Flames of war soviet navy platoons

Fairly quick job this one, the Soviet navy who were pressed into service to fight off the German invasion. Early on they didn't have enough "normal" uniforms, so they fought in naval black.

They were pretty effective too and gained the nickname "Black Death" from the Germans who fought them.

I do like a bit of flames of war, but these have now been sold to a nice chap in Italy who is apparently the number one ranked soviet player in Italy! He had my other soviet infantry off me a few months ago, so it's good that they've gone to a good home to be used more than I would use them.

More Flames of war stuff painted

So, with my hobby time under pressure like never before, I have decided to crack on and still do what I can!  So herewith find the latest tales of derring-do from the painting table....

First up, the Soviets.  I saw this first lot on Maelstrom and they were a bit of an impulse purchase on the basis they looked like fun.  Less than a couple of quid per pack, I thought they were worth a punt.  So I got around to basing them up, painting them and using them on the tabletop..... And they were great!  What were they?  Tank crew.  Yep, utterly unnecessary and make no difference to the tabletop as "bailed out" and "bogged down" markers come with the dice sets that I have.  But a couple of games against Nick from a few moons ago showed that they make the tabletop look smashing as my crews spend plenty of time hanging around outside their tanks not wanting to get back in!  Red bases to show they don't "exist on the tabletop and I was so impressed that I've bought some German crew for my other army too :)

"Dimitri, should we get back in our tank?"
"Not a chance Sergei, we can have a picnic at the edge of this wood instead!"

In the interests of transparency, the crews were painted before the family expansion, but these next two items were all painted afterwards.  They helped keep me sane :)

First up are some lend lease AA carriers.  I have no plan for including these in any particular army, they'd just been hanging around for ages so I thought I'd better get them painted or they'd be there for ever!

You'll have to forgive the background..... A nursery prospectus :)

US army warpaint spray, nuln oil wash, pick out tyres, crew, weapons, etc and add some transfers and AA units 15, 16 and 17 are ready for action!

Next up was another item that I have no particular plan for using.  In fact, I need another 6 to make a useful sized platoon.... But I decided that instead of the old gamer "I'm going to buy everything I need before I start painting approach and then find it all looks a bit daunting to ever start it" I decided to paint these three and then as and when I get the next ones they'll not be too tough to do.  These aremore lend lease vehicles but British universal carriers this time.  I really like the Russian passengers that come with these models and they certainly make them look the part!

These look like fun to drive!

Khaki grey and green grey mix to get an armour colour that I was happy with, paint the crew and passengers with my normal infantry scheme and wash away.  Fun little models.

Bit odd for me to paint stuff I don't know when I'll use, but with the limited hobby time available to me, I wanted to enjoy it and I just felt like painting this little lot.  And if you think these are odd, just wait for my next update :)

Getting things finished!

Yup! I'm still trying to get the masses of bits and bobs done. It is going to be a long haul but posting finished things does give a helpful boost to ones moral! One of the King & Kerr buildings finished and the Cafe De Normandie from Warbases. Both were lovely to paint with the detail really making it a quick job on the King & Kerr one.

But. The K & K ones take a little work to get to get to this stage. I had one or two with what seemed to be miscast windows so I had to cut all the windows out on those ones and there was a fair amount of flash on certain parts. Not unsurmountable but a bit of a pain. Hopefully I'll be able to get the rest of the king and Kerr ones done this week as well.

Flames of war soviets update

Well, there have been a couple of things keeping me busy lately and so this post is really rather late.  I thought I'd post an update to the Soviet challenge that I set myself a few posts ago with all that unpainted, some undercoated, miniatures.

Playing regularly for a few weeks with the Fox was great as not only did I learn more about the army and improve my terrain set up to really add to the games, it gave me the incentive to actually get some stuff painted to make the game and tabletop look great :)

So, what have I done?  most of the 1,500 point list that I evolved after a few games, so well happy with that :)  So, onto the piccies....

We shoot 3 times on the move up to a mighty 10cm!  Fear us!!!!

