15mm WWII US Airborne - Urban

 All,

Fresh off the presses, I literally just finished this force up this past weekend.  I'm super proud of them; there's nothing in the photos I'm about to show you that I didn't paint and base myself, 100% the work of Jack.  I'm very happy with how they turned out; I know, I pretty much always say that, but it's certainly true.  The core of the force is built from Battlefront's US Airborne Company box, in the soft plastic, with a considerable amount of the heavy weapons coming from the old Battlefront metals, and a handful of the newer, hard-plastic Battlefront troops (from the 'Open Fire' set and the Airborne Rifle platoon pack).  I'm not sure if you'll be able to tell in the pictures, but the company box paratroopers are much larger and much thicker than the other two, with the Battlefront metals being the runts of the bunch.

You see everything laid out on my bombed-out city/battle of Mars mat; yeah, it's a bit too orange-y, but I think it doesn't look too bad once you've got everything on it.  I did up the bases almost in the same way as the three previous urban forces (Soviets, Germans, and British Paras), but they are a bit different as, of all things, my wife kept pestering me to drybrush more gray onto the bases.  She maintains I should have put yet more gray on the bases.  I'm not one to argue with the Missus, but I didn't want these bases getting too far away from the three forces I'd already completed.

With regards to 'urban' forces, I'm about 40% completed with a Waffen SS force (in an eclectic mix of different uniforms) for Arnhem and Nijmegen, then I need to do UK and US 'leg' infantry forces.  Well, in order to play out Market-Garden at least, I absolutely need some to play Irish Guards in Nijmegen, but I could use them for Normandy and Italy, as well.  And while I don't need US 'legs' for Market-Garden, I could use them for Normandy, Germany, and Italy as well.

Here's the whole force, consisting of:
-Commanding Officer
-Executive Officer
-5 x rifle units (three rifle stands, a bazooka, and a command stand, each)
-1 x MG unit (three M-1919s on tripods and a command stand)
-1 x Light Mortar unit (3 x M2 60mm mortars and a command stand)

-1 x Medium Mortar unit (2 x 81mm mortars and a command stand)
-1 x ATG unit (2 x 57mm guns and a command stand)
-1 x Artillery unit (2 x 75mm pack howitzers and a command stand)

Another look, from the side.

The company, battalion, regimental, or divisional commander, depending on what rules I finally friggin' choose and what echelon I'm gaming at...

Another look.  You can see here I painted these guys up with the divisional patch of the 82nd Airborne Division, the "All Americans."

One more look.  If you're not up on things, the 82nd Airborne were pretty tough (for an Army unit), having jumped into North Africa (prior to being formed as a division), Sicily, (Salerno) Italy, Normandy, and Holland, then fighting on foot at St Vith during "The Bulge."

A look at the Executive Officer's stand.  I love the figures, great poses and proportions (well, a few hands are a bit big, but I'm sure the sculptor meant them to have gloves on) with lots of raised details.  The raised detail makes them easier to paint, but it took me a bit longer than normal just because they're so big and they are truly three dimensional, there's stuff everywhere.  The troops are heavy on Tommy Guns and M-1 Garands, with quite a few light machine guns thrown in (both M-1919A4s and M-1919A6s).  Only a handful of M-1 Carbines are included, all on command figures (the guy at center in the pic above).

Reverse.  As you can see, the vast majority of the paratroopers are wearing backpacks.

A bevy of the unit command stands.

A closeup; the two guys at left, clearly command figures, both have M-1 Carbines.  The dude at right is just a 'regular' rifleman with M-1 Garand.

Reverse.

A pair of bazooka teams, one standing and one kneeling.

A closeup of the standing fellars.

And the guys kneeling.

I was rather conventional with this force, used the same poses pretty consistently on the stands, breaking them down into essentially three different types of rifle stands, the only difference on these being the order in which they're set up on the base, and the fact a couple of them have firing riflemen kneeling and a couple have him standing.

A closeup of the rifleman firing from the off-hand position.

A couple paratroopers advancing, one with Garand and one with Thompson.

The kneeling rifleman, firing, and a dude chucking a grenade.  I always hate the pose chucking a grenade with his rifle slung, especially cross body.  If you're close enough to the enemy to throw a grenade, slinging your rifle is probably not your best plan...

The next group of rifle stands, these built around an M-1919A6 (the one with the stock) team.

And there it is.

A nice, authoritative looking NCO pointing, with Thompson SMG.

A rifleman moving up.

A look from behind at the whole stand.

And the last group of rifle stands, also built around a machine gun team, but this time the venerable M-1919A4.

Hard to get a good pic of him, but there he is in the foreground, with the gun slung over his shoulder.

An even better looking NCO-type, in my humble opinion.

A rifleman advancing (center), and the A-gunner carrying a can of ammo for the MG (left).

A look from behind.

The machine gun platoon, with commander.

These are also the air-cooled M-1919A4, but in action on a tripod.  I like the rifleman figure, reloading his Garand.

Reverse.

A closeup of the business end.

And the command stand, old Battlefront metal figures.

Reverse.

The 60mm mortar teams.

A closeup.

Reverse.  The Airborne rifle company box only came with two mortar teams, so I had to bother a third team from the 'Open Fire' starter set.

That's these guys.  They're hard plastic and a little bit smaller than the guys from the company box.

A look at the backside of one of the company box riflemen on the mortar team stand.

The command stand, Battlefront metals.

Reverse.  Finally get to see a 'leader stripe;' the company box paratroopers all have too much scrim on their helmets to do the stripes.

The 81mm mortars, Battlefront metals.

A closeup.

And another.

And this is funny, I had to put a Battlefront hard-plastic guy on (left) with a metal guy (right).

I don't know if you can really see it from the photos, but here we go: far left is a hard plastic guy, center is a metal guy, and right is a soft plastic guy.  The soft-plastic guys are noticeably bigger than the hard plastic guys, and absolutely huge compared to the metals.  I remember thinking, "did I accidentally buy some 20mm guys?"

The anti-tank guns, old Battlefront metals.

A closeup.

And another.

The command stand.

The pack howitzers, also Battlefront metals.

A closeup.

And one more.

And their command stand.

An MG team lays down fire, allowing a rifle team to advance.

Again.  Man, I hope we can all live with this mat...  I need to email the company and see if there is a way to tone down the brightness; I haven't messed with it as I'm super scared of messing it up.

In any case, there they are, prepared to go nose to nose with the German SS in Hunner Park, should be fun ;)  I hope you guys like them.  In terms of what I've got on the painting table, my US Airborne for the Med and North Africa are about 70% done, my Indians for the Med and North Africa are about 90% done, my Aussies and Bersaglieri for North Africa are about 95% done, and (as I mentioned above) my Urban SS are about 40% done.  So, as always, more to follow.

V/R,
Jack