Olive & Drab ~ U.S. Infantry Re-basing

The latest of my re-basing projects is finished. This time it's United States Infantry. These took me quite a while because I didn't really have many of them painted up for Chain of Command, so I needed to do a fair bit of painting to get them up to speed for O Group. The painted figures I had on hand amounted to a platoon with a section of assault pioneer/engineer, as well as heavy weapons. For some reason I had plenty of heavy weapons. 

Most of these miniatures are AB Figures with a few Simon's Soldiers in the mix. I also had a couple of sections of plastic Italeri/Esci that I started off with several years ago. I wasn't going to use these for the platoons but not because they're plastic (they are pretty nice figures) but because I didn't quite get the colour of their jacket right. When I did the metal figures I used a better colour (it's Vallejo but I don't know what it's called - I wrote "US Jacket" on the bottle so I wouldn't forget).

Despite how the photo's look, in the flesh the bases are quite sandy/gritty and not as green as they appear. This is because I wanted these guys to fit into the Mediterranean/Tunisian theatres more so than NW Europe. Unfortunately, my photographic skills are not very good so I pretty much have to go with what the camera gives me. (Photoshop manipulation can only go so far!)

I like the inclusion of pioneers/engineers. They have 4 bases so that a player can field them as demolition, mine clearance or add a flame thrower for an assault platoon. If you look you'll find that one of the plastic Italeri figures snuck into the the platoon.

The battalion commander demanded a close up. I like FOO base. I'm not sure if this is what these figures are actually supposed to represent but it's what I used them for.

The plastic figures I mentioned above were not left out. I used some of them to make patrol markers. As such they have a different role in a game of O Group so it doesn't really matter if they don't quite fit with the other figures. They still look okay and these bases look better than a flat featureless disc. 

So that's it for the US Infantry. As usual, I don't bother with much detail or things such as unit insignia. Whilst that sort of stuff looks good and I can only admire those folks who take the effort to include those details, I just don't see the point. When they're on the table nobody is going to take notice of such detail. For me a good all-round paint job that looks the part and reasonably decent bases are all that's needed.

P.S.

One other thing about my Americans: I don't have very many vehicles or armour to support them. My main focus has always been Commonwealth/German. Although I have both USSR and US which should both have massive amounts of war-making materiel, I pretty much have bugger all for both of them. What I have for both armies is stored all together in a single plastic box (which is only half full!).

More Re-Basing - HG Div

The re-basing continues. This time it's the Hermann Goering Division. These guys are panzer grenadiers and as such they have lot of Light Machine Guns (LMG's). When I started this rebasing I thought I could do these guys relatively quickly but I found that it took fair bit of time to accumulate loads of LMG's (18 in all). I know that for 'O' Group I don't really need to represent all of the LMG's but I wanted them to look different and representing the huge amount of automatic weapons in the battalion was the way to do it.

They don't really look that much different to other German units but they do have Luftwaffe blue trousers and head gear and they also have a different camouflage smock. The figures are a mix of PSC plastics, AB Figures and Esci/Italeri plastics.

I don't have many heavy weapons for them yet. Just what you see here. But I can always sub regular infantry heavy weapons until I get some more painted up.

There are a few reasons I chose to do this particular unit. One is because I wanted an elite/prestige unit but I didn't want to do any SS purely on moralistic grounds. Another good reason for doing the HG is because I've never seen anyone else paint them up and put them on the table. A third reason is because I want to concentrate more on the Mediterranean Theatre and the HG Div fought all through Sicily and Italy. Anyway, what ever my reasons: I think they look great.

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I also made some new terrain. As mentioned above, I want to concentrate more on the Med but I have very little terrain that fits. So I'm in the process for making some and I decided to make some vineyards.

I've been wanting to make these for a long time but I didn't know how to go about it. I got the Setting The Scene books by Pat Smith last year and when I decided the time was ripe for making vineyards I went to that book and used the methods therein. The only difference is that I made mine individually instead of making them a large set terrain pieces. Thanks to Mr Smith, because otherwise, I wouldn't have had a clue how to make them.

The vegetation is from a long strip of artificial ground cover stuff that florists use. I found it in a local shop for $8 for a big roll. I just pulled of lumps of the stuff and glued it into position using contact adhesive. I still have most of the roll for use later on.

To give you an idea of the scale here's the HG's lurking in the vineyard ready to ambush some unwary GI's.

HG Div and Some Other Bits

I've been thinking that I'd like to make a Panzer-grenadier platoon. I've also been thinking that I'd like to paint up the Hermann Goring Division. Which one should I do?

