FOW (WiP): Those damn engineers

Able company 291st combat engineers December 1944

I think for WW2 infantry combat is Bolt Action is my go to game.  That said infantry in Flames of War provide a vital part to the game. To act as counter point to my winter Volkgrenadiers I have started to put together some winter americans. For motivation I have thrown down the gauntlet to Eric, the local $$ (some symbols do not go down well in Germany it seems) player, to put together forces for the FoW Peipers charge mission.

My first unit out is the entire of A company 291st combat engineer battalion. This were the guys who frustrated Kampfgruppe Piepers dash across the Ardenne by creating roadblockings and blowing bridges and generally delaying the planned dash to the Muese.

Commanding officer Capt James Gamble, XO 1st Lt Frank Hayes.

1st platoon led by 1st Lt Albert Walters

2nd platoon led by 1st Lt Alvin Edelstein

3rd Platoon led by 1st Lt Archibald Taylor

Pioneer team

Pioneer team

HMG Section

Pioneer section on mine clearance details.

A company 291st is actually a test bed for a planned american winter force. I have already got a winter rifle company.  The long term plan is to complete some american units and then move on to a winter themed board for them to fight over but that is a good bit away.

Some background reading.
Interestingly the 291st were involved in Remagen (very late war) so there may be score for a non winter version of the force at some point in the future 

Modelling wise there were a few different thing tried:

• For basing the snow some white painted was mixed with the PVA glue. I think it worked better than just PVA glue.
• The tank tracks in the snow were first painted then covered in masking and the rest of the base was weathered and winterized. When the process was over the task wsa removed to leave the tracks. I did the same thing using sticky putty on the foot prints but it does not show up very well and may not be worth the effort at the scale.

I seem to be big on basing at the moment. My FoW Americans are getting the winter treatment while my BA Japanese are going for a tropical jungle vibe. At the moment I am stuck on how to create the image of a jungle base most of my current methods look a bit to cultivated. 

Thanks for stopping by