The Range is Hot! Please see page 13 for quick straw poll.

[commissarmoody]

Mike Bravo seem to have beat you to the punch on the 80s us also.
I will say that I have been able to fit AK mags in my old LBE ammo pouches, along with my Alice vest pouches too.
I guess to just figure out if you want your western insurgents to be armed with. Do you want every one have AKs? Or do you want them to have raided the local armory in a later day reenactment of bastille day with western European weapons. (AUGS, FAMAS, SA80s, M16 family of kit, FALs, G3s, G36, GPMGs, MG3s..etc) Maybe start with a group with Aks, and then work on making at least one group each armed with one of the above ranges.

That being said don't forget grandpas old hunting shotgun or rifle hidden in the attic. I am sure there are plenty of old vintage bolt-action rifles still floating about, the hard thing with them is getting ammo now. So mostly used by local groups or until the fighter can get some thing better.
So maybe a pack with old rifles and shotguns.

for support, a RPG, Carl gustav and a mortar team. done. ok maybe a Recoilless rifle would be cool

Group armed with only pistols. (not your main line fighters, for early insurgencies, infiltrates, saboteurs, support crew at rebel HQ, under cover law enforcement or criminal thugs)

Command group is easy, just have a guy with a Radio or Cell phone calling out orders. Have one runner, a medic in partial scabs and field jacket. And a guy taking photos or cell phone videos for propaganda. 

Could maybe even get away with a few groups of rock/break/Molotov cocktail throwing folks.
And finally suggestion few folks, men and women that have the same look of the insurgents with out weapons visible, just hoody, and hands in pockets going their way. maybe a back pack or satchel. Will work great for counter insurgency games where you are trying to figure out who is armed, who is not. What's that guys got in his pack? Work cloths? Laptop? pipe bomb and an uzi?

[arget8]

All great suggestions, my good commissar. I am currently in the process of planning and searching for a sculptor as well as building funds for test sculpts, which is why I have been quiet here.

For everybody that wants insurgents in western clothes or generic military, It would be greatly appreciated if you followed Commissar Moody's example and give suggestions on weapons and equipment. I want to know if people are more interested in a well armed insurgency ala American militia or more like the initial Syrian rebels which were just a bunch of guys who had grabbed AK's.

For the generic military, I am leaning towards just making them Syrians, which could also double for Iranians as they share similar equipment. What do you guys think?

[6milPhil]

Israelis are another big one as I can't believe that they haven't been done in 28mm yet.

Mongrel used to do IDF, Stan Johansen do IDF old and modern but I can't imagine they're popular.

[arget8]

Mike Bravo is currently working on the IDF, so I decided that I would focus on my original plan of western insurgents and generic military.

[carlos marighela]

Mongrel used to do IDF, Stan Johansen do IDF old and modern but I can't imagine they're popular.

Ah the elite Israeli Can-Can dance troupe. The Folies Bergère in Tel Aviv.

Stan Johansen has a particular talent. Not quite sure what it is but I'm happy to eliminate sculpting from the list.

I'd be interested to know just how popular the IDF is as a gaming subject post 1973. The Mongrel range were nice sculpts but with a couple of exceptions I've seen little evidence of them being used for gaming, Doc Mercury's blog is about the only thing that comes to mind.

I suppose we'll know when Mike Bravos range comes out.

[commissarmoody]

Yeah not to be rude, but I am not impressed with those figs.

[grant]

 

[Mike Bravo Minis]

I'd be interested to know just how popular the IDF is as a gaming subject post 1973.

You and me both    

To be honest it will be a hard sell for the current era stuff because of politics (which closes a lot of doors for getting publicity in a way that identical gaming involving other nations wouldn't) but we'll see.   It'll probably come down to how much eye candy we can put together and working with the vehicle manufacturers to give people viable options.  Probably a lot of effort that would be more lucrative if directed elsewhere but oh well.

Bizarrely it's not the most niche of subjects I have planned!

[commissarmoody]

Well if nothing else, if I ever get the money thing figured out I do plan on picking some modern IDF up.

[arget8]

Bringing back the dead for a quick question on something.

I've been able to get some money together in order to commission a few sculpts as a proof of concept on my range and I have one last question before I send the official request of to the sculptor. The range is going to be the Syrian army as of a couple years ago when it was actually equipped properly, which means ballistic vests, PASGT style helmets, and Russian weapons. They should also be able to serve as several different nations as they are suitably generic

The question for you guys is: Should I go with AKM's to make them more versatile or should I go with AKMS' to make them more accurate? I've done some looking and it seems that the regular AKM is slightly more prevalent.

I would like to get back to the sculptor in a couple hours, so if you have an opinion, please speak up!

Gunnar

[Marine0846]

I would go  with AKMs.
On the table how many players would notice or really care.
My two cents.

[Lowtardog]

Yup that's the way I would go too

[commissarmoody]

AKMs work for me

[Elk101]

AKMs are good.

[Mike Bravo Minis]

I'll be the contrarian and say AKMS if they would be more accurate.  My logic is that if you're doing Syrians, make them Syrians, and if people are willing to use Syrians as someone else then they'll overlook the weapon as well as the uniform details or whatver else isn't quite right. 

Otherwise you have Syrians that aren't really Syrians, and aren't really anything else. 
_{(And if you're anything like me, it'll nag away at you like our 'VDV' are nagging away at me with the wrong AK stock)}

But yay, Syrians, should do well.  Good luck!