Guy dropped by our IPMS club last night and asked if anyone would like to build a model of the M-ATV MRAP his son served on with figures of his son and a few of his buddies. One of the other members named Mike offered to build the Panda kit of the vehicle and I offered to do the figures.
I’ve found a few sets out there but can any of the vets here give me any tips on the better ones here? I know some of the sets of modern figures represent the '91 Gulf War where the uniforms and equipment were somewhat different from the modern stuff. I’ve used Masterbox’s Second World War figures and Velinden stuff and really liked it. I’m not sure how good the newer Tamiya and Trumpeter ones are though.
He did request the figures to be standing with the truck instead of inside or in action as well.
Check out some of the resin figures they cost a bit more but might find the pose you are looking for. http://shop.lastcavalry.com/ This guy specializes in figures and figure painting supplies.
I can’t see your pics, but these are a few good sets that should fit the bill.
Depends on how modern you are looking for and where he served.
For Iraq, these are guys in Army ACU uniforms from about '06 to present. The uniforms can represent OCP camo (modern, woodland-like) for more modern guys or guys in A’stan too.
For earlier in Iraq before '08 (ACUs were the only authorized uniform after 30 APR '08), these guys wearing DCUs will work too.
I generally just use injection molded figures instead of resin but I found a couple of really nice ones there. I know Alpine is super high quality. I really like these guys:
The guy said he’d email me some photos in the future so I’m not buying anything yet, just trying to get a feel for what’s out there. Then hopefully I can send him some photos of the figures available to see which ones he likes best.
Just for the heck of it since the Panda MRAP came up I figured I’d post an update here. I picked up the ‘Check Point’ set of figures in the southwest corner:
The dad told me his son wore a kilt and played a bagpipe to signal the convoy to move out. No I’m not kidding here, he provided photos, which as being personal material I’m not going to post. So I combined one of the figures with Masterbox’s ‘Scotland the Brave’ set. I still need to do a little more tinkering to get his hands in the right place. The guy on the left I’m going to add a camera to his right hand and have him taking a photo.
Anyway, I suppose I should post any further updates over on the ‘figure’ section of the forum. Just figured at the time that since they were going with a vehicle I’d stick the thread here…
I’ll be sure to post the finished figures when I’m done. This may take awhile, I’ve only tried painting digital camo a few times and I’m going to take it slow. Hopefully I’ll get a few with the MRAP my friend Mike is building. I didn’t know the Panda kit was this rough but Mike’s been out of work due to medical issues and has been building up a storm to keep from going stir crazy. So not sure how long this will take.
