Plastic 15 mm Infantry PSC vs Battlefront

To get more little soldiers for my Chain of Command games I ordered Flames of Wars starter set Open Fire seduced by quality of their plastic infantry - which looked great on the photos.

I was shocked to see that they are quite better in flesh than photos showed. Absolutely stunning miniatures they are and I wonder what a stupid thing  Battlefront is doing not releasing them apart from said starter set (when you have to get a lot of tanks and rulebooks that are useless unless you play FOW, not to mention silly V1 rocket piece). More about starter set later here are some photos comparing scale of miniatures to Plastic Soldier Companys.

Light grey are PSC, Darker grey FOW

I have to say I fared that FOW Germans will be too giant or fat to mix well with the Russians from PSC but I was very positively surprised. The scale match is almost perfect. Off course PSC miniatures are downscalled 1:72 and it shows (small details, shallow casts) and battlefronts guys are in line with their metals. But overall they look almost perfectly scaled with each other.  Difference that matter is only in the equipment and deepens of the detail. Germans are fatter but not overwhelmingly so. They wouldn't look god in one platoon, but as opposing forces they work perfect.

Frames, You got 5 of them in PSC set, and as you see 2 suffice for similar amount of miniatures in FOW set (130 Russians in PSC box and 115 + mortar and 4 tanker busts in Open fire)

Apart from the scale questions I think FOW plastics are just better gaming pieces. With more poses and better sculpted. In Soviet sets from PSC for 120 miniatures there is really only 16 unique poses (Additionally some of them has doubles that differ only in hat or helmet, but rest of the models are perfect copies - dead giving sign of 3d sculpting and just copying models with little changes.). In Open fire there are over 44 different sculpts of German soldiers (and even similar standing shoters in hat and helmet are not copies of one model). PSC material is much softer and converting it is easier, but there is no real practical difference in gaming use (Its not gummy or anything - they both are hard plastic miniatures, just PSC is a little softer). I suspect that FOW harder plastic (almost GW like) will be more prone to damages, but they are more solid so this is compensated.

So the difference in quality and sheer design effort is huge. And Open Fire guys are just prettier !
bear in mind that i love my PSC Russians, I think they are great miniatures, but when building forces for skirmish game like chain of command, I want to have smallest possible number of duplicates. Without severe converting each of my Russians squad loos strangely similar. That wont be the case with FOW platoon.

I dont know how much will FOW plastics cost but today metal FOW platoon cost around 20$, while PSC plastic set (Company - more than 3 platoons)  are priced around 30$. I don't think Battlefront prices will drop when they release them in plastic- especially of such quality. So you have to answer the question how much you want to pay. But as now you really know why you payed more for FOW stuff.
Paradox is that if I would ever wanted to game with whole company (whether FOW itself or much more probably I Aint Been Shot Mum) I would chose PSC troops for sure.
But as I play in Chain of Command - with platoon per side - I much prefer battlefront quality.
(Funny remark at the end: Quality in vehicles is quite opposite, PSC outclass FOW plastic by high margin, but I left them for the next time)

If you want a platoon - get battlefront guys
 but If you want a company simplicity, ease of painting and price of PSC in unbeatable.