Entering The 1/600 Scale World
As I mentioned earlier this week one project I’m undertaking is a total conversion of Memoir ’44 to a company level Cold War system. While I don’t think the mechanics will present a problem, one aspect that I knew would be problematic was how to physically represent the units.
My initial thought was to use 1/285 miniatures, but that would get far too expensive. Next, I thought of going the Ancients route and use blocks. This actually showed promise, as wooden blocks are fairly inexpensive for the quantity I would need. The only hitch would be creating the unit labels, but even that shouldn’t pose too much of a problem, and once done the labels could be printed as needed. It’s a lot quicker slapping stickers on a set of blocks than painting an entire new army, after all. But then again, miniatures are just so much cooler looking.
At this point I started to examine Oddzial Osmy’s line of miniatures. Oddzial Osmy is a Polish-based manufacturer of 1/600 scale modern and WW2 miniatures. They looked good, and best of all the price was right, especially since I would probably end up needing a couple hundred minis all total. The only problem was at the time I’d have to import them and I hate putting up with that hassle.
Thankfully they now have a distributor here in the States. PicoArmor carries the entire line of Oddzial Osmy miniatures. Run by a very helpful fellow named John Siewenie, if you’ve ever wanted to experiment with 1/600 miniatures I urge you to stop by PicoArmor. I’ve found their customer service to be excellent, with John more than willing to answer questions about his products in an informative manner, and the turn around time from placing and order to receiving it couldn’t have been quicker. All in all an excellent experience.
Today I just primed some American forces and hopefully will have time to start painting them over the weekend (which, considering their size, will probably lead to my going blind by Monday). I’m very impressed with Oddzial Osmy’s craftsmanship. Detail on the minis is surprisingly crisp, and flash was kept to a minimum with some excess spikes that were easily removed with a knife. Looking forward to increasing my force pool.