More Afghanistan Troops

Trusty pack mule and solider.

Supplies are essential in warfare and make good objectives in wargames.

Two men with rifles.

The figures were basically flash free.

The poses were very good I think.

Everyone doing something worthwhile.

RPG and rifleman.

Gotta knock out those Soviet tanks.

Redeye missile launcher to take out those Hind helicopters.

War in Afghanistan

Mujadheen troops from Ultima Ratio.

1/72nd scale soft plastic figures.

I got these from the UK at Hannants, quick service, decent price, as usual.

Three sprues like this one.

These figures represent the Soviet / Afghan War but would likely work for a much longer period.

Crouching and prone.

Prone guy has an M16 rifle, might be the American CIA guy!

Old timey rifle on the left and modern AK on the right.

US Army Set 2 Ceasar Miniatures

Caesar Miniatures Modern US Soldiers in Action set 2 in 1/72nd scale.

Not surprisingly, this is the companion set to set one.

This set has all the heavy and crew served weapons found up to company level in the Modern US Army.

The light machine gunner loader does not come with a base, but his harm and ammo box are separate parts, so I felt a base was helpful for rough wargame handling.

The set also includes a heavy and light mortar and crew, two of each.

A nice complement to the regular troops, no flash, good poses.

Hershey Truck

I love chocolate. I love Hersheys chocolate. I love miniature Hersheys chocolate trucks.

Hersheys has been in business for over 100 years and so they are a good choice for a company to use in miniature wargames.

This little truck is just the sort of thing you find in cities making deliveries of products to stores, and yes, even military bases.

The small hand truck on the back is a nice detail. Check your local train shop for trucks like this.

A truck like this can also provide ideas for older versions. Take a civilian truck from an earlier time and paint it in a similar paint scheme. You can even take a photo of the markings and then cut it out and superglue it to the model as a cheap and easy decal.

More HO Trucks

Part of my collection is to field an American city. Part of what is needed to do that is to provide the types of vehicles that are found in cities.

Not just cities, but farms too. Farm tractors and harvesting equipment is important.

Toy stores and train shops are the best places to look for these kinds of vehicles. Wonder Bread truck and Good Humor ice cream trucks are common sights in many towns.

I try to buy trucks that have name brands that have been around for a long period of time, they help to make the trucks usable for longer periods of time, and identify them as American.

Fork lifts are important for transfer of cargoes. They come in all sizes and I have several of them.

Trucks

Modern American Army troops depend on civilians to run many of their bases, both in the USA and overseas. So I have collected large numbers of civilian vehicles to help build and maintain my US Army forces.

If you look in the back, you can see large combine harvester machines. These are from Boley. Often military bases have large tracts of land and sometimes they are leased out and the land is farmed.

Coca-Cola in the Second World War tried to make sure that every US Army soldier could buy a Coca-Cola for 5 cents everywhere in the world. Even today, Coke is available for US Army soldiers all over the world.

My collection includes enough vehicles to populate a small town. Many US military bases have small towns just outside the main gate. US bases also sometimes become small towns with many types of vendors selling their products to servicemen.

Military families have to move a lot, so the presence of a U-Haul truck on a military base can be a very common sight. I check out model railroad shops for many of these items, and my good friend Randy at Fidelis Models carries many Trident and Boley models too.

Modern Troops

The same dollar store that had the cavemen also had other soldiers too. These are somewhat generic modern infantry. They come in several poses and use an M16 type weapon.

The set comes in a green box that looks a bit like a fort, barbed wire and palm trees. The barbed wire looks dangerous!

Naturally, I could not resist putting a few of the dinosaurs from the caveman set with the soldiers. I suppose a neighborhood full of small dinosaurs would help to explain the nasty looking barbed wire.

The palm trees are kind of small, but I like them. They help to bulk up the forest.

The figures come in both green and tan, with all the poses in both colors. These figures fit nicely with 1/72nd scale troops and would be nice additions to any modern collection. I missed these when they were at the dollar stores and keep hoping they will come back some day.