Modern Imagi-nations and such like

[carlos marighela]

"I recall seeing a photo of some South American (Honduran?) troops a while back, who were the spitting image of c.1982 Israelis - right down to their LBE and helmets. Mongrel's Israelis should fit the bill for them."

Or possibly Guatemalans. During the years of the Carter administration when the US, albeit briefly, developed some moral qualms about arming and training the more unpleasant regimes in Central America, the Israelis took the lead in the region in training and weapons sales. No problem for the Israelis, after all if you were prepared to arm apartheid South Africa up to and including the technology for a nuke, what are a few right wing death squads and a few hundred thousand dead latinos amongst friends?

Guatemala along with Colombia actually still manufactures Galils. Paint the Mongrel Israelis in camo and you can do the Guatemalan army. Perfect for those 'what if' games against Belize. Me? I'm more interested in the 1972 Guatemala/Belize crisis and for that conversion of Artizan's WW2 US army figues seems the way ahead. Actually in addition to Guatemalans and Hondurans, the Mongrel Minis Israelis are perfect for Somoza's National Guard.

Anyone know what model Sherman tank the Guatemalans had? Exhaustive internet searches have failed to elicit an answer.

[Hildred Castaigne]

Guatemala along with Colombia actually still manufactures Galils. Paint the Mongrel Israelis in camo and you can do the Guatemalan army. Perfect for those 'what if' games against Belize. Me? I'm more interested in the 1972 Guatemala/Belize crisis and for that conversion of Artizan's WW2 US army figues seems the way ahead. Actually in addition to Guatemalans and Hondurans, the Mongrel Minis Israelis are perfect for Somoza's National Guard.

But would they be alright as Guatemalans in the Israeli army? 

The Mongrel Miniatures Israelis in boonie hats are some lovely figures.
But I'm told they don't look very Israeli! Which is fine, I didn't want to game the Leb anyway.
So I snipped the helmets off their belts and replaced them with M1 steel helmets.
Will do very nicely for Latin America, I should think!

[carlos marighela]

But would they be alright as Guatemalans in the Israeli army? 

The Mongrel Miniatures Israelis in boonie hats are some lovely figures.
But I'm told they don't look very Israeli! Which is fine, I didn't want to game the Leb anyway.
So I snipped the helmets off their belts and replaced them with M1 steel helmets.
Will do very nicely for Latin America, I should think!

I suppose it depends on when and where. The Israelis also supplied helmets, so most of the photos you see of Guatemalan and Honduran troops actually using helmets with Israeli kit are wearing Israeli helmets. You might as well get the helmeted versions. Colombia continued to benefit from US assistance and apart from the Galil's (which are now being replaced with newer versions or Tavors) you would be better off using figures with the US Fritz style kevlar helmets.

I think the Peruvians and Chileans also bought a limited number of Galils but only for speial purposes. All the Peruvians I saw were either carrying FALs or AKs. I was quietly amused to see a police vehicle outside their congress building with a RPD machinegun atop it. Chile mostly used and still uses various iterations of SIG rifles, although their marines used G3s.

Funnily enough I was looking at the Hasslefree near future range ( also ex Mongrel I believe) and noted that the rifles look not dissimilar to the more contemporary versions of the SIG family. Shave away the groin guards, cover the silly body armour with pouches and what not and  finally swap heads and they might make very useful figures. French SF for starters.

[carlos marighela]

Oh don't worry, I have a lot of the Eureka French. Two platoons worth plus the associated vehicles. It's just that some of the actual SF types in the French forces use kit other than the FAMAS. In addition to M-4s, HK-416s and the like they also use the SIG 551 and the Hasslefree figures look pretty close. Variety is never a bad thing.

[Rob_bresnen]

I would think that any figures with the appropriate paintwork would work as 'Africans'. I usually cringe in anticipation when someone announces that they are doing 'black' soldiers, as usually it's just a case of depicting characterised and exaggerated features (rubbery lips and wide noses - the usual stuff) on the figures (not counting those ranges where all their figures look like that, European or not). They are usually a far cry from Africans I've ever met... who do indeed vary in appearance, both across the continent as a whole and even within the same locale.

This is true but I have seen some good ones. I think the TAG figures are nice, as are teh Perry Miniatures ones.

I had meant, however, that if the sculptor kept things fairly generic, a K-pot clad, AK wielding soldier would be a good thing for lots of settings, be they imagi-nations of historical.
 Obviously, the advantage of an Imagi-nation (to get back on topic) is that you can over look minor details which might otherwise annoy a 'true' historic wargamer (ie- oh, I can't use that figure because his boots are laced up the wrong way etc...you know who you are!)

[Brummie]

Useful thing really is with any Third World country (and even to an extent western states), the variety of weaponry and kit available is likely to be huge. Just for instance look at the Iranian army, or even an army we'd consider to be fairly 'advanced'; the Saudis, they have various kit, from K-pots, to old M1 helmets, numerous types of soviet, american body armour, indigenous copies/makes.

Even in advanced armies kit that's supposedly been phased out is still being used, the British army may have turned to this Osprey stuff, but depending on the unit and whats happening, they can often be found with older camo, helmets etc.

So you could use a wide variety of kit from all over the world and incorporate it into the same army, as opposed to one lot of guys being apart of this army and so on.

You could have your more professional units being given all the old Israeli kit, and other less reliable forces, militias, police, second line troops being equipped in a wide array of kit and being armed with all sorts of weapons from across the globe.

Your uber elite types could even look more western and be armed with M4s/M16s etc. Some of the Libyan Government forces fighting during the civil war were armed with G36s.

By today's standards, unless you were doing an exceedingly poor army you could even field 1980s/1990s U.S army types in a lot of countries now, and even have Abram tanks (as they are being exported).

Given how the political landscape is today, you could field all sorts of units, and not need to worry too much about historical inaccuracies simply down to the commonality of gear.

[Mad-eddy13]

I like the idea of universal modern infantry, have maybe a sprue with five bodies, arms with just the pistol grip and trigger and a half dozen weapons (AK, M16, generic sniper rifle, generic shotgun, generic SMG, FAL) along with some gear (backpacks, radios etc.).

Include five heads (Kevlar helmet, M1, beret, cap, bald "ad your own hair") that would cover most bases and most times from Weird War Two to Serenity valley (circa 2500). Also if you did arms with just the pistol grip you could add your own guns even though you wold have to file and fit quite a bit it but it would be very versatile.