Show us yer stuff!

[Guroburov]

Cool Bill. Chris I love it, especially the lower box with the green on green.

[Brigade Commander]

Good GOD! Somebody on this forum still knows who Audie Murphy was! Guess I'm NOT the only Oscar Foxtrot here!

Not at all.

[embuchho]

What is the maximum size allowed for photos? Mine seem to be too big.

[7.62]

This is a JPEG Image at 1024 × 768 pixels, imported from a normal outside website image.
(972.7 kB)
You can go bigger than this, so GHQ my have an import limit set by the file size you try to send in.
I will try to work out how big you can go.



This one was (JPEG Image, 2048 × 1536 pixels) and 1.8MB, looks like there is auto scaling down of the image.

[Guroburov]

Nice hospital and is that a K2?

[7.62]

ACWbill, just love that photo.

Nice hospital and is that a K2?

Thanks and yes, my imaginary Army has adopted the K-2 & K-21 as it's new MBT and IFV

[chrisswim]

Watch out 7.62 is building the K-country.
K-medical group, with the K vehicles the K may try to go into Kanada to take it over. Karmanaskis was a colonial possession of old Kanada. The K armor is capable.
Nice medical group.

[BurtWolf]

Nice work 7.62!

[redleg]

Great work Mick! I always love your terrain and tentage!

[chrisswim]

Fuchs







I do need to paint the LMGs.

[Guroburov]

Love the antennas Chris. Are you going to be adding camo or leaving in the base color?

[Mk 1]

So many interesting pics. Just lovin' it!

Chris those antennae are da bomb. I got to wonder how you'll store them, but I have no doubt that the game will stop with a chorus of "oohs" and "aahs" (and a few "would you LOOK at that!" 's) when you put them on the game table.

7.62 that hospital is just amazing. Sometimes it is the uniqueness of the modelling that really makes it count. I've worked small medical units into some of my games as either objectives (save the battalion aid station!) or just complicating factors for a gamer/commander.

ACWBill .. well anyone who posts a cool pic of an M18 is probably going to get a shout-out from me. It's my favorite, as it was my father's favorite during his service.

And now for a few of my own. My recent work on US Mech Cav (or Armored Recon -- same TOEs, just different names for the units).


I built up a platoon. The platoon structure was a section of 3 armored cars, and a section of 3 x 2-jeep teams. The jeep teams each had one jeep with MG, and one that carried troopers and a 60mm mortar (for dismounted work).


For Tunisia my Mech Cav platoon has M3 Scout cars. I used US Artillery Crew figures for the gunner on the .50cal MG. I added a .30cal MG gun and gunner from the US Armored Infantry pack as well.


I put yellow stars on them. I'm not sure if this is the best choice historically -- I have seen photo evidence of yellow stars (and yellow star-and-bars) on M3 Lee medium tank units and M3 TD units, but all of the photos I've seen of M3 Scout cars in Tunisia showed white stars. But my tanks and TDs have yellow stars, and they seem to add character as such a unique aspect of the US Army forces in Tunisia, that I just through I'd go that way.


The jeeps got seated or kneeling figures from a couple of packs as their crew/passengers.


When we move to ETO, the TOE was essentially the same, except that the armored cars were upgraded from the M3 to the M8 "Greyhound". So I got a two-fer by just doing 3 more armored cars.


I could only fit one crew figure in each turret. (I've been in an M8, and the turrets are indeed a VERY tight fit for the 2 man crews.) In two of the A/Cs I have nothing but a shoulder-and-head bust of a crewman. In the platoon-leader's vehicle I put in a standing figure pointing off in his direction of interest.


Pretty complicated for one platoon. But they were intended to be flexible units, and I will use them flexibly on the game table. However, building a full company to the TOE is not in the cards -- too much variety and complexity for a company that was probably going to be disbursed across a wider area than my game table to begin with.

If I want to add some punch and make them a real factor in combat, I'll add a light tank platoon or two (the Mech Cav battalion had a company of light tanks), a section of my lovely M8 "Scott" assault guns (had an assault gun battery in the Mech Cav battalion), and dismounts for the scouts (they could dismount 3 x 60mm mortars, and/or 3 infantry fire teams from jeeps, and 3 infantry fire teams from the A/Cs.).

As I said, flexible and complicated. But an interesting unit to bring to the table.

-Mark

[pmskaar]

Chrisswim - That is quite an antenna farm you have there. Having put antennas on some of my vehicles, I can attest to the fact that it is a bit of work.

Mk1 - I always enjoy seeing your various units. Your American Cav platoon looks great and the added crew figures add a lot of character. That is also a good idea with the armored cars in that depending on the time frame, you can use the M-3 ACs for Tunisia and if doing NW Europe just add the M-8s in their place. I am currently working on some Shermans for NW Europe but have plans on doing some Americans for Tunisia at some point.

Mk1, here is a question. Did the American Lees and Shermans maintain their yellow stars throughout the campaign or did they replace the yellow markings with the more traditional white markings at some point. The same question would pertain to other American vehicles as well. Thanks!

[BurtWolf]

Chris - those antennas look really cool - I like the way your constantly doing mods, they always come out sharp.

Mk1 - very interesting set of minis. They look great and very individualized. Do you ever add water-cooled machine guns to your North Africa half tracks? Not sure how that would work as a kit bash but bet it’d look cool.

[Mk 1]

Mk1, here is a question. Did the American Lees and Shermans maintain their yellow stars throughout the campaign or did they replace the yellow markings with the more traditional white markings at some point. The same question would pertain to other American vehicles as well. Thanks!

A tough question to answer in any definitive way.

Here is what I can say with confidence:
1) Yellow stars on tanks and other vehicles were in the instructions during the last maneuvers in the States.
2) Instructions changed to white stars BEFORE Torch.
3) Tanks and other vehicles with yellow stars are present in the documentation, in photos and in film, during Torch and during the Tunisian campaign.

To wit:
https://youtu.be/XXngS2vVndw
This is a newsreel based on color film taken by US Army Signal Corps in the opening phases of the Tunisian campaign.
If you skip to the 2:00 minutes mark you will start into a section on M3 Lee tanks (which the narrator calls "Grant" tanks) being loaded aboard ships and transiting from Algeria to Bone, Tunisia. These tanks very clearly carry yellow stars.

If you watch through the film you'll see the tanks again several times in Tunisia, still with their yellow stars. You can also see other vehicles with yellow stars. An example (for the skip-ahead gang) would be an M3 Halftrack that can be seen at about 21:53 - 21:58.

This is the best evidence I have.

There are a lot of "color" photos of US tanks, halftracks. etc. from the period. For example:

But this image of an M3A1 Stuart light tank (of the 1st Armored Regiment) has pretty clearly been "colorized". So this is probably someone's interpretation of what color the star was.

Similarly there are photos of M3 Lee tanks with markings identical to the tanks in the video, but they are marked with white stars and bars. Were they changed to white during the campaign? Or was this just the interpretation of someone colorizing those pictures? I just don't know.

I don't think I have seen any credible images of an M4 Sherman with yellow stars actually deployed in Tunisia. But that's not to say it didn't happen.

So I go with yellow for about anything that is an M3. I have M3 scout cars, M3 medium tanks, M3 light tanks, and M3 halftracks all painted with yellow stars for Tunisia. My M4 Shermans, however, got white stars.

Best I got. Welcome any solid (or even reasonable speculative) info on the matter.

-Mark