Jeep Mania!

Lone jeep in trouble

Damn jeeps on rubble

Wily's patrol the borders

Solved jeeps with mortars

Jeeps on patrol phase

Armored cars lead the way

Lone jeep in trouble

Damn jeeps on rubble

Wily's patrol the borders

Solved jeeps with mortars

Jeeps on patrol phase

Armored cars lead the way

A collection of jeeps I have been working on after I got in a couple of games of Chain of Command.

In Chain of Command you begin the game by executing the patrol phase.  A phase where your points of deployment, 'jump off points', will be established.  The patrol phase is an abstract of pre-engagement scouting and reconnaissance. In game terms any old token, dice, or figure works as a patrol marker but since it is a miniatures game I wanted to do something that fit with the terrain instead of tokens.

That got me thinking about reckless young Americans plowing across field and wood at high speeds in jeeps.  I'd bought (overbought) some jeeps from Battlefront a couple years ago to use with my Engineer Combat Company.  I'd always planned on basing them on urban rubble bases like the engineers but the project languished.  So once I got the bug about Chain of Command I decided the time was right to model the whole lot up.

The jeeps I bought were the ones without integral bases.  Oh, boy what a bother to put them together.  You have to glue the wheels and bumper on along with the other bits in the standard blister.  It took a lot of fiddling, copious amounts of superglue, and lots of time letting things dry between pieces.  There was even some thin plasti-card involved.  I had to glue the bumpers onto the card before I could get them to line up nicely with the resin hulls.

In the end I was happy with the modelling result.    It allowed me to get jeeps for the command teams of my Engineer company, the Damn Engineers!  The one with 2 stars is for the 2iC, go figure.  The painting is middling as usual.

I solved in my mind what the heck a mortar jeep was in a US Cavalry/Armored Recon Platoon.  I do not believe it was ever vehicle mounted.  The 60mm mortar was portable enough I think they set it up on spot.  I saw Steve from WWPD just glued a mortar tube in the back of his and that seemed to solve the issue of identifying it. I wanted something to more boldly delineate it.  I had the extra mortars and men so I went ahead in this fashion.

There are a couple more on integral bases that round out my Intelligence & Recon Platoon and a lone jeep for an artillery battery which was missing.  I have plenty of jeeps and would borrow from other platoons as needed but the completist in me needed to have dedicated ones.

For the Chain of Command patrol markers I wanted them on round bases so I used fender washers, added a few extra figures I had to make them tell a story, a mini diorama if you will.  I'd never painted one with a canopy so I took the opportunity to do one like that.

There are a pair of Greyhounds in there as you might notice.  I've never had those before.  An Cavlry/Armored Recon company or Task Force A for Flames of War could be in my future more easily now.

It was a long project but fun.  It really reignited my enthusiasm for the figures.  If I were to do it again I would probably use the jeeps with the integral bases by sawing them off and gluing onto round ones.  I used what I had and really needed them for the rubble bases, so C'est la vie.

I just got the Kubelwagons (from the Black Friday sale no less!) I'll use to make up the German ones.  So watch out for those later in the year.  If you love or hate them please leave a comment, follow the blog, and add me to your blog reader.

Cheers! Here are a few more pictures of the Patrol Markers.

oops, missed the bottom of his boot!

Static grass, argh!  Is that a broken nose?