This is my platoon of SMGs.  Soviet "companies" (equivalent to platoons) come in multiples of 8, so up to 25 with command team... and that's before you've added the kommisars, attachments from the HQ, etc.  This unit therefore beefs up one of my existing platoons and has the command stands for my two infantry companies as I realised that I hadn't painted them yet...

Next up is the scary tank platoon! 5 T-34s clocking in at 400 points.  Really scary tanks, but Hen & Chicks (the soviet special rule for tanks which makes then borderline useless if they move and either all the platoon moves or none does, so no move and cover tactics for them) really hinders them, which is great as they play very differently to other nations armour.

1 day of basic training + the best tank of WW2 = danger for both sides.....

Dark green isn't the easiest colour to look nice at this scale, so I went with extreme highlighting with a mixed up light green which I'm pleased with. The commander uses a special character model and is ace! He has a nice bright flag to make him stand out.  the numbering on Soviet tanks was both random and sporadic as far as I can tell, so there are a selection of numbers and red stars on either side of each hull.

Next up is more infantry - I need lots for effective platoons I'm finding so another 8 was the order of the day.  These are standard rifle/MG stands.  As Nick will attest, I don't worry too much about who stands where and just check which is which when it's time to fire!

We've all been given guns!  Thank the gods it's not mid-war.....

Next up was finishing the Katyusha platoon.  I'd painted the vehicles and crew, but as they had moulded resin bases and I hadn't finished them, it was pretty obvious that they were standing proud of the holes in the resin...  So I've finished their bases and also painted up the observer and command.  Funny thing is that the command base have been better at spotting than the observer.  I shall need to ask Uncle Joe for some binoculars....

Ooooooh - fireworks!

And last but not least is the sapper platoon.  These boys get added to existing companies to beef them up and add some much needed AT in assaults, being AT4. I read an interesting story about the Soviets using dogs to deliver AT mines by training the dogs that food was available under tanks... I think that this was mostly mid war to be fair when times were tougher (and it had mixed success), but I just had to recreate this and use it as a way to differentiate the sapper bases on the tabletop.  So, an order to Peter Pig for some dogs, a little green stuff for a coat (painted red for both patriotism and ease of identification on the table) and the mines from the tops of a set of beach defences and here you have them.  Dead pleased with them :)

One man went to mow......

And a close up of a couple of the tank destruction Kompany

Oh master, I do love my new red coat!  And I love you too master! 

So, time for a group shot of where I am now (with some extra work done since this to the katyushas)

Also shown here are the finished SU-122s (just don't have them here to photo!) and the two things left to do, the SU-57s (which apparently weren't re-painted from the US colour that they were shipped in during the war) and the 4 bases of AT rifles.

So, having gone from 18 painted bases to touching distance of 1500 in a few weeks - really enjoyed being motivated to get it done and looking forward to getting them on the tabletop again as soon as children allow!

Taking stock part 2

Continuing my rationalisation of my wargaming kit I have dug out the buildings I have for FoW with a veiw to getting these finished and all stored in an accessable and easily transportable format much like I have done with my tree collection.

However I've got a bit of work to do before that point. ;-)

The finished ones consist of mainly Fieldworks pieces with a new(ish) HDF building from Warbases. The Radar Mast is from Antenocenti and I think it is a lovely little model. Most of the Fieldworks were brought as 10mm for playing BKC but they work at 15mm as well in my opinion.

There are a couple of teeny tiny houses that are really true 10mm which I will still use. Hey! they can be outhouses and farm buildings. The pale resin pile is a farm set from, I think, the Plastic Soldier Company's stand. It is a little large for a 15mm piece but not enough to worry. There is also the Cafe du Normandie from Warbase, two more Fieldworks ruins and a set of European Western Front houses from King & Kerr. These are the first ones I've got from King & Kerr and I'm interested to see how well they paint up.

Now all I need is a dry day to spray them with undercoat and I'll be able to slap a bit of paint on them to get them finished. The dry day is the first challenge given what the weather has been like lately!

