Buffalo Soldiers - the US 92nd Infantry Division Part I

One of the *ahem* many projects I've had waiting in the hobby mountain for a couple of years now is starting a new US force in 28mm. I've wanted to field American troops in Bolt Action and Chain of Command for a while - just for a change from my plucky Brits - but as I'm often drawn irresistibly toward more underrepresented units, I decided to go for the 92nd Infantry Division... the "Buffalo Soldiers".

Assembly

Back in the sales of 2018 I managed to grab a heavily discounted box of Warlord Games' Buffalo Soldiers, (now sold out, I note, with interest) which consists of the old Warlord US Infantry sprues with additional metal bodies and weapons, as well as alternative heads, sensitively sculpted.

A junior officer and medic, both made from the upgrades in the Warlord set.

To this core I added an extra couple of sprues picked up in the sales and some gorgeously characterful teams from the ranges available at both Empress Miniatures and Artizan Designs (see pics, below) and before I knew it I had quite an expansive force from which to pick and choose!

Elements of my MMG teams - lovely sculpts from Empress

One of the marvellous bazooka teams from Artizan

Mortar support from Empress 

Painting

I've started painting these miniatures using Citadel Contrast Paints over a white basecoat, and I'll go into details about this process in my next post. For now, I'll simply note that taking this approach has reduced my painting time from my habitual fourteen nights for a 10-man unit to two nights for a 12-man unit!

Warlord minis. I've been experimenting with the colour of their pants - the 92nd didn't always get the best kit.

Basing

Another reason I was drawn to the 92nd is that between my troops for the North-African theatre and those for North-West Europe, I'd realised I didn't have any forces for the Italian campaign - Churchill's famously understated "soft underbelly of the Axis". To this end, these models will be based primarily with the arid Luke's APS Mediterranean Soil supplemented with some lush tufts and greenery, with my aim being an aesthetic suggesting the foothills of the Apennines. The greenery will be added at the end, so the 'based' miniatures in this post will still look a little too arid...

I overexposed this to help show some of the skin tone variety.