Forged in Battle Early War French Infantry: Review and Comparison

A year ago I bought a French Infantry Platoon in 15mm from the company Forged in Battle that is still sitting in the "pile of shame", today I decided to do a review of the figures

You could say that there are two sale models among miniatures companies. There are those that sell packs of the same figure in different poses, and those that sell complete units, be it squads, platoons or companies. Forged in battle sells whole platoons, and that makes it a simple choice for Chain of Command. The only thing that this platoon is missing is a fourth NCO for the VB Grenadiers.

One of the things that I like about these miniatures is that the Platoon Leader is wearing a helmet. Many times French officers come with a Quepis, that might be historically correct and helps with identifying the leader, specially in 15mm, but I believe that in a combat situation a helmet is a more sensible choice.

Since we are talking about helmets, let me say that the helmets in these figures are really well sculpted. The classic crest is noticeable and they even have a tiny insignia in the front.

Apart from the Platoon Leader and the Squad leaders there are other 9 poses in the pack. It includes 30 Riflemen, 3 VB Grenadiers, 3 LMG Teams (Gunner + Loader), 3 Squad Leaders and 1 Platoon Leader. The LMG teams are prone and the VB Grenadiers are kneeling, the rest of the figures are standing.

On the negative side, the shipment method was a bit lacking. All figures where shiped inside a single plastic bag in an envelope with bubble wrap interior. Because of this, many rifles where bent and all the figures in one pose came with the ankle in a really weird position. Don't know if the ankle thing was because of the shipping or something to do with the casting.

In general there are no casting problems, there are maybe a bit too much mould lines and some flash, but nothing you can't fix. Only one figure came with an excess of flash, but that was easily fixable.

My plan was to fill the missing NCO position with a Peter Pig figure, so I decided to do a size comparison between ranges of figures. I was a bit worried because the VB Grenadiers are a bit big compared to other ranges.

Plastic Soldier Company (new), Forged in Battle, Peter Pig, Plastic Soldier Company (old)

Nevertheless, comparing standing figures I realized that there is not that big of a difference and they actually mix pretty well with Peter Pig.

Plastic Soldier Company (new), Forged in Battle, Peter Pig, Plastic Soldier Company (old)

A comparison between standing and kneeling figures revealed that the VB Grenadiers are a bit big no matter what you compare them with. They are almost as tall as the standing figures, even if they are kneeling.

My plan now is to replace all the Grenadiers with Peter Pig figures, I think they will look better than the originals, even if the helmets are a bit different.