FoW Buildings

I've been rather distracted of late what with the arrival of 'Shell. This is the Gog nickname for my firstborn child so named by the Gogs. Seemed fitting for the offspring of Mr & Mrs Artillery!

This said I have managed to grab five minutes here and there to do a (very) little hobby stuff. I've set up my airbrush finally and used it to undercoat a load of figures and to put the base coat onto one of the laser-etched buildings that I'd brought at Colours. Once dried I finished it off with dry-brushing.

It is a bit dark so I will make an effort to make the next one a lot lighter. When I get round to it.

I love Colours.....

...the wargaming show that is! I always find something new there every year. This year for me it was the laser etched scenery that seems to be sneaking into gaming more and more.

Is it a good thing? I had to find out. I got two 15mm kits from Warbases.com to try out. They were reasonably priced at £8 & £7 and I got started on the first on Saturday night. The first kit I did wasn't as precisly cut as I would have imagined but it went together after a bit of work. Thankfully the second, which I tackled today, went together like a charm. The 15mm kits are a little fiddly but not complicated. My overall thoughts on them?

CONS

Dirty. The laser etching leaves the edges of the HDF sooty. I assume this is from the heat of the laser. But they smell like lovely BBQs!!

A Fair bit of work. Whilst being quicker than a scratch build they are not a quick job to finish as the roof on each will take some time to fit the tiles. I suppose that it might be possible to find pasticard with a tile texture to speed this up but that will obviously add to the cost.

Detail. Resin cast stuff does have more detail but once painted I don't think there will be a great deal of difference.

PROS

Value. I enjoy puting things like this toether so I am more than happy with the price. For me it is almost like a double win as £7 or £8 seems like a good deal for a model kit that keeps me entertained for a few hours AND which I can then use again and again.

Weight. A good size building for the scale without the potential for many of them to turn into dead weight in a scenery box.

Robustness. I think the HDF will stand up well over time as it is pretty hard stuff. I don't know if paint will change this with the addition of moisture but I can't imagine it would make a great deal of difference.

I think I can safely say that I would be happy to buy HDF kits in future and having seen some nice ones already I think this is an area of the hobby that could expand quickly over the next year or so. With brands like Sarissa and Warbases generating new designs all the time, I will be keeping my eye out for any HDF releases.

I think I'm a convert. I also think Sarissa will be graced by my patronage in the not so distant future.

The final throes

So, when we got back to the game we realised that we'd done more than we thought and we had only got two of my turns and 1 of Dave's to go! This was going to be close.

We started with my reserves rolls.... And I'm not sure why I bothered. One 6 out of 8 dice meant I had rolled a grand total of two 6s in 36 dice. I only needed 4 to have got all my reserves on as well! So sadly, this left my 4 Panzer IVs off the table just when I needed them most.... Undeterred, my lone platoon rushed towards the objective as the luftwaffe infantry platoon (too late to get near the objective now) sauntered on the edge of the table. The heroic observer called down a bombardment on the infantry platoon who were rushing towards the objective and killed one stand and more importantly, pinning them down......



After getting close enough to the infantry platoon defending the objective, they shot and assaulted.... And missed. The British swung back.... and missed. More Germans from the platoon piled in and assaulted and forced the British to fall back, but they passed their break test and so would be there to try to force the Germans off the objective next turn (pic below).

There were going to be some huge rolls this turn, starting with the pinned platoon rolling to unpin themselves on a 4+...... which they did! They then moved forward to get good firing positions on the Germans holding the objective. The British observer called in the Priests on the plucky platoon and spotted first time, hitting three. I then rolled my saves needing a 3+...... and got triple 1! There then followed a fusilade of shots from all the British, and making only 1 save out of 5 (again, on a 3+) the platoon was destroyed, leaving on the HQ to contest the objective. 3 shots from the AVRE later, only 1 hit and needing a 3+ to save.......I rolled a 1. I could see this turn wasn't going to go my way!

