Sunday 17 July 2011

Foundry Skinheads 01

This post looks at the two sets of Skinhead Gangers made by Wargames Foundry from their 28mm scale Street Violence range - SV018 Yossa's Bonehead Skins and SV026 Gazza's Boot Boys.
First up are Yossa's Bonehead Skins, led by the man himself, Sid "Yossa" Hughes in his sheepskin coat. For many years I wondered what weapon he was armed with. All became clear when I bought GURPS High Tech, which showed the weapon and described it in some detail. It is the ATK-Heckler and Koch XM29 Objective Individual Combat Weapon, (OICW) a combination assault rifle with underslung grenade launcher. This joint American/German project was cancelled in 2008 due to weight, effectiveness and budget problems. James Bond used one at the start of the film Die Another Day. What on earth Yossa is doing with one is anyone's guess!
The blonde, overwight skinhead to the left of Yossa is Kenny Price. He is armed with a holstered pistol on his left hip and a Hawk MM1 grenade launcher with plentiful ammo slung over his back. He and Yossa can lay down a lot of explosive firepower between them.
Standing in the centre of this group is Jammy McGill. With a name like that, I'm guessing he's Scottish. He is armed with a 5.56mm Steyr AUG Assault Carbine. Note the reduced length of the barrel. I must admit that I really like the look of the Steyr AUG.
Next in line is Connie Harris, the first of two females from this group. She carries a pair of 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5KA5 Machine Pistols. Note her hairstyle, shaven over the skull but with a fringe at the front and back. I've mentioned this a few times, but for the sake of newcomers, I drew the fishnet pattern on her tights with a fine-nibbed Rotring pen. The ink dries slightly glossy so I gave her legs a coat of matt varnish. Her fishnets are dark blue.
Her colleague, Rachel Gascoigne, appears to be saying, "Does my bum look big in this?" It's a lovely pose she's in as she flaunts her sex appeal.She is armed with a standard 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 Sub-Machine Gun. I gave her the surname Gascoigne to show that she is married to Gazza, leader of the next group of figures. Note that her fishnets are black.
The next two photos, shown above, show Gazza's Boot Boys and Gazza can be seen at the far left. Ed "Gazza" Gascoigne is armed with a 5.56mm Minimi Squad Automatic Weapon, showing he's not someone you should take lightly. Like, Yossa, he is extremely tall and muscular.
The Ganger in the green jacket to the left of Gazza is known only as Spog. Perhaps he's the gang's own version of The Stig! He comes armed with a 9mm Heckler and Kock MP5SD3, fitted with a scope sight. The MP5SD series come with integral sound suppressor but even a silenced firearm still makes some noise.
The third figure in line, striding purposefully forward is Shane Crombie. He also carries a variant of the 5.56mm Steyr AUG Assault Rifle, this time fitted with a much longer barrel and bipod. The scopesight has been replaced with a more powerful version.
Moving on, we come to the female contingent of this set. Nancy Jones is armed with the Steyr Aug Assault Carbine, shown earlier in the hands of Jammy McGill. Her pose is similar to Rachel's but not so blatantly sexy.
Finally, is Karen Metcalfe, whose blonde hair is showing its black roots. She stands at the ready with her 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 Sub-Machine Gun. Note that all ten figures are wearing Doc Martin boots, which became synonomous with skinhead gangs in the 1970's and were often known as "bovver boots" back then.
I have no doubt that some of you will disapprove of the way these skinheads are so heavily armed and whilst this wouldn't normally bother me, this time I'd have to agree with you. These aren't a gang of thugs, they are a small army! I can't say that these are representative of skinhead gangs from the 1970's when the skinhead cult was at it's height. Nowadays, you never hear of skinheads. They have gone the way of Mods and Rockers from the 1960's. What do I think they should be armed with? Flick-knives, knuckle-dusters, billiard cues, baseball bats, a length of chain, tyre-irons, etc. and for the leaders, maybe, a sawn-off shotgun, either double-barrelled or pump action.
There is no denying that these are finely sculpted figures and they will probably work well in some alternative world to ours but I can't help feeling that their weapons are way over the top and inappropriate. Your Mileage May Vary. The two sets retail for £10.00 each from the Wargames Foundry webstore.

28 comments:

  1. They're very nice and I agree about the armament. Perhaps you can find some less well armed civvies and have them find a military cache somewhere or a raid on an overrun military base.

    Or think of Predator 2 and they could be drug dealers or something.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Brummie. A Predator 2 type scenario is a good reason for why they are so well tooled up. So too, is your idea of a raid on a military arms depot. If the military base is overrun with zombies anyone could walk in and take what they wanted... if they can deal with the zombie threat.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Skinheads! Now there's a sub-culture to play with never thought of it outstsnding gsng typr thing. Thanks for your comments about the Photo thing.Ive noticed what really makes yours stand out is the background, it sets your models of a treat I'll try thst in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  4. They are a really good set, I think of using mine as ganger ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi, Irqan. As I mentioned in my review above, skinhead gangs are unheard of in the UK these days. Perhaps this lot are trying to instigate a comeback.

    Regarding photographing minis, because most of my games are set in an urban or suburban setting, I wanted a background to reflect that, so I just used a couple of wall sections from one of the WWG Mayhem City sets. There's plenty to choose from. Lining figures up against the wall, means I don't need such a great depth of field so most of my shots are taken at f5.6 or thereabouts. For batrep shots, things are different. Sometimes I'll need a large depth of field, hence higher f numbers. It all sounds very technical but I was fortunate in that I learnt photography when I was studying for my graphic design degree.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Zerloon. Yep, I'll be using mine as Gangers as well. Team Vampifan would love to loot their weapons after they've killed them! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. They're not bad but at the time I believed they were more UK based figures and that's why I never bought them but yours as always are great my friend.

