With a lot of us being former military, I’ve wondered if there might be more interest in support troop subjects? I know we’ve gotten more construction kits and there would be interesting subjects like supply room, arms room and orderly room scenes. Let alone motorpool resupply .Everything wasn’t about tanks and helicopters and trucks. Just some food for thought. I know Recon 6 has done some that are really good. Wayne
I second this as a mechanic I have always said that the support troops are slightly ignored.
Slightly?!?!
The combat troops wouldn’t move far without all the support units.
I was trying to be nice I should have put quotes around that i forgot you guys cant see air quotes
and I forgot to put a winking smiley in my post
I remember when the Opel Blitz (Italeri & Heller) and the 2½-ton GMC (Italeri & Heller) were the only non combat models in 1/35.
No other trucks, a few trailers but that was it.
Now there is lots
AFV and Miniart have a few diorama sets for different “shops” but I don’t think dioramas/vignettes move most modelers wallets. Companies have tried other items but it seems based on not many follow on kits that the numbers didn’t work for them.
Nobody wants to see an MI troopie sitting and listening to enemy comms traffic. That said, where’s the clerk at a typewriter or the guy writing updates on a big wall map or the guys doing PMCS in the motor pool? But we got a zillion infantry officers pointing.
Where are the models of officers with their class rings on. We need an MI butter bar briefing the weather to a toc full of people half awake.
As a former MP (Military Police); I’ve always tried to bid various MP vehicles, like Humvees, MRAPs, MUTTS and the like.
But also guys like mechanics, wrenching away at an Abrams engine is always good to see; same with some SeaBees, grading a section of dirt, getting it ready to become an airfield
There are a lot of cool vehicles that can be made as well. The contact trucks (I know there is a new 3d print out there but it’s kind of expensive. SATS trailers and the FRS (somebody built a really great scratch build on here I wish I could link it) updated M88A2 and A3, The FMTV Wrecker and the Stryker Recover System that’s just the maintenance guys. I know the Cooks and associated MOSs have the MKT and the water trailers that are kind of cool. And there are a lot of missing Engineer Vehicles to include the Duce, SEE Truck and good representations of all the construction equipment. Now before I get hung up to dry, I know that 12B is a combat MOS but some of their tasks are along a combat support line.
I read in a reliable book that in WWII for every Grunt on the line there were 9 support soldiers behind him. That’s a huge pool of men and scenarios that can be done. I’d bet the number hasn’t gone down much. From medical battalions to mess sections to combat TRAINS areas to… The list is endless. I think though, judging from the work displayed here, that most modelers want to portray frontline action rather than logistics. It would be nice to have more support and logistics figures, though. But would they sell?
My only point to your statement is there seems to be a very disproportional amount of European Trucks/Support Vehicles made in comparison to US Military.
I think that might be because there are no US model companies. The US has no one to rely on to release “domestic product”, mainly relying on the likes of Trumpeter for modern US vehicles. Europe has ICM, Miniart, Zvezda, and Airfix, etc. to release “home” vehicles.
Thats what I was thinking.
Soooo is this a campaign waiting to happen…?
Excellent Land Rover Brian. Coulda sworn that second pic was real- very well done ! The figure came great too, love the jacket hanging in the door.
Is that figure from Dartmoor miniatures? I have one just like it in metal.
Thanks Richard! I did post it sometime ago; sadly since then it has come to grief - probably repairable but I have a real hurdle to overcome. It was, I suppose, my favorite model, and not just as it was meant to be me! Luckily I’ve kept some pics and at the risk of boring the arse of the Kitmaker fraternity here are some. They should certainly rhyme with the Support theme - as the HQ stuff is all there, maps, map boards, duplicator, assorted fuel cans, map board lighting, and a Clerk nursing his hangover having just completed his ablutions!
Oh, “Yes”, it was a Dartmoor figure, slightly altered, subsequently taken over by Firing Line - sadly no more.