My new vintage WW2 American Spearhead Army

by parallels · January 23, 2020

Here the beginning of my effort to build a Spearhead US WW2 Army. The figures are vintage infantry figures from Heroics and Ros. I have added support weapon and command strips which you may still find on the H&R site.

The vintage figures were painted by me around 35 years ago, mounted on painted cardboard. They have been retouched and mounted on my standard 3mm MDF base.

I have used Vallejo german Camo Beige(jacket), Flat earth (trousers), iraqi sand(webbing), salmon pink. The newly painted models were primed with matt black.

Another guide says:

Uniform Part Vallejo
Jacket/leggings Khaki (988)
Trousers US Field Drab (873)
Webbing Green Grey (886)
Helmet Brown Violet (887)
Boots Flat Brown (984)

One uniform Item that can cause confusion is the HBT or “Herringbone Twill” denim fatigues that the US Army issued. These were worn as working clothes during training etc. but were also worn over the top of the normal combat dress for amphibious operations such as the Tunisian and Normandy landings. The olive green colour of the HBT’s was similar to the colour of the later M1943 uniform, which we’ll look at later.

Herringbone Twill US Dark Green (893)
Assault Jacket Olive Drab (887)
Gasmask Bag German Grey (995)

The M1943 uniform. This uniform is what usually springs to mind when thinking of the classic image of the wartime G.I. The first issue was to the G.I.’s taking part in the Anzio landings in Italy and the new uniform proved itself an immediate success. Due to internal squabbling however, between the ETO command and the U.S. based command the issue of this much improved uniform was delayed until pretty much the end of the war for the troops already serving there. Most new troop formations that were shipped to the ETO after mid 1944 were wearing the new uniform but the rest had to soldier on through one of Europe’s worst winters wearing the older and less weather resistant uniform.