FOW – WWI US Marines Infantry.

I somewhat recently went to the US Marine Museum in Quantico Virginia. I got a chance to take my time going through the WWI section (along with all the other sections). It gave me a chance to look at the uniforms and equipment of the force during the war on the Western Front. Around that time, we had sporadically been playing FOW Great War. These two things together got me thinking I should add to my limited WWI collection and get a US Marine force.

With that seed planted, I started looking online…. I wanted to see what figures would work and decide which way I would go. As usual, my searches took me to my go to company for painted miniatures, Gajo. Seeing that they had the entire old line of FOW Americans in stock, I decided to go that way. I started to think through how I would organize the troops and sent a few emails to Gajo regarding package contents… As I got answers, the force seemed to grow, like my computer keyboard was infused with Miracle Grow! I decided to start with eight infantry platoons! This would give me either a full strength company or two rules based companies. That should be more than enough to have an attack force!

I ordered almost all the Americans they had. I also added in a few Brits, as I wanted a few weapons variations to better reflect the force. You cannot really see the differences with the way the poses are done and the colors match. I randomized all the guys and glued them to the regular FOW bases that I had sprayed dark brown. Most of the Marines used army stores as the campaign went on. However, I then went through to paint some of the helmets more green, to reflect the look of the original Marine helmet. I also hit a couple of my officers with a camo green wash to show they had the older official uniforms.

For my other WWI bases, I went with a muddy earth look. I wanted to do the same with these, but I switched the type of pumice I used. I was at Game Kastle and found some AK dark earth. I figured I would give it a try. Slowly but surely, I covered all the bases. After that dried, I lightly drybrushed the bases with earth and tan. I then painted the base edges brown. I wanted to add a little character, so decided to add small amounts of freshly growing grass. So, I added small areas of Scenic Express turf to the bases. I wanted something else to reflect the mud, so I pulled out the gloss coat and painted this on all recesses on each base to reflect small puddles.

With that, my US Infantry is ready to go. Now I just need some support weapons……

• Manteuffel