'70s-'90s softskins with crew figures - asking for recommendations (and a rant)

[FriendlyNeighbourhoodNerd]

Butler's Printed Models seem to have lots of stuff as well! Thanks a lot you guys.

I think for crew I'll just be doing headswaps on the Empress BAOR Land Rover crew, they don't have webbing so they're fairly generic really (and the troops carry basically FN-FALs like almost all of NATO).

Was thinking about doing Belgians... I really like the VW Iltis jeep and Butler's have one. There's a nice diecast Type-181 in 1:56 but I'm not sure they had the 181 in Belgium.

[carlos marighela]

The Belgians mostly used Land Rovers up until the late 1980s. If you want to do Belgians in 28mm then  have a look at the MoFo Argentine range from Gripping Beast as a start point. Bit of work on the webbing required and you may want to supply your own Vigneron SMGs but they have FALs and US tin pots and the uniform looks about right. You also get other cool stuff like Scorpion light tanks to play with and really early model Leopards.

If you fancy Dutch at any stage you'll probably want to field a NEKAF jeep which was essentially a Dutch, licence built, M38 Jeep (basically a military CJ-5). You'll need to green stuff the shoulder length hair, beards and porn 'taches on the crew yourself though.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

You'll need to green stuff the shoulder length hair, beards and porn 'taches on the crew yourself though.

There is always the

Crooked Dice Flamboyant Agent heads
https://crooked-dice.co.uk/product/flamboyant-agent-heads/

[carlos marighela]

Why has that bloke in the middle got a hair dryer? Homage to the famous PJ O'Rourke description of the Lebanese Civil War resembling a conflict between armed gangs of hairdressers?

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Why has that bloke in the middle got a hair dryer?

Man from 2000 optional stun gun

[carlos marighela]

That's as maybe but I challenge you to look at that figure henceforth without hearing it say ' Now you sit tight love and we'll have a lovely rinse and a blow dry'.

[CapnJim]

To be fair, it does look like a hair dryer...

I just received in today's mail a 1/43 UAZ469 and 2 1/43 UAZ3171s from a chap in Ukraine.  Took not quite 3 weeks to get from Kiev to Michigan.

I know the 3171 was just a prototype, but it will proxy for the 469 in my Balczakistan games.  I'll post pics with figures for scale here in my "Modern Stuff" thread in the next few days...stand by.

[carlos marighela]

The Balzaki Lada plant received the blueprints just prior to the Soviet Union folding and went ahead with production themselves. The Balzaki Pajero. 

[Cypher226]

The Belgians mostly used Land Rovers up until the late 1980s. If you want to do Belgians in 28mm then  have a look at the MoFo Argentine range from Gripping Beast as a start point.

iirc the GB figures are a good bit shorter than most current lines, so caveat emptor and all that

[carlos marighela]

They are shorter than Empress and Underfire but then everything is, both ranges being more 32mm than 28mm.

That said, the Mofo troops aren't that much shorter. I mix a variety of figures. Underfire, Empress, Eureka, MoFo, Mongrel, the old Dadi i Piombi, Radio Dishdash, Crooked Dice, TAG, Gringo 40s and a few others. Once based and painted they are hard to pick out on the table, Even the Radio Dishdash figures which are slim and slight mix in with some basing magic. The only modern/ Cold War range I've got that really doesn't fit in with anything else are the TAVR Royal Navy figures. They look like children compared to the rest. Pity, as they are decent enough sculpts.

Naturally, when it comes to size YMMV.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

To be fair, it does look like a hair dryer...

Or half a Matt Irving spacecraft.