Regular Pz-grenadiers will look pretty much the same as regular infantry figures. I know there are differences but I'm not overly concerned with those tiny details in 20mm. However, I was aware that the HG Div were organised along the same lines as regular Heer Pz-grenadiers so I opted to do them and kill two birds with one stone!

Because I'm hoping to concentrate a bit more on the Mediterranean Theater, the HG Div fit in well. They fought all through Sicily and Italy for almost of the entire campaign before being shipped to the Russian Front in the dying months of the war in 1945.

From what I can tell by looking up some uniform info is that they wore a greenish camouflage tunic with their Luftwaffe grey/blue pants. So that's how I painted them. They may not be perfect to many purists but they look good enough for me.

I did give them green collar tabs!!!

I made the panzerschreck and his #2 out of existing figures from the Plastic Soldier Company German, boxed set. The #1 was a rifleman and #2 was a medic. The weapon came from another PSC kit. I'm unsure but I think it might have been the SdKfz 251 box. I just trimmed it and carved it to fit the figure's contours.

I also made the platoon commander out of a PSC signalman by adding a helmeted head and a doing bit of conversion on an SMG arm from the same box. The sig figure also had a holstered pistol which works well. I like him... Having a puff of his cigarette whilst plotting his next decisive move.

I also took another pic of the HG pioneer section and MMG that I did a few weeks back just so that they're here in the correct context. This pic is the most accurate as far as the paint job is concerned. I don't have a good enough light source to capture the detail in many cases, but this one came out pretty accurate.

For the upcoming Blitzkrieg I have another SdKfz 321. This one is a "Funkspahwagen" or Radio Car.
So calling in those, all important, Stuka strikes on time will be made all the more easier for the glorious Wehrmacht!

And the US get some reinforcements: A Ranger section. At least I think they're Rangers. I'm not sure how the US name thier pioneers/engineers... ?
Anyway, these are mainly AB with a few Simon's Soldiers. I also have some mine detection/clearance teams to go with these but I forgot to photograph them. There're quite a few BAR's and SMG's in this mix & I don't know why. My only guess is that they're keen to get close and personal. They're friendly little fellows!

More DAK & Mediterranean Terrain

I've painted up the last remaining figures of DAK to add to my collection. These are a mox of Simons Soldiers and a few AB (tell a lie, they're not the last, I still have a DAK pioneer section to paint up).

I've also been making some terrain. The palms came from China via ebay. $8 for 24 trees. Here are the first few terrain pieces. They can be for anywhere in the Med. If I want to add them to a more fertile area I can just add some flock or lichen to create some bushes.

I gave the fronds a quick brush of French Tank Uniform followed by a splash of yellow-green. The trunks are a dusty grey followed but a dry-brush of stone.

The rocks are actually pieces of a yoga brick torn up into pieces. The original colour was dark grey so they got a heavy dry-brush followed by a lighter dry-brush. They look good and they virtually weightless. In the pic of the box below, the actual box weighs more than the rocks.

P.S. - I don't know the real purpose of a yoga brick.

Allied Support Update

I made a couple of these GMC's (Gun Motor Carriage) about a month back. I made one for the US and one British. I was shown a diagram with two GMC's and a Daimler Dingo that made up a British SPG support section (or whatever it's called) and I decided that would be a nice little unit to make.

So I ordered another box and made them up - Again - one US and one Brit. I now have four of them. Great little models by Italeri from their quick-build range. Very little work required and they take about 30 minutes each. Once again, they're painted for the Mediterranean Theater.

The crew are from AB (except for one of the US gunners who came from the PSC 20mm plastic US Infantry set).

I'm pretty happy with the results and can't wait to get them onto the table where they'll probably die a horrible death.

HG and 25pdr's

I've been thinking of making something a little different than regular German Infantry. I'm not keen to make SS for various reasons, so I looked for something else and decided to make the Hermann Goring Division.

This seems like a good choice because I do prefer the Mediterranean Theater and the HG were pretty active in this area. It also means I can also sub my DAK figures as stand-in's in some instances (Sicily, early Italy). So I decided to paint up some figures to see how they worked out. These figures are a bit of a mix of AB  and plastic PSC. They're actually an assault pioneer section and tripod MG34. Never mind, this was a test and they look okay. I have a box of PSC German Infantry waiting for paint so they'll end up as HG Div.

I also got another PSC box - This time a 25pdr gun kit. Not bad, it has two guns, two Quads and two regular crews & two tropical crews. They're nice models but the crew figures are a bit lack luster. However,they are serviceable & I've seen (and used) worse figures. I'll most likely use the tropical crews most of the time, but the regular crew will be good for other gun crew that I might need.

