[15mm IABSM]¶
South of Cherbourgh¶

I added plaster to all the bases to hide the cast on bases of the models.

I then started to remove the flash on the Americans, and noticed the quite long machine gunners. Fitting them to the washer size I put the Wehrmacht support teams on, they were to long. So I needed bigger ones.

On these, the lying models fit. Bigger diameter on a washer also means bigger height, they are 2-3 times as thick as the washers the other models are based on. When the bases are painted and have static grass added, this is hopefully not optically disturbing.

As I want all my support teams on the same size of base across the nations (makes it visually more pleasing in my mind, and helps in quickly identifying the type of model during a game), the German teams needed to be re-based. Good that I thought of that before applying the plaster... But plaster and PVA glue are easily removed with a knife from the metal washers.

The bigger washer size also allows me to put all the five crew models on the same base. This is more consistent concerning casualty removal as well. With the smaller size base I would have had two models on the base and three on individual bases; the first three casualties would have been removed with the single based models, the second to last with a marker on the base... With all models on the base, all casualties are shown with a marker on the base. For this I plan to put a frame on the base, where a micro dice fits in. Also, all models on one base is visually more pleasing and allows me to create small mini dioramas. Need some ammo crates...

While reading more of the rules in detail, I read the section on Big Men again. Then I wondered, how to mark the individual Big Men on the table, and how to easily distinguish the Levels during a game. So far I also just based the models individually on the same size of washer as all the common men. Could be difficult to spot during game play... So I removed some more models from their plastered bases (really should have thought of that before), now the plan is to base each Big Man with an additional number of men to get a number of models equal to his Level on a larger sized washer. The larger sized washer makes them more easily discriminable from the ordinary troopers, the number of models shows the Level quite easily. The following pictures show a Big Men with the maximum Level of IV the rules allow, a bit cramped but still works. As most Big Men are Level II or III the space is more than enough.

To distinguish the different Big Men and to allocate them to a distinct card in the Game Deck, I will glue small stones to the bases and paint on them a letter which can be seen from the rear (so normally for the owning player) and make cards which say "Allied Big Man A".

Here is the whole Kampfgruppe grouped by squad, the models in the upper right are spares. The Big Men models (I am short some, need to order some more riflemen after having decided to have the Level represented by the number of models on the base) and the support teams (again, I need some more models to get all the crews up to five) are glued to the wood strips for ease of painting, five models on base around a mortar would have made some areas on the models unreachable with a brush. The pile of plaster in the front is from the bases where I dismounted the gun crews and Big Men models.

Ready to be rinsed in warm soapy water and then base coated.