20mm American WWII Infantry (Airfix Battles and Chain of Command)

With an eye to playing an American force with the 'Chain of Command' rules and using figures instead of counters in Airfix Battles I gathered together my various "virgin, part painted and fully painted" plastic US Infantry figures. None of the "fully painted" category makes it to the full OrBat as required so some "painting tray" work needs to be done. As it stands I have US Infantry (excluding paratroopers and US Marine Corp) from the following manufacturers:

• Valiant Miniatures (23mm)
• Plastic Soldier Company
• Caesar Miniatures
• Revell
• Italeri (new not old Esci)

Given the OrBat needs of "riflemen" no one manufacturers (with the possible exception of Valiant) packet suffices to make a whole 'Chain of Command Platoon'. However each manufacturer's packet can easily make an individual squad though. Therefore by careful deduction as I need three squads plus a HQ section, multiple manufacturers shall be used:

• Platoon HQ: Lt (Carbine), Sgt (SMG) and Bazooka Team (Bazooka + 2 Crew)
• Squad 1: Corp (SMG),  Rifle Section (8 Rifles) and BAR Section  (BAR + 2 Crew and 1 Rifle)
• Squad 2: Corp (SMG),  Rifle Section (8 Rifles) and BAR Section  (BAR + 2 Crew and 1 Rifle)
• Squad 3: Corp (SMG),  Rifle Section (8 Rifles) and BAR Section  (BAR + 2 Crew and 1 Rifle)

I decided to paint a section from the Plastic Soldier Company, (new) Italeri, Caesar and finish painting up a squad I started a decade ago of Revell 'Ardennes Infantry' which gives me four squads (yes one more than I need, but there are extra things also required from the American "support list" and an extra squad is one of them). They are also all 'size compatible/interchangeable' something that Valiant fails at (it would have to be a full OrBat or nothing). This means the "painting tray" looks rather full (see below):

I am following my preferred painting pattern as of late. Airfix Grey 01 Acrylic primer followed by a Vallejo Wash, in this case Black. The Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) are first up "primed" (see below):

The "washed" Black (see below, though this may not go down in history as the most informative picture I have ever taken!):

Next stepis to follow my old posts on Valiant US Painting instructions.