Armored Rifle Platoon

Some more US troops for Flames of War. I actually finished these guys in late September already, but as they were done just the night prior to a game day they were quickly packed up without any photos being taken until now.

This is the older metal and resin version of the Armored Rifle Platoon as I wasn't too keen on the new plastic ones especially since the sprue design was a bit lazy with multiple poses being duplicates in the same sprue. The older models aren't without their issues either as the moulds are pretty old and it shows in casting quality quite a bit. Multiple infantry models needed a lot of work as did the resin half-tracks. There were a lot of issues with extra resin around the track area etc. which needed to be carved out so tracks could be attached.

As there is quite a lot to paint for a single platoon I went with a straight forward paint job of just a few highlights and a wash on the infantry and the half-tracks being painted with a slight colour modulation before decals and weathering was applied. I used Dom's decals this time as I'd heard a lot of praise about them and the Battlefront ones were out of stock at my local store. I don't know if I had a bad batch or something, but they were extremely delicate. Even after two layers of gloss varnish on top a few of them almost disappeared when I wiped away excess enamel wash during weathering. The decals on the sides are battlefront ones and they held up without issue while the ones on the bonnets are from Dom's. I batched up mistakes with some mud splashed on top so no big deal, but still a slight nuisance.

There's actually one extra half-track that belongs to the company commander. As I already had some extra command bases painted up I didn't bother doing any new ones yet so the CO only got a new ride this time.