British Pioneer (Non-paratroop mind) platoons in Mid & Late War Flames of War are tiny four-stand affairs mounted in jeeps with trailers. They are cheap, so sometimes can fill in when you've got points left over in a list, but typically there's usually better options out there. Saying that, they still have the ability to get rid of pesky barbed wire and minefields and can also scare tanks away from assaulting them with their AT4 in assaults.
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| 4 men on a stand as opposed to the normal 5 on regular infantry made these fellows a swifter paintjob, which was nice. |
This is a platoon that will not see much time on my playing surfaces seeing as my regular opponent has yet to use fortifications, minefields or barbed wire, but the first tournament of 2015 is a small Infantry companies only 1200 point effort and I found they were all I could fit in to my list. Battlefront's own Brit Pioneer sculpts are more for their Italy Campaign line, and so I decided to look elsewhere as I wanted mine to fit in with my current Late War Canadians who are based around a Western Europe theme.
Peter Pig Miniatures had a wee pack of their own Pioneers and whilst a little smaller than Battlefront's sculpts, seemed to fit in and give enough character to my stands that they couldn't be confused with regular infantry.
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| Close up showing that this very suspicious cask needs investigating by these brave Engineers. |
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| Yup, that's a bit dodgy looking alright. |
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| More Pioneers on the move, cautiously scanning for hidden mines. |
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| Jerry has booby-trapped these supplies. |
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| And taken all the wine and brandy from the crates to boot! Gits! |
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| Platoon Commander |
Next up for these blokes will be their Jeeps and a 15CWT Truck, but I'm still waiting for those to arrive in the post.
These are bloody marvellous, mate - brilliantly characterful!
ReplyDeleteCheers Drax, glad you like them! :)
DeleteBoy you are tempting me to push aside my 28mm lead mountain and start opening some FOW blisters instead. Keep it up I won't mind :-)
ReplyDeleteDo it! It makes for a nice break painting something different.
DeleteLooking good. Very characterful bases and dioramas. I love the guy crouching and the one with the mine sweeper.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cameron. Those sculpts certainly do add some character.
DeleteVery nice! You've got some proper little dioramas going on there :-)
ReplyDeleteThat is what I was going for. Glad you like mate.
DeleteLooking good Dai - did you not go for the flame thrower option? My pioneers came from the BF motor rifle platoon which includes the flamethrower option to make a late war pioneer unit.
ReplyDeleteI really want some of the minesweeper guys for some RE squads though... Great job! Where did you get the crates and barrel from?
Cheers Jamie. Yes, the flamethrower guys were included, I just didn't paint them up at the time as these will be used next in a Mid War FoW tournament and they dont get the option for switching out for a flamethrower! > _<
DeleteThe barrel is from the US Easy Company pack (US887 I think?). I have no idea were I found the crates?
They look great. I'm a fan of having some 4 men bases as well. Nice side effect is you get more game bang for miniature buck (if that isn't stretching metaphors too much).
ReplyDeleteWhere did the cask come from? It would be a great objective (or terrain) for fantasy (or pirates!).
Cheers Dave!
DeleteI've planned for my germans to be only four to a base for that very reason.
The cask came from the Easy Company US paras blister.