Painting Update - Horde of Team Yankee Americans

Howdy everyone,

 

Whether you are in the midst of spring or the [alleged] last storm of winter, I hope that all is well on your respective sides. I have been rocking the best of both seasons, although I have not had any of the big snowfalls that other folks have been experiencing...which is both great and horrible all at the same time.

 

I have been taking it somewhat easy over the last few weeks, enjoying some time off from work...and while I have and have not accomplished anything, I have at the very least worked my way through a number of vehicles that were sitting on the painting table waiting their turn for the brush. Between picking up starter boxes that were well priced (the first release of the Complete Starter Set and Ryan's Leathernecks) or supporting local gaming stores on my travels, I had amassed a bit of a small-ish horde of vehicles for Team Yankee.

 

Over my time off, I was able to paint up the 6 Humvees from the Leathernecks box, the M1 Abrams and the Bradley's from the Compete Starter Set, and a box of Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles. This also gave me a chance at trying my hand at the M81 Woodland camo pattern for US uniforms. I am pretty happy with the results of the uniforms and have a Rifle Platoon to get to next...and the vehicles, I painted most of them in the MERDC pattern that I had used prior, and did 2 Bradley's and 2 Abrams in straight green no camo...having looked at a wide variety of images, I thought the mix would work. And certainly it helps in distinguishing small units on the table...and the green vehicles can work well for Red Dawn type, as in my mind green feels more continental-US.

 

Anywho, I'm very happy with how they all turned out. Enjoy the horde of photos to go along with this.

 

Cheers.

The horde…enough kit to field an understrength M1 Armoured Combat Team with multiple Bradley recon teams and Humvee recce support.

The Bradley’s…M2A2/M3A3’s with a pair of M2/M3’s…enough for 3 support teams for the M1’s or enough for their own Armoured Cavalry Troop (with M1 support).

Some Humvees on parade…enough for a couple of Scout sections.

Some M1’s…can combine with the previous couple I had painted up for a small core formation.

2026's Trek up Mt. Shame

Painted

15mm         36, +27 (crew and vehicles)    

28mm+       16

Terrain        0

  

Bought        0

Progress   +52

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let Me See Your WARFACE - Grunts for The Nam

Howdy folks, 

 

I hope you are all fine and well. As the title to this post says, its all about the grunts on this one.

 

taken from YouTube 

Continuing my latest bout of inspiration and motivation around  gaming some of The Nam and fashion this around a Vietnam Aces campaign, I am finally getting to some additional combat platoons. Having a quick planning discussion with the guys, we are anticipating 20/40/60/?? as the point levels for this venture, and I think I've said before this is pretty consistent with the Aces escalation campaign format that BattleFront came out with.

Now, given my past interest in the era and original painting run with my Air Cavalry force, I was already prepped...my Air Cav was good to go for a few rounds worth of escalation. However, given that we will be having a random number of battles per round, I thought it would also be good to have some options and maybe another force on the field with some flexibility in deployment/back story.

 

You can see the summary of my previous painting for my Air Cav...I almost choked when I saw it was from 2015. To be honest, I still have some rotors to finish up...sigh.

 

Air Cav 

So, as you can see from the video above, my main inspiration for this force was around the Marines and the rifle company. I've already painted up some M60 teams to go with my combat platoons, but with this post, you will see that I now have 20 stands of infantry for 2 x Marine combat platoons - which is more than enough for round 1 and gets me part way to round 2. And, if I really look for flexibility, I can re-jig these grunts into an Airmobile or leg infantry rifle company with 3 platoons. Of course, to do that I will need to add in a few stands (another 2 x M60, maybe some 90mm antitank teams, and one more infantry stand) so that I could have 3 platoons with 7 stands each.

Anywho, here are my grunts for the Nam, 20 stands of combat platoon hell to unleash, and course 2 stands of formation commanding goodness.

Have a good one.