With the furthest objective taken, all eyes turned to the strongpoint Cod objective. Woud the plucky observer be enough to repel the might of the British army?

The pioneers managed to unpin themselves and storm towards the objective as fast as they could (bottom platoon). One British base from the infantry platoons trying to get into Cod managed to fight his way over the barbed wire and get into combat with the observer who was contesting the objective. We reckoned the Pioneers were probably out of claiming range of the objective and so this one base needed to kill the observer and occupy the house to get it.

My defensive fire hit... but the team saved it. This was it then, Dave's chance to get the win and all he needed was a 4+...... and rolled a 3! As he hadn't hit, my observer automatically counter-attacked and needed a 3+ to finish it...... and you won't be surprised to hear that I rolled a 1..... The British team then surged into the house again..... and rolled another 3! They must have over stretched themselves as the Observer then rolled a 5 to finish them in close combat and finish the game holding the objective!

............

.........Or so we thought...... I then thought I'd check the rules given we hadn't played in a while and there it was, independent teams could neither claim nor contest objectives and an observer was an independent team. So it all came down to how close the pioneer team at the bottom of the picture was from the objective!

After measuring it, they were in that area where there was only millimetres in it one way or the other, so we agreed that the British had shown enough pluck, vim and vigour to win the day and so the beach head was established and the kettles were put on for a brew by exhausted British infantry all along the beach....

A great game all told that really re-invigorated our interest in Flames of War and should catapault us nicely into the next stage of the landings - the battle for Caen and surroundings with a lot of the more esoteric stuff that we have in our collections for this very purpose.

Dave also has the US landing forces and so is keen to give Omaha beach a run, along with a couple of other beach landing scenarios from the books. There's also the chance to run a "what if" battle with the German operation Sea Lion not stopped by the weather this time around.....

What I did at Christmas...

...well mainly eat, drink & paint Germans.

23 bases of LMG infantry 2 command stands and 4 HMG support stands.

Left to paint is......

3 Anti Tank guns

4 Panzerfaust teams

11 Half tracks

6 Inf command stands

4 Nebelwefer bases + command & observers

4 10.5cm Arty guns

Arty HQ and numerous observers

2 88s with command squad

4 Inf morter teams + command & Obs

3 AA guns + Command.

Oh. Thats quite a lot really isn't it.

I won't mention the 7 tanks that I haven't even put together yet!

Or the scenery that needs painting.

Well at least I know what I'm doing in 2011.

FoW continues!

Some more (slow) progress with my FoW germans. I've painted three snipers before any other infantry in order to get a feel for painting camo on figures at this scale. Not brilliant but it will definately do!

Official German Camo Schemes....

....are right out of the window.

I've decided to paint my FoW Germans in all sorts of camo schemes which rely more on my mood at the time of painting than any real historical inspiration. More photos to follow but here is one of my Panzer IVs.

Tiger to follow!

;-)

What I did this weekend....

...very little.

I managed to paint 2 trucks and 4 RSO tractors for my FoW Germans. I'm still not sure what compelled me to start with the transports but painting them was really fun!

I've gone for wacky camo on some of the RSO tractors but trucks are fairly muted.

Avanti La Spaghetti!!

So after my recent blitz on Blood Angels, for those who have not yet seen them please look here http://secretgogblog.blogspot.com/ , I decided to clear some of my own backlog next.


So up stepped my Italian desert force.  So far I have assembled all the tanks and heavy AT truck mounted Lancias, and the first 6 MGs and 4 Inf guns.

La Bocage..........c'est Fini!

Yup Bocage is all finished. I might still go back and add some patches of static grass.

Stoking the Flames of War

I have decided to chip away at the prep work for my new FoW collection at the same time as working on the church terrain project. This way I can nibble away at the tedious work of filing, trimming and basing of all the figs in the spare half hours I have here and there.

Hopefully it should all be done around the same time as the church is finished and I can throw myself into getting it all painted. Done so far are several bases of Artillery Observers and Staff and these two bad-ass 88s!

