Category Archives: Modern Wargaming

Eureka Miniatures: USMC

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I’ve had my eye on picking up some modern miniatures for awhile now, as it intersects nicely with both my interests in Modern Military, 1:6 Moderns, and of course, Miniatures. Since I haven’t actually played anything for dogs ears, it’s been a low-ish priority, but I recently found out about Eureka Miniatures‘ new-ish moderns. Since Eureka is local, just across town, and the owner, Nic is a great guy (who probably doesn’t remember me since it’s been years), I immediately did nothing since there was always something more pressing to pay for. The week before Christmas, I finally got off my arse and rang them to place an order, which I got, expresspost,  in 2 days. Such a nice change from overseas orders taking weeks to arrive.

One thing that does bother me about Eureka’s site is that the pictures are generally pretty small and not shown all that well. I figured since I’ll be painting these suckers up soon, I’d take some pictures and put them all up to show the figures off in their bare metal glory and give them a simple review. It’s really quite odd since Eureka have quite a nice gallery of painted figures, which for some unfathomable reason aren’t linked from the individual models in their online store.

The castings are crisp and clean, no flash, and just a slight mould line. You will have to trim a slight bit of metal off the bottoms of their bases in order to get them to stand up straight, but this is simply a matter of running a knife or file along the bottom for a couple of seconds. The sculpts are great as well. Kosta has done really well here, including lots of small details. ACOGs and Reflex sights are easily identifiable, weapons look good, and he’s clearly taken the time and care to understand what the equipment is and does, unlike way too many sci-fi miniature companies that have started to stick rails on everything but seem to have no idea what they’re for…

In short, excellent sculpts and excellent castings.

Now, for the good stuff – The pictures!

(Pictures all link to the appropriate pages on Eureka’s Website)

Eureka Miniatures USMC Officer and Marksman armed with M21: Front

Eureka Miniatures USMC Officer and Marksman armed with M21: Back

Eureka Miniatures USMC Fireteam Patrolling: Front

Eureka Miniatures USMC Fireteam Patrolling: Back

Eureka Miniatures USMC Fireteam Advancing: Front

Eureka Miniatures USMC Fireteam Advancing: Back

Eureka Miniatures USMC Fireteam Firing: Front

Eureka Miniatures USMC Fireteam Firing: Back

So those are the USMC figures. Eureka kindly provide a simple paint guide so you can purchase the appropriate Vallejo paints to paint them up as Kosta has. I’m not that excited by the M249s all using different ammo sources (we know they can use a loose belt or a STANAG magazine, but really, box feed, please! The USMC set is also available as a Squad Deal, which is the way I picked up the entire range.

Next up I’ll get the SEAL set and the Force Recon Marines organised.

Probably worthwhile as a disclaimer – I have no association with Nic Robson or Eureka miniatures, aside from having bought figures off him and had a chat with him in the past. I paid RRP for these figures and there is no Quid Pro Quo for my thoughts on them. Judge for yourself via the pictures if you’re in the market for Modern USMC.

edit – I thought these figures could work just as well as US Army, but decided to ask someone in the know. After asking an online aquaintance,  US Army MAJ (Ret) Will Rodriguez who is still very much in the loop on these things, I got the following response:

“At this scale it’s very difficult to tell a difference between these Marine and Army figures.  The paint applications will probably be the most determining factor.

The biggest giveaway that these are Marine figures is the fixed stocks on the weapons though the US Army was using a large number of fixed stocks through 2005.  The vests were the earlier IBAs which aren’t so molle intensive as the more current versions of body armor.

The Marine Spartan vest and Army IOTV are almost indistinguishable at this scale.  The rest (helmets, pouches, boots, uniforms) are not detailed enough to definitively say what branch they are.”

After hearing that, I’m very tempted to pick up a second set of them so I can paint one up in UCP/ACU to represent the US Army and the other in MARPAT for USMC. Hmm.. I might end up doing that with my next pay. Oh, I’m supposed to paint these guys up as well!

Men In Black – Warzone “Corporation” Miniatures.

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Mark Copplestone's Warzone Corporation Figures.

So I finally got some small amount of painting done. I picked a couple of old figures that had been half- finished in a figure case for.. a decade? These three fine individuals are Warzone figures. And old miniatures game based on the Mutant Chronicles universe. They’re from the Corporation, and sculpted by Mark Copplestone. We actually had a really good Warzone campaign going at our Friday night FLGS hangout back then, right up until Target Games pushed out Warzone 2nd Edition, and things just fell apart. Good times…

My guys at the time were a Cybertronic force, but instead of painting them grey, I painted them based off of the WCW “nWo” (New World Order) wrestling faction. They were Tres’ cool back then with their black outfits and stylish T-shirt logo. I naturally painted my few Corp guys to match.

Mark Copplestone's Warzone Corporation Figures.

The photos aren’t especially brilliant (the shading on their clothing is both more noticable and more subtle in hand) and they haven’t yet been varnished, (hence the shiny ponytail). I’m in two minds as to whether or not I should add the typical “GW style” highlight/shade/light point to the sunglasses, or simply go over them with gloss once the figures are sealed. Actually, I’ll need to do that to the torch on Ponyboy’s pistol.

I’m overall happy with the simple act of getting them finished, though my fav of the three is the Maori-tattooed bouncer. I swapped the front of his Ghenna Puker (aka Warzone’s crap-looking flamethrower) with the main section of a GW Heavy flamer, probably off a Chimera or Russ kit. Makes the weapon a bit bigger and a lot nastier looking.

Bases are kept plain and pretty generic so they fit in with as many different settings as possible. I generally don’t go for overly-specific bases, though I have warmed to them in some cases these days.