Authentic WW2 GI uniform PLUS a FOW Sherman!

I guess I will start off showing off the vintage WW2 uniform that I wore last week for Halloween. I borrowed it from my friend John, who has a large collection of original WW2 uniforms. This one is early-mid war with all the wool and no cotton. It was hot but great fun and plenty of people were pleased with the show of respect for the greatest generation. I work at a busy store and the uniform brought people to tell stories about their family members and the experiences during wartime.

Here's another model for Flames of War, a cast hull Sherman. I don't play FOW but John had some models laying around and I said I would paint them up for him. The box came with some stowage so I added some. It's hard to make it look good, since it is so small!

Behind it is the Sherman I painted for my own Bolt Action army.

I magnetized the turret, which was not easy, since the resin is so dense. But in the end it was well worth it.

I saw a picture from 1944 where you can a Sherman that has all the soldiers' packs hanging of the back, so I figured I will do that on this one.

SC Mike

Bolt Action 1000 point US Army is finished!

I finally finished my US 1000 point army. Modeled on the 92nd with all African American soldiers and one white captain, which was, amazingly, the reality. Its has been fun to honor these heroes with a little troop of models!

Here's the my 30 cal MMG group. I decided to add all three on a 60 mm base and added some ruins and bricks.

Since the army has 10 10 man units, I decided to make one look like they are observing.....

and one is shooting and assaulting.

SC Mike

Tamiya 1/48 Deuce and a half for Bolt Action

Without the Jimmy, the workhorse of World War 2, the Allied advance from Normandy all the way into Germany would have not happened. This truck, used all over in Europe, was used as transport, cargo and tow vehicle and no less then 800.000 were built. 

The official name is GMC CCKW, which soldiers promptly renamed as the Deuce and a half, a 6x6 truck, that was designed in 1941.

My model, a 1/48 scale version from Tamiya, features the open top version with canvas roof, that was designed late in the war. This is also the long wheel base version, which gave the cargo hold a lot more space.

I painted the model with the usual greens and browns and weathered it moderately. I changed the driver's torso to a Bolt Action model, since the 1/48 scale would be too small and this worked out just fine. I did use the smaller leg part.

Early in the war, the cargo floor was made of steel, but in mid war it was changed to wood, due to shortages of steel. In the end of the war, the period that I am modeling, spring of 45, the cargo floor was made of steel composite. So when you model one of these, make sure to figure out what period and materials apply to your version.

You can see in the photo below that transport of troops in late war was key using these trucks. Unfortunately the Tamiya model doesn't supply benches for the back, but I would be a cool project to create a group of soldiers for the back, that you could use during movement in Bolt Action but take out and swap with fighting models, once they have deployed 

 

Here are the side views of my model. Despite the Testors matte finish, there is still some gloss, mostly on the tires.

Below you can see I tried to have the gas stains show a bit on the fuel tanks.

A scene in France in late war. It's a great image and pretty much looks made for a Verlinden diorama. Of course I would st have to find a Willys jeep from Tamiya in 1/48 scale and they are hard to come by.

Painting the window frame took me ages, making sure to be super patient and not dropping paint on the glass part. In the end it worked out well.

Hope you enjoyed this and make sure to sign up as a follower! Also, I would be so grateful if blog hosts could add me to their blogrolls. I will be happy to do the same, as long as your blog deals with Historical Wargaming. I will also delve into Flames of War in the coming months.

SC Mike 

Mama and baby

My friend John gave me some of his Flames of War Americans to paint up and it seemed like a fun project. Now, having painted a few models, I decided to paint a bunch of his models, because it's fun and because he doesn't have to do it. So here is the first one, as a test....I will have to improve a bit on this...

....and here is a M8 Greyhound. I recently finished one of those for my Bolt Action US Army, so it seemed like a good moment to capture Mama and baby.

 The decal doesn't come with the blister of the Greyhound, an oversight I think, so I grabbed a little one from a Sherman Squadron decal sheet. I think it makes it look a lot better.

SC Mike

Homemade Wrecked Vehicle Markers!

