A continuation of the rundown of my US Army collection for Bolt Action. This covers the next two expansions of my force. It has become quite the collection at this point and it is all painted!
After the first wave of the previous post I finally got into looking at some more vehicles, mainly armor. My next purchase was the M18 Hellcat, a jeep and a M4A3E8 76mm Sherman “Easy Eight”. First to hit the table was the Hellcat and soon after the jeep which I initially saw as good support to the Hellcat. This was in version 1 and I had a good time with the Hellcats fire power and recce ability. Lately I want to get this cat back out in version 2 but it has been on the back seat due to some other armor you’ll see further down the page.
I thought the mobile HMG jeep would be good for picking out support weapons especially those with gun shields. I never accomplished this well because being a soft skin I felt it was too vulnerable to get that close. It did workout okay as simply a mobile machine gun providing very flexible support. Since it was usually firing at infantry though I think a MMG would serve better than the pen provided by the HMG.
The reason for making the jeep an HMG and not the MMG was actually decided by the sherman. I thought it’d be fun to make this tank a nod to Fury and thus needed that MMG. It was really fun building this tank and is always a blast to see on the table. I added all the stowage inspired by the movie. While it isn’t a reproduction by any means it is still definitely recognizable and has a lot of character. I want to run down this guy in a complete blog post of its own. In game it started out pretty amazing. It had the fire power of the Hellcat with more protection. I think I was lucky in earlier games and got over confident. I often made mistakes and lost it in the few games I had gotten to play later on.
When version 2 came out I went ahead and got the Band of Brothers set. If I remember right there was a sale pre-order price and I was interested to get the templates and other extras. The new plastic paratroopers come with a LMG option. With the boost to machine guns in version 2 I wanted to try adding some to my force. The para sprue allows you to make a nice MMG team with the prone options. I modified mine by shaving the pockets and straps off the trousers to make them look like normal army. I also added a pack and some gear off the normal US infantry sprue. The US can field up to three MMGs in a standard platoon. I have played these guys like an attachment to my two main infantry squads. They do what MMGs do and offer supporting and sometimes threatening firepower on the table.
In addition to another MMG I made two LMG teams to go in my ranger squads. It took a little extra modeling to pull these guys off as the LMG bits are really only made for the prone figure. I just cut the arm off the LMG until I had just the gun with grip and stock. I used the regular US infantry models and with some fiddling to fit the arms I had my two gunners. The loaders were easy just using the regular infantry and adding the ammo boxes modified to be closed. I envisioned the LMGs allowing my rangers a little more fire power and longer range, especially while defending. I figured with their pre-game move I can secure a good position slightly forward and pack a little more punch. Although in non defense scenarios my rangers are my primary movers so it isn’t as effective of an addition but still provides more firepower.
Coming into Adepticon Ben and I decided to go full US in the team tournament. While Ben has lots of US himself we decided it would look the best to have me supply all the infantry while he did the vehicles. My list was about my usual number of squads so they were all ready but Ben wanted a couple in his armored platoon as well. This meant I had to expand my infantry force a bit more. I just assembled all the remaining infantry I had which provided what we needed. I always make a few adjustments to poses for variety as you can see.
While I was assembling all that infantry I got inspired by some of the remaining specialized bits I had from the rangers. From these I expanded my HQ units a bit by adding a medic and making another officer group. A little inspired by the metal models from warlord; it took a few tweaks to add some character to these guys. This team is what I lately use for my lieutenant and now I have an interesting dedicated assistant model as well. I think he looks like he is in on the action. The medic I have only used in one game in version 2 and I didn’t utilize it effectively. I see some possibility though but not sure it is worth it. I just really wanted to get the finished model on the table.
The last bit of Adepticon prep came in the form of a M24 Chaffee light tank. Trying to optimize my list for Nationals I was convinced if I wanted a tank that a Chaffee would serve best. The AT gun threats armor and the boosted HE makes it even more effective against infantry. While it is lightly armored, it is still closed top and recce serves it well if you get in trouble. It seems to be a very good tank and has served me well. As you can see, I added some stowage to add some uniqueness to the model.
That rounds out my entire US force as is currently completed. I do have a M8 Greyhound that could be fun to try out once it is painted. The only other thing I own for the US is a light howitzer. Nearly every model complete! Who am I? I am interested to pick up a few more things. I would like to make a Fury’esk armored platoon and try some tank wars so need a few more shermans. I will probably need a few more trucks for transport then. I also wouldn’t mind grabbing the armoured fist box and having some half tracks.