    ReplyDelete
  8. great job mate,i love the guns,you should call the gang romper stompers

    ReplyDelete
  9. @Fran. These are not among the best figures in the Street Violence range but as you say, they're not bad. Thanks for the compliments on the paint jobs.

    @Shintokamikaze. I think this gang (if you combine both sets) would stomp most folk, including military squads. Yep, Romper Stompers is a good name.

    Oh, nice to hear that you like their guns.

    ReplyDelete
  10. You really do like to make fishnet stockings?

    Allround a solid paintjob as always, and as you say, this gang means business... The deadly kind!!

    You made the biker gang...And TEam Vampifan went up against them. Is this a hint of things to come?

    ReplyDelete
  11. @Johnny. A lot of my female Foundry Street Violence figures ended up with fishnet stockings. It's not a fetish of mine, even if the evidence suggests otherwise.
    Yes, Team Vampifan have gone up against a biker gang but not a skinhead gang. A shape of things to come? Well, put it this way, it would be a shame not use them. Know what I mean?

    ReplyDelete
  12. And with them packing that much heat? Team Vampifan better have an ace up the sleeve!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Team Vampifan's ace up the sleeve is Vampifan himself. He's Rep:6 with an Assault Rifle, Body Armour and a selection of Hand Grenades. It doesn't get much better than that. Still, best not get too cocky. I don't want to anger the dice gods.

    ReplyDelete
  14. You're quite right about the weapons... there's tooled up and then there's armed to the teeth with the arms budget of a small African nation.

    You've got the paintjob right, really nostalgic which makes me wonder how perhaps your head might have seen a pair of clippers.

    These would be a must-have for me (my credit card thanks you) IF they'd been a bit more retro... so a sawn off shotty, a surplus Sten or a service revolver smuggled back from ww2 with the melee weapons you suggest would make them fit more into 70's gaming (esp Geezers) but also on a modern table. Shame.

    Have you seen offensive's riot figs?
    http://www.offensiveminiatures.com/news_form.asp?ID=9

    ReplyDelete
  15. @Phil. Ah, Phil, great minds think alike. I've got the Geezers rules as well and I was hoping to use them with those rules. But... not the way they are armed. I agree that Foundry should have gone more retro with them and then we'd both be happy.
    Yes, I have seen the Offensive Minis rioters. They're still on my must buy list.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Bryan- Here in the states we still have Skinheads, though where yours have hair, the ones here in the US shave all the hair off their head, unfortunately they are more associated with White Supremest groups like the KKK, Aryan Brotherhood, etc... Not a good group of people to be around.

    As for your statement about silenced weapons still making noise, yes they do. The correct term for a silencers is actually a muffler or a suppressor, since it reduces the amount of audible noise from the firearm. Now I don't know if you have ere heard a real MP5SDx (x= variant #), but they are actually fairly quiet. They sound almost like a pneumatic nail gun or an air rifle (BB Gun), easily low enough not to be heard is there is any other noises around you, even something as simple as the good wind blowing through tree leaves.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi, Doug. I was going to ask you about the prevalence of skinheads in the USA but you've pre-empted me with your reply. A lot of our skinheads associated themselves with Neo-Nazis and groups like the National Front. Mostly, though, they'd ally themselves with a football club and enjoy fights with rival fans. No wonder our football fans had such a bad reputation in the 1970's and 80's!

    My information about sound suppressors for firearms comes from GURPS, especially the supplement, High Tech. I found it incredible the depth of knowledge in GURPS and its supplements. Your description sounds like you have practical knowledge on the subject. If true, all I can say is, much respect, Doug!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Those fishnets are awsome Bryan and the highlighting on the demin jackets is awesome, the seams are what make it for me, well done.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Just to add some depth to the Skinhead background... in the UK it was originally a working class response to welcoming West Indians to our communities. The longer, more Suedehead, hair and the styles were lifted from the W.I. youth along with a healthy taste for Ska. It wasn't until the National Front, etc, started hijacking the look in the 70's that things turned nasty. Sadly those worst elements seem to have been the main export of the whole scene.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Beautiful figures of survivors, I like your painting style very characteristic and are magnificent, Greetings!

    ReplyDelete
  21. @Adam. Thanks. The denim has come out perfect. As for the fishnets, i could never have achieved that effect with a paintbrush.

    @Phil. Thanks for the extra background info. All true.

    @Jhon Sebastian. Greetings, my friend, and thanks for the kind words.

    ReplyDelete
  22. As usual VtG puts all to shame ... great work as always my friend!

    And the denim is done beautifully - it was so well done, I didn't even notice it until I saw Ad's comment. Damn you forever!!

    ;)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Those are great! I love the way you did Sid's jacket. Perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  24. @Colin. Thanks, Colin. It's remarkable how many comments I've had on how I painted the denim effects. the secret is simply lots of drybrushing. Because the seams were easily distinguishable from the sculpting, they were easy to paint.

    @Luckyjoe. Those kind of coats were popular in the 1970's but you rarely see them nowadays.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Another great paint job. These guys are heavily armed, but still nice models. I didn't pick them up in my recent Foundry order, but I could see at least one of them being picked up in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Adam, I hope you're talking about picking up one set rather than one figure. Foundry do not sell their multi-figure sets individually.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Yeah, I meant that eventually I may pick up one of these sets. I know Foundry doesn't do single miniatures, I would probably save some money if they did, as there are often a few great miniatures mixed in with some so-so ones. Oh well, they'll all be in my lead pile eventually.

    ReplyDelete
  28. That's good to hear. I wish I had a lead pile, instead I have a lead mountain that is getting bigger all the time! Sadly, I just can't stop buying new figures.

    ReplyDelete