Finishing things.......

Need to finish things.......its the only way that I'll allow myself to start my FoW Germans. Still in the production list are.....

Scenery set for Silverfox - Started.

SotTR figures - Nearly finished.

Tyranids Pods - Started.

Warmachine and just about everything else is being benched so I can have good crack at doing my FoW stuff and producing scenery to go with them.

Eddy

Flames of War!

My will power was finally eroded last weekend. One cracking game of Flames of war and I was helpless to resist. It didn't help with Urn and the Silverback talking about a new webstore selling FoW cheap but the final blow was the offering of a discount voucher (thanks to the Silverback).

The toys were ordered within hours of the game and arrived a few days later...........

....just need to resist starting them until I've finished one or two other projects.

A weekend of productivity

So as you all know the long haired general went away this weekend so I had 2 full days of me time.  I vowed not to play any computer games and get on with some good hobby time.  So apart from eating, watching movies and research adult educational movies on the magical interweb, I spent the time assembling, basing and painting.  These are the fruits of my labours.

2 Bastions (1 was nearly finished already)
8 Long Sections and 8 Short Sections of Barricades.
4 x Large 15mm ruins from a company called Fieldworks for FoW.
My latest recruiting drive for the americans yielded, (all based with filler and undercoated)

• 10 Bazooka Teams
• 4 x Heavy MG teams, HQ and Spotter.
• 4 x 81mm Chemical Mortar teams with HQ and Spotter.
• 2 x Arty Staff teams
• 3 jeeps for Recce
• 1 x AA 37mm HQ M3 Half track - M13
• 1 x AA Quad .50cal M3 Halftack.

and 20 Bloodletters painted - they had previously been undercoated.

So there you go - so what have I learned.  Investing in sending the good lady to a Spa for the weekend does wonders for clearing your hobby backlog and also ruins your eyesight ;)

Deutschland, Deutschland,la,la,la,!

Here as promised is the next batch of figures toward my German PZ Grenadier army for Flames of War. The basing has been completed now with the Silflor tufts and Hobby clumping foliage.
Great stuff, this time I have used the sring colour, rather than summer.

I have used branches and twigs cut from the garden and stuck these in with superglue, then grouted around them, moulding in tree roots for

effect.

I hope you like them, I will be mving on to the Machine Gun platoon next.

I do have Hanomags for all these, if I am honest I am a little scared that the camouflage will just look....well! Painted on...if you know what I mean. I am going to dig my spray gun out, which I have never used and then experiment a little before diving in. They're all undercoated and washed, I just need to get the red/brown and the green sprayed on!

TTFN

BFG

Flames of War movement.

Thanks to Varistat man, I am back on to achieving my GoG army target for 2010, this will be a 2K pts force for the German Wehrmacht, late war.







He popped over on Thursday of this week and gave me a run out with them against his Russian force, which is very, very scary. The battalions are absolutely huuuuge! 16+ stands in each. And he still managed to get 4 Katyushas and two platoons of mixed T34-76's and T34-85's......cripes D.M!
One of the best units I have found to be the anti tank guns, particularly the PAK 40. This little baby has better anti-tank than the tanks carrying the same gun, it can dig in, which guns like the '88 can't and has bulletproof cover, with footproint of 32" it's a must.
These 4 guns were put together and painted in an afternoon, I based them using tile grit then painted this, I had also stuck some larger stones to the base prior to the grit.
Once painted they were highlighted. I then ventured to adding "tufts" Silflor in this case. I also added some clumpage foliage, from any railway hobby store and added some sprigs from an old Warhammer pre-painted and flocked hedge. (This has lasted me years, I still have a load of it left as well.)

I really wanted to show the before and after with these photos, my camera isn't the best unfortunately, so Ihave done what I can with these.

I love the finished effect, the combined terrain on the bases just lends loads to the figures themselves.

Hope you like them, next will be the Panzergrenadiers.

TTFN

BFG.