 – German MG42 LMGs
Overall the Peter Pig sculpts are up to their usual standards. The uniforms are nicely detailed, weapons recognizable for what they are supposed to be and well proportioned. When compared to Battlefront figures, these are a bit slighter in size. Battlefront”s 15 mm WWII figures tend to be very bulky for their size, whereas these tend to be more appropriately scaled.
What this means in practical terms is that these figures are a bit smaller than Battlefront”s. However, I am confident that these can be mix and matched on a Flames of War base without too much trouble. The main factor to watch out for there is the thickness of the base. Peter Pig bases are thinner than Battelfront”s, and if you base the two companies” figures together put a craps shim underneath the Peter Pig figures. When you finish your base you”ll hide the shim and nobody will ever be the wiser.
The only failing of these figures is with the faces. Peter Pig figures can have faces that appear to have some sculpting work remaining. If you are looking for figures that present perfectly for high resolution photography, then you should pass on these. For wargaming nobody will ever notice. In fact, the exaggerated cheekbones and such may actually improve the final result by giving more lighting contrast. For me it”s a wash, for others maybe not.
Final Thoughts on Peter Pig”s Late War MG42 LMGs
Overall I like these figures, but I am not sure I”d pick this pack if I needed some MG42 LMGs. While I don”t care about the faces, I do care about the lack of a prone LMG. The only game I know of that requires figures to be in the stance they have adopted uses 1/35-scale figures so that”s a moot point with 15 mm figures, but it seems to me that going prone is such a fundamental position that it has to be covered. Since I have reviewed a lot of 15 mm German LMG figures my bits bin has plenty of choice in any case.
At $5 for five figures, or $1 per figure, these appear to be expensive figures. Once you take into account that three of them are doubles then it”s $0.625 per man, which is reasonable for a small pack of specific figures. While you can probably find cheaper, these are fairly priced for what they are.
