From PeterA: WW2 Winter US Infantry & Romano-British - (96 Points)

Since the end of the Christmas holidays real life has resumed with a bang. I have tried to squeeze in a few minutes painting here and there during the week, but it has been slow going getting things completed. Finally, this weekend I have been able to put the finishing touches to a couple of things I have been working on.

First up is a platoon of US Infantry in winter gear i.e. greatcoats. These are all 15mm Battlefront figures that were released several years ago as part of their range to re-fight the Battle of the Bulge. They are very nice figures but unfortunately are no longer available due to the re-organisation of BF lines that accompanied the release of V4 of FoW. Hopefully, the range will be re-released in the future, as it had pretty much everything you could want for the Bulge.

I got a company box (actually two platoons' worth) when they were first released but, unlike my first platoon which uses multi-basing, these are all singly based, as I will use them for Chain of Command. Each section only has 11 figures as the twelfth figure is a prone rifleman and I have to figure out how to base them. All the others are based on 1 cent (Euro) coins - but these are too small for a prone figure and leave his legs floating in the air, and a larger coin base has an incongruously large footprint.

As well as the three sections, I have a small three man platoon HQ. To help identify leaders in the game, all NCOs plus the platoon CO are mounted on small hexagonal mdf bases from Warbases. I have also done some support weapons - a bazooka, 60mm mortar and a couple of .30cal MGs (The latter two should have more crew figures for Chain of Command; but this is enough to be getting on with).

Finally, I have done a two-man FOO team. In Chain of Command they will normally be calling in mortar fire; in larger games like IABSM and Battlegroup, they can double up as artillery FOO team and call in the big guns!

As well as finishing off this lot, I have done a couple of Footsore Romano-British figures (mainly as a diversion from all that Field Drab!). These are for my warband for Dux Britanniarum and are really there just to add a bit of colour. First up is a musician and he is joined by a standard bearer (flag is from LBMS - stunning quality as always). Footsore Miniatures are absolutely superb and these two are no exception - cleanly and crisply cast with virtually no clean-up required. It was only as I took the photos that i realised that I need to add some static grass/clump foliage to the standard bearer's base!

Points-wise, this is 43 x 15mm figures (I have counted the two-man prone teams as one figure each), for a total of 86 points, plus 10 points for the two 28mm figures - 96 in total.

***
Great work Peter.  Battlefront's now-lost 15mm WW2 winter ranges were indeed fabulous...I wish I had taken the chance to grab some US infantry from them back when I had the chance, before they debased themselves to the false gods of plastic 15mm infantry (ugh).  You have done excellent work here. 

And more Romans! Such nice Romans! Taunting me! Footsore do indeed look the part...lovely stuff. 

In terms of your score, we will add 96 points for now. I know you had asked about confirming your current tally - as we speak Challenge mathematical experts are sourcing the blood of a unicorn necessary to complete the blood rituals required carefully reviewing our spreadsheets and will advise this week if, indeed, there is any issue.  

GregB