Panthers, ALL the panthers! 6mm 2D6 miniatures review

 

2D6 are a new miniatures company producing 6mm or 1:285 scale vehicles. So far they have four British and four German vehicles. I have ordered a grouping of each of the German vehicles and will be showing them off here. They include a Panther D, a Jagdpanther, a rather unique early bergepanther variant, and an Ersatz M10 panther (Ardennes '44 campaign)

The detail and casting is immaculate, I don't think I had to remove any flash from these, and they are comparable to GHQ in quality but about half the price at £1.10 per vehicle. Also...that exactly, that you can order individual vehicles is brilliant, as oppose to being forced to buy in lots of 5.

I shall start with my favourite the M10. It is beautiful! I have wondered about scratchmodelling of these for ages, and lo and behold, they have done one in their first batch!

 

 Below we have the berge panther, unique in that almost every other company does theirs in the later model with the crane and purpose built tool and utility mountings. Really nice crisp detailings as you can see!

Next up is the Panther D, just the excuse I need to start an Eastern front 1943 panzer group. This one made me notice how nice the barrels are as well, they have the same thickness and sturdiness as GHQ, while not being too oversized. As oppose to CinC who are very nice and size accurate, but of course quite fragile and bend as soon as you look at them.

 Finally we come to the beautiful sloped form of the Jagdpanther, I have wanted some more of these for ages to finish my 654th Schwere panzer jager abteilung, but have been refraining from purchasing more GHQ miniatures. The barrels are nice and attach really well to the hull, and again no evident flash except on the underside, which is almost an irrelevance!

 

 

 

To close I have a couple of quick comparison shots with the 2D6 miniatures alongside GHQ panthers...

Right, it has been at least a year since I "started" this blog, I am now going to update it in vast format, each post with pictures in chronological order....just a year late lol.

My first GHQ order which I amended to
5x panzer IV H
5x Tiger I E late
5x sdkfz 251 halftracks
5x panthers

first impressions = woah, detail and proportions are brilliant, I spent about half an hour just turning them over and staring at them :D
Just a quick note, GHQ design their vehicles with slightly thicker barrels i.e out of proportion, whilst CinC do their barrels in proportion, downside to this being that they are VERY easy to bend.

Here are a few shots of the first minis...

Perfect example of size and detail there :D

 One with base coat and then finished item.

Two finished Tiger I's :)

First order en route from GHQ

GHQ seem by far, to be the best sculptors of anything 1:285....and CinC arent far behind.

Heroics and Ros....are passable...if all you want for your hobby is gaming, but they just arent well made enough for me. Quality snob I'm afraid, my wallet will suffer.
I won't even comment on scotia.

Right my initial plan is to start off with that favourite of all arenas; Normandy. I've always been more of a fan of the Wehrmacht, purely because technologically they were far ahead of the game. (Treadhead :D)

So I'm going to be building up some troops, initially to represent, every panzer division that was in normandy in the week/weeks following 6th June 1944.

i.e
Panzer Lehr
12th SS
2nd SS
21st panzer
101 schwere panzer
503 schwere panzer
and so on.

Oh and also 654 schwere panzer jager   mmmm jagd panthers.

But yes, my plan in the long run is to collect up 1:1 scale versions of each of these armoured regiments, vehicle for vehicle, all up in their correct unit markings. Should take me more than a year I think, but baby steps.

Initially I've put in an order for...

10 panzer IV H
5 Panthers
10 Tiger I E
5 Jagdpanthers
5 sdkfz 251/1
3 ostwind
2 wirbelwind
3 stug III
2 stuh 42

oh and a platoon of cromwells, just because I like them. I'll be posting up some in progress pics as I assemble/paint them up :)

6mm beginnings...

Right, it finally seems I have stumbled upon a scale that's perfect for my needs...
A. As an obsessive with quantity and epic scale...i.e if I'm going to re-enact Kursk, I want to do it in 1:1 scale...in parts of course...otherwise I would be needing five generals a side, and a 20x6 foot table...even in 6mm.
B. In the way of storage, saving of save, and financial leniency...(games workshop can in this respect...leave town)

There's something remarkably beautiful about a 4x4 foot table capable of holding a decent game with company level combatants :)

So indeed...contributing factors to delving into 6mm (not to sound like a stuck record in this respect)

1. Cost
2. Sheer number of troops it's possible to field.
3. Space saving
4. A real feel of actually commanding an army...not an undersized company.
5. I won't add "ease of painting" because for me, painting is about half the hobby...so yeah, I will strive to get as much detail as possible into my 1:285 scale tanks.