US Rangers

I am looking for some US Ranger figs circa 1944 in 1/72. I am after some platoon officers, NCOs, riflemen, pioneers with charges, bazooka with 2 crew, 30 cal with 3 crew, 60mm mortar with 3 crew. Preferably in metal. Which would you recommend?

Many thanks
K

Britannia have some nice ones

Thanks Wargameroz. I will investigate.

Do you know if there is anywhere I could see some pics?

Many thanks
K

Britannia will be the only range now available. Drews militia now battlefield had a great range now sadly long gone. Even in 28mm there are none,except re-boxed Warlord US infantry.
When I was covering rangers for my book I had to use a 1/35th scale figure.

Thanks RayH

I'm afraid Britannia are an acquired taste for me and they don't seem to play well with other toys. I guess I will have to go down the same route as Warlord and use normal US infantry suitably 'tarted up'. Since I am not 100% sure how the end product was kitted out (I have just a very hazy photo to work from) the Rangers route was just a guess in any case.

Best wishes
K

These are quite nice if you don't mind plastic. 39 figures in a box - lots of poses, most useful in one form or another - some not so good (being blown up etc.).

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=937



As an aside, I quite like the Britannia figures and find they mix well with SHQ, the chunkier plastics like Italeri, Hat, Caeser and Pegasus. They always look much better painted than in the raw metal.

Cheers, Andy

Many thanks Sediment

I did look at those, and some are very unusual poses (medics etc) so I will probably get it for those alone. If they were right, the riflemen would have been ideal for the game in mind (shooting upwards, scrambling etc. However the set overall is very D-day specific (eg chest gasmasks) and the bulk of the chaps in my photo were not wearing backpacks of any kind. Therefore, alas, the Pegasus chaps wouldn't be be my first choice for the bulk of the troops   .

Assault vests were very common in D-day,britannia figures have those. What do you need the Rangers for? After D-Day without the assault vest the only way you could tell them apart from Infantry were the flashes.

RayH

Thanks - pretty much the conclusion I have come to after this discussion (not being at all knowledgeable in these matters). I need some figs to represent the French 2nd Battalion de Choc during the invasion of Elba (Operation Brassard). My reasoning was that since these chaps were trained by the Americans (though not exclusively) and by 1944 wore US military gear and weaponry, my best guess was that they were kitted out and organised along rangers lines. Very happy to stand corrected on this.

Bestest
K

I will look into that. The 1st ranger bttn was formed here in N.Ireland. They may well have been,but again the uniform would have been no different from GI's. Well excdept that the Rangers on D-Day and during the fighting during the following week wore HBT trousers as they had handy pockets that the M1941 woolen trousers lacked.