Machine Guns and Horse Cavalry

Every now and then I buy a model and it comes with a few styrene plastic troops.

Or I buy a collection and it has a few styrene troops in it.

Or I buy a set of styrene troops.

Then every few years all those miscellaneous troops and bits and bobs get collected for a little work.

I pull out the sheet styrene and make bases for them, sometimes I add an oil drum or other items to make unique troops.

This horse is from the Hasagawa 1/72nd scale Stuart tank kit.  I cut the lower half of the rider off and add the upper half of some other troops and I get some WWII US Army horse cavalry.  In Italy and France the US made a few ad hoc horse cavalry units.  Most just picked up a German horse for a few days, but others were actual units.  There were still lots of real cowboys in the Army in those days.

The soldier with his back to use is holding a pair of binoculars.  I add a carbine and an ammo can and now he is the third man in a three man machine gun team.  I my rules set a three man machine gun team can fire indirect fire, something machine guns can do with a little preparation.

I give my loaders a weapon, in my wargame rules crewmen get a pistol, but can use a secondary weapon if it's mounted on their person or on their base.  This way if the enemy destroys the MG these guys can still fight.