Interest in Generic Troops and Western Civilians: Modern 28mm

[carlos marighela]

If you look at Wikipedia you'' find user listings for the most common helmet types. Most K-pot/ Fritz helmet types look reasonably similar, especially under a camouflage helmet cover. The French Spectre helmet is a fairly popular variant.

Brazil still uses  local FAL variants but those will be progressively phased out as the new IA2 is introduced. Chile's marines have started sporting FN SCARs.

Another  other reasonably popular weapon that nobody currently makes in this scale is the  Tavor, which sees a lot of SF use these days (Israelis, Indians, Colombia, etc, etc)

[arget8]

The Falling Skies militia forces are very diverse in terms of uniforms and weapons, so a mixture of military kit with civilian clothing would be useful. I like the idea of separate arms, but hopefully it will be better than the WGF survivors sets. In theory their arms are interchangable, but in reality the body types and clothing options mean that only a few arms work with each type.

Well, the arms wont be separate, but different weapon combos will be sculpted onto the base figure to minimize cost and maximize versatility.

As to the the lmgs and what not, they will be researched as well, the rifles are just the beginning. Luckily, most seem like they are going to pretty ubiquitous.

[arget8]

Here are the Light Machine Guns:

FN Minimi/M249 Users:
Afghanistan, Belgium, Brazil* (Special Forces and Marines), Canada* (C9), Chile* (Marines), Denmark* (Jagers), Dominican Republic, Egypt*, Greece, Hungary* (Special Forces), Indonesia, Iraq* (Special Forces), Ireland* (ARW), Italy*, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal*, Norway, Pakistan* (Para), Papua New Guinea, Peru* (Marines), Philippines, Poland* (Special Forces), Serbia* (Special Forces), Slovakia* (Special Forces), Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Vietnam* (Marines)

MG4 Users:
Germany, Malaysia* (Special Forces), Portugal, South Africa, Spain

RPK and Variant Users:
Afghanistan*, Albania, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Latvia, Libya, Malaysia* (Special Forces), Mali, Malta, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe

Negev Users:
Azerbaijan, Colombia, Costa Rica, Estonia, Georgia, Paraguay, Thailand*, Vietnam* (Naval Special Forces), Ukraine*

Let me know if I missed any of the extremely prolific ones. MMGs (240's, MAG's, and whatnot) are next.

Gunnar

[arget8]

Here are the helmets:

Spectra- Similar to PASGT:
Canada, Denmark, France, Morocco, Ukraine

PASGT/K-Pot Type:
Afghanistan, Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Honduras, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Taiwan, Romania, Cambodia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, USA (National Guard), Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine

BK-6:
Croatia, Turkey, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, UAE, Lithuania, Spain, Pakistan, Malaysia, Finland, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Hungary

OR-201 (Israeli):
Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Honduras, Israel, Lebanon, Peru, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, Romania

Ssh-68:
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Syria, Armenia, Belarus, Ukraine, Vietnam, North Korea, Iran

M1 Variants:

Sees prolific use all over the world, notably as UN Peacekeeper equipment

Let me know if I missed any big ones

[arget8]

And here are the Medium Machine Guns:

M240/FN-MAG:
Argentina, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Botswana, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Cyprus, Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Egypt, Estonia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Rhodesia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam

Vektor SS-77:
Kuwait, Romania, Rwanda, South Africa

PKM and Variants:
Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Chad, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, North Korea, Panama, Poland, Romania, Sudan, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia

MG3:
Austria, Bangladesh, Chile, Denmark, Ghana, Greece, Iran, Lithuania, Myanmar, Norway, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sudan, Turkey

M60:
Algeria, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Congo, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Fiji, Ghana, Greece, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Liberia, Morocco, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, South Korea, Senegal, Sudan, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Venezuela

Let me know if I missed any big ones.

At this point, I am going to posit that I will likely have AK and maybe G3 troops at the start with and probably PASGT or similar body armor and BDU style fatigues. LMG's will be RPK-type and Minimi/SAW variants. GPMG/MMG's will be M240/FN-MAG and PKM to start with. Separate heads will likely be K-Pot/PASGT style, Ssh-68, Steel-Pot/M1, Beret, Patrol Cap, and Boonie Hat. Not all of the variants will be created from the get go as that would be a massive undertaking, so I will probably make the K-Pot and Ssh-68 with European and Middle Eastern Faces to start, maybe Africans and M1/Steel-Pot as well.

