Wargaming Musings?

I'm a bit of a butterfly in terms of my attention and sticking to gaming projects long term isn't my strongest point. On the bright side, atleast I flit between the same things. Expect an ecclectic medley of Moderns, Dark Ages, Quar and Early Wild West, almost all in 28mm... (with some 1/48 moderns thrown in... )

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Operation Urgent Fury Range - 20mm Hotspur/Combat figures

Seeing as a chap was offloading his Hotspur 'Urgent Fury' (Grenada) figures cheaply on eBay, I thought I'd take the opportunity to pick some up to use in Cold War Gone Hot games... As the pictures on the Stonewall Website aren't all they could be, I thought I'd show what was in each pack ( as well as giving a rundown on kit, etc. I did a size comparison the other month...). Casting quality is ok - there are a couple which look like they'll be a right pain to clean up, and a few bits of flash, but generally they look better than the civilians I bought the other month...

FUR4A - US Marines
5 figures - 1x M16/M203, 4xM16. Figures are in M1 'tinpots' and Kevlar flack jackets. A couple have LAWs thrush through their backpacks the figures are good, their poses conveying urgency and looking 'busy'. There are sleves rolled up on a couple of the figures, but there isn't too much to say that these chaps are in a tropical clime, so they should work very well in Europe...

FUR5A - US Marine command
6 figures - 2x3 individual poses. Figures are M16 armed, (and IIRC one has a radio - although I can't remember which!) Again, poses are good,and the figures are in a mix of long and roll up sleeves  kevlar flack jackets and M1 'tinpots'...

These guys are nice figures, buuuut, they have the failing that most of the Urgent Fury figures have - a distinct lack of support! These guys only have a single M203 for fire support... RH models do some (post-nam) guys in flack jackets with M1 tin pots, so I'll be relying on them to fill in the gaps. Otherwise, It's going to be converting Vietnam figures in flack jackets into the right sort of flack jacket!


FUR2 - US Army Rangers
5 figures - 1x M16xM203, 1xM21 sniper, 3xM16 (1 w/ radio?). These guys are in the Ranger garrison caps, and are (as you would expect) without body armour. Atleast one has a LAW stuff into his pack, like the Marines... 
Fire support for these guys is again non-existant, so I be turning to Liberation figures once again, but they are a lower priority than the Marines (and in fairness, they aren't really a priority either!) so for the time being they'll make a nice advisory team for my Partisans.

FUR1 - US Seal Teams
5 figures - 2x Silenced MAC-10, 1xM240 SAW, 1xM16/M203, 1xM16/CAR15. Most have Boonies, although 1 is bare headed. These guys are wearing combat vests (from what I recall). They have their sleeves down, but I'm not sure how much the floppy 'bush' hat was used in Europe... not that it's going to stop me :) With a good mix of weapons, I'd say this fire team was pretty much complete1

FUR8 - Grenada Command-~Cuban Advisors
6 figures - 2x3 poses (4xAK, 2xMP (Uzi? Czech SMG of some sort?)) One pose is in a Soviet M40 helmet, whilst the other 2 are in garrison caps. One of the AK wielding figures has a Radio backpack. Clothing is fairly generic combats, and they have Soviet style webbing... One set of 3 will become partisans, the other set will be put to one side until I need some Mercenaries/Cubans/Africans/South Americans...

FUR6 - Grenadan PRA
5 figures - 4xAK, 1xAK & RPG. The figures are in a mix of Soviet M40 and garrison caps, and have the generic fatigues and Russian webbing of the comand figures. Not too much else to say about them really... These guys will be adding to my partisan forces, but probably in a generic enough scheme that I could wheel them out anywhere from 70's South america to Bosnia...

And, as with the other forces... The Grenadans/Cubans are a bit lacking on the support front. Atleast the RPG gives a bit more potential fire support than a UGL, but even so... If I was going to add to these forces, I'd use some of the Platoon 20 Arab wars figures (for the M40 helmets and genra-Sov kit), and some of the generic peak cap/M40/Cuban Liberation figures...

All in all - well worth the money I paid. the figures are nice and well realised, and if I'd bought them off the web store I wouldn't have been disappointed. The only complaint (and I've made it before) is the lack of support weapons! It would be impossible to put together a squad of the correct composition using just Combat figures... 

4 comments:

  1. Just had a look through the Liberation webstore - they don't do any guys in M1 helmets with M60's afterall... They do do a Dragon launcher though, which is something :) I guess it will have to be Vietnam figures with converted flack jackets if I want to add much to these guys...

    The Rangers faired rather better, with M249 & M60E3 variants available :)

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  2. They look really good mate, Nice haul there. It seems that with 20mm..well I suppose any range has figures that are hit and miss. Look forward to seeing what you do with these dude

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  3. They do look nice sculpts, I'll look forward to seeing them with a lick of paint on.

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