All,
Greetings, come on in and take a look at my doggies for World War Two. These guys are mostly plastic multi-pose figures from Warlord Games, though there are some Warlord and Artizan metals mixed in for the weapons teams. They’re nice figures overall, if a little boring, with nicely sculpted weapons, faces, helmets, and gear, with a nice spread of weapons, though not enough M-1 Garands for my liking, could have done without the shotgun, didn’t appreciate the fact you can’t really get the BAR into a firing position, and there is an arm for throwing a grenade but it looks kind of wonky to me. Sorry, don’t mean to sound too down on them, they’re still good to go as a force on the tabletop.
I’ve got a platoon+ of riflemen, plus a bevy of support weapons: three bazooka teams, two MG teams, two mortar teams, two ATG teams, and a flamethrower team. So plenty of troops to handle whatever nastiness the bad guys might throw at us. On a side note, these guys are cool for North Africa, Italy, and NWE, but I also find myself wanting an Army force for the Pacific, but these just don’t work for me, and I can’t seem to find any models that match what’s in my mind’s eye. If you’ve got any ideas (on figures I can purchase, NOT on how to spend the rest of my life modifying current figures with Green Stuff!), please let me know.
As per usual, I went with a very boring, yet hopefully effective, paint scheme using Contrast paints (basically just Militarum Green and Aggros Dunes). Trust me, it wasn’t for lack of trying, I spent a whole week doing different test jobs on these guys before finally settling on this one. The runner up was Skeleton Horde jackets, gear, and leggings with Snakebite Leather trousers.
Let’s take a look.
The whole mess, with HQ types up front, the riflemen making up the bulk in the center, with crew serves in the back.
The headquarters group.
We’ve got a Captain on the left and a Doc on the right. Yeah, I tried to spruce up my basic paintjob with some decals, consisting of rank, national ensign, and divisional patch (would have preferred 3rd Infantry Division, but The Big Red One ain’t so bad, and was what I had on hand).
Reverse. You can see the Captain’s railroad tracks on the front of his helmet.
A pair of Lieutenants, one lost (right) and one pretending not to be lost by pointing (left).
Reverse, showing my pathetic, hand painted vertical stripes denoting their officership…
A couple of senior NCOs.
Did up a five o’clock shadow that looks better in real life than this damn closeup…
A bunch of GIs with submachine guns, a mid of M-1 Thompsons and M-3 Grease Guns.
A Sergeant (left) and a PFC (right) with the Tommy Gun.
Another pair of soldiers with Tommy Guns.
A couple more Sergeants, now working in a Grease Gun.
Two more NCOs, one crouching with Thompson and one fading away while hosing something down with his Grease Gun.
A bunch of doggies with M-1 Carbines. The two at far right are metals from Warlord’s flamethrower teams.
A Sergeant (standing) and a Private (kneeling). More five o'clock shadow on Big Sarge on the left ;)
Another pair of carbine-wielding doughboys.
A gaggle of BAR-men.
Because of the way the arms and bodies are sculpted, the guy at left was as close as I could get to getting one of them into a firing pose. I'm sure it was done, but that's not the most effective way of engaging the enemy with a Browning Automatic Rifle ;) You'll note that the rest are all pointed skyward.
Another set of automatic riflemen. Another thing: I find the BARs from Warlord have too long a flash suppressor and so I end up cutting them down with my hobby knife; went too far on the guy at left, about right on the guy at right.
Another pair of gunners.
And all my dudes with M-1 Garand, Patton's famed "finest implement."
Nice poses, just wanted more M-1 Garands in the pack, replace the silly shotgun option (sorry, I'm sure some folks love the shotgun, just not much used, particularly in the MTO/ETO) with them.
Another pair of riflemen.
Two more. The set goes together pretty quick and easy, and painted up just as quick and easy with the Contrast paints.
Two more riflemen. You've probably noticed by now what I was saying earlier about being a bit boring; the poses themselves are great, but with a only a limited amount of weapons options they become a bit samey.
Then we’ve got two M-1919A4 machine gun teams from Artizan.
A pair of 81mm mortars from Artizan.
A closer look, although I think the team leader (center) is from Warlord.
My three bazooka teams; the two left-hand teams are metals from Artizan, while the far right team is plastic from Warlord, out of their infantry box.
Another look.
A metal flamethrower guy from Warlord.
Reverse.
A look at one of my anti-tank gun crews, and here I noticed that I've definitely mixed the figures. The dude in the center is one of the Artizan figures, while the guys to each side are Warlord. No biggie.
And here's a look at them with a 57mm anti-tank gun from Warlord.
Again.
And they're you have it, my US Army force for kicking Nazi butt. I've got a bunch of vehicles for these guys, too, will post them separately. Despite my gripes, I'm very happy with them and looking forward to getting them on the tabletop. Someday... Still painting and still have lots of troops left to post, but we're getting closer to the finish line.
V/R,
Jack
