Chris's M1 Abrams Armored Combat Team

Chris' Team Yankee

Team Yankee Chris Townley’s Team Yankee M1 Abrams Armored Combat Team

Chris' Team Yankee

Part 4: 2 June 2017
Well, it took a week of work but I finally got there in the end.....

Earlier this year I managed to have a week off to do a few things around the house. I also managed to spend a fair amount of time finishing off my M1 Company, along with some associated support units. I still have the infantry platoon to paint but in the short term I might borrow one of the work units.

 Chris' Team Yankee
Chris' Team Yankee
Chris' Team Yankee
Chris' Team Yankee
Chris' Team Yankee
Chris' Team Yankee

Once I complete the infantry I will have 110 points painted which is plenty for most games, as well as having some extra units so that I can swap things in an out a bit.

Of course I am now thinking about what I could add when the next American book comes out... Not to mention my West Germans and British that are in various states of partially finished (or is that partially started?).

Oh how the painting "to-do" list grows so quickly.

~Chris

Chris' Team Yankee
Chris' Team Yankee

Part 3: 7 July 2016
As they say, its been a long time between drinks with my Team Yankee M1 Abrams Armored Combat Team but I am nearing the end of my first 100 points.

As mentioned in my previous posts I made use of templates for a lot of my airbrushing butwhen it came to the M1 Abrams I reverted to good old fashioned blu-tac to help keep the green camo in the right places. This process is really slow as you carefully mask off the areas of the vehicle you want to stay the same colour as your base coat so that when you airbrush the next colour over it you can remove it and have nice sharp edged camo.
Chris' Team Yankee

One of the reasons for my slow progress was that for some reason I found these tanks a little daunting, but I think that was because I chose to mask many vehicles in one go it did not look like I was making much progress.

However once the brown was airbrushed on (blu-tac removed) and the black and sand lines were brush painted the unit went from "barely started" to "almost finished" in the blink of an eye.

Left and Below: M1 Abrams tanks ready for gloss varnish, decals and a pin wash

Chris' M1 Abrams Company

My M163 VADS have been lagging behind a little as I was trying to push the M1's to their current stage but they are now next on my list to paint the sand and black stripes. I've got a pair of M901 TOW launchers that need the same treatment (the vehicles themselves are already finished).

Right: M163 VADS awaiting their turn

Chris' Team Yankee

Dissapointingly my Cobras have not seen much love over the past few months. This is due to combination of factors including cold winter nights and the airbrush station living out in the garage, and the need to get my Panzerschreck army of Pacific LVT's finished.

However with the rest of my company close to completion I figure they will be flying high soon.

Part 2: 11 February 2016
As anyone who knows me can tell you, I am big on the starting of something and not so big on the finishing... Despite having a near inexhuastable supply of excitement about Team Yankee, I have found myself with a sadly exhausted supply of energy. However, unlike other slackers around the office who have not finished their armies, I have the excuse that the five-week-old baby (in addition to the 3½-year-old) managed to destroy my carefully laid plans for getting a lot done over Christmas.

My plan for building the army remains largely the same as I outlined on the Armageddon launch weekend, with the focus being on getting the first 50 points completed. However, I have found that I have more time for assembly than painting. This is mainly because it is easier to do a little at a time after putting the kids to bed, whereas popping out to the garage to do some airbrushing in the dark is not so appealing.

Chris' Team Yankee

So where am I at? I've largely finished my first four M113s (they need their commanders and cupolas finished) as well as two additional vehicles that I will use as ITVs.

To speed the painting process up I came up with a set of three MERDC painting templates for the sides and top (more on this process next week) so I could basecoat the vehicle green and then airbrush on the brown.

Left:The MERDC templates ready to use.

I've also finished assembling most of my force, with five M1's done, the M106s (which were base-coated at the same time as the M113s), five out of my six M109's (and their FIST) as well as the four Cobras. This leaves another five M1s and the VADS to do. I've been wanting to start painting the M1 Abrams, but I figured it is better to wait till the rest of my army is done as (as Wayne mentioned in his post) our stocks of the new paints have not arrived yet and if I am going to have to mix up a custom batch of paint for Forest Green I'd rather that all the M1s had the same base colour.
Chris' Team Yankee Chris' Team Yankee
I've left the tracks as a separate piece for the M106s, whereas I have glued them on the Abrams. Normally I like to do the tracks by themselves, as I think it is faster to paint, but in this case I just had to glue them on! If you are going to paint your M113 (and variants) tracks separately, don't forget to paint the transmission housings at the front (they wrap around the lower front hull) or you will think they are finished when they are not!

Part 1: Armageddon Weekend – 12 December 2015
When HW Coyle initially approached Battlefront about turning his book into the basis for a game, I can honestly say I felt like jumping around and screaming. I’ve owned a copy of Team Yankee for around two decades and even planned to build the actual Team Yankee in micro armour last century before I had heard about Battlefront and Flames Of War. Now with the game and miniatures coming out I was always going to be building an American force that looked a heck of a lot like Sean Bannon’s Team Yankee.

To begin with we (the Studio) decided to build 50-point forces as a way to quickly get the core of our armies built and ready for some gaming. For me that meant that it would be all about the M1 Abrams, the king of the battlefield, the undisputed heavyweight champion! Nothing after that mattered, but of course with 10 points to spend after buying an HQ and two pairs of tanks I still had plenty of options to choose from. Looking around the studio and hearing what things were exciting people I felt that a couple of M163 VADS would be great for shooting down enemy Hinds, but would also be pretty useful if someone turned up with a pile of infantry. For my last platoon I was tossing up between Cobras and a Mechanised Platoon. Both are good options, the Cobra is more efficient at taking care of tanks, but the infantry are pretty resilient and their Dragons can thin the horde of enemy BMPs. In the end (despite having my M113s assembled and partially painted) I decided to go with a pair of Cobras. The models are just really nice and (as it happens) it meant that my initial army matched our Bannon’s Boys army deal (with the addition of a couple of VADS on top). 

M1 Abrams Armored Combat Team HQ
1x M1 Abrams

8 points 
M1 Abrams Tank Platoon
2x M1 Abrams

16 points
M1 Abrams Tank Platoon
2x M1 Abrams

16 points
M163 VADS AA Platoon
2x M163 VADS

3 points
AH-1 Cobra Attack Helicopter Platoon
2x AH-1 Cobra

7 points
Total 50 points
Chris at Team Yankee Armageddon
   


Last Updated On Tuesday, December 5, 2017 by Luke at Battlefront