While organizing my 15mm figures I came across my Rebel Minis Earth Forces Homeguard figures. Aside from the bases needing to be finished it seems I never painted up any NCOs or officers. Thankfully I had several packs of figures still sealed up so I got to painting! These figures are part of the Earth Force range which consists of the Homeguard in open helmets and the Marines in closed helmets but fairly identical kits and weapons. The marines have a tripod mounted gun and crew that with a head swap could serve with the homeguard.
The command pack has three poses, with two of each in a pack for $3.99.
The heavy weapons pack has three heavy weapons, a shoulder fired rocket launcher, a flamer, and a sniper. With two of each in a pack for $3.99.
The infantry pack includes 21 figures in 5 poses for $10.95. There is a good mix of advancing and firing poses, with no prone poses. There is an alternate pack of Homeguard infantry in the same poses with boonie hats and gas masks instead of hard helmets.
I did a quick review on YouTube of the Homeguard and Titan Marines when I opened up the tub ‘o minis.
I’ve found the castings to be good, with the only consistent casting flaw being a bit of flash on the lower right side of the backpack for some reason (vent or gate for casting maybe?). They’ve required a normal amount of cleanup, mostly just trimming between the legs with the occasional scraping of a mold line.
There’s a good level of detail on the mini, making it fairly easy to paint. These fall in very well at the lower end of high-tech, with the Homeguard title suggesting that these fill the role of reserves or conscript troops. Several of the poses have small hands around the weapons. I guess you could say they’re more true-scale that heroic, but it’s a little offputting if you’re staring at a dozen of them painting them up. At three feet you’ll never notice and it hasn’t stopped me from buying them several times.
I use these troops to represent the conscripts in my Democratic Peoples Republic of Glory army where they serve as D6 rated troops in large squads with few support weapons. One step above human wave attacks. Dear Leader either doesn’t trust these troops with enough equipment to be dangerous, or doesn’t believe they deserve the level of support to make them effective.
My DPRG force have a mostly grey paint scheme, with these troops having a light grey uniform, darker grey equipment and dark blue armor plates. Their vehicles tend to have the same light grey paint pattern overall.