I am looking for British soldiers in the gear worn between 1960 and 1980s with FN-FAL Rifles (L1A1 IIRC) and the old kit as they would have operated with BAOR. So far I found a Welsh manufacturer but he has only a squad leader in program, the soldier is as deployed to Norther Ireland.

Thanks

A few companies have or had some in metal and resin.

Accurate Armour, Kirin, Imperial Gallery, Cheshire Volunteer, have some Falkland Islands, Beirut and Northern Ireland era figures. I know there are some other companies but can't remember if they are defunct now.

Airfix did some of what you want ,years ago.It´s either a collectors item by now or maybe something they could re-release.

Hi,

The Tamiya, Stretcher Bearers set have the correct skelton webbing for the 60/70s. The water bottles are jungle type but were worn by troops who had served in the Far East and brought them back and the packs are the wrong type for the webbing being the older haversack type from the 37 pattern webbing. They have no kidney pouches though nor bum rolls for the ground sheet. The remainder of the uniform is OK as best i can remember, the combat gear could be either the all green suit or the newer (then) camo suit depending on your needs. They are wearing putties which again are appropriate. The Italeri Modern Light Weapons Set No 420 has the Sterling SMG and the FN rifle that with the exception of the end of the barrel is to all intents and purposes the SLR. So with a few arm changes you could get a set of at least 2 walking troops for that period.

The Accurate Armour Bergens form there WW2 Infantry Update set were still in use in the 70's but they also have more modern Bergens that appeared about the time of the Falklands so again options there.


Al

Hi MBR, I understand exactly what your looking for. Unfortunitly there is not any perfect solution for modelling that period accuratly. I've modelled British and Irish soldiers from this period, they had similiar equipment for many years and it involves some scratch building to accompany any figures you can get your hands on. You might have to scratch a little bit to improve most earlier figures (circa 1960's - 70's) but its easier than you might think..

As mentioned above I recommend you use;

Accurate-Armour or Tamiya Landrover Ambulance set for figures for "Straight out of the box" building.
Firing-Line have figures but mostly metal which I'm not overly impressed with.
Historex website is good for bits too..

Hornet make great headsets including the berets and glens, they also produce the MK.III British helmets used in the 60' - early 80's and a para helmet from this period (but I could be wrong with this last helmet..)

Use Flack Jackets from US Vietnam figures, they were the same design originally, only changing very slightly throughout the early years (Model M-69 and M-1952 jackets used mostly)

Dragon 1/35th vietnam weapons set (DML) for the FN or you can get a Resin SLR from an Australian producer on the Victorian Hobby Centre wesite.

58 pattern webbing packs are in Tamiya Landy Ambulance set.

Bergins in British and Irish service only arrived in early 1980's as far as I know and would only of been used by BA on long range patrols in County Down N.Ireland (thats a rural type setting, it would be difficult to find pictures of BA with Bergins in big urban areas of N.Ireland like Belfast or Derry otherwise due to location of bases there)

Hope we were of some help, best of luck!

Thanks yes. Will try to chase the kit's down.

I want to model a szene form a PBEM "Twilight:2000" game I did take part in (Northag) that involves a bunch of British TA and Regular during a "General Hacket" style Word War III scenario. The scenario is set in 1984 so it's mostly old kit.