Flashpoint Minis 15mm Somalis

All,

Anyone fancying a little "Blackhawk Down?"  If so, you've got to pick these troops up from Jimmi at Flashpoint Minis.  It's a great pack, with twenty-one figures in nine different poses!  I painted them up as outlandishly as I could stand, with a wild mix of lots of bright colors with various pieces of camouflage uniform items.   There are some really good poses, very dynamic and realistic, and the figures are robust, sizing up with Battlefront.  The troops have great weapons, easily recognizable and relevant to the period, though there's a couple miscasts, and I would have loved to have seen the G-3 in addition to the AKs, RPDs, RPGs, and M-16s.  Now, having said that about the miscasts, I want to point out I picked these up from Scale Creep Minis, when Mark was holding a sale in order to clear out some old inventory.  My point is two-fold: one, I've spoken to Jimmi, and part of the clearing out old inventory is that he's really working hard on quality control in order to ensure all the sculpts are 100%, and two, even with a slim RPG rocket and a couple missing AK front sight posts, I'm happy to have the troops in my inventory, might even pick up some more.  So let's get to them!

The whole pack, 21 troops.  I based them on pennies, sanded them, washed them, then threw on some static grass.  You can see the wild colors from here!

First pose, just because he's a singleton.  A great pose, looking up for US helos, AK at the ready, wearing a skull cap.  You probably can't tell because my photography skills suck, but he's got a beard molded on, easily recognizable and easy to paint up.  I did his shirt in desert tri-color.  I put a lot of 'steel' on all the weapons, too, figured they'd be pretty well worn.

Reverse.  Looks like the casting did't get all of the barrel of his AK.

Next up, two riflemen, wearing bandanas.  The trousers on the right are meant to be faded US Woodland cammies.

Reverse.

I really like this pose for some reason; the guy's wearing crossed ammo belts and a bandana, and he's a little taller and thinner than the rest.  Looks really 'Somali' to me.  The trousers on the left?  I dunno, I just made up a green and tan camo...

Reverse.  I like that they've got some, but not too much gear, and the straps and stuff are raised so it's easy to paint.

Two light machine gunners with berets and RPDs.  And left-handed to boot ;)

Reverse.

Two riflemen slinking forward, probably my favorite pose.

Reverse.  I see my yellow didn't cover as well as I thought...

Two riflemen moving up, bareheaded and carrying RPG backpacks.  I love it, you never see guys with the RPG backpacks!

Reverse, where you can see the rockets in the pack.

Two more riflemen, bare-headed with short sleeves...

And crossed ammo belts and deuce gear.  Excellent.

Two more riflemen.  This is the only pose I'm not so hot on, don't like the locked out back leg.  Maybe if he had the weapon shouldered?

Reverse.

Two RPG gunners, though the casting on the left is suffering just a bit on the rocket's warhead.  No problem for me, it's still immediately recognizable.

Reverse.

I really like this pose as well, something you don't see very often: berets, captured M-16s, and RPGs slung over their backs.  Not sure how happy I am with my choice of colors on Mr Redpants ;)

Reverse.

And the last pose, The Boss.  A bit taller and skinnier (which I'm fond of), ammo belt, AK, and talking on Aideed on the cellphone.

One last look.

I highly recommend the figures for Somalia and other African 15mm gaming, they're very well representative (in my opinion) and easily recognizable.

V/R,
Jack