Summer 2024 marks the 110th anniversary of the cataclysmic events that led to World War I. Despite being one of the most pivotal events of the 20th century, WWI has not achieved nearly as much representation on the tabletop as its sequel, and we at Goonhammer hope to shine a little light on this fascinating period of history.
Therefore, Goonhammer is pleased to present our Guns of August summer event. Every Monday, from June to August, will see a new article on wargaming the Great War. Expect painting guides, model reviews, interviews, ruleset spotlights, and more!
While there are many options for wargaming the Great War in 28mm, smaller scales have certain advantages of their own, like for example building out entire companies/battalions at 1:1 scale, or recreating heroically large battles instead of a tiny trench raids. Here, we’ve endeavored to bring you a definite list of WW1 models from manufacturers smaller than 28mm. They have been arranged from smallest (6mm) to largest (20mm).
*Note: Some models were provided by manufacturers for the sake of reviewing. You’ll also see a 28mm ANZAC miniature in some pictures which I’ve used for scale.
Table of Contents
Baccus
[Website]
If you like your toy soldiers tiny, Baccus is one of the go-to companies for that. These adorable 6mm men are supremely cost effective, with just the right amount of detail and abstraction to make painting them quick and painless.
Baccus offers a wide variety of army and unit types allowing you to play most theatres of the war with their models alone.
Scales: 6mm
Material: Metal
Nations: Germany (Early, Late), British (Early, Late, Middle East), French (Early, Late), Ottomans, ANZAC, Indians, Russians, Austo-Hungarians, Italians, Serbians, Belgians
Price: $40 per army – $.11 per infantry model
Henry Turner
Henry Turner is the master of small-scale historical 3D printing. His prodigious output stretches from medieval to modern warfare. Recently he delved into WW1 and put out a quite extensive range of miniatures for the conflict.
The key to Henry Turner’s models is that they are expressly designed to print easily and effectively at small scales. While this sounds obvious, a lot of designers fail to account for what is actually possible at 6mm and design models that are too complicated, too thin, or require too many supports. This means that while Henry Turner’s models may not look particularly impressive when viewed as a file, once printed you will see how all of the design choices come together to make an excellent print. They can also be scaled up as high as 15mm and still look alright.
Scales: 6-15mm
Material: 3D printable STL files
Nations: Germany (Early, Late), British (Early, Late, Middle East), French (Early, Late), Ottomans, ANZAC, Indians, Russians, Austo-Hungarians, Italians, Belgians, USA, East Africa
Price: $.36 per sculpt
Pendraken
[Website]
Pendraken have built a name for themselves in the 10mm market by offering an absolutely astounding amount of models from all periods of time. Their WW1 range is perhaps the most comprehensive of any on this list, spanning nearly every theatre and nation that was involved.
Their models are well designed for their scale. They require little cleanup, and are quick and easy to paint. If you want to put a lot of little-mans on the table without spending a fortune or too much time painting, this is a good route. Highly recommended!
Scales: 10mm
Material: Metal
Nations: Germany (Early, Late), British (Early, Late, Middle East), French (Early, Late), Ottomans, ANZAC, Indians, Russians, Austo-Hungarians, Italians, Serbians,, Belgians, USA, East Africa
Price: $40 for an army – $.29 per infantry model
Great Escape Games
[Website]
Those who collect WW2 models from the more niche nations are likely already familiar with Great Escape Games, who offer an excellent selection of Italians, Hungarians, Romanians, Greeks, and other unusual forces.
Aside from that, they also offer a 12mm range of early-war WW1 miniatures paired with their ruleset “1914”. The game uses Brigade-sized forces to, as the name suggests, simulate the early conflicts in 1914, before things devolved to static trench warfare.
Great Escape Games is a reliable manufacturer who puts out good quality products, however be aware that their offerings here are limited to four Western Front combatants and a handful of unit model types. That being said, if you are interested in large scale early-war battles this could be an attractive, and affordable option.
