GHQ Models Forums

Hello all.

I m new to this forum and i have a question about infantry stands.

I bought the book normandy from ghq. And i want to play the scenarios. It says a american rifle company exists out of 3 times infantry and 1 mg stand.
How many infantry do i place onto such a stand?

And where is a good place to find color schemes of normandy vehicles? Google doesnt find much and didnt find it on this forum.

Thx for your help all

If you are playing with the GHQ rules, the number of figures on each stand is irrelevant.

I like to take my infantry stands and make them into mini dioramas. Some of my stands have 5 figures and MG teams perhaps only 3, two gunners and a spotter.

---Daryl

Groeten zwartdraakje!

zwartdraakje wrote: I bought the book normandy from ghq. And i want to play the scenarios. It says a american rifle company exists out of 3 times infantry and 1 mg stand.
How many infantry do i place onto such a stand?

First a question: You are now playing GHQ's ruleset. Do you plan to stay with these rules?

You may not be able to answer that yet. That makes it a bit harder to determine how you should base your infantry. Different rules may have different requirements.

My general approach has been to place four riflemen to a basic squad stand. One MG + one ammo bearer to a basic MG stand.

With this approach you can use your rifle stands to represent platoons (as per the GHQ rules), or squads (as example per PanzerWar or new Mein Panzer rules), or fire-teams (as example per old Mein Panzer or WRG Armor and Infantry rules).

The disadvantage to this approach is that it will be a little less pleasing to the eye than what might be done if you are going to stay with the GHQ rules. If you think you'll only be playing GHQ rules, I would suggest going up to 5 or even 6 men per stand, with more variety of figures (mostly rifles, but a random selection from: grenadiers, bazookas, LMGs, etc.), to give more of a full platoon flavor to them. Then you might also put 2 MGs and 2 ammo bearers per MG stand.

But I believe you can play the game as well with either approach. The first one is just more flexible, but less pleasing if you stick to GHQ rules.

Re-basing your infantry every time you change rules is a real bother.

And where is a good place to find color schemes of normandy vehicles? Google doesnt find much and didnt find it on this forum.

Well ... are we talking US vehicles? Color schemes are very easy. US tanks, jeeps, half-tracks, trucks, etc. were all painted US Olive Green. This is a medium green with only a small bit of gray/brown to it.

Here are a few examples of the color you want to match:



Here are examples of my own attempts to match:


I use Testor's ModelMasters Olive Green (in spray cans), painted over white primer.

Hope that helps.

If I read it right I think it means this:

1 American Rifle company:
- 3x Infantry stands
- 1x MG stand

So, you need to have 3 stands of infantry and 1 MG stand.
Basically, your 3 infantry stands represents a platoon and your MG stand represents a weapons platoon. As for basing (I don't do the US), but I use 4 figures per stand for my infantry and for the MG stand, you can use an MG figure with another infantry to go with it or use 2 MG figures.

Hope that helps a bit,

My preferred game system will be Clash of Armour, which suggests GHQ miniatures be used. The author suggests 3 figures per stand which represents a platoon. I will probably vary on a stand by stand basis, but this will be my general convention.

One of the most basic forms of infantry unit is the fireteam. Many nationalities use a similar formation from which to build squads. Some use two fireteams, some three as does the USMC from mid-war (WW2) right through today. This picture is of a German 10 man squad using 2 fireteam bases and 1 MG base for the actual 1 to 1 unit.



Using the four (4) man fireteam as your basic infantry stand allows you to use the same mounting system to fight in two scales. GHQ's scale of 1" equals 100 yards, or a one-to-one scale where the figures represent individual Soldiers or Marines for organizational and tactical purposes. On the one for one scale their box movement formation is roughly 10 yards square.



In the same light using an individual MG with loader (and perhaps a spotter) for a 2 or 3 figure base gives you the 9th and 10th men in a 1 to 1 German Squad of 10 men when combined with 2 fireteams and it also gives you a HW stand at GHQ's scale or you can place two MG crews on a base to indicate a section in 1 to 1 scale as noted in the picture above.

Use whatever you wish, but being a little practical helps make the stands multi-purpose. This WW2 Australian attack supported by Mk-IVs on the left and Matilda tanks on their right pictured (below) illustrates basically the same principals with a slight modification of an additional MG figure on the Support Platoon base. As a convention our group uses a 2 figure command stand for all lower level units and a stand with a vehicle or group of figures for the GHQ stand. We use three (3) figure stands as Support stands to make identification easy on the table.



Will

Well i dont exactly know which rules to play with. I use ghq for now.
Are the other rules easier or more fun to play? this is my first mianiature game i played (a&a mini's not included)

Color schemes of german vehicles and artillery is what i seek. Building axis and allied army. I have a mate to play against but he dont want to build his own army because he has no time. And dont think there are much players in belgium.