OOH-RAH MARINES!!! The combat power of the force... 

 

I have to say, the BattleFront Vietnam figures have really progressed over time from their initial Wargames Illustrated run to the AUS/NZ infantry figures. The poses have become more dynamic and the sculpting of individual kit got much better and improved. The AUS/NZ troops really are the Cadillac of the range.  You can see the mix of the range throughout the platoons, but really evident in the Formation Command stands. 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

2 x Marine Combat Platoons, now becomes 3 x US Army Platoons. All I need now is to fill out the numbers with another Platoon Command stand, 2 x M60 teams, and 1 x Medic/Corpsman for the company.

Lead Mountain 2021

Painted:

 

Large scale              3

28mm                     23

15mm                   102, +78

Bought                  24

Progress               +104

Another Element for the Corps...

Hello all,

Continuing from my foray into the Marine Corps in Team Yankee.  When the initial releases hit my local gaming shop I decided to give it a shot and buy a few packages and see where they took me.  Needless to say, this was put on hold while I continued with other Team Yankee forces and the inevitable other distractions.

Anywho, once I finished up my LAV company, I thought I'd continue with my Corps plans and took a brush to a couple of AAV-7's.  In Team Yankee, the AAV-7 (assault amphibious vehicle) gives you some extra firepower and security for your Marines as they hit the European beach of your choice.

For every marine rifle platoon you will need 2 x AAV-7's...and this capability is available to almost any marine force except for the LAV company...I guess that means I'll have to collect a full rifle company or M-60 tank company.

Anyway, these beasts painted up very very quickly.

Enjoy the pics...

Hike up Lead Mountain, 2020

Painted:

28mm            -
15mm            22 (+3; 2 vehs, 1 crew)

Bought:         0 (these were bought mid last year)

Progress:     +22

1, 2, 3, 4..I love the Marine Corps

Howdy everyone,

I hope all is well with you and yours.  Over the Christmas holidays and leading into the new year I had a resurgence of 15mm painting.  Coming from success that I had in my summer games as well as what I'd seen in a few other Team Yankee battles with TOW launchers, ADATS, and anti-tank missiles I decided to boost my missile output for my 4 CMBG force.

As such, I took a look at possible options and elected to expand my force to include an allied support formation of a LAV-25 company with an AT support platoon.  At 18 points for 10 x Lav-25's with 4 x AT LAV's it is an excellent addition at a fairly good cost.  Not only do the AT launchers have the hammerhead turret which gives gone to ground even when firing, but the platoons have the recce skill and the LAV-25 bushmaster cannon has the anti-helicopter ability...so it gives a pretty solid short to medium range air defence capability.

All in all, a very good addition to the Brigade.

Battlefront already had plenty of painting guides for the US forces in Team Yankee...a little bit more google research gave me a bit more to work from.  The main colours that I used were Vallejo 924 Russian Uniform, Tan Earth, and Iraqi Sand.  After the base coats and camo pattern were painted down, I hit the vehicles with a mixed wash of Army Painter strong and dark tone, and then another heavily watered down camo coat of the VJ colours.

Anyway, bringing on the pics...

4 CMBG Allied Formation - USMC LAV Company

The headquarters element...to help differentiate the LAVs, I opted to paint up the left side of the turret near the gunners sight a separate colour for each combat platoon.  For the hq, in case I ever decide to collect another LAV company, I went with desert yellow band to show company and another desert yellow band for the command platoon...

The support element - anti-tank hunters...hammerhead TOW launchers...because these guys are pretty distinctive I didn't paint any designators on these vehicles.

The first combat platoon...the desert yellow stripe first, a black stripe is second to designate the platoon...

The second combat platoon - desert yellow stripe first, medium olive stripe second.

The force...

Hike up Lead Mountain, 2020

Painted:

28mm            -
15mm            19 (+17; 14 vehs, 3 crew)

Bought:         0 (these were bought mid last year)

Progress:     +19