"Best 15mm Canadians in Afghanistan?" Topic

I'm thinking about building a Canadian platoon, fighting in Afghanistan, for use with Force-On-Force. Who makes the best figures in 15mm, both for the Canadians / ANA and the Taliban / Al Quaeda / etc.? Are there good, high-detail models of the LAV-III and other vehicles available?

This is all new to me – I spend most of my time in the Second World War and Ancient periods – so any info at all is much appreciated.

For those who recognize the name, I'm thinking I'll model my key section after the characters in Afghanada, and probably create some missions based on the stories.

Edit: crossposting difficulties, sorry for the duplicate posts

For Taliban check out Cannon Fodder and Flashpoint.

As for Canadians, you could probably proxy US infantry. Just paint em in Canadian camo. For those, see Rebel Minis, Peter Pig, etc.

I have some of QRF's cold war minis, and I have to say I don't care for them. Rough sculpts and castings.

There is a sad shortage of Canadian stuff out there. I built a force of Canadians in 15mm, loosely based on the PPCLI. I simply used Old Glory Americans, even though they are not totally correct. I subscribe to the theory that if you can't find what you want, 'close enough' will do. I painted them in green CADPAT to differentiate them from my Americans, although most of the photos I see show them in desert pattern. QRF makes a nice USMC LAV-III, but again, it's not exactly like the Canadian vehicle. But if you think none of your gaming buddies will notice or care, go for it.

For my ANA and Afghan police, I used a bunch of spare Peter Pig figures I had laying around. I deliberately used an assortment of different headgear – berets, 2 kinds of helmets, bare heads. For my Afghan police, I tried to add a few caps. Peter Pig makes some figures and spare heads wearing kepis that look exactly like what the Afghan police have. For gettin' around town, I bought a bunch of pickup trucks from Peter Pig. The ANA get sand-colored trucks and the police get green ones (but, alas, no emergency lights on top). I also gave the ANA some Humvees.

Several companies make Afghan insurgents. Mine all came from Old Glory and Cannon Fodder. I think the CF insurgents are unfortunately OOP, and I'm not really crazy about many of the Old Glory figures. However, OG makes a very nice set of pickup truck riders. If you are doing Taliban, buy some pickups, load 'em up with those guys, maybe fly a white banner from one of them. I also gave my Taliban scouts some ex-WWII motorcycles painted in civilian colors, with the figures standing next to them as if they just stepped off. For AQ, I simply found some turbaned figures with AK-47s and painted them with woodland-pattern camo jackets. Cannon Fodder also made a 15mm Bin Laden figure, which makes a good leader/aiming point for airstrikes.

Great info, that's just what I was looking for. Thanks!

Before I switched to 20mm, I was working on a 15mm Canadian force. I used Peter Pig USMC as the Canadians – the sculpts are very nice and are in the "close enough" appearance for Canadians in terms of helmet shape and weapons. I did also acquire some 15mm QRF Strykers and LAV-25s to basically convert to LAV-IIIs. The QRF models are very nice, but that's a lot of metal to remove to do the conversion. Also, the LAV-25 turret looks small on the Stryker chassis, but the turrets can be bulked up by the turret bustles that were added to the sides of the LAV-III turrets – if you've got some skill, you can make these out of Green Stuff.

For 20mm, I'm again using USMC – this time from Elheim, and S&S do a 20mm LAV-III that I'm itching to get my hands on.

I have some of QRF's cold war minis

Not going to be much use in Afghanistan – you need kevlar helmets

We also have a small pack of Afghan National Police/Army, in caps with AKs: link

The QRF models are very nice, but that's a lot of metal to remove to do the conversion

Agreed. A 'later this year' project.

My Afghanistan force is a 'later this year' project too. If you make a LAV-III I'll buy one for sure.

Not going to be much use in Afghanistan – you need kevlar helmets

I'm aware of that. I was merely saying I do not care for the QRF minis I have, which I think is quite reasonable in a thread where someone is looking for recommendations.

Back on topic, some of the Rebel Minis jihadists might be useful.

The US Cold War figures are quite old now, and very different from the new modern figures. They are also not really suitable for Canadians in Afghanistan.

Like I said in my last post, I am well aware they are not right for modern Canadians. I was just commenting on the quality of the QRF figures that I have.

Glad to hear the newer models are better.

And I will add that the service from QRF was excellent.

im looking for the same thing for force on force 15mm and coming up with nothing too. There dosnt seam to be any canadian modern minis out there. its very surprising no one has jumped on it as they would have that market to themselves.

Its a very limited market. Same goes for Poles, Latvians, Belgians, Norwegians etc. It needs considerable width to do right (read as expense in investment) with little depth (read as profit) in return.

Frankly in 15mm the C7 and C8 are as close to M4 and M16 as is possible anyway. Add a couple of weapons options and what distinguishes Canadians from US at 15mm? (I.e. If I do you an Eryx can you use modern US with C7/8?)

Canadians in Afghanistan:

Change of colour scheme and a scope to turn it into a C8?

I am hoping to have the Leopard 2A6 and LAV III for you later this year.

Funny, having just discussed this yesterday, take a look at: TMP link

He has used US as Canadians, and they look rather nice.

According to: link they are using:

C7 (licence built M16)
C8 (carbine version of C7, or in 15mm the M4 carbine)
C9 LMG (licence built Minimi/M249)
C6 GPMG (licence built FN MAG/M240)
M203
M3 Carl Gustav
M72 LAW
Eryx

Currently our modern US have the M4, but I hope to revisit them soon and expand it to include M16, in which case I will look to include scopes. If I add the CG and Eryx while I am at it…