Re: Figure's Personal Equipment

Re: What Figures are people using for SGII how are you painting
>> You wrote:
>>
>> >The Battletroops sure are great figures - real 25mm. The only thing
>> >they lack is rucks - too many of the minis made in the last few
years
>> >look like they are out for a stroll in the garden. Must use their
>> >apcs to carry all their kit.
>>
>> Or they ditched their rucks at the ORP prior to carrying out the
>> attack.  I know I wouldn't want to fight with a ruck on my back.
>
>Sorry, I shouldn't have just said ruck. I mean ruck plus webgear. The
>Battletroops (and many other minis) lack plentiful pouches and real
>combat webgear. Now, an argument for the future says that I don't
>need as much space for ammo (lighter rounds), but I say I'd just
>carry more of them (since I can!). And I need a place for my
>raincoat, my one or two canteens, my one or more bladed instruments,
>my grenades, my ammo mags, my multitool, any comms or EW gear I need
>in combat, my medkit, and a granola bar or two (and a pair of fresh
>socks which I am NOT prepared to part with). So I find most of
>today's figures lacking in sufficient webgear.  Even if they dropped
>off their rucks in the vain hope of seeing them again...

Just to chime in here, this is one of my favourite soapbox topics...

I agree totally here, why the heck do sci-fi troops have no personal kit
?
I also have to say that I think GZG is one of the big offenders here,
although Jon makes a (by most comapnies standards) huge range of figs
almost all of them are woefully underequipped.	Take for example the
three
nationalities I have, NAC, NSL and FSE.  The NAC marines have one or two
pathetically small pouches on thier shoestring thin belts, the FSE also
have a hand waving attempt at belt order plus a rather poor attempt at a
day rucksack, while the NSL are laughable as they do not have any belt
order, I can just see it (in a teutonic voice) "Trooper just make sure
you
don't run out of rounds in that one magazine, or if you do just say BANG
!"
OK so I can admire the clean lines of a figure as much as the next
gamer,
but really I would also like to see a resemblance to a military figure,
after all we are playing soldiers !  When I have made comaprisons of
sci-fi
figs it appears the only campanies adding belt order are/were Grenadier
with thier Future warriors, Denizen (light order), and dare I say  it,
Games Workshop.  Now we may all deplore thier marketting tactics but I
think thier new Guards (in particular) the Caidian (sp?) ones look more
like sci-fi troops, they have what looks to be a reasonable belt load,
if
only they didn't dwarf everybody else's figure range.  OK, so where am I
going with this rant, first I'd like to repeat my (regular) call to Jon
for
more belt order/marching order figs plus REcon/LURP/Pathfinder types
with
rucks/bergens and kit.	And secondly I'd actually like to suggest an
alternative,  I have recently been shopping around 20mm WWII figs and I
was
stunned, the quality of many manufacturers completely blows away most
25/28mm manufaturers (GZG included), PLUS, the figs ALL have a realistic
amount of kit.	In particular worth looking at for use in sci-fi are
late
war German SS Panzergrenadiers with assault rifles, thier smocks,
helmets
and weapons don't look out of place when comaperd with	modern/near
future
figs and with a bit of careful shopping around moutain troops and others
equiped with rucksacks can be found.  I think one other advantage of the
20mm figs may be the problem of crowded table that can occur with 25/28
(more especially the latter) platoons.	I have seen games with a couple
of
platoons of 20mm figs plus 20mm AFVs on a 6x4 table and they do not look
too squashed in.  And remember, 20mm (ish) buildings are easily
available
in model railway stores !

OK so rant mode is now off, comments anyone ?
(flames to personal email please rather than the list).

----------------------------------------------------------------
Stuart Murray

Department Of Molecular Genetics	     Tel: (718) 430 4289
Albert Einstein College Of Medicine	      Fax: (718) 430 8778
1300 Morris Park Avenue 			  email:
smurray@aecom.yu.edu
Bronx
New York 10461

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