Another Point of Singularity

A long time ago, I conceived of the idea of converting one of my favorite wargames from my teen years, SNIPER (SPI) into a miniatures game. I bought some Peter Pig 15mm U.S. WW2 troops (from the appropriate packs to represent SNIPER figures-- Automatic Riflemen (AR), Riflemen (R), Officers, LMGs, etc.). I mounted them on counters and even labeled most of them for their Sniper equivelants.

When I got a look at how much 15mm armor was going to be (this was years ago, long before FLAMES OF WAR) I kind of quietly put this one on a back burner. I've always wanted to find some affordable miniatures that scale well with the Peter Pig stuff, though, even if getting the SNIPER project going isn't priority one these days.

Thanks to the recent release of 15mm Axis and Allies miniatures (and Ebay), I've discovered that the "commons" (or less sought after) A&A figures are pretty cheap to pick up. And it turns out they scale very well with Peter Pig 15mms, as the following pictures (I hope) depict.



I hae 6 M4A1 Shermans, easy to find




I have 4 M5 Stuarts, 3 Jeeps. not AS easy to find but still cheap




Another shot of the same, with M3 Lee added (only 1, this is hard to get)




Assorted German assault guns, armored cars, and such. The 251 is hard to find.




The PZ IV is relatively easy to get and fairly cheap for some reason.




These dogfaces wouldn't wish to be THIS close to a PZ IV, historically!




It's very impressive what you can find in the A&A line for very little monetary expenditure. What you see here cost about 30 bucks, less shipping...




... and it packs away neatly in a souvenier 1984 Elvis Presley chocolate tin!



The paint jobs on the soldiers make ME cringe, so I apologize for that.. it was a rush job. I was more interested in mounting them like SNIPER figures when I put this together, oh, back in the early 90s.

SUMMARY: Although they are on the small side, the A&A miniatures scale well with 15mm Peter Pig (at least). I will have to see how they stack up against other manufacturers. They are incredibly cheap when you purchase them individually from after-market sources like Ebay. I am not all that charged up about the selection at the moment (there are very few miniatures in the series right now, and some of the choices were just plain odd). I think some of the miniatures will require a decent paint job (especially the American Shermans and Jeeps). If you squint, you can use them right out of the box, but I prefer my tanks to have a lot more character.

So if you are thinking about it cheap armor in 15mm scale, this is a very good choice.