Berets and other head varients.

In message <871041045.0621426.0@kryten.acs.bolton.ac.uk> "Steve Pugh"
writes:
> Stuart Murray wrote:
> 
> > As an aside, how about some head variants of the NAC with berets.  I
> > know there are some NAC troops with berets but I would like so see
> > more.  Then perhaps I could field a unit or two of paras.
> 
> I'd rather not have the berets. Real troops don't go into battle 
> without helmets.

[The below should be read with many IMHO-, AFAIK-, AFAIR-type
caveats. Correction from rufty-tufty military types welcomed].

I don't wholey agree. For example, I think in all the major 
infantry assaults carried out in the Falkland Is. the PBI were 
explicitly told to remove their helmets.

Partly, I think, this was as a recognition aid, but it makes sense
to me in other terms. In the general case, infantry are done for
by sundry Death From Above. Artillery. Air strikes. Shrapnel is
liberally spread over infantry positions to cause attrition 
through wounding. Here, in a 1:300 sort-of Dirtside-y environment 
helmets are extremely useful to cover the head/neck from wounding.

In a close assault, man-to-man Stargrunt-y environment the danger
is more like Death From In Front. Enemy and friendly troops are
too close to call in supporting bombardment. Rifle/MG bullets do 
not respect helmets, and nor, I dare say, would "plasma guns" and
other SF infantry weapons.

If you're going in to assault enemy infantry the armchair 
tactician in me suggests that you really might as well take the
weight of your neck, toss away your helmet and get the maximum
possible peripheral vision.

If your local library is anything like mine there should be plenty
of warry picture books with photos of special forces (if your
local supermarket is like mine, there should be a pile of unsold
Bravo-2-0 cash-in SAS books). You don't often see special forces
wearing helmets. Plenty of soft headware, berets, sunhats, forage
caps, wooly hats, arab-style head coverings, kepi etc. You might 
spot Gurkhas and other highlanders wearing tam o'shanters. I 
s'pose they don't expect to be bombarded either, since the enemy
isn't supposed to know they're there.

> > OK so if I'm on a what I'd like to see in SG II miniatures mode here
> > is a bit of a list:

If we're going to talk berets and other headgear, what I'd like to
see GZG do, rather than cast varients, is decapitate all their 
current troopers and cast seperate sprues of lead heads. 

Think of the possible variants that could be added to all ranges 
by producing extra head sprues. Berets as mentioned. Lots of 
different soft hats and caps as mentioned above. Heads with macho 
bandanas. Bandaged heads. Different hairsyles, flattops, mohicans,
dreadlocks. Different head-sets, VR goggles, bio-implants,  
android heads. Heads with different racial characteristics. Alien 
heads... all those cheesy aliens from low-budget SF like Babylon-5 
where all the aliens are humans with big rubber heads (eg. Narn). 
Pinheads. Coneheads. Eggheads. Bobo-the-clown heads. That sort of 
thing.

Capeesh?

-- 
David Brewer