Scales: 12mm
Material: Metal
Nations: Germany (Early), British (Early), French (Early), Belgians
Price: $47 for an army – $.40 per infantry model
Kallistra
[Website]
Another 12mm option is Kallistra, who offer a nice variety of both early and late-war armies and unit types. Goonhammer wasn’t able to obtain sample models before this review, and the website is a little dated, which has made it difficult to determine the quality of the miniatures, but the tanks certainly look nice! Their prices are certainly attractive as well.
Scales: 12mm
Material: Metal
Nations: Germany (Early, Late), British (Early, Late), French (Early, Late), Russians, Austro-Hungarians, Serbians, Belgians
Price: $.23 per infantry model
Battlefront
[Website]
Battlefront, of Flames of War and Team Yankee fame, also have a limited range of Great War products. These were out of production for a number of years, but have recently returned alongside a new run of their Great War rulebook. The minis and rules focus on the Western Front in the latter part of the war.
The models themselves are clean, distinct, and nicely heroically scaled that make them sturdy and easy to paint. Anyone who has painted FoW minis before essentially knows what you’re getting here. The tanks are made of a combination of resin and metal, and are well molded, with nice details.
Scales: 15mm
Material: Metal & Resin (Tanks)
Nations: Germany (Late), British (Late), French (Late), USA
Price: $100 army – $.66 per infantry model
Eureka
[Website]
Eureka offers a limited, but interesting selection of 15mm models. They seem to largely have focused on the nations other manufacturers have ignored. For example, they are the only companies on this list offering Bulgarian or Greek models. For those interested in the Balkan theatres, definitely take a look here. Eureka has a reputation for nice but somewhat pricey sculpts, which seems to ring true here as well.
Scales: 15mm
Material: Metal
Nations: British (Middle East), Ottomans, ANZAC, Austro-Hungarians, Italians, Serbians, Bulgarians, Greeks
Price: $.73 per infantry model
Khurasan
[Website]
Khurasan’s selection of WW1 minis is fairly limited, focusing on the early-war period on the Western and Eastern fronts. Their minis are exceptionally well sculpted and quite large compared to other 15mm manufacturers. In particular, their early war Germans are very nice and I like the amount of variety in poses available. I also like that you can buy the British both with or without mustaches.
I think this range is better suited for skirmish scale battles of a platoon or less, due to the amount of detail of the models, and their price.
Scales: 15mm
Material: Metal
Nations: British (Early), French (Early), German (Early), Russians
Price: $.83 per infantry model
Blue Moon Manufacturing
[Website]
Blue Moon, now owned by Old Glory, have an incredible number of 15mm ranges, including WW1. The ranges here are not quite comprehensive, with a focus on more late-war units, but they generally have all the basics you need to get started. The models won’t blow anyone’s socks off, but generally I like to turn to Blue Moon when I’m going for quantity and spectacle rather than a small number of display pieces (for example, I think I have about 500 of their Boxer Rebellion minis which make for a pretty impressive sight when deployed).
One thing to note is that Old Glory’s $50 annual membership scores you a 40% discount on these models, making them much more affordable than most of the other 15mm offerings on this list. If you already have, or plan to get a membership, it really helps make these models an attractive choice.
Scales: 15mm
Material: Metal
Nations: British (Early, Late), French (Late), German (Early, Late), USA
Price: $.62 per infantry model (or $.37 per model if an Old Glory member)
Peter Pig
[Website]
Peter Pig is one of the classic mini companies, and their WW1 selection is certainly impressive. Their website, however, is not. As a millennial, it causes me pain to try and navigate this AOL online-era website with tiny pictures, lack of details, or painted examples. Others who have experience with Peter Pig vouch for them being great miniatures.
Scales: 15mm
Material: Metal
Nations: British (Early, Late), French (Early, Late), German (Early, Late), Belgian, Russians, Astro-Hungarian, Ottomans, Serbians,
Price: $.70 per infantry model
Lancer Miniatures
[Website]
I had never heard of Lancer Miniatures before doing research on this topic, but they have a surprisingly robust range of WW1 minis on offer. The sculpting style reminds me a bit of Artizan 28mm models, with a nice chunkiness to them. They’re also the only company to offer Portuguese troops, although no pictures are available of them.
