Tuesday, November 1, 2011

1/72 WWII Wargaming- US Forces

I bought the new Warhammer Historical Kampfgruppe Normandy rules... like a week before their 50% off sale!
Anyhow, I like the rules and so have put the Russian front on hold while I crank out some Shermans. I've started with a small force (about 250pts): A HQ unit (1 jeep w/3 men), a platoon of 5 M4 Shermans (2 w/75mm gun & 3 w/76mm gun), an M10 tank destoyer, an M4 105mm, a recon M5, an M8 armored car and a 10 man squad( which is all I have painted so far). I have enough German forces painted to give these guys a great fight and I'm looking forward to doing an AAR with photos of my first game.

The jeep is Academy models and is a little small for the Italeri US figures that I cut up to make a crew. Then again, Italeri are bigger than most of the figures I'm using but not so much that I won't use them at least until I have AB Figures' units painted.



The M8 armored car is an Italeri kit. The tarp and packs come with it and are very nicely sculpted. I'll have to find a crewman to stick in the turret...meh, probably won't last long enough in the game to bother.


An M4 105mm will be good support for the tiny infantry force. This is an Armourfast M4105 All the US vehicles were painted with the Flames of War all in one primer and base coat US armor spray. Then some quick weathering : a sloppy light wash of medium brown and maybe a little dark gray paint, followed by a tan/pewter gray dry brushing. Decals are Skytex and an AB commander was added.

M4a3 Armourfast Sherman.



I'm using a Hasegawa M3 Stuart. I'm basing my force on the 2/6 armored infantry battalion attached to the 1st armored division in the Italian campaign and depending on how early in '44 the scenario might be, I don't think it's too sacriligeous to use instead of an M5. Plus I've always loved this kit....and the Haunted Tank! I used a tank crewman from the new Hat Industrie US tank riders set. Posture is a little odd but the detail is nice. The set includes about 36 GI's lounging on tanks and 8 tank commanders in 2 poses.(Hat recently released tank rider sets for UK, US, Germans & Russians)

An Armourfast M10 tank destroyer. I'll need a few of these.

For now I'm using Italeri US Infantry. One box has enough figures to do a 1-1 platoon including bazookas with extra 60mm mortars and MMGs. The sculpting is pretty nice although the MMG and mortar figures have long been dogged for not being prone. The figures are at the big end of 1/72 figures like some ESCI sets but I think still useable with PSC & AB figures.