Bolt Action USMC 1000pts army

Started building and painting squad 2 in earnest. As in my initial list idea, I have mostly fixed bayonet minis with the maximum shotguns I can take. Earlier in the project I painted my NCO and one shotgun guy. The NCO is prone, so it would probably help if I have at least one crouching mini to stick next to him so he doesn’t look so out of place.

The strap on the shotgun bandolier is just a snipped off rifle sling. In reality this is a canvas strap apparently and I painted it the same colour as the other webbing to imitate that.

I liked giving one rifleman a black eye and a broken nose with some Drukhi Violet wash and Blood for the Blood God dabs.

Should I finish Squad 2? Yes, of course.

Would that keep me on better track and limit any confusion? Incontrovertibly.

Did I plough on and start painting what was fun and appealed to me most at the time instead of following a logical plan any way? Indubitably I must have.

I have worked out at the tail end of this project that I don’t even have one man spare to complete the list I am working towards, so I needed to use one last prone guy. Rather than adding another prone guy to my machete and shotgun toting hard men, I added him to my grenade toting Squad 3. I used the bandaged eye head again, but to mix it up I added a spare helmet on top. It isn’t sitting quite low enough on his head, but the bandages account for a bit of that.I should probably have added the SMG ammo webbing to this guy, but I figure this guy is already having a bad day with his injury and seemingly lost his water bottle too, so why trouble myself with too much reality and just add it to the list of mishaps befalling this poor wounded soldier. He will be the only man in my army with a grease gun so at least he has that coolness going for him.

Never made a Rubicon kit before. This was quite a nice kit to assemble. As I said earlier in the project, after seeing some comparison pics I found online I am not worried about it scaling awkwardly with my other vehicles.

The only minus I can think of is that there’s no stowage. That’s not a massive issue and if that keeps the price down I am happy with that trade off. Obviously it would be lovely to have the parts to make the other variant of turret, but that’s really asking for too much and there are a fair number of changes to the hull of the Stuart variant compared to the Scott anyway.

I am unsure about the colour. I don’t think I want my tank to be as weathered and battered as the one colour image I found of the Scott, in the Pacific theatre, above. I think I may add some sandy dust style weathering and need to paint the head lamps, but otherwise this is done. Only Squad 3 to paint and I think I am all but done.

I added a few spots of green stuff, partly to fill a gap and partly for muddy sods and texture.

I used a Deathguard Green primer from above over a Humbrol acrylic olive drab from the sides. I used a watered down coat of Vallejo Brown Violet green to knock back the brightness of the Deathguard primer. I used Zandri Dust as a dry brush to help define the high areas again after the Brown Violet.

I started the weathering with some Oil Brown modelmates spray then some citadel cryptek armourshade on the tracks, road wheels and the machine gun. Then a dry brush of Leadbelcher around the tracks and machine gun and some chipping here and there. Bit of Nulin Oil and Agrax here and there for good measure, but I might try to get some more dust and sandy grime to make it more Pacific campaign friendly.

Tried to empty a sprue. All the head options, all the “two arm attached to gun” arms, all the belt options etc, but didn’t quite do it. I have used all the bodies of my box and spare sprue but one. The snags were a pistol, a couple of “firing arms”, a medical satchel and a map / documents pouch.

I ran out of Deathguard primer. I had to use my Humbrol acrylic olive drab paint and tried a bit of Plastic Soldier Company WW2 US Armour spray paint, but this has never given me  a good coat since I bought it.

The Half-track had been left unassembled for a year or two and feel that as the 1000pts is almost there it is time to think about options.

I didn’t like the chosen sprue connection points and the flashing here and there, but it was an easy build and will be interested how all of these paint up given the change in primer.

This was a happy accident. I chose a firing arm that was probably meant for a Tommy gun or something and would not line up for my BAR. So rather than hunt out an alternative supporting arm I thought it looked like he was trying to support the gun with his elbow and that perhaps his hand was injured. Happy with this gory guy. May he roll well to forgive the rough posing and pain I have inflicted upon him.

I may well use this guy as a comparison for my darker green primed guys, because I think he had the last of my Deathguard Green and came out OK. Perhaps a little clean looking in the finish and the pose is a bit less dramatic than some of his peers but he is another rifleman on the path to completion.

I looked up various images and found the allied insignia star on the side of the transport moved around, but I didn’t actually find one laid out like mine. The helmets and backpacks had been placed without proper forethought of the decals later. I usually quite like breaking a decal and have it look like it continues under some mud or a piece of stowage, but on this occasion I couldn’t decide which location was going to be best and went for my own version. I figured that if the star was moving several feet up and down the side of the vehicle and the style and size of insignia was changing too,  that there was some local on the ground license as to where the insignia was placed. Apart from a bit of sand in the back and the foot well I can use this in more than just the Pacific theatre if I choose so it is a nice versatile option. I doubt I would pay out to field this with the full 4 machine guns on it in most lists, and putting them all on is probably just asking for bits to be broken off, but I got carried away following the instructions and if my opponent wants things a bit more WYSIWYG I am happy to hang loon bands from the guns that haven’t been paid for on the list.

Nearly done with this project.

These two were primed differently but I think the variety in colour will look fine.

I like the pose of the guy running and carrying the rifle ammo pouches.

All done.

Even with the change of primer I think the unit looks unified and similar to the other two squads.

I now have a painted 1000 pts USMC army.

I am going to come up with a way to photograph my army or at least nice big sections of it. Trying to get a nice big space to lay it on and as much light as I can.

I used mostly a Deathguard Green primer on everything. Then used some base colours of Bugman’s Glow on the skin, Mornfang Brown on the leather and wood and Zandri Dust on the webbing and helmet, then hit it with washes.

Agrax on the brown parts and the webbing. Reikland Fleshshade on the flesh and camo patches on the helmet. (The camo also had splotches of Mornfang Brown, occasional Deathguard Green and extra Agrax drips, knocking back anything too harsh with Zandri Dust for a dusty finish.)

After some Leadbelcher was used on the metal parts I would add Nulin Oil.

And Athonian Camoshade was added to the uniform liberally. Then I drag the details back out with highlights of Deathguard Green and rough dry brush highlight with Zandri Dust, more precisely on the webbing, and more as dry brush dust and grime on the knees and trouser bottoms. Also used some Morghast Bone for a more bold highlight here and there.

Anything like bare helmet (ooh err), bazookas, grenades etc. I painted Vallejo Brown Violet green and usually hit with Athonian Camoshade again.

I used an Army Painter White for eye balls and teeth and Abadon Black for eyes and some knife handles.

The bigger guns on the Buffalo, MMG team, M8 GMC and Half-track all had Cryptek Armourshade straight over the primer and dry brush of Leadbelcher to get rid of any green showing through and bring out the detail.

Wood stocks etc. got occasional highlights of Vallejo New Wood.

There was also a black eye that got some citadel violet wash and Blood for the Blood God for wounds and bandages. I think that a lot of the metal gun parts had too much Leadbelcher on them and that perhaps using maybe a Vallejo mahogany brown on the boots would have been a better option, but I was being quite lazy and allowing what was closest at hand to dictate my pallette at times. e.g. Some of the boots early on were Vallejo Mahogany Brown or Flat Brown, there was a half tidy up of my desk and the boots suddenly started being painted with Mournfang Brown.