184 - To Proxy or Not To Proxy

I, like those before and those after me, started off my modelling obsession with 1/72 aircraft from World War 2. I built and painted an iconic Spitfire and then carried on with several other aircraft, including a Bristol Blenheim, IL-2 Sturmovik and a nice modern Panavia Tornado. Once the Warhammer virus had taken over, I have never gone back to military models - partly due to the need for realism and partly due to preferring the sci fi element.

Recently though, I've been looking at military kits to act as proxies. Zzzzzz at Devos IV modified an Empress Miniature Warrior (about half way down the link) in 1/56 scale for the liaison project a few years ago - which can be seen unpainted and painted. Size wise, the Warrior isn't far off a Chimera, so a good proxy match.

This led me to think about proxies for other vehicles and specifically for the Basilisk, which incidentally you can only get direct from GW online now - not even stocked in store! I only have the one Basilisk but want to add more and keep hovering over ordering a standard or FW Armageddon Pattern one. Instead of splashing out £30-£60 though, I did a little bit of searching trying to find a 1/56 or 1/48 or 1/35 scale self propelled gun/howitzer to see how they would scale against GW.

I settled on 1/35 scale as they seemed the closest to the Basilisk's 9.2cm width and most are close to the 20cm length of the GW model. I can''t find any height measurements for the proxies, but the Basilisk is about 9.3cm high. I went with enclosed self propelled howitzers so I can add GW stowage etc to try and make them look more 40k. Here are the options that are almost the same size:

Trumpeter Soviet 2S3 - 24.0cm long, 9.3cm wide and unknown height - £32.39 (eModels)

Trumpeter PLZ-83A - 19.3cm long, 9.5cm wide and unknown height - £23.39 (eModels)

Trumpeter Russian 2S1 - 21.2cm long, 8.2cm wide and unknown height - £34.19 (eModels)

Tamiya German M109A3G - 25.0cm long, 9.0cm wide and unknown height - £32.39 (eModels)

But then there are the absolute beast options which are longer mainly due to the gun barrel:

Trumpeter JGDF Type 99 155mm Self Propelled Howitzer - 32.0cm long, 9.4cm high and unknown height - £26.99 (eModels)

Meng Model Chinese PLZ05 - 31.2cm long, 9.7cm wide and unknown height - £35.99 (eModels)

Meng Model German Panzerhaubitze 2000 - 33.9cm long, 10.2cm wide and unknown height - £35.99 or £44.99 with extra armour as shown above (eModels)

Academy R.O.K. K9 - 33.0cm long, 10.1cm wide and 8.8cm high - £23.39 (eModels)

Trumpeter Russian 2S19 - 33.9cm long, 10.3cm wide and unknown height - £52.20 (eModels)

All pictures were used without permission (except my own Basilisk) and the prices were correct from eModels on 19/08/2016. eModels is a 10 minute drive from me so makes sense to use them and they had everything in stock.

Most of these tanks look similar as there really is only so much you can do when strapping a 152mm or 155mm gun to a tank body. I'm leaning a bit more towards the Russian 2S1 or the German M109A3G on the "smaller" tanks. And I don't have a preference on the big ones - as they are all suitably impressive - maybe the German or Chinese version.

So what are peoples opinions on proxies? And which of the alternative kits would you use?

Bear in mind that I very rarely actually game and that they are purely for building and painting.

Comments, ideas and choices are appreciated.