Blog Redesign

The Flames of War Blog is undergoing routine re-designing, hand tough and it should be finished/working properly in about a week.

January Challenge: Failed!

Technically I could still complete my January Challenge, but it would mean ignoring my family and my responsibilities for the rest for the day and going hard out painting and basing. That's just not going to happen. I'm confident however, that before my birthday rolls around, I'll have my airborne army complete, and will be eager to start a late war German army.

I did however purchase a storage container for all my finished scenery, but when i decided to transfer my previously completed pieces form the cardboard box to the new plastic bin, I discovered that two of them has not been given the grass treatment!

I'm happy with my progress regardless of the missed deadline, and am pretty sure I'll have a decent enough gaming table if we decide to play FOW this Wednesday, with a little bit of luck I'll even be able to introduce the guys (or at least my opponent) to a little something that we've never gamed with before...

Of course, there is plenty more I want to do for my gaming table, but they will be projects for the rest of the year.

Small Stand of Trees

Some shop bought trees, some MDF, paint and flock. Tutorial coming soon!

Free Stuff From Battlefront

On January 4th I emailed Battlefront asking for a replacement Gun Barrel for my Brummbär, which was a little deformed. In the same email I inquired about how I could go about getting an Observer Rifle team, Staff team and Command Rifle team for my Airlanding Battery, Royal Artillery.

As you can see from the photo above, Battlefront neglected to answer my question, preferring the easier option of just sending me stuff for free!

You just gotta love Battlefront.

More Progress

Managed to finish detailing the buildings, now I've just got to finish the bases.






Camo done, next the boots then the webbing, backpack and gaiters. The end of January is getting real close....

Progress Report

I've started painting my final batch of Airborne guys, after this it will just be the tanks!

I've also added a bit of coulur with the red bricks and windows. Still a fair bot to go though.

Tilt-Shift

Tilt-shift photography, or in this case, miniature faking is a technique where you apply a series of settings to a photograph in order to make real life appear like a miniature model.

I've been wanting to try this technique for some time now, so when I found a tutorial online, I decided to see what I could do.

Of course, with my fixation on World War Two, I figured it would be good to use some colour photos of the war, and see how model like they turn out.

Whilst the technique works ok, the whole process works better on modern photos, with a lot more colour.

Still, it was a fun exercise.

Original photos are here, here, here, here and here.

The effect looks better if you click on the images to make them bigger.

Three Buildings

Everything is now undercoated and highlighted, next up will be to add colour!



This one has been waiting for paint for a little while. I decided to build everything then paint like a production line.


This is one of the buildings I started n a while ago, but never got round to finishing!

With Options...

So on Friday I purchased 3 Cromwell IV kits, 'with Centaur options.' Of course, being a kit that has various options, means that it comes with a lot of parts and not much in the way of instructions. Also, the turret doesn't seem to want to come off, which probably means it just needs a soak in some warm water? Constructing and painting these beauties will give may Airborne some options.

With my Airborne army almost finished, I've been looking at options for a late war German army to fight them. Initially I had hoped just to use my existing Grenadierkompanie and re-jig the points based on Festung Europa. Then I asked in the FOW forums what would be a good army to fight the British Airborne and a couple people suggested looking at Monty's Meatgrinder for ideas.

Looking through my just acquired copy of Monty's Meatgrinder I figured that a Panzergrenadierkompanie would be the fairest thing to put up against my Airborne. The only problem being that rather than the five man Rifle/MG teams that my Grenadierkompanie comprises, the combat platoons in the Panzergrenadierkompanie are 4 man MG teams.

I quickly whipped out Festung Europa to see if I would just have to use a general late war option an discovered that the only late war German army utalising five men to a base is a Pionierkompanie that has five men Rifle teams but has no weapons platoon options, so would have to build up the support platoons.

Looks like I might be scratch building Panzergrenadierkompanie as my main hobby challenge (after January) this year.

Now I just got to figure out where to get some spare hobby money from....

Latest Purchase

Floor Supports

As suggested by Pojanac on the FOW forums, I'm adding in some support beams so I can add in a little bit of destroyed second floor..... just enough for a British Sniper to perch on....

Bunker Progress

Couple More Projects

Tiger Progress

Almost finished, just requires finding the tank commander, sticking him on and pinting him, then a quick spray of Moana and the Tiger will be ready to come out and play again!

Another Destroyed House

I've started on another destroyed house. Why do so many of my buildings get made into destroyed houses? Mainly because I don't like painting the roofs (they never seem to come out right for me) and because the kits that Kim sent me were some what haphazard and not all there, so I've decided I can make more by making damaged part buildings rather than a few whole buildings.

Army Overview

From Top Left: Parachute Mortar Platoon 165pts (Finished), Commando Platoon 220pts (Finished), Airlanding Battery, Royal Artillery 140pts (Need to purchase a Staff Team, Observer Rifle Team and Command Rifle Team), 2 Combat Platoons 2x 240pts (Basing on Command and PIAT needs to be done), Combat Platoon 240pts (Command Team needs painting, everything needs basing), Armoured Platoon 280pts (Requires painting), HQ 65pts (requires painting and basing).

Destroyed Building

Another of Kim's houses, almost totally destroyed by a direct hit. Just need to add some gravel and grass and it'll be ready for battle!

2 More Stands

The final two stands of my core infantry ready to be based. Now it's just basing, specialised teams and tanks to go....

Stu's Rejects

As part of my January challenge, I have to get a gaming table ready, so what better time to dust off some of Stu's reject trench pieces, and give them a quick coat of paint?

Starting with a black undercoat, the wooden side then get a generous dry brush of Beige Brown, the sandbags Green Ocher and the earth embankment Flat Earth.

Finally add a little static grass to finish the whole thing off and hopefully give my mortar team a little protection from the Germans.

So why are these called Stu's Rejects? because Stu sells unpainted trench pieces and has some very high quality control values, meaning that I can occasionally raid his rejects box. Trouble is, his box is empty at the moment because he hasn't had any orders recently. Head over to TabletopTerrain to see Stu's awesome trench kits and other FOW scenery.

2,000pts

I decided to set myself a challenge for January. Part of the challenge was to finish painting my Brit Airborne, and purchase the necessary parts to make it into a complete 1,500pt army. The last time I had counted my point values, I'd come in at around 1,000pts. I figured a Centaur Platoon would be easy to paint up and for an out lay of only $60 would get me up to 1,300pts, meaning that the remaining 200pts could easily be used up adding PIAT teams to my Combat Platoons and some Sniper to HQ.

I decided to draw up a visual representation of my army as it stood so I could easily see what I had and what I need to purchase/add on to my existing teams to make the magic 1,500pt mark. That's when I use a calculator to add up my points to see just what i needed to purchase.

1495pts.

5 whole points to play with.

Somewhere down the track I must have miss-counted and I now have a dilemma. Do I continue with my plan to add another 500pts to my army and make my challenge a 2,000pt army? It certainly appeals to me - there isn't any additional work to what I was expecting to do and whilst I doubt I'll be playing any 2,000pt games, it would give me the flexibility to beef up my infantry army if I'm ever up against a more mobile army.

2,000pts here I come!!

Now I probably need to look at my Mid War German Army and see what points value I have there, who knows, I may well have enough to make up a 2,000pt army to fight my Paratroopers.