"Taxis, cars and trucks for modern battlefields? " Topic

I just finished reading Bing West's "No True Glory" about the battle(s) in and around Fallujah.

In it he mentions that significant numbers of insurgents arrived in taxis, cars and trucks whenever an opportunity arose to shoot up coalition forces. He also mentions extensive use of cell phones to attempt to coordinate assaults by insurgents.

I have 28mm figures and some vehicles for some Iraq gaming and wonder:

1. Does anyone out there know where you can pick up taxis,cars and trucks for gaming something like this in 28mm?

2. Any ideas for rules that could simulate coordination of insurgent activity via cell phone in a skirmish scaled game?

Thanks,

Mike

Cell phone activity could be simulated by allowing one or more reserve models/units to show up exactly where the owning player selects.

On a quasi-related note, I was just reading The Guns of August (WWI) in which France used taxis to move troops to the Battle of the Marne.

I game the era with 20mm and non-discript vehicles that would fit the bill are difficult to find in that scale, let alone 28mm.

As for cell phones, I think if you are using Ambush Alley, the hot spots and insurgent reinforcement arrival sort of fill the bill for that.

look for 1:43 to 1:60 or O scale vehicles at toys stores or on Ebay. I just got 6 cars and some big trucks a big cat loader and a yellow school bus for my Zombie games. there are tons of stuff in good scale vehicles that work with 28mm.

Google for Hongwell Cararama. I don't know what kind of sick, twisted scale 28mm really is, but Hongwell do stuff in 1/72nd, 1/60th and 1/64th. If you can find a Toyota Hiace and Toyota Cressida in white, just get hundreds of those, that should cover much of the Middle East vehicle fleet. Lots of the 1/64th Hongwell vehicles seem to be trucks of various kinds.

Me, I'm still furious I didn't order fifty of the Cararama 1/72nd Jeep when they were on special offer for a pound each.

All the best,

John.

With my games, I like to have 'populated streets' that aren't barren of the details. It doesn't take a lot of details to bump your terrain set-up to 'wow' status.

If you're in the U.S., there are a multitude of 1/43rd scale diecast cars available, normally for less than $5 USD each, but closer to $2 USD if you look hard enough. They can be found everywhere they sell toys, including Walmart, target, Toy's R Us (They've got some fire trucks, garbage trucks, and Helicopters), Walgreens, and the various dollar stores including Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, and Dollar General. Another good place is to search out your local flea markets for second hand, scratch and dent vehicles, usually for a quarter or fifty cents each. (I too, use these scale vehicles for my modern zombie games.)

For my 20mm or 1/72nd modern middle-east games, most of the diecast cars, such as Matchbox, Hotwheels, Johnny Lightning, Corgi and others, will work. Most of these vehicles are somewhere between 1/70th-1/64th scale. I have a few american made car models, but try to get as many european models as I can, such as VW, Mercedes, Volvo, and etc. If you're lucky and can find it, the matchbox HMMWV (w/50 cal.) is about 1/72nd scale while the Corgi HWWMV (W/50 cal.) is about 1/64th.

On a side note, if you game 20mm Vietnam or Korea, there has been several 1950-1970 era civilian vehicles put onto the marketplace relatively cheap. Johnny Lightning (JL) has been the biggest line out so far with a couple of others. They can be found at your local Walmart, Target, Publix Supermarket, and K-mart. The JL ones are about $2 USD each and the others are anywhere from $3.99 USD to $4.99 USD each. At Walmart, I scored a JL 1950's Ambulance and some 1960's cars.

-David G.

Rite-Aid (used to be Eckerd's) has a diecast stand right by the registers too. They have a lot of obscure stuff like short-buses and ice cream trucks in 1:40ish scale.

I always see cars about the right size in CUB Foods; if you have them in your area.

Arriving by taxi to a battlefield, i guess the driver wants the money up front, then being asked to stay and keep the meter running…!!!!

Even so if you watched District 9..!!!

" Alien weapons make you go boom " :-)

Check out any large truck stops you have in the area. They always have a gift shop with tones of various diecast in variable scales.

Some great ideas there. Thank you everyone!
Time to do some shopping…
Mike