Team Yankee

“A tank and its crew has but one reason to exist. To maneuver the tank’s cannon to a position where it could do the most damage and feed it once it was there.” 

― Harold Coyle, Team Yankee: A Novel of World War III

When I was in my teen years and early twenties we had this Cold War going on.  On the last Friday of every month, at 10:30 am we were reminded of  that threat when the air raid sirens would sound for a minute, followed by the all clear (for testing purposes).   I remember thinking if the Soviets were smart they would attack on precisely the last Friday of every month at 10:30 am.

On November 9th, 1989 the Berlin Wall came down and the Cold War threat began to wane.

In Winter of 2015 Battlefront's ads for their Team-Yankee release caught my eye.  I looked at a friend of mine and asked, "Would you like to play this?"

"Hell yes!" was his response.

Seven months later this is the result.

I have been working for over three years on my Warhammer Fantasy Battle Vampire army.  Some of the GW miniatures I am not very happy with, the Corpse Cart being one of them.
 

To remedy this, I did a little "kitbashing".

The Corpse Cart is mounted on a chariot base, so I started there.  Next I needed something menacing and "creepy"

I choose GW's Lord of Nurgle as a starting place.

The figure just said creepy to me.  The one I got was very used and had a missing hand.  I found a hand in the bits box, and after removing the branch through his head, he just needed some painting.

So, now I had my "Pale Horseman" but he looked a bit lonely on that chariot base, so I added a broken plinth and skeletal dogs (Hell Hounds?) from my bits box.

I painted them all up and the result is below (forgive the dramatic lighting).

March Forward Flames of War Tourney

I tied for 1st place in the tournament yesterday!  Sometimes things just work and they did for me!

What this has really taught me is I need to keep painting my miniatures.  I have a whole list of projects I need to finish and start.  I am going to concentrate on getting my DAK painted and my Vampire Counts for the Warhammer Fantasy League I am playing in.

-Tim, they call him...

Painter's Block (Part 2)

Earlier this month, I decided to embark on a project to paint up some of my long ago purchased 15mm DAK for a Flames of War tournament  (Painter's Block (Part 1)).

After two weeks I am very pleased with my progress.  Anyone who knows me, knows I am a slow painter.  

In the past couple of weeks I have painted:

4x Command SMG teams
3x Light mortar teams
2x Anti-tank team
4x HMG teams
4x PaK 36 gun teams
3x PaK38 gun teams
1x FlaK 36 gun team (stripped and repainted).

So now I am ready for the tournament.

Even better I really enjoyed painting these guys and am going to keep working on my Afrika Korps.

-Tim, they call him...

Painter's Block (Part 1)

Like most miniature painters, I go through periods where I just can't seem to paint.  I want to, I really do, but the "mojo" just isn't there.  

A decade or so ago when Flames of War first came out, I bought some painted Afrika Korps platoons and tanks.  I also bought a bunch of support platoons and vehicles in blister packs (unpainted).  I never painted the blisters.  I played FoW with the painted DAK troops I bought. 

 It always bugged me cause I could never have more than a few platoons of infantry, an HMG platoon and some tank, etc.  I spent a lot of time "noodling" out how I would paint them, but I never did. I decided to play in an early war FoW tournament that HMGS-PSW was putting on in late March.  I decided to take something different, a DAK MG Kompanie.

So my force would need:

Command

MG-Kompanie HQ      2 x Cmd SMG teams

Combat Platoons

MG-Platoon

                        1x Cmd SMG team

1x Light mortar team

1x Anti-tank rifle team

4x MG34 HMG team

MG-Platoon

                        1x Cmd SMG team

1x Light mortar team

4x MG34 HMG team

Weapons Platoon

Schützen Anti-tank Gun Platoon        

1x Cmd SMG team

3x 3.7cm PaK36 gun

3x Kfz 70 trucks

Divisional Support

Anti-tank Gun Platoon

1x Cmd SMG team

3x 5cm PaK38 gun

3x Kfz 70 trucks

Heavy Anti-aircraft Gun Platoon         

1x Cmd SMG team

1x 8.8cm FlaK36 anti-tank gun (8 crew)

One interesting thing about the MG kompanie is you can swap out the HMG teams for Rifle/MG teams before you deploy.  I had plenty of rifle teams, but only one HMG platoon.  I did have one 88 FlaK36, but it needed some work.  So I had a lot to paint.

I have always worked better with a deadline so with brush in hand I head off to my nerd cave.

Workbench Update - 

* 15mm 1941 era US Marines (Flames of War) 
I have spent a lot of time "agonizing" over the basing of these guys.  Wake Island had very "white" sand with scattered brush.  After a few test bases I think I have the combination down right.  These are figures from Eureka Miniatures and I ordered them to represent the mixed composition of the forces on Wake Island (Marines, Army Air Force, construction workers).  These really are very nice miniatures.  I have one platoon based.  I am going to prime, paint and base them and use them as my benchmark.

* 28mm SS (AE WWII)
I have these guys primed and their pants painted.  The separate heat system Bolt Action uses is a challenge to paint.  I am thinking maybe gluing the heads to nails so I can handle them.

* Caesarian Roman Army (Warhammer Ancients)
My Romans are sadly neglected these days.  I need to put more effort in here.  Some cavalry I think.


* SS-Panzergrenadier Kompanie (Flames of War)
My Panzergrenadier Kompanie continues to grow.  Currently it consists of:
1x Kompanie HQ
2x SS Panzergrenadier platoons (motorized)
1x SS Panzergrenadier platoons (armored)
1x SS Pioneer platoon
1x SS HMG platoon
1x SS Morar platoon (six tubes)
1x SS leIG (2 leIG 18)
1x SS AT platoon (4x PaK 38)
1x SS AT platoon (4x PaK 40)
1x SS AT platoon - motorized  (2x PaK 38 mounted on 1 ton half track)
1x SS Tank platoon (6x Pz35(t))
3x SS Tiger tanks


I am working on an armored car platoon; a three gun armored artillery platoon; light AA and a "whole passel" of  Pz IVs.


* Fallschirmjager Kompanie (Flames of War)
Recently I have completed:

1x Fallschirmjager (FJ) platoon
1x Fallschirmjager  Light AA platoon

My entire Fallschirmjager Kompanie consists of:

1x Fallschirmjager Kompanie HQ w/attached HMGs
1x Fallschirmjager platoon
2x Fallschirmpioneer platoons
1x Fallschirmjager  Light AA platoon

I have some recoiless rifles and PaK 40s I am working on.

Send in the Marines!

Some time ago (five years?) I purchased some 15mm US Marines in the 1941 pattern uniform.  I had just finished painting a USMC E-series rifle company.  I have always liked the early war uniform, but after painting 150+ Marines, I was not enthusiastic about repeating that.

So these miniatures have sat in a box since then and I actually forgot about them.  I happened to pull the box of my shelf to look for something and there they were.  They deserved to be rescued from the limbo of my closet shelves, so I decided to paint them up.

My WWII game of choice is Flames of War (FoW), which does not have any Pacific supplements.  There is a FoW Yahoo group dedicated to WWII in the Pacific, but I have decided to 'build' the unit as a US Army rifle company from the FoW mid-war North Africa supplement.  That way I can use them in  regular FoW games.

So to start off with I will build a company command; two full strength rifle platoons; some mortars and a HMG platoon. 

The figures I have are made by Eureka USA (http://www.eurekaminusa.com/catalog.aspx?c=Wake%20Island%20Marines&cid=258&pageIndex=0).  They are very nice miniatures and I am anxious to get some paint on them.

Tim, they call him...