Scales: 20mm
Material: Metal
Nations: British (Early, Late), French ( Late), German (Early, Late), Portuguese
Price: $.87 per infantry model
East Front Miniatures
[Website]
East Front Miniatures has a limited selection of minis from a couple different nations. The models appear to be focused on the early-war era.
Scales: 20mm
Material: Metal
Nations: British (Early), French (Early), German (Early), Belgians, Russians, Austro-Hungarians
Price: $1.09 per infantry model
20mm Bonus Round
In the deep dark corners of any hobby shop there is, inevitably, a stack of disorganized boxes containing plastic 1:72 scale miniatures of dubious authenticity and quality. Who the customers were for these products has, unfortunately, been lost to time. They have been there as long as you can remember, and they will remain there long after you have gone. Beneath a fine layer of dust are a variety of manufacturers offering minis from every conceivable time period. In the name of being thorough I have braved the pile of forgotten plastic and brought back reviews on these relics. Are there any gems hiding in there? Let’s find out.
HaT
[Website]
For this manufacturer I picked out a box labeled “Ottoman Artillery and Machine Guns”. For about $15 you get four howitzers, eight machine guns, four snipers, four “bomb boys”, plus crews and various other officers/NCOs. The sculpts are a mixed bag, with some being fairly decent, but others being hilariously strange, like the German advisor.
This would be a pretty sweet deal if it wasn’t for the material, which I believe to be either siocast or an extremely soft plastic. The models are extremely bendy, and trying to cut off sprue nubs is essentially impossible – they need to be sanded down instead. This also means that any thin parts of the models, like guns barrels, have no stability and wave to-and-fro as the wind will take them.
Scales: 20mm
Material: Siocast?
Nations: Germany (Early, Late), British (Early, Late), French (Early, Late), Ottomans, ANZAC, Indians, Russians, Austo-Hungarians, Italians, Serbians, Belgians, USA, East Africa
Price: $.25 per infantry model
Airfix
[Website]
I don’t know how long Airfix has been around, but I’m going to guess a very long time. [Editor’s note: they were founded in 1939 and pretty much every British lad had an Airfix kit at some point.] I grabbed a box of WW1 American Infantry for $5, which comes with a very Pulp comic style cover and 45 miniatures.
And oh boy, what miniatures they are. You have such classic poses as: officer sneaking through graveyard, guy sitting on boxes, and man slipping on banana peel. If you are able to extricate the models from their shroud of flash, you’ll once again find bendy soft models whose paper-thin rifles droop off at various angles.
Scales: 20mm
Material: Soft plastic
Nations: Germany (Early), British (Early), French (Late), USA
Price: $.16 per infantry model
Strelets
Strelets are, undoubtedly, the best of the boxes I retrieved from the pile. Here I grabbed a box of German Uhlans, which come with 12 cavalrymen and their horses for $10. While still using a soft plastic, it’s not nearly as bendy as the others listed above. This company also seems to have taken some steps to abate the bendiness both through their sculpts and the way they are attached to the sprue.
Flash/mold lines are not too bad, although the soft plastic does make cleaning them up a little tricky. The sculpts for the riders are decent, but I was impressed at the level of detail on the horses.
Scales: 20mm
Material: Soft plastic
Nations: Germany (Early, Late), British (Early, Late, Middle East), French (Late), Ottomans, Russians, Austro-Hungarians, Serbians, Arab Revolt
Price: $.27 per infantry model
Other 20mm plastic options are: Caesar, Emhar, Revell, and Zvezda. I wasn’t able to get ahold of these companies, but it looks like their WW1 options are much more limited than the companies listed above.
And that’s all folks! Hopefully this article helped you pick out the tiny WW1 soldiers of your dreams so you can lead them into the meatgrinder!
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