Hell on Wheels' and we have hit 10000!

Ok so it is a bit generic to do a post about hitting impressive sounding hits on a blog but here I am. I must admit hitting 10000 views feels like a pretty good achievement when we never expected anyone but our gaming buddies to read it (who are exactly the people who don't read it).

A blast from the past, our original header. 

Anyhow now on to the business! I got a pretty sweet trademe deal the other day with a lot of tanks and a lot of infantry. Here is what it said it included:

Included are... 
1x Armoured Cromwell Platoon 
1x M4A1 (76) Platoon 
1x Panzer IV H Platoon 
1x Jagdpanther 
1x German Panzer (not sure which type) 
1x Sherman Firefly VC 
1x German Halftrack (MG42) 
1x American Halftrack (.50cal) 
3x American Jeeps 
1x Hummel 
1x Ruined building 

There are also various American infantry (mortars, machine guns and riflemen) and German infantry (riflemen). All extra components included. 

Some undercoated black, the Firefly is semi painted but the rest are unpainted. 

Well it came with the above, not sure what I would do with it when it came. After a few chats with Dan I reluctantly decided to pass on the Panzers to him and less reluctantly the Cromwell's as I didn't have use for them for a small fee. I decided my grenadiers could do with heavier tanks than the Panzers as I already had some StuGs.

However what to do with the M4A1 76mm. After much uming and arring I think I have settled on a 2nd Armoured Division aka Hell on Wheels' from Turning Tide (I think it is being superseded by overlord). What attracted me to this company was; firstly, I like tanks, they cause a lot of damage but die hard, rather than pesky infantry who just stick around and make the game drag; secondly, the 2nd division has a cool nick name as mentioned above; thirdly, they painted their tanks with brown and black cammo patterns meaning I can make the tanks have a bit of intrigue; lastly, it means I will have an infantry company (grenadiers) and tank company.

To make this company this I will start by getting a M4A1 standard platoon and an Armoured Rifle Platoon probably off wayland unless there is a place anyone else can recommend? I will make a company with command section (2 tanks), M4A1 76mm platoon and standard M4A1 platoon, then I will have a recon platoon and Armoured Rifle platoon. Then after this the world is my oyster, perhaps some priests will be next. With the infantry, jeeps and halftracks in the auction I thought there would be enough to make a recon platoon but...

In the end it came with a whole bunch more infantry than expected. Not sure what to do with them all, there are some riflemen, SMGs, MG, HMGs, bazookas, mortars etc. I think I will still do the Recon platoon (Command Rifle team, half track, 2 rifle teams and 2 jeeps) but wondering what else I could do with these guys. He has made up some bazooka and mortar teams already, but I am not sure what these guys are supposed to be?

I think there supposed to be MG teams but the base is to small!
Pretty good work with the green stuff though. 

I am looking forward to whipping these guys up and taking them out for a spin, it will probably mean putting my grenadiers on hold for a bit however. I am already thinking of how to make them have a bit more intrigue like I did with my StuGs. I am thinking of making surf boards to put on the back of some of the tanks. Of course when they first landed in Normandy they were expecting to get some good all American surfing in. I was inspired by the film Apocolypse Now (all good war films seem to come from the Vietnam war). Not sure how to make these yet, maybe cut out a piece of plastic into the shape of a surf board then flesh it out with green stuff, any ideas?