What you you all think?

Gunnar

[Elk101]

Where are you based? Is this going to be a Kickstarter?  If the size up well with Empress, Spectre, etc.it sounds very good.

[arget8]

I am US based.

The hope is to run a Kickstarter and run at least out of the US and the UK. I am working on getting the whole plan worked out at the moment. However, I'm here both to get some sort of indicator on what the community wants most from the modern scene in 28mm. The idea is to have them scale with Empress and Eureka and fill some gaps, particularly with the non-first world nations and more recent examples of Syria, Ukraine, Africa, etc. for both government forces and generic insurgents in western clothes. Both are intended to either be opfor for major nations in hypothetical conflicts or actual conflicts or to be fighting each other. Due to the way I plan on having the minis done for the generic troops as below, they should work for most non-premiere militaries with the new, fancy kit. They will have separate heads that I plan to have several ethnicities for each type of head gear, as appropriate. This will not all happen at once, but that is the long term plan. Here are the ranges as of now:

GENERIC ARMY: 40 unique infantry (All with AK variants at the moment and Body Armor is PASGT as of now)

-   Firefight
-   Patrol
-   Skirmish
-   Command
-   Heavy weapons (PKM, RPG, RPK)
-   Firefight (Body Armor)
-   Patrol (Body Armor)
-   Skirmish (Body Armor)
-   Command (Body Armor)
-   Heavy weapons (Body Armor) (PKM, RPG, RPK)

INSURGENTS: 16 infantry poses (mix of weapons: AK’s, G3’s, maybe others)

-   Western Militia firefight
-   Western Militia skirmish
-   Western Militia heavy (PKM, RPG, RPK)
-   Western Militia command

As you may see when you compare it to the old list, I have removed the paramilitaries. This is because I decided that I would just make government troops with and without body armor and then just have the separate heads and or paint job distinguish who was who as the paramilitary were just going to be insurgent heads with army kit anyway. The insurgent range seems small, but the plan is to have separate heads to give variation and likely new packs with different weapons later. What do you guys think? How about the load bearing equipment? Should I go with old US, Soviet, or some sort of generic one?

Thanks,

Gunnar

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

Your list looks very good.
That gives you 14 packs, which puts you on a par with Spectre.  
If you have head options, then you can do several armies with that list.
For games like force on force, you often need 8 to 12 western forces against 30 to 40 opposition.
You could do very well commercially.

Please look at the figures on the market - Empress appear to have the right balance of proportions.
They look realistic but have good sized heads, feet hands and weapons, so are strong and easy to paint.
You do not need as much detail as Empress - unless you are a fantastic painter, it is not seen.
Also you are doing opposing forces - they tend not to get the same painting attention as the western forces facing them.

I have 48 Spectre figures on my painting table.  Their exact scale weapons are very delicate as they are very thin.
I have supported many of mine with wire cut from pins (the kind that come with a shirt).
Even if you adopt true scale for length and height, make the  guns wide enough to be strong.

Regards

Mick

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I suggest that you prioritise as follows

1. Generic Army (without armour)
2. Western militia
3. Army with body armour.

[arget8]

That's the plan as of now. I'm thinking I'm going to go with the Chi-Com chest rig as well as it seems pretty prolific in both the Middle East and Africa and likely Asia too. This is what I have planned for the chest rig:

http://pixgood.com/syrian-government-soldiers.html Take a look at image 5 and 16

And this for the armor:

http://pixgood.com/syrian-government-soldiers.html Take a look at image 18

Gunnar

[commissarmoody]

Not bad of course my main interests are with the western style militia.  
Here is another helmet to look into http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Combat_Helmet
Apparently only a few nations (US army, New Zealand, Ukraine, Denmark) use them but I can see them being more evenly distributed as time goes on.
I also think the the photos should work for generic near east and central Asian forces.

[AKULA]

The more the merrier - hopefully they will fit in with my own Apocalypse Isle minis.

 

[commissarmoody]

The more the merrier - hopefully they will fit in with my own Apocalypse Isle minis.

 

Which is a very nice set indeed.   

[Poiter50]

I was just looking at Akula's latest and thinking they needed a mention on this thread. Like minds, eh? 

[commissarmoody]

Oh and here is an idea for later, North Korean and ROK Forces.