It's the Little Things That Count...

Greetings again, I've had had a bit of a quiet weekend but I have managed to finish a few odd little odds & ends.

This first one is a special Jump Off Point (JOP) for Chain of Command. I was thinking about a Too Fat Lardies' pod cast or video where the idea of a JOP was mentioned as a point where it's safe to deploy with maybe a scout or directing officer pointing the way. I thought a JOP with a military policeman directing movements might look good. So here it is. It's only good for Germans but I might make a few others (I do have a couple of NKVD officer figures doing nothing). The figure and bike are from AB. The other piece is from Simon's Soldiers.

These two are from a kit with a variety of small vehicles. The kit might be Fujimi, but I'm not sure (it's up stairs and I'm downstairs and I'm too lazy to go and check). So my fallschirmjager have a kettengrad and my G.I's have an amphibious jeep. A DUKW-ling, if you will. The figures are all from AB.

And my BEF finally get a commander. I'm not sure about Battlegroup, but in CoC they have a lieutenant and a sergeant. The command figures are from Simon's Soldiers and the signalman is from Lancer Miniatures.

Just a few little additions to keep things going. 

The blog must flow!

Ol' Smokey & His Pals

I've been busy doing quite a few different a few things for my WWII wargaming.

Today I finished off a bunch of markers for smoke, brew-up/burning markers and a couple of barrage spotter round markers.

Dirty oily burning markers

 White Smoke Markers (should these be coloured smoke?)

I wasn't sure how to make smoke markers. What I didn't want was a bunch of large markers that meant I would have to find some way to store them. So I opted to make some 3" discs with a suitable earthen look to them. On top of these I can place some synthetic kapok (from a crappy cushion that cost me $4). This arrangement packs into a smallish, flat box pretty easily and gives me 6 decent 3" smoke markers with minimal effort.

Yes, I know, I could just use a wad of stuffing and that would work fine. But some people are pedantic and will gladly dispute the 3" smoke footprint. The disc simply negates that possibility before it can begin.

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But I've done so much more...
I also finished off my AB Figures, U.S. Infantry platoon - Sort of.

The platoon above is perfect for Chain of Command, but for Battlegroup I need to add a few more bodies to the command section. I also made some support options for them:

A FOO & A pair of Bazooka Teams.

 0.50 cal and a pair of 0.30 cal's.

I'll need a few more crew figures to bring these squads up to strength. What I'll probably do is use the plastic Italeri figures I already have to flesh out their numbers. They have to be good for something after all!

This platoon can also be made to represent an Armoured Infantry Platoon by taking the 0.30 cal's and adding them to the mix. I also need to add a 60mm mortar to fill it out (I'll have one finished tonight).

So there we are. I really do like the look of the AB figures. I didn't mind the Itateri but they were difficult to find and these AB do look so much better and all the options are easy to get. Plastics are pretty restrictive because the options that are in the box are all you can get. But, they'll make good fillers and crew.

And, in a pinch, an extra section or two!