I'm wondering if anyone else is using pre-painted 1/144th scale miniatures for Tide of Iron?
Over the past year I've been slowly switching out my ToI vehicles for pre-painted 1/144th scale minis, just to give my games some added pop. Unfortunately, it's proven to be a bit harder than I imagined. So far I've managed to get most of what I need from two companies - World Tank Museum and 21st Century Toys (New Millennium / Classic Armor). Anyone else giving this a try? Have you been successful?
Here's what I've got so far:
WORLD TANK MUSEUM
x12 Shermans
x6 Panthers
x4 Jagdpanzer IVs
x4 King Tigers
21st CENTURY TOYS
x2 US 2.5 ton trucks
x4 US M3A3 half-tracks
x4 M18 Hellcats (using these as M10 Wolverines)
x4 M7 Priests
x4 Panzer III tanks
x6 Sdkfz 251 half-tracks
x6 SdKfz 7 prime movers (using these as Opel Blitz trucks)
I haven't been able to find any Stug IIIs so I'm going to use the 21st Century Stug IV with sideskirts - close enough I guess. I also have to decide on a company for the Panzer IV and Tiger, as well as any ATGs. My preference is for WTM, especially for the Tiger, but that might prove to be tough as FFG is no longer carrying any WTM products. I've checked into Dragon's Can.Do Pocket Models, but I'm not sure I want to put a 3rd company into the mix no matter how nice their paint jobs look. Things might appear too mish-mash.
And for a related note on World Tank Museum and FFG...
When FFG launched their new site I noticed they took off any info regarding WTM models. I emailed them about it and they said FFG was no longer the distributor for WTM. They also didn't know if Arclight USA had picked up anybody else. Drat. I remember reading on the old forums that FFG had dropped the unpublished World Tank Campaigns game in favor of using WTM minis to support ToI in what they called "reinforcement packs". It looks like that fell through. I'm still hoping Arclight will find another partner in the States, but until then I guess I'm stuck with ordering from Hong Kong via ebay. Yuck.