American or Americant!

So I have two blocks of 30ish points left for the last two months, I have decided to leave the M10’s and Airborne for September and tackle the larger chunk of minis.

So let’s have a look at what I’m dealing with in August, I’ve gone ahead and primed them all ready for painting.

So why did I lump these units together then? Well it’s fairly simple they all have good synergy together. Making it a nice combined arms section and offering different.

So the idea for the US is to paint them quickly to a decent standard so I’m standardising the painting on the armour.

The following paints are what I’ll be using for all the AFVs throughout the force.

The armour itself is based coated in Olive Drab ( this used to be called Brown Violet in case you still have an old bottle like myself.

1. 1st Drybrush, 3 parts Olive Drab to 1 part Desert Yellow
2. 2nd Drybrush, 1 part Olive Drab to 1 part Desert Yellow
3. Final Drybrush, 1 part Olive Drab to 3 parts Desert Yellow

you could probably skip the first step if you want, as it’s very subtle, but I don’t like harsh transitions when possible.

next up all the handles of the tools get a coat of Ochre Brown and all metal parts including tracks and weapons get a coat of Dark Grey, be as neat as you can here.

that’s the tank pretty much done.

Hit them all with a nice gloss varnish I use floor polish, Johnson & Johnson Pledge, and then we’re ready for the detailing.

Decals go on easier over a gloss varnish and once they’re down another gloss varnish over the top protects them.

let it dry and then give the whole tank a brown oil wash and leave it for 90mins. Watch a football match. ?

then clean the excess wash off with a cotton bud.

After that you can apply a second wash if you want it darker, otherwise you’re ready to do a black pin wash on the hatches and rear engine deck. and again kick back for 90 before cleaning excess away

So having gone through the contents of the boxes there are multiple options for how to build the list including veteran versions at higher costs, because of the increased figures the completed army will be substantially larger than 100 points. I’ve decided to break it into 50pts and then the two subsequent months of roughly 35pts each.

The initial block is my HQ, and 3 platoons to give me 51 pts and the core of my mechanised US Army.

So the start of the Studio US forces, the American starter box and the US half of the Hit the Beach box.

First things first I need to break down what I have and how I plan on dividing it up for the FoW Hobby League.

• 2 M4 Sherman tank HQ
• 5 M4 (75mm) Sherman tank platoon
• 3 M4 (76mm) Sherman tank platoon
• 3 M4 (76mm) Sherman tank platoon
• US Airborne platoon
• Armoured Rifle platoon (inc 5 M3 Halftracks)
• 3 M7 Priests
• 3 M5 Stuarts
• 4 M10 Destroyers