Micro Armour

[MikeD]

I've often heard references made to this forming of wargaming, which presumably uses minature white metal tanks.

 

I was thinking of buying up (with MoD money, of course ) a whole load of these to create OPFOR units - up to perhaps Bn strength - to help with recognition classes for my Squadron.

 

My question is:

 

Where can I buy such models cheaply, and preferably within the UK?

[Jason]

Unfortunately, I would hardly call Micro-Armor cheap.

 

Additionally, it is 1/285th scale (real tiny). When I was in an Armor unit, we used to use the Micro-Armor M1A1 Abrams miniatures on our company sand table for tactics training.

 

The line was pretty varied and wide ranging, but I don't see it as much any more. Not sure if GHQ is still producing as much of it as they used to.

[Mk 1]

I have a very large collection of micro-armor, amassed over a period of more than 25 years. I've managed to acquire models from many different manufacturers.

 

They can make very interesting visual recognition aids. You should consider how much detail you want presented on the models, and how much work/expense you can put into both the tanks and the surrounding terrain.

 

GHQ models are bar-none the best in scale and visual appearance. They are really quite extraordinary. They company has extended its lead through the use of advanced manufacturing and model-production technologies, so that they are even further ahead of their (ever shrinking number of) competition than they were years ago. They also expanded in the past few years to offering a wider range of supporting vehicles (a variety of trucks, engineering equipment, etc.). Now, they even mix sub-variants or externally stored kit within some of their newer packs -- so that you get five of the same model tanks, but with two or three subtle differences in appearances as you would expect in the field. GHQ will be the most expensive.

 

They have a significant on-line offering at: http://www.ghqmodels.com/

 

If you really want to buy UK -- look into Heroics and Ross first. Their quality is perfectly adequate in my opinion -- doesn't wow you with the attention to detail like GHQ, but once you get the vehicles painted, and look at them from 1 meter away (or through the lens of a camera) you won't be concerned with the difference. They have a fantastic variety of vehicles, including many many supporting trucks, tractors, cars, engineering vehicles, etc. Also -- they sell them mail-order on a per-piece basis, rather than in the pre-sealed packs that GHQ uses. This is very usefull in assembling higher level units that don't add up in units of five (like 31 tanks in a battalion). I've never found them to have an on-line presences -- anyone else know of a working H&R website? But many hobby stores that carry the H&R line have e-commerce offerings, and you can do regular mail-order directly from H&R or from a hobby shop. Any local UK hobby shop should carry one or more of the miniatures wargaming magazines -- H&R regularly advertises in them all. H&R will save you 30 - 40% over GHQ in most cases -- particularly when you don't have to buy 4 extra tanks to make a 31 tank unit.

 

Another intersting UK miniatures maker is Scotia. I haven't bought from them in a few years -- so I'm not sure how they're fairing. Their quality was not up to even H&R -- scale in particular could be a bit off (they are nominally 1/300, not 1/285), so you don't want to mix Scotia models with the same vehicles from another manufacturer, but again I have found their quality to be adequate for painted models viewed from over 1 meter. They have often had supporting vehicles that were not available from other sources. Again, look for them in a miniatures magazine. Scotia is probably another 10 - 15% cheaper than H&R.

 

Often, the hobby shops that do mail-order will carry several manufacturers -- you might try looking for a mail-only shop called "Table Top Games" -- they have produced well known rule sets and (at least a few years back) did a very good mail-order service with a broad line of UK-based manufacturers.

 

If visual appeal is important to you (as for visual recognition), you will find that the tanks/vehicles themselves will only be part of the issue. Painting at this scale takes time and skill. And terrain can be an important adder to the visual experience. These are, of course, another whole topic's worth of information waiting to be requested.

 

-Mark 1

[Bish]

Mike, we use these for AFV training for MILAN. If you can get to the MILAN training wing at Warminster, can't remember what camp, they have the sets you would need. They are about £17 each. They are not assembeled and painted though. I have had to put loads of these together.

[MikeD]

Thanks guys,

 

I've found a place that sells H&R minatures - they look just right, and 30p each as well

 

I'm not so interested in recognition features of individual vehicles, as the recognition of units and sub-units.

eg Tank + BRDM + 2 Air Defence = Company HQ.

[Bob Krenzel]

As a tank lieutenant I amassed quite a collection of Micro-Armor. I found them very useful in platoon through company command: a great technique was to build a sand-table model of the enemy defense and use the micro armor to show expected enemy positions. Really helped give a graphic picture of what the bad guys were up to.

 

Micro Armor has an Iraqi collection which includes Chinese vehicles. Some apply to Serb forces as well.