National guard. Equipment and best miniatures to use.

[gimzod]

Greetings chaps.

i'm planning a campaign set in a fictional country and was thinking of including a unit of american national guard as part of the UN task force. I was wondering what is the standard equipment for national guardsmen  and what would be the best miniatures to use in 28mm.

Thanks for the help.

[FATROC]

Any modern Army National Guard units would be equipped with the same weapons, equipment, and vehicles as their regular army counter-parts. With the Iraq, and 'Stan deployments, most guard units have had their TO&Es fully modernized. Especially any units being tagged for a current deployment.

[Paul @ Empress Miniatures]

Best figures are Empress........but then I would say that 

[commissarmoody]

Yep, what the folks above said. They are kited out, uniformed, and fallow the same TO&E as the regular army. Some of the guard units I served with actually had better equipment then my unit did

[Conquistador]

They do now but in certain decades they had the stuff the Regulars replaced - that was discovered to be fine for riot control or disaster response, not so much it things had gone "seriously askew" in the Cold War of the 1950's/1960's.

Gracias,

Glenn

[commissarmoody]

Right, so I am guessing you are leaning to a modern ot future setting then?

[Brummie]

I think there was a National Guard unit in the thick of it up in the mountains dividing Pakistan and Afghanistan (Big area I know but I can't remember the exact place). Couple of vids on youtube made by the guys there. Some pretty serious fighting for part-timers; they were up against a right bunch of die-hard Jihadists, some who had been fighting since the Soviet invasion. They were armed and geared up exactly the same as any other unit, and did a good job of things by the looks of it. They had the same vehicles too and often (similar to the British T.A units on operation) there would be regulars on hand to help them out, but for the most part it was just National Guardsmen.

[Conquistador]

Well, comparing the National Guard (NG) today to the National Guard back "in the day" (1970's and before) equipment wise isn't  a fair comparison.  

Post Air Force (USAF) in the 1970s, I (1980s) was a Supply sergeant  (in a United States Army Reserve - USAR, not NG) Basic Training unit that was category 15 (scale of 1 - 15, bigger priority meant less/older stuff, 82nd Airborne was Category 1,) and my arms locker included M-16's along with very old M-16A's and very shaky M-60 and probably the oldest .45 automatic in the inventory.  You could clean the M16/M16As up and put them away and less then 16 hours later they would have to be cleaned again without being used.  One of the bolts would move sideways more than most with a round in the weapon but it worked - I qualified on it - but us going to war on cycle three of activation would have been impossible without re-equipping (no mortars, short about 2/3 rds of the firearms we were supposed to have,) and lots of training/re-training (besides the three cycles of basic trainees we were in theory to do before shipping out.)

The NG was better than the USAR then but with the last generation (or more) of equipment the regulars had given up.  

Somebody, thank God, took a serious look at units/preparation/"the plan" and decided reality had to prevail.  The NG (and USAR I expect) today is equipped and trained seriously for their role now.

Depends on the decade you want to game to determine equipment.

Gracias,

Glenn

[gimzod]

Sorry for late reply.

It a a project set in the modern day so they'll be armed with current equipment.

Thanks for all the help guys.

[Commander Vyper]

Well in  this world of dirty bombs and weaponised bugs and viruses, I'd suggest  any of  Pete's TAG, (The assault Group's) nbc delta and us marines.

[Elbows]

You could add some things though, if you wanted to try to differentiate them - though it would be a little fictitious.

Include some slightly older Humvees in older woodland camouflage, and include some woodland camouflage kit on some of the soldiers.  While most units have been pushed up with proper gear, you could pretend this bunch was at the end of the list.  Maybe some vehicles in a mix of desert and woodland camouflage (commonly seen when a vehicle is retrofitted or repaired and doesn't get sent to a spray booth).

[gimzod]

Well here are the first four.



Done my best with the american camo i now it not good.

[commissarmoody]

Looking like you are off to a great start.
Suggestions, use a thinner bristled brush for the ACU cammo and add a little black to the BDU rack system on the guy 3rd from the left.

[gimzod]

Well here they all are.


I think the camo is slightly better but it still not perfect.