"Mixing Cold War NATO infantry - Which kits matches?" Topic

With Battlefront releasing Free Nations that 'Cold War imagi-nation' itch is there again!

Yanks and Brits have fairly specific helmets… But what about Germans, Canadians, Dutch, Frenchs, Australians, New-Zealanders, Belgians and so on…

Which ones would you happily mix together (with ano unifying paint job)? Which ones would not look 'right'?

Would a 'French' Milan team fit with a 'Canadian' FAL squad and a 'German' MG3? What about other such combinations?

Thanks for your toughts!

Somehow my OP was triplicated… Sorry about that!

The Germans, Dutch, Belgians and Canadians could probably get by with the same figures. The French have some differences and the ANZACs are another story.

I "think" BF is releasing a NATO infantry pack to cover the changes in stand mix. Otherwise I suspect that the Canadian Infantry would be the largest number of stands.

I have "generic" NATO infantry (Old Glory) that I'll use for TY.

PSC are now selling the Armies Army line of 15mm. They do all the infantry and vehicles for British, Soviet VDV, East Germans, Canadians and Dutch, and are in the process of doing Belgians I believe. Most of the infantry are similar with variations for LSW's and anti-tank. Excellent figures and vehicles, highly recommended.

I get there are plenty of minis available for those armies… Both infantry and vehicles… Not my question though ;)

To put it differently: if I was to take a CA, a BE, a NL, a DE and a FR infantryman from 85ish, to put them side by side in field kit and take a black-and-white picture of them from a couple of hundred meters away, could they pass for a unit of the same army? Or are there obvious difference (helmet, webbing…) that would set some of them aside?

Weiner's "The Armies of the NATO Nations" (1987) has plates of field uniforms of the countries you are after – all have similar looking helmets, I don't think most people would spot the differences in webbing, but at a couple of hundred metres you might notice that the Frenchman was carrying a bullpup rifle.

Yeah, the FAMAS is pretty distinctive! (Fairly handy, too, I had an airsoft FAMAS for a while)

The Canadians issued the C7 (M16) in 1984, not sure when the Danes and Netherlands issued it.

At 15mm you will be hard pressed to tell webbing differences. I use a mixture of AIW Israeli, new BF NATO infantry, and Keith's models and they mix pretty well.
PS: Didn't Canadians have that weird thing where magazine pouches were sewn onto jackets/trousers?

Thanks for the answers! I'll try to find Weiner's book… But you guys seem to confirm my initial impression: I should indeed be able to mix all those minis to build the imagi-nation I want!

And good call about the AIW Israeli: uzi, blindicide and SF GPMG here I come!

I guess Vietnam US could be used too…

And AIW Egyptians/syrians would mix well with Russians for that opfor imagi-nation too!

PS: Didn't Canadians have that weird thing where magazine pouches were sewn onto jackets/trousers?

No, we used standard webbing. You may be confabulated with the fact that tunic pockets in the CAF were shaped to accommodate extra FN mags.

For Germans, Canadians,Belgians, and Dutch , they all wore some version of the American M1 steel pot during the 80's. Which you can get from QRF,Plastic slSoldier Company(who now has Armies army line), Peter Pig. For the Belgians since there's no official Miniatures from anyone yet. You can mix from others. I use a mix from QRF's Dutch and West Germans. The Australians and you seem lenders also use the M1 helmet however none in miniature form. Flashpoint, Peter Pig, and FOW (both nam and Team Yankee are the same cast.) Are all in digger hats. Again you could use Peter Pig's heads for a head swap. The Israelis used the Modèle 1951 which was designed to have a familiar shape as the American M1. For all purposes at 15mm, the Israeli helmet should be able to mix but then again you could do a m1 head swap on a Israeli body if you want that uzi.

"The Canadians issued the C7 (M16) in 1984,"

Actually SARP (Small Arms Replacement Program) was in 1988, 4 CMBG would have been one of the first after the CTC to get the new weapons (C7, C8, C9, C6)

beingshort1-

"The Australians and you seem lenders also use the M1 helmet however none in miniature form."

Speech-to-text not coping with New Zealanders??

Duck

Lol Sorry about that. I was using voice text while grading papers.

"The Canadians issued the C7 (M16) in 1984,"

Actually SARP (Small Arms Replacement Program) was in 1988, 4 CMBG would have been one of the first after the CTC to get the new weapons (C7, C8, C9, C6)

Blame Wikipedia.

So who got the C7 in 1984 if it wasn't the Canucks? Danes or Netherlands?

They weren't general issue 'till late '87 I think. I was in 4CMBG at the time, but I don't remember exactly when we got them. Would have been late '87 or early '88.

Not sure where Wikipedia's '84 date comes from, but other countries didn't get them first.

Jay I was at the Infantry School in 1988 and they we were just being issued there that summer. They were still writing and amending the pams which made the SARP training interesting to say the least. CTC staff and support Demo etc and all the Phase training students were the first equipped. As far as I know then they went to 4 CMBG and the SSF. The Reg CMBGs were then issued from east to West and then the various Reserve Units. Fall 1988 I CT'd into a Toronto Reserve unit and it still had FNs until the next year.

I wonder if my memories are mixing. I seem to remember we got them in 2PPCLI while we were still in Germany, prior to repat in summer '88.

Possible that 4CMBG got them before anyone else. All I know is they were coming into the school of cool summer of 1988. I was an acting Platoon Comd in Demo and had a mix of C7s and C2s in my platoon due to a shortage of C9s. 4xC2s per sections and all the ammo you could carry to get rid of it.