Plastic WWI Tanks


  • If WGA really want to satisfy a gap in the market, plastic 28mm WWI tanks would be a big hit I'd wager.

    The only previous 28mm WWI tanks made were Warlord's resin ones - they made British Mark IV Male, Female and Hermaphrodite:

    The infamous German A7V:

    And the French Renault FT-17 and Saint-Chamond:

     

    These looked pretty good, but in their infinite lack of wisdom Warlord have now stopped making all of them except the Renault to make further space to satisfy their insatiable desire to make new WWII stuff. With these gone, the only other WWI tank model kits available are in 1:35 (too big) or 1:72 (too small) scale, meaning hobbyists either have to revert to one of those scales for WWI gaming (the former being too big really to make suitably-large armies and the latter being difficult to convert and kitbash models) or scratch-build their own (which I'd rather not do). Thus I put it to the legion of WGA fans to back me up here - plastic 28mm WWI tanks, at WGA's normal prices, would be a need well and truly satisfied, not just for WWI players but also for Sci-Fi players wanting to convert their own armoured vehicles for whatever human or alien race they are fielding (as WWI tanks, because most had no turrets, are arguably more of a 'blank canvas' for tank converters than later machines).

    What do you think of this idea? Any particular WWI tanks you'd like to see other than the usual suspects above?



  • I would love to see  all of the  above WW1 tanks released in plastic,along with the French Schneider and British Whippet. I don't game,model or collect any Warhammer stuff,but their tanks that I have seen pictures of, look really close to the rhomboid shaped British tanks of WW1.I would think that the WW1 tanks in plastic, could also be used as proxy tanks in Warhammer. You could always add lasers and turrets to them.


  • I'd really like to see a detailed 28mm ft 75 bs and the other less known renault ft variants as I've only found a 75 bs low poly 3d print and the others in different scales.

    Renault ft 75 bs prototype

    Peugeot ft 75 bs prototype

    Ft 75 bs production model

    Renault ft ammo carrier

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rYWnQO97Q-tp6VgWbgpex9WAc6AD7dHE/view

    other variants


  • Phalanx Consortium makes a resin 1/50th FT17.  Hopefully this marks a shift to 1/50th by more manufacturers.  

    Blood and Valor


  • Are there any other manufacturers of 1/50 scale WW1 tanks out there? The only ones that I know of are all in resin. And all  are in 1/56 scale- Warlord, Trenchworx  and Brigade Games. HLBS, I believe, have quit making WW1 tanks.

    Rubicon have listed on their Forum a Renault FT-17 in 1/56 scale that in the process of being made in plastic, but they have slowed down their production in the last few years


  • @Mark Hoffman 

    It would appear that Phalanx also makes a Mark IV (Male) in 1/50th.

    https://www.thephalanxconsortium.com/british-mark-iv-male-tank.html

     



  • @Mark Hoffman As I said at the beginning of the thread, Warlord have ceased production of their WWI tanks, but Trenchworx and Brigade Games (and Phalanx Consortium @JTam ) are still making theirs, though theirs are in metal or resin which, while still nice, is not as desirable or convertible as plastic these days, hence my appeal for a specifically plastic range here.

    Interesting to hear Rubicon may be making a Renault FT-17 in plastic, but they seem to be WWII-focussed and the FT-17 may being made simply because some nations like China were still using it right up until WWII. I'd like to be proven wrong and see them start a WWI range, but currently I'm not hopeful.


  • @Caratacus 

    Skytrex carries the old Warlord WW1 line of tanks. 

    Rubicon have been focused on WW2 vehicles, but have started  to branch out , and have started a line of Vietnam War figures, and have two British Centurion tanks. They have in the works quite a few post war vehicles,Soviet and American, and a Huey helicopter.

    But to get back to your original post, it would be great to have WW1 vehicles in plastic. Hopefully Wargames Atlantic  will be the manufacturer to pave the way down this unexplored avenue ,as they have with some of their 28mm infantry sets

     


  • @Mark Hoffman 

    That's great news that Warlord haven't ditched them completely and Skytrex has taken over their manufacture. It would have been a real shame to see such quality miniatures disappear.

    Still, as you have said, it would be even better if Rubicon or WGA (or even both) develop plastic versions, especially as the latter are building their 28mm infantry range anyway.


  • The FT is the best kit to do in plastic - it became the tank adopted by many nations postwar and it (or locally made versions) saw service in most interwar conflicts, even through to WW2.

    Soviet T-18, Fiat 3000 and the US M1917 are all copies.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_FT

     


  • Logically plastic kits are very costly to make, and WWI's aren't so "glamorous" as WWII's ones. The producers will always make models that will sell well, ipotethically one could try with paper models, or 3D printing, if available.

    There are some sites that offer for free some paper models, such as this :

    https://pdfprodocs.vip/download/4678846-world-war-i-british-mark-iv-heavy-tank-paper-model-free-download


  • @Caratacus I 100% agree that this would be a great idea for WGA to do, especially since WW1 had some of my favorite tank designs.


  • Sadly there really doesn't seem to be much out there in plastic for a low budget - I wanted to find something to build into a Haunted Tank for "The Last War", which as a fantasy/sci-fi setting leaves me feeling free to play a little loose with subject matter, but even then there's not a whole lot to work with.

    There are n't even many 1/35 scale model kits, which is usually where you'd find the most variety in tank models... there's a couple different companies making Whippet medium tanks in 1/35 for under US $35 or so, and two or three other WWI era 1/35 tanks running about three times that price, but spending that much on something I'll be cutting up and bashing into a fantasy heavy tank just doesn't sit right with me.

    There's little or nothing in 1/72 and 1/48 scale, either.

    Honestly, WWII German and US tanks seem to get nearly all the attention, with a smattering of Cold War era vehicles after that for a change of pace, which is a shame - it's those WWI designs that really always caught my eye, from before the world sort of seemed to figure out the "right" basic design used by everyone from about WWII onward:  those older designs are weird and quite distinctive, and there's something vaguely "Gothic" about the mechanisms and outlines of that era that seem (to me) perfectly at home in a pulp horror setting - and the vehicles themselves are, to me, beautiful in their own peculiar way.

    I MIGHT be able to get a little material to work with out of some of the more crude or exotic WWII models - Japan, Italy, and sometimes Russia still produced a few vehicles that had that weird sort of do-it-yourself, built-from-spare-parts quality that I enjoy about the WWI designs, and there seem to be a lot of Soviet tractors in 1/72 that almost fit what I'm looking for - but there's still not a lot to work with out there even here, and shoehorning 1/72 WWII vehicles into anythng other than a fantasy/sci-fi setting really isn't ideal.

    Anyway, I'd really enjoy seeing more WWI era vehicles in this scale, both historical, and in "Death Fields friendly" fantasy/sci-fi designs (the vehicle WA is making for "The Damned" looks like an attempt to test the waters for sci-fi vehicles, and I love it - hopefully it sells well enough to encourage WA to try a few WWI era vehicles!)

    Short of that, or digging up the resin and metal kits wherever they might be hiding, I guess maybe our best bets are narrowed down to 3D printing, scratch-built plastic, and cardstock projects.  (I printed and build a cardstock Mark IV about 20 or 25 years ago in roughly 28mm scale, it was actually a fun project and looked pretty good, the printing was a bit of a hassle and the cardstock material doesn't hold up very well over the long haul though.)


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