I had some spare wheels from another kit which I put onto the ammo trailers and used the wheels in the kit to make up two sets of guns - So I ended up with two howitzers & two pheasant guns out of one kit. Gotta be happy with that!

And yes... I know the pheasant guns are limited but the 25's are very versatile. I painted them all for Mediterranean so I can use them from Africa to Greece, to Crete, to Italy, to Dodecanese (yes, I'm looking at this interesting little campaign).

Towing the pheasant guns.

 25pdr's with crews. The tropical crews are still being painted. 

Desert Scatter Terrain and Some More Tanks

I've been busy getting things done over the past few days and here's some of it:

Some cactus patches for Tunisia or Sicily or Crete or virtually anywhere in the Mediterranean. These are from Pegasus Hobbies. Not too bad for a single box. I now need to get some palms to add a bit of height and some more greenery for Tunisia.

The largest of these pieces stands about 5cm, so they could make up a formidable obstacle if grouped together.

And some tanks:

I picked these Grants at my club's sales day. They're old Hasegawa Models. One had a $1.95 price tag on the box. The turret's on these, however, are printed because the originals are too small. I did replace the printed 37mm guns with the original guns in the kit because the printed ones were the same size as the 75mm gun. The figures are AB.

I put these models onto bases because the tracks weren't in great shape and they decided to give me some grief. I don't like putting bases on tanks but there was no other choice. Also, there's two pics of the front view - This is because I took a pic before I realised that I hadn't finished the tac signs.

I've run out of 7th Armoured decals so I put on some spare number tac signs (top pic) then I painted out the numbers and painted in the Desert Rat sign (bottom pic). They came out okay.

And a pair of Marder III's. Although it can't be seen, these have the divisional markings for the Hermann Goering Division. I've decided to concentrate on the HG and 1st Fallschirmjager for my Mediterranean Germans. My DAK can also stand in for the HG in 1943, if needs be.

I don't have a very much armour for the HG. A troop of Pz IV's, a couple of Tigers and these. But I do have Pz III's in DAK colours which could also be used in Sicily or early Italy. 

So that's it for now.

More Brits and Luftwaffe Assets

I've had a week or more that was busy with family issues that took up much of my time. Still, I did manage to get some pieces done here and there.

I got some armour and some carriers done for the desert. I tried to select a camouflage scheme that will fit multiple theaters. So I opted for a dark sand & very dark brown thinking that this can pretty much cover later desert, Tunisia, Sicily and maybe even early Italy. It's a matter of trying to maximise the usefulness one cammo pattern and to save me needing multiples of multiples of the same models all with different paint schemes.

These Crusaders, I picked up cheap. Little did I realise at the time that two of them were Mk III's and one of them a Mk II. No bother. One day I might get 2 more II's and another III to fix up this problem.

The Luftwaffe got some more hitting power in the shape of a Fw-190 - Again painted for maximum usage over the Mediterranean campaigns.

And this next one is a test - Once again it's something for the Luftwaffe: Early Fallschirmjager for Crete and the Greek/Balkan campaigns. These figures are AB but I'm not sure if they will be the best figures to use for this situation as the AB figures tend to be equipped for latter in the war. At this stage I'm unsure who makes appropriate early 20mm FJ. I'll paint up a few more and see how they come out.

Anyway, this was mainly a test to see if my colour pallet was any good. I'm happy with it. I think the basing will also work pretty good for the Med.

Some Armour for the Med

I've had some old Airfix Churchill's sitting around for quite a while and I really wanted to get some British armour made up for the Mediterranean. So I decided to make them.

And I gave up after the first one.

But then I found that War & Peace Games were selling their PSC kits off wth very good discounts (I fear they're going to stop stocking PSC 20mm so they're selling it off). However, I digress... They were selling cheap so I bought up. And one of the kits I bought were PSC Churchill's. Fantastic models. Easy to make, they look great and the kit has 4 variants.

So, first up I made a troop of Churchill IV's and painted them up for the Mediterranean Theater. And here they are:

 I also have a 4th vehicle which I made as an AVRE for some bunker busting capability in Northern Europe. I post it here after I give it a coat of paint.

I also finished off another armoured car that's been sitting on my bench for some time. It's definitely a Rolls Royce but I'm not sure if it's a Mk II or a Mk III. What ever it is. It's been assigned to the 7th Armoured Regt. The commander is PSC from one of the Churchill sprues.

I have no idea where it came from. It's resin and very nicely detailed - as opposed to the Morris CS9 that I posted recently which was a very basic & rough thing.

Thinking about it, I have a feeling it might have come from Early War Miniatures - But I'm not sure at all. It's very nice.