Figure Focus - TAG Pt I

Partly inspired by Vampi-fan's blog, where he goes back over some of his old figures and gives pictures/reviews, I thought I'd revisit my painted lead pile and post up some pictures by manufacturer. I'm starting with TAG, as after their current facebook  promotion (like us and get a figure and a discount - see here for more details http://www.theassaultgroup.co.uk/pages/page.php?Like-our-FaceBook-page-and-get-a-Freebie-and-a-discount-188 ) they readily came to mind (shows advertising works I guess!), and this gets one of the largest manufacturers out the way :)

Militia and mobsters - the chaps on either end are also part of my Russian Mafia gang (used to be used for games of combat zone, but now may well be getting involved in Chernarus), whilst the two in the centre tend to end up  with the militia...

I originally intended these guys to be used as PMCs, but looking at them, they don't look much like the 'iconic' PMC guys you see on the news. Their camo is too varied, but I guess all the rest of their kit is ok. Currently these guys are in the sale pile, as not sure how/where I can use them (way to modern for my african games, and a bit too kitted up for Chernarus)

A few more gunmen of various flavors which are also on the sale pile - nice figures, but they don't quitte fit into what I'm trying to do. That said, the kneeling white guys with the AK/SVd Dragunov may well end up back in africa, as looking at them like this I can't see any reason why they shouldn't be in there with my other mercs...

The great thing about the Dirtiest Africa range is that it covers subjects from the 70's right through to now.. which makes lots of the equipmennt almost perfect for my BritApoc retro apocalypse. These guys havee been broken into 3 factions for the pictures - Village Militia, Raiders & misc. I think all the figures are pretty much stock, although the guy with the sheep skin waistcoat in the bottom image had it added so he didn't get too cold in the british rain! Oh, a couple of the Militia guys have also had TAG pouches added to make them look slightly better equipped than the rest. Most of these figures are duplicates of some of thefigures in my Africa collection, so I was happy enouch to divert them across. The tattered clothing on a couple really helps add to the PA look. Thanks to DAWGIE for making me think outside the box, and not just see african militia when I looked at the figures.

I know I keep harping on about TAGs weapon range, but it really is great. Here are a few examples of it being used to convert figures for Brit Apoc games. The manufacturers of the figures are, from the left, Arrtizan, Warlord, Killer Bee & EM-4/Mirliton.

Whilst I really like the mercenaries in the dirtiest africa range, they don't work terribly well with the rest of my mercenary figures (which are based on 5-commando in the congo, and are generally a bit more homogeneous in terms of uniform style and alot heavier in terms of equipment loadout). However, some of the Chindits and Nam figures fit in very well, with only a few minor conversions (haed and/or weapon sawps). I'm still not entirely convinced on absolute accuracy of  M1 helmets and flak jackets for mercenary forces  in the congo, but I've seen a couple off picturres which atleast let me ease my concience when using them in my imagi-nation battles. Looks like I need to do some more basing :-/


And that's where I'm going to leave part I. The next installment will have LOTS of african militia, some white- govermental troops and some figures which whilst pleasing enough as-is are scheduled forr re-paints to make them more useful. But I'm going to give folks a rest for a while first...