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.

Little Soldier Figures

Before and during World War Two the Nazi Party had a charity called "Winter Relief."

They collected money and donated to the poor to help them pay for their winter heating bill.

If you gave a donation, in return you got a small token of some kind.

Sometimes those tokens were plastic figures, even plastic soldiers.

You could show your token as a way to prove you gave at the office and they would not bother you again until the next weekly or monthly fund drive.

I have been told these figures are from such a fund drive.

I got them at a gun show a few years ago.

They look to me like chess pieces.

The figures themselves are rather vague, and generic.

The VW is the only marking on them.

One of my friends said they look like a proposed award for Best Soldier based on the famous "Oscar" statue.  I don't know if these are really from the WWII era, but they make interesting figures.  I use them as statues for impressive government buildings.  The figures are generic enough to be used for almost any 20th Century nation.

North Koreans

IMEX makes one set of North Korean and one set of Communist Chinese troops for the Korean War.

I have been trimming them off the sprue.

And has been trimming the plastic, and gluing the mortars and machine guns together.

They also got a few conversions.

These are the special troops I was working on, the regular infantry are in their box and the wounded / dead guys are in the spares box.

One of the sets comes with a Japanese heavy machine gun, many were left over in Korea after World War Two ended.

You don't get much of a machine gun crew, just the gunner, so I added a seated guy, probably wounded, as the loader and a kneeling man with binoculars.  Four of the Japanese machine guns I "transferred" to my WWI American army as they used the Hotchkiss machine gun which was the basis for the Japanese gun.  In exchange, I gave the North Koreans four Esci WWII Soviet machine guns.

The North Korean come with great 82mm mortars but I wanted to increase their firepower, so I added a Pegasus 120mm Soviet mortar.  I converted some figures as a scratch crew for them.  The arms and mortar shells left over from the Pegasus set were added to "wounded" North Koreans.  I still gotta come up with three more 120mm mortars.

Each battery of four mortars got one man with binoculars as a forward observer, and a small ammo supply dump.

Unusual Troop Types

One of my favorite books is the Military Uniforms in America, The Modern Era From 1868, from the Series Produced by The Company of Military Historians. Presidio Press, 1988.  It is one of a series of books that describe and paint the uniforms of North America, primarily the United States, in various time periods.  I am now using this book to try and recreate some of these uniforms in miniature.  These are four units I am hoping to create.

My intention is to take soft plastic figures that are similar to these and with head swaps, and other plastic surgery, as needed, and maybe even a little paint, to create these units.  At least good enough quality to pass the arm's reach test.  That is, they look good enough from arm's reach.

My plan is to give me soldiers that will work for 1898, 1918, and 1938 periods.  I am trying to develop US Army troops for each of those time periods to fight invaders into the Continental United States.  Those invaders could be Indians, Mexicans, Spanish, English, Canadians, Germans, or of course, Martians.

My intention is to use regular troops in standard uniforms, but to add a few of these troops to create a headquarters unit that will be in the dress uniform.  These troops will be a squad of a dozen, or perhaps two squads.  Depending on the difficulty of the conversion needed, I may create as many as a full platoon, maybe to include a few mounted troops.

I like to include unusual troop types in my units.  Often I give them special abilities, perhaps better morale, or better marksmanship, or sometimes worse abilities than the norm, just mix things up a bit.  If you have any suggestions for soft plastic figures that can be easily converted into any of these troops, please note them in the comments.

Picket One of Two

One more in the new batch of American Civil War figures by Strelets.

Pickets Charge 1 is Confederate soldiers at Gettysburg, in early July, 1863.

The set includes three infantry sprues, and one command sprue.

The two different sprues have two different Streletski figures.

The command sprue includes a drummer boy.

The figures are very good with no flash.

These troops are just beginning their advance, with their rifle muskets on their shoulder.

Since it takes about 20 seconds to reload, commanders did not want troops to stop and fire.

Typically they would move right up to the enemy and then all stop together and fire one volley, and charge.

Few troops would stand when the bayonet was closing!

Figure Requests

Every so often I look at the figures sold on the market and I decide what I would like to have made in 1/72nd scale plastic.  This is my present list.  I try to select only figures that I believe would be commercially viable.

Cold War/ Cuban Missile Crisis 1963

US Army Infantry

M-14 rifles, M-63 Stoner light machine gun.

Cuban Infantry

Castro caps, berets, floppy hats, scruffy fatigues, cigar, Thompson, carbine.

World War Two

US Navy UDT Frogmen Divers

Swimming trunks, with flippers, mask, snorkel, demolition charges, knife, small assault team with Thompson submachine guns, Colt .45 and M1 Carbines, Hard hat divers with hammer, wrench, knife, cutting torch, support crew with air pump, and talker.

WWII US Navy Landing or Raiding Party and Amphibious Landing Control

Helmets, and Sailor hats, Thompson submachine guns, Colt .45, Springfield rifles, demolitions charges, signal flags, ship to shore radio, Aldis lamp, Officers with maps and binoculars.

Interwar Adventures

Spies, secret police, espionage people

Fedora hats, trench coats, cameras, pistols, submachine guns, male and female, German, British, American, and Soviet.

Oilfield and Construction Workers

Hard hats, jump suits, shovels, picks, axes, transits and surveyors, big hammers and wrenches and jackhammers and toolboxes, wheelbarrows.

Scientists and Archeologists and Paleontologists and Hunters

Pith helmets, fedora hats, bare headed male and female, kneeling with brushes, dental picks, working with test tubes and chemical glasses, microscopes, cameras, guns.

Arctic and Antarctic Adventurers and Explorers

Dog sleds, bolt action rifles, Eskimos, Artic tents, igloo, snow shoes, ice axes, mittens, Anoraks, jackets with fur around face.

Esci & Valiant Miniatures

I sometimes mix figures from different companies, because people come in different sizes.  However, the equipment is all the same size.

This is the Valiant Miniatures US Army soldier with the head from the Esci hard plastic figure.  Reminds me of Littlejohn from Combat! the old TV show.

I cut down the length of the M1 rifle barrel. 

I also trimmed down the end of the rifle butt.

That way his helmet and rifle would be the same size as the Esci soldier.

Here he is with a Plastic Soldier Company US Army soldier.  A large corn fed guy from the heartland of America.  Thanks to my friend COL Jim for providing the Valiant Miniatures soldier.

A Final Attack

 

 

The GIs take a couple casualties, but the bunker is knocked out.



The Germans inside are dead.

Three dead Germans, one captured.

This set from Plastic Soldier Company, cut from the sprue.

A full US Army squad, lined up and ready, each soldier different pose, and a good mix of weapons.

Two BAR, one Thompson, a Springfield and the rest M1s.