I am looking for US Army/Marines, SF figures for Iraq and Afghanistan. I know that warriors makes some but who else. I am looking for 1/35 scale figures.
Thanks
Mike

hello mike
blast models make some of the finest oif 1/35 figures on the market today.they are based in paris and when i have brought from them i could not fault there service.
[www.blast-models.com]

In addition to Blast, Dragon has a set of injection-molded modern US Marines, Hobby Fan has a set of modern US Army soldiers wearing ACUs, and a new company (I'm blanking on the name) has a couple of figures of Army ACU-clad soldiers that were previewed in this discussion group last month or so.

Hope this helps!

Hornet and Verlinden does too. Most resin manufacturers make OIF figures. But it depends on what you want. OIF I Soldiers and Marines were in JSLIST suits and only a few (Think 180) model them in suits. Other than that the rest are in straight battle rattle.

Jeff

Warriors has quite a few, MIG is starting to release the Think 180 Studios line, Infinity Shape has a few.

Mike

Big +1 on Blast Models. Their figures are first-rate, and the shipping to the US was a lot faster than I thought it would be. You should look into their M4 and M16 sets as well. Be aware, though, that the figures do look somewhat big side-by-side with Dragon plastic figures. Not a huge difference (people DO come in different sizes), but deffinetely noticeable.

The Dragon Modern Marines kit is a must, since it's cheap, easily available, and has all the new gear (DCUs instead of MARPAT, but that's not a huge problem). The weapons are just regular M16A2s with an M240 (about the only place you can get one, AFAIK), which is where the Blast weapon sets come in

I don't have any of the Warrior figures (yet!), but I've used their heads on the aforementioned Dragon Marines, and they're really good.

I don't remember seeing any Hornet OIF figs. Do you have a link?
Unlike a lot of people, I happen to like Verlinden. That being said, I'm not crazy about their heads (no freakin' helmet straps!), and their gear is more Desert Storm than OIF.

While not up to the above Trump. has USMC Iraq and 101 Iraq

Hi at all,

the Trump. ones are not bad but i think the Figures from Dragon are a better. If you take the equipment from Trump. for the Dragon ones you get great figures for little money. The weapons from Dragon are better. I love the old M16 weapons set. It´s old but they are one of the best on the market. For actuell theater they are missing optical sights and so on. You could get these from the verlinden sets and put them on the dragon ones. The verlinden figures are a little disapointment for me. They took many parts from old sets like Desert storm or vietnam area. They make the sleeves longer ort hinks like that and thats all. I don´t like the new production line. The older ones are better in my opinon in Detail. The best i think are the hobby-fan and blast figures. They are expensive but absolut great in detail. They are molded and casted as one part.So the body and leggs fit perfect and looks very naturell. The heads, arms and aquipment are seperate parts too. By the blast ones you have sometimes the heads on the body and or one arm on the figure. So you must build them strait out the box with little chance to change parts from other sets. That is the only "negative" site on them.There are two sets from Dragon which are great too for that little money. Warriors are very good too but very very expensive. The new set from Trump. with five figures in it an the cockpit from the ch-47 are cool. I´m not a fan of their figures but for that price you get good figures. I like the equipment they have. It´s very good in Detail. The folds are very naturel and soft. The figures from CMK are difficult to discribe. The folds are very hard and deep. The weapons are not so good and often damaged . The movement and poses are sometimes very funny. The equipment is sometimes wrong and on false places or old ones from the 90´s. The M4´s are Car-15´s with 30 round magazines. So if you want the best take hobbyfan or and blast. The radio operator from blast for example is fantastic. So it´s time for your choice .
Best regards

Stefan from Berlin

I agree with most of what Stephan says above. However, the Trumpeter figures are horrible. The detail is soft, poses are unnatural, and the heads are blobs. About the only things worth using are the weapons, some of the gear, and the IBA-clad torsos.

Another option is to take either the Trumpeter or Dragon's Modern Marine IBA-clad torsos and use them on the older (ODS-era) Dragon figures to give you lots of possible poses and different figures.

On a bit of a related note, the colour of ACU's in pictures leans towards the grey scale however I have read elswhere that they have a light greenish tinge to them. As I'm absolutely pump at painting camo schemes I tend to use decals that I gin up myself. Anybody have any info that might help (Gino, Stefan)?

Max

Our Company, Helo Miniatures have a couple of modern sets out.

Here is a set of ACU Infantry guys on patrol.



www.helominiatures.com

The colors do have a more green than grey tone. The colors are a sandy buff, a lighter grey-green, and a darker grey-green. The lighter green is being called foliage green and the darker forest green. I haven't tried to paint them yet, so I don't really have any colors to recommend for them. I don't see how you could really make decals work for them, but more power to you. They do become more grey-looking in some lighting conditions and as they wear and weather. Hope that helps.

Also, if you want to replace weapons, then look to Blast Models for their separate M-4, M-16, and sniper sets and Hobby Fan for the only M-240Bs and great M-249s, plus some useful other weapons. Hobby Fan is expensive and hard to find, but worth every penny. Add those to the Dragon US Marines set that is 90% identical to early OIF US Army Soldiers then you have a relatively cheap set of figures with pretty good accuracy, basically a nice balance.

Jeff

Gino I'm at work at the moment but if I could mail you my latest attempts later today I'd appreciate if you could look at the colours for me. You might have to print the sheet out because the colours look completely different to what is on the monitor. Having not seen ACU for real it would be a big help. My attempts actually don't look overly bad, well in my eyes anyway .

Max

Sure, mail away.

Michael Roberts Ltd. has a few Marines as well...

The Michael Roberts figures are nice, but the problem with them are the size; they are only two thirds the size of most other figs on the market. The heads on them are scaled about the same as other figs, but the body size is that of a child. Go figure. Compared to other figs that Meckley did (Think180), I believe the MR figs were his first.

Dragon is missing out by not producing a set of OIF/OEF weapons like M16s/M4s with railed handguards and accessories, M240Bs, M21s, etc. Their old weapon sets are invaluable for customizing figures.

Gino decided it was just as easy to put the decal pics on here. They are in different hue's to see which one looks the best, although as I said before it's best if you print them out to look at them. Disregard any difference in size as the finished product will lean towards the smaller of the samples. Any help or comments gratefully received from anyone.



Max

Anyone???....Bueller

Colorwise, the first two look pretty good. Could just be the way it is saved or something, but the pattern looks very blurry when I printed it out. Not really an ACU pattern at all.

Possibly due to it being done in a larger scale and then reduced. I got the original pattern from the net. Might have to use that as a base template and then have a go myself. Cheers anyway for your input.

Max

To my untrained eye, the third image seems to be the better fit with the uniforms I've seen in pics and in person, but I'm sure my monitor settings are affecting what I can see.

The first one on the sheet is the most accurate compared to the real deal when you see it in person. Im wearing a pair of ACU bottoms at the moment and they are a very good match. The third picture is most like what the uniform looks like when photographed in strong day light or with a flash, the base color is more of a warm tan then a gray tan.