Amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics. US 6mm

 Here are a few more vehicles, that I finished over the course of this week. If you paid any attention to my previous post then you will see my musings on paint jobs. I went with US Dark Green. The soft tops and tilts are British Uniform - a generic canvas sort of colour. 

I like the cartoony look of having blue windows at this scale. With the jeeps and trucks I worried about how they have no doors and are open sided, but due to molding needs they are filled in. How would I paint them then? I think it worked decently to be honest. 

These Chaffees are the new mold. They are pretty gorgeous. I had fun painting them and look forward to them dying quickly to some Panthers...

I finished up some US reinforcements this weekend. Time to use these to diversify my 6mm gaming capabilities.

Here we have three of my nine M4 Shermans. These are just regular old M4s with the 75mm cannon. I am happy to have these and cannot wait to get them onto the table this week.

 The convoy. Having these M3 Halftracks with infantry and without mean I can use them for various things. Annoyingly one of the full halftracks has some scratched helmets so needs to be repaired and isn't pictured here.

M8 Greyhounds. I think these are gorgeous vehicles and one of my favourite units in the computer game Company of Heroes. They were the base of my learner US build (four rifle squads followed by an M8) a few years back when I was playing that game. I look forward to pitting one of these against a Tiger II to see if he can sneak up behind and pop a few shots into the back plate.

M5 Stuarts. I have some scenarios that require these tanks, and I have been interested in them for a while. I remember using these in the computer game Sudden Strike 2 to great effect. I also recently used them (or M3 Stuarts) in Blitzkrieg 2, to a less successful degree.

Normandy Progress: A closer look at the hedges.

I brought my felt mat back from school to see how the hedges and roads look on a green backdrop. My kain take away from this is that I really don't like the felt mat. It is too uniform. I much prefer the Lidl mats I bought this summer. I also need more by way of fields and things to break up the green.

A German ambush lies in wait. I mean it looks fine, but the road is curling up which annoys me. I have found other methods for road creation, so hopefully I can experiment with those soon.

The GIs advance. Hoping to hold the road junction. It all feels very cramped. Not sure how happy I am with that. I feel very much like "that'll do" but want more. I want to wow myself with my terrain making prowess. Back to the ideas phase I think for roads. Hedges I am pleased with. I just need more.

US armoured platoon.

In an effort to progress further on my WW2 project I have managed to get a few nights of painting in. My army is based on Battlegroup Overlord but it looks like it can be adapted for other rules.

 Above are three M 10 Wolverine.  I wanted a tank hunter squadron. I have one now.

 An ordering mishap meant I have ended up with all Sherman 76s. These will not see action as a group. Standard M4s are on order.

Here I have four squads of infantry. I also have a few other bases with 2 figures on. These are to help me track casualties.

I have four squads of German infantry painted with machine guns and other support. Things are looking up.

First WWII infantry in 6mm.

Having set aside my 20mm WWII miniatures back towards the autumn of 2015, I had the itch again to play  WWII still. My aversion to basing multiple troops on one base has been overcome thanks to Horizon Wars, so I was looking around for rules to play WWII in.

I own Bolt Action, a couple of the Battlegroup books and Crossfire, have had some of these for a very long time. Crossfire and Battlegroup have never seen the table. Bolt Action has had two outings, once at my only appearance at the Winchester Wessex Gaming group (I think that is the name), where I used someone's 28mm figures. The other was against myself on my parents' dining room table, in 20mm. I enjoyed them, but have not played since. The only other WWII games I have had were Flying Lead, which have the benefit of being playable on a small table with only a handful of figures, which I enjoyed.

However, looking for other rules, I came across A Sergeant's War, looked at some AARs (played in 6mm) and decided to go for it. I then bought some Heroics and Ros miniatures at Colours in 2016, which have sat mostly unpainted in a box since. Being able to say I have two squads-ish of US infantry and two squads-ish of German infantry makes me extremely happy, and has fired my resolve to get back into WWII. 

I have based them in a 3,2,1 format to help keep casualties counted without the need for tokens. I may paint the squad leaders' base rims a different colour to help them stand out more. The normal infantry will have black rims. 

US Infantry squad with a BAR team.

Panzergrenadier squad.

Up next to be based: a bunch of US infantry as I painted loads on the "sprue" (the term escapes me right now) and a few more Germans (mostly MG teams).

To be painted: more German infantry, my PaK 40s, 57mm guns and crews, and the armour.