Having played a few games of Bolt Action now, it has always been kind of anticlimatic when one of the vehicles on the battlefield blows up and we have to use black felt to make it look like smoke. So I figured I would throw something together that looks decent:

I used some old clump foliage from Woodland Scenics:

...and spray it black. After that a bit of dry brushing with orange and yellow and an overall drybrush of light grey and voila! It's done:

I attached the clump foilage to a Games Workshop base (and magnetized it for easy transport). It works nice, since the base is just small enough to fit in the turret openings on my models. That way the smoke really seems to come out from the inside.

Easy does it. I am planning on make a few more but bigger.

Part of me realizes that I am glad this is a game for all of us. When I was looking for a good historical image for this post, I saw a lot of exploding tanks and it made me realize those images are real, which all the victims being real people, not models. I think I like Bolt Action partly because of that, it's my way of paying respect to history and the soldiers who were sent out in those days.

SC Mike

Painted: M5 3 inch Anti Tank Gun from Warlord

Recently Warlord released a all metal model of the M5 3 in anti tank gun for Bolt Action. When the news about it came out, it was accompanied by the photo above, of African American soldiers in action with this big cannon. The photo sparked my interest since I am modeling a group of soldiers from the 92 Inf Div, the African American division.
After doing a bit of research I found out that the image that Warlord used was actually a training session in England in the mid forties. The M5 3 inch was already becoming less popular, because it was so heavy and thus not very maneuverable. During active duty in 1944, casualties in the M5 battalions was high and they were no match against the light and mid size tanks that they were facing. At the end of the war, the army preferred the self propelled anti tank options like the M10 and the M5 was phased out.


Of course the siuation below would seem like a good position: cover the road through the village and wait for a target to show up, but imagine the enemy bypassing the village and the soldiers having to turn the gun on the double. This image was taken in Belgium, you can also spot the winter clothing on the men.

Once dug in and camouflaged, the gun seems powerful, like an 88 mm, but you can see how big and heavy it is:

Here's my painted version:

I playing with history here, knowing full well that the 92nd in Italy didn't have M5'3in guns, but for gaming purposes it is nice to have a Heavy anti tank gun.

The gun is slightly underscaled compared to the real thing, but that seems like all the other Bolt Action vehicles and guns.

The actual African American battalion that did fight with these guns was the 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion, that worked it's way up from Normandy. I would love to get ahold of some decals that have this logo on it:

that would look cool on the models. And I will finish with this action shot somewhere in France, looks like a coastal region:


SC Mike

92nd Infantry Div update PLUS a tribute to Bill Mauldin

Before explaining the cartoon, here's an update on my budding US Bolt Action Army, based on the 92 Inf Div, made up of African American soldiers. It's a compact group and I have primed the same amount of soldiers, waiting to get painted, so when those are done, I should have a decent size army. 

In the image you can see the M5 3In Anti Tank gun that I finished up over the weekend. More about that model and it's history in my next post. I have played two games now with Bolt Action and I find it really fun to play. The game is easy to play which makes it actually more fun - my buddy John mentioned "it gives you more time to have fun with your friends". 

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John handed me a book last week, written by Bill Mauldin. It's a first edition of Up Front, published in 1945 and writting during Mauldin's time in the Italian Campaign in 1944-45.

 In the book, Mauldin (as a 23 year old) gives it to the reader straight, there are no wise reflections on war and peace, on life and death. Instead there are Mauldin's (sometimes explicit) thoughts on the things he went through, his feelings about day to day life of the common infantry soldier and his dislike for Germans. SInce he was still in the thick of it when he wrote it, there is no looking back yet and I find it makes for very interesting reading.

Mauldin's cartoons expose the war and all it's drudgery, non heroic moments and the lack of basically everything from food to good cloths. He was always annoyed with the promo type information that floated around in the states about the heroism and virtues of the American liberators - he knew things were not so clear in wartime.

Every page in the book has a cartoon of his famous creations Willy and Joe, the amiable dogfaces that walk through the war and share their wisdom. The cartoons are amazing and tell us a lot about how it really was during those years. 

Mauldin became very, very famous with this cartoon, printed the day after Kennedy was shot.

He died in 2003, the recipient of TWO pullitzer prizes. 

There are many editions of the book Up Front available on Ebay and I really recommend spending 20 bucks on a copy.

SC Mike