My First Company of Cold Warriors

I just finished my first company of 15mm US Army Mechanized Infantry troops for the 1978-1981 time frame, and thought I'd share a few pics and a little psycho-babble.  I still need most of the M113s, M150s, and M125s; but the dudes are done.

I found a number of variations of possible TO&E for these guys, and got some great input from the guys on the Yahoo TO&Es e-group to clear up some of my fuzziness ( http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/TOandEs/ ).  I ended up with PHQs with 9x figs, 2x M60 MGs, and three squads per platoon with 11x men, 1x M60 MG, and 2x GLs.  As these guys will be defending Europe from the tank heavy "Red Menace", two out of three squads have a Dragon anti-tank missile launcher. 

About half of the figs are figs from Old Glory's CDVN-01 "US Infantry in Helmets",with most of the remainder from Peter Pig's Vietnam range (M60 gunners and grenade launchers, plus a few riflemen).  The GLs are all M79s, until somebody releases the appropriate figs with M16/M203s. The  Dragon gunners from Quality Castings "Modern 1980's Infantry AT/AA Weapons" pack (technically the wrong helmet/uniform discussed here in a previous post, December 2011).


I settled on painting them in OG107 green uniforms and ERDL camo helmets, matching Vallejo paint as best I could with period gear that I own.  Here are the Vallejo paints that I used:


Uniform - 893 US Dark Green.
Equipment - 1:1 of 893 US Dark Green and 890 reflective Green or 1:1 of US Dark Green and 886 Green Grey.
ERDL Helmet Cover -  base coat 2:3  893 US Dark Green and 886 Green Grey with camo of 889 US Olive, 890 Reflective Green, and Black.

Old Glory figs above.

Peter Pig figs above

A mix of Quality Castings (Dragon gunner), Peter Pig (LAW and M79), and OG otherwise.

Probably the most important thing that can be gained from the photos above is that the figures mix pretty seamlessly with none particularly standing out due to size or sculpting style.