The perils of accepting something for free

The perils of accepting something for free.  On Thursday I was 'gifted' a club regulars British army for Flames Of War.  It was enough stuff for me to take a step back and say "wow, are you sure, because there is alot of it and its worth a few pennies?"  He justified himself on the basis that it hadn't been out since 2013 or earlier, he had another Canadian army so had no interest in playing with it again, and wanted it to go to someone who would get good use out of it.

Time for the catch.  Or two catches rather.  Firstly the "there is one thing you COULD do for me in return...".  