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I'm just curious who else out there is attempting (or has completed) a full division 1:1. I'm working a generic Pz Division, North Africa (late '41 to early '42). My main question is. When it comes to infantry, have you collected a 1:1 infantry as well, the vehicles are relatively easy. However I was considering using a 3 man penny stand for a squad and the put together the appropriate number of squads. Thoughts? I just think that collecting 4000 little green men would be a bit over the top.

Decades ago I started to put together a division at 1:1 (WW2 US Armoured Div), but it got silly very quickly so I pulled back to a Combat Command. That is still a work in progress (95% complete), along with a UK Armoured brigade, a German brigade sized Kampfgruppe and as a side piece a Russian group of similar size. All will have infantry at 1:1 so my US infantry stands have 11 men on them, the dismount stands for the German Pz. grenadiers have 5 or 6...but the size of formation I am assembling means that 4000 infantry would cover all 4 formations pretty well.

Admitted downsides are the extra painting time and the density of figures on a stand. Upside is getting an idea of the real numbers of troops involved.

Hi. I do 1:1, but not at the division level. My largest unit is at the Battalion level. I have two WWII German battalions of armor and two of infantry. I can’t see myself doing much more than that. Have you figured out the cost for a division using 1:1? You would need to write GHQ a check for $2185.05 for a light division or $2543.25 for a full division. On top of that, painting 12 to 14 thousand little guys would drive me further nuts. I wish you the best for your division, I would love to see it when your done.

Working on a mid to late-80's heavy brigade in the Fulda Gap. At that time it had two Mech and two Tank Bn's. And yes, all of the dismount squads are modeled. I also did Plt. and Co. command stands. Also, the dismount scout teams are done for the ACR Troop deployed forward of the brigade.

Took a break to work on the ships for a while but will eventually start on the next brigade.

The collection may be expensive but you don't buy it all together. It is built over the years so the impact is less strong. Anyway the amounts given by Oberst seems low to me for a full division, including all non combat troops. (Just a rough estimate on my side)

In any case, over the years I have spent a mltiple of that amount in ww2 models and ships.

I would think the personal time spent painting would be of far greater value than the money spent on acquisition. But as the painting is as much entertainment as it is work ... well let us each judge as we may.

Now more specifically to the initial question -- I do my work at 1:1 unit scale. But yes I scale my infantry squads. In my case 4 figures on a penny represents a full squad. 3 figures represents a special-purpose unit (maybe a squad-sized HQ, or an engineering squad, etc.). 2 figures represents a crew-sized unit, maybe for a small/medium mortar, or for MGs / HMGs, or a commo team, or a small command section, etc.

This way it is a little less critical that I have the exact right numbers of each pose. If I run out of officer figures and still need another command stand, another figure (maybe a grenade-throwing pose) can serve if it is based on a 2-figure stand.

From a modelling perspective my platoons and companies still look like fair-sized crowds of guys, while from a gaming perspective they are easier to play because of the consistancy in basing, and from a collecting/acquisitions perspective it is far easier to get 'em all built up without having a weeks-long glitch while you get another 3 figures in the pose you need to finish a TOE.


For example here is a WW2 Romanian infantry company. 3 platoons, each with 4 squads of infantry, 2 support weapons stands (a 50mm morter squiad, and a tank hunter team), and a platoon command squad. Romanian platoons, particularly in early WW2, had a lot of men, but not many heavy weapons.

Looks like a fair crowd of guys to me.


Here is a close-up of a platoon. Rifle squads are 4 figures. The tank hunter team is 2 figures. Mortar and Command squads are 3 figures.

Hope that helps.

About 15 years ago I started to organize & purchase vehicles to form units into a german Panzerbrigade/ratio 1:1. It's not organized entirely according to the real panzerbrigades, but my regiments & battalions are organized after the "type 44 Pzdiv". (freie gliederung). I've excluded most maintenance/supply units since having 1000's of extra trucks would ruin me financiallly. & how to solve the manpower issue.. I just don't know?

cama wrote:Something I've always wanted to do is a early Cold War Soviet army at 1:1. The models are easy to find, and apart from maybe the early MI-1 Hare and MI-2 Hoplite, all the stuff is available. Someday!

Huh?

How do your comrade commanders keep up with his BTR-152 -mounted motor rifle troops?

Always such a quandry ... do I use my Hoplites to snipe with AT-1 ("Snapper") ATGWs, or as white horses for my Division and Regimental officers. Decisions, decisions ....

H&R apparently makes the Mi-2 but i dunno if you want to go down that dark path.

av8rmongo wrote:H&R apparently makes the Mi-2 but i dunno if you want to go down that dark path.

I have it and it is quite nice. Not GHQ quality but acceptable and you could always find some appropiate rotors from GHQ to improve it.

Cheers
Kieran

I also model at 1:1 with WW2 german and russian. I build company size units and include all the combat vehicles and a representative logistic tail at about 3:1. I don't model all the dismounted infantry but have a pool of stands with infantry sections split into LMG and two fire team stands. Don't need to model all the infantry because you'll never get to deploy them all

mickp868 wrote:I also model at 1:1 with WW2 german and russian. I build company size units ... with infantry sections split into LMG and two fire team stands. Don't need to model all the infantry because you'll never get to deploy them all

My approach these days is to start with company sized units.

I also started with fire-team basing. My rules at that time (early 90's) were WRG Armor and Infantry rules. That is how I got to the 3 or 4 figures per stand approach. My standard WRG basing was 2 x 4-man rifle teams + 1 x 2-man LMG per squad.

But I have concluded that fire-team basing is just never going to work for combinded-arms gaming. Why? Because it makes the infantry a royal pain in the @$$ to use. A WW2 Red Army infantry company comes out to something like 43 stands, when a WW2 Red Army tank company is only 10! So the infantry is 4x more difficult to play than the tanks for an equivelent formation. The net result is that my battles were either almost all infantry, or all tanks. And given most gamers' preferences for the hardware (the tanks), the infantry never got on the battleboard.

So I transitioned to squad-based rules, and left my infantry based 4 men to a stand. Now most of my games have a good mix of armor and infantry, which is what I want. And those infantry companies I built in the 1990s have become infantry battalions! Oooh, a bonus effect!

I do 1-1 for tanks,AFV only.
truck and sotfskin are mix 1-1, 1-5
just kills me to buy a truck when i could get a another tank.

I build units on a 1 to 1 basis.
In moderns, a US division would have about 350 tanks and 120 apc.
Trucks, AA, I am light on. Infantry, I use counters, infantry man on bases, and the old scotia infantry stands.

For US, have 1 division in 3-tone NATO for the M1A2/M1A1 aong with M2/M2A2.
Have others in Olive Drab and tan.
Have other nationalities in division size.
Take care, chrs

I just completed all the APC's and Tanks for my second Brigade and have the majority of tanks for the 3rd. Focus mainly on Tanks, APC, AT and AA vehicles. For support I have a small representation of the actual amount needed.