WW2 US Armoured Infantry Platoon

 So Matt you were correct, I've finished my platoon. My US armoured infantry platoon, circa 1943/43 is kinda done.

The full force is 5 M3A1 Half tracks (Warlord) each armed with a .50 cal HMG, the gunners made from the bits box

Infantry section, 8 men, inc BAR and rifle grenade, and a bazooka.

Another 1. All the infantry are from the Parry's plastic box (except 2 I had knocking about). For North Africa there were bazookas but nobody had training so rifle grenades were used and 37mm AT gun. The 37mm AT gun was a permanent feature throughout the war even though it was obsolete vs tanks. Need to buy one. 

Command platoon with officer and sniper

Macine gun section with 2 .30 cal

Mortar section. Only 8 figs in this section so 37mm AT will join these

Couple more shots

Really liked painting these. Will need more troops to make our usual sized battle, 20-24 units (currently 17) and have found some Shermans to add to mix. Next stop North Africa, or Italy

US APCs - or how I decided never to do decals again

 I had a thought. For my next project I would do a US Infantry armoured infantry platoon. US forces are not often on our battle fields and I've always thought they looked cool, too much time watching the Bridge at Remagen and Kelly's Heroes.

So a platoon is 56 figures in 5 M3A1 half tracks. I bought the halftracks from Dice and Decks - limited range but very cheap, they are the Warlord ones, and I bought a US infantry box and 60mm mortar from Perrys. Whole force will have cost £90 plus the tanks I'll get. I want Grants (or Lees - can never remember which was US and which was Brit and can't be bothered to look it up), however they only fought in North Africa and I want to use them for all the war. I'll probably end up with Grants and Shermans!

On to the pictures

The models were OK to build, provided you don't follow the instructions too closely. There are extensive decals and i added some of these, however the hood star was too big for me to apply without wrecking and therefore I used the last intact one as a template and handpainted them. Liberal dry brush hid the fact the stars were not that star like.

All have .50 cal HMGs and I made the gunners from the spares box. In theory each APC could have 3 additional .30 cals but that seemed a bit mad and so I gave the APC carrying the 30. cal section 2 extra ones to represent these guns.

Overall pretty pleased

Not content with WW2 APCs I had 1 more Vietnam vehicle to paint, a Gage Commander. This is from Empress and is a nice model

There are loads of pictures of these nad only found ensignia and marking on MP vehicles so let them off

It did get a name though, Lil' Abner. The crew were extra from Empress

Overall it's a nice model but as it's resign the flanks are too smoother to dry brush

Right off to paint US infantry