My third week of self-isolation, and I am very glad I’m a hobbyist!
Having a big project to follow along with has kept me sane, or at least stopped the standard hobby madness getting any worse! For anyone who follows me on Facebook on my blog page will know I’ve been posting updates every few days (shameless plug https://tinyurl.com/MaxAysonHobbyBlog) and this army is really starting to take shape!
You can read Part One here
Latest Additions
Since the last post, I’ve added 1 lieutenant plus buddy (converted from the Oddball Heroes set), a Bazooka squad which I absolutely love; I think the parts in this kit are awesome and I think these 2 have came out so characterful; 2 Machine gun teams (as a US force doesn’t look complete without a few 30 Cals spitting lead down range), a medium mortar team and the showcase piece for this force, a Sherman tank! The tank has been absolutely coated in stowage from our Tarps and rolls kit, Allied stowage, a few loose barrels and a box of Jerry cans made from a coffee stirrer.
The base it’s mounted on was won at last Novembers Grand tournament as a “FUBAR” prize, for those out of the know, they are small wooden spoon awards for particularly large hiccups or catastrophic order fails! For me I was running my Soviet army and I fired my 2 dog mines at an enemy tank, it’s worth noting that at this point the game was absolutely on a knife edge so both players had a chance. So naturally the dice gods coughed up snake eyes and both my dogs merrily ran under my T34, that was a key factor in losing that game along with skilled leadership by my opponent, I won’t take that away from him! I think this is just the dice gods disapproval at using animal cruelty by sending the dogs in!
Back to the Americans though! I think the base really ties the tank in with the rest of the force and using two different types of sand to make track marks in the base really helps its immersion!
The Expanded Army List
| Unit Name: | Upgrades: |
| Regular Second Lieutenant | 1 extra man |
| 10 Regular GIs | SMG, BAR |
| 10 Regular GIs | SMG, BAR |
| 10 Regular GIs | SMG, BAR |
| 10 Regular GIs | SMG, BAR |
| Regular Bazooka Team | N/A |
| Regular Medium Machine Gun | N/A |
| Regular Medium Machine Gun | N/A |
| Regular Medium Machine Gun | N/A |
| Regular Mortar Team | Spotter |
| Regular Jeep | MMG |
| Regular M4A1 Sherman | N/A |
| Total Points Cost: 1000 pts |
I think this force shows off a nice representation in miniature of the forces in operation Torch in 1942. It’s a little beefed up from a real platoon as its got way too many attached machine guns and the squad sizes are a little wonky, but overall I’m happy with it as its got a little bit of everything and the rules let me use 3 machine guns, so I might as well give it a try! Also there is a consideration that this is for game play purposes not pure accuracy to a platoon, so I think it represents a nice compromise of historical and hopefully fun to play and play against! I’ll have to let you know back when the country is working again and I can get a game in!
Next on the Paint Station
Up next is 2 more squads of ten men, a machine gun jeep, a mortar spotter and one more MMG team. The Mortars spotter that I am going to convert out of the GI plastics, and maybe hijack the binocular arms from an Afrika Korps sprue to make it nice and obvious he’s a spotter not a rifleman.
So stay tuned for the next instalment and happy hobbying!
Dan Hewitson
Conor Trainer
Tom Mecredy
Craig Nixon