Got a lot of different paints (tamiya, humbrol and vallejo) but i want to stick to one sort.
Wich is the best paint to use?

zwartdraakje,

If you don't have any books or magazines with information on AXIS equipment all you need to do is go through the "Show us your stuff" pages to find color information on tanks, guns, etc... Most gamers accumulate a reference library with the information they need depending on the period they will be gaming. There are hundreds of books with color illustrations.

Early German equipment is Panzer Gray, ...later equipment is Panzer Yellow.

The one, in my view, advantage of the FOW rules set is that they provide a reasonable beginning color and organizational reference for gamers who decide to use their rules. Which means they could also be used as a reference by someone not using their rules, as can their web site for colors, ...as can GHQ's web catalogue with pictures of coloring, etc... All it takes is time to look it up.

Will

Are the other rules easier or more fun to play?

There are as many answers to this question as there are people willing to answer it.

Wich is the best paint to use?

I suspect most people would tell you to stay away from Tamiya, especially the acrylic. Humbrol are enamel, Vallejo are acrylic (I think). Which you'd prefer to use is a matter of taste. People here use both.

Mike

zwartdraakje wrote:Well i dont exactly know which rules to play with. I use ghq for now.

In that case, I recommend 4 riflemen per stand, to represent the infantry platoons. One MG + one ammo bearer (any figure that looks good to you can be used if there is no specific ammo guy in the pack) per MG stand, to represent the weapons platoon.

This gives you flexibility. You can use them for GHQ rules now, and change to another ruleset in the future if you want to.

You'll probably wind up with extra figures. Maybe light mortars, anti-tank launchers, and LMGs. You can put them on their own bases for future use, or just leave them in a box for now. I have a lot of "extra" infantry figures in a box, and they are useful for future projects. Medium/heavy mortars should be placed on bases (one mortar and 2 or 3 crewmen), as you will probably want batallion support stands even under GHQ rules.

Color schemes of german vehicles and artillery is what i seek. Building axis and allied army. I have a mate to play against but he dont want to build his own army because he has no time. And dont think there are much players in belgium.

This is normal. Most of us build armies for both sides of the fighting, so that we can supply a game mate.

German armor should be based on armor yellow, which is a dark mustard color of yellow with some brown in it. On top of this you can put a pattern of green and red-brown. German late-war armor is fun to paint, because you can do lots of variety if you want to. German regulations for cammoflage painting changed several times during the last two years of the war, so most units had a variety of different paint schemes depending on when the painting was done (few had the time or interest to re-paint tanks just because the regulations changed). Also, the tanks came from the factories in plain armor yellow, and the cammo was applied in a depot close to the front. Depots often did not have enough paint, or enough time, to do the same job on every tank.

So ... some of your tanks might have equal parts of yellow, green, and red-brown in large swirling patches. Some of your tanks might have thin stripes of green and red-brown over yellow ("tiger stripes"). Some might have only the green patterning, or only the red-brown, in thin curling lines. And some might be plain armor yellow without any cammo. Or you could do them all the same if you prefer.

Look at the pics in the painting guide and the "Show us yer Stuff" threads, and you will see this variety in German late war armor.

Support vehicles and guns should also be painted in the same way, but were less often cammoflaged, and more often just plain armor yellow.

Earlier in the war all tanks and vehicles were panzer gray. This color was still seen occasionally on tanks late in the war, if they were vehicles that had survived in service for two years. It was also still common on support vehicles and guns.

Got a lot of different paints (tamiya, humbrol and vallejo) but i want to stick to one sort.
Wich is the best paint to use?

As you have heard from others here, the Tamiya paints are not well liked. In my experience the colors are very good, but the paints get thick and sticky, which makes trouble at this small scale. I still use some, but only a few, for cases where the Tamiya colors are particularly good. For example, I like the Tamiya Acrylic Gun Metal color for my MGs. I use care to dilute it with water as I'm painting, so I don't leave a lump of paint on a barrel.

Humbrol paints are generally considered to be excellent.

Vallejo paints have a very good reputation too. As they are also Acrylic (water-based) versus the Humbrols which are enamels (oil based), you will find it easier to paint indoors using the Vallejo paints (less stink, less danger in the fumes).

You can also use a combination. I often base paint with enamels, and detail with acrylics, and I have no problems using two kinds.

One more bit of advice. All that we are telling you is just that ... advice. There is no right or wrong. No "correct" and "incorrect" way. Try what sounds good to you. If you don't like the results too much, try something else. You will see lots of different approaches used by the guys here, and most of us are willing to explain what we have tried, and show how it looks.

So experiment. See what you like. Have a little fun. Show us a picture or two. We love to see the pics, and discuss what was done, what could be done, etc.

thx everyone u where all very helpfull.

I will post some pics of my army when its painted.