Skirmish Sangin US Delta Team A Review

Here is a video review of some of the items available through the Radio Dishdash Day of the Rangers KickStarter.

If you are unable to view the video, or would like the narrative with still shots, continue reading below.

Finely detailed, 28mm figure. Black wash applied to really make the detail 'pop'.

 



Clamshell plastic packaging and foam piece to protect figures. Four figures come in this package for about US$14.

 

 

Some flashing was present on the inside of the legs of two of the figures. 

 

This was later removed with a hobby knife.

 

 

How they compare



The Radio Dishdash figures scale well with other 28mm figures. Seen here are 28mm Marine Force Recon (and insurgent figure) from Eureka Miniatures.

 

The Radio Dishdash figures are more of a true to scale figure than a "heroic" scale figure. 

 

Here in a similar pose, you can see that the Delta figure is slightly taller, a little more slender, and has a gun that has a smaller barrel. Both units are based on the same type washer.

Summary

Overall, these figures are very crisp and will scale well with your existing Eureka miniatures. You can eventually find them in the Skirmish Sangin store, but currently they are available (at a discount) through the Day of the Rangers KickStarter.

G&G Rating

Empress Miniatures - .50 cal HMMWV

One of the items that I picked up at Historicon was a .50 cal Humvee for modern 28mm skirmish gaming. I already had a technical (with MMG) for the insurgents, so I thought I would add some mobile firepower for the ISAF forces.

The kit itself was fairly straightforward to assemble. There was some excess material on the inside of the tires that needed to be removed with a hobby knife, but other than that, there was very little flashing.

My biggest dilemma was where to put the .50 cal. Looking at the image provided on the box (visible in the background), I was thinking about mounting in the rear firing position. I had a couple reasons for wanting to do this - (1) most folks would probably mount it forward facing, so it would differentiate my model from others and (2) having recently watched Blackhawk Down (on the car ride home from Historicon mind you), I noticed that while making the drive to the crash site, the gunner was typically firing in the rear arc after having already passed the target. There was also a triangular shape in the driver/rear side of the cupola that seemed to be similar in shape and size to the base of the .50 cal mount, so I thought that would make for a good mounting point. After gluing it on (of course), I noticed that the hinges for the roof hatch were on the driver's side which meant that positioning the gun there would prohibit the swing of the hatch. This bothered me, so I popped of the gun mount and resorted to gluing it facing forward. Oh, the best laid plans...

How it compares

Here we can see the scale comparison between another Empress vehicle - the technical with SPG-9 - and my first technical - a Stan Johansen miniature. The Empress vehicles are listed as 1/50 scale models. The Stan Johansen model may be closer to 1/56 for 28mm. As you can see, they're pretty comparable and there shouldn't be any scale issues with them being on the table at the same time.

Summary

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the .50 cal HMMWV kit. A buddy of mine had picked up the weapon station HMMWV kit at Historicon as well and he was not happy with it. Perhaps it's the difference in kits or he was just unlucky. This kit was pretty smooth. It'll set you back a pretty penny, US$32 was what we paid at Historicon. There will certainly be cheaper options out there - perhaps even 1/43 scale die-cast if you plan ahead (settle on that scale for vehicles and be consistent). There was a die-cast model on Amazon recently for under US$15, but I don't think that would scale well at all with these figures. I've already made that mistake once before - bought a 1/48 scale plane and set it next to some 1/56 scale tanks - and plan to not repeat it

G&G Rating

UPDATED (7/28/2015) Skirmish Sangin, Maalintii Rangers, Historicon, and Kickstarter, oh my!

Skirmish Sangin, Maalintii Rangers, Historicon, and Kickstarter, oh my!

Just caught wind of the Meeples & Miniatures podcast with Colin Phillips of Radio Dish-Dash.

Catch the podcast here:
https://meeples.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/meeples-miniatures-episode-149-radio-dish-dash/

There's mention of the latest Battle Book, Maalintii Rangers, which is an add-on to Skirmish Sangin and will be released at Historicon.

Sneak peak over on the Skirmish Sangin blog:
http://skirmishsangin.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/sneak-peek-at-maalintii-rangers-day-of.html

Also mentioned is a possible Kickstarter campaign where we'll potentially see figures, vehicles, and buildings.

UPDATE (7/28/2015): The KickStarter campaign is now live! As of 7/28/2015 it is beyond its funding goal and on track for some stretch goals.

I picked up the Skirmish Sangin PDF on the drive home from Historicon last year. Unfortunately, a year has past and I never did manage to get it to the table. I did eventually get all of my insurgents forces painted and a few USMC done - as seen in a previous post. At that time we utilized Flying Lead and its Afghanistan expansion, Hearts & Minds.

This year at Historicon, Colin himself will be in attendance. I am hoping to catch a demo game of Skirmish Sangin on Friday to get the juices flowing and hopefully convince a local gamer or two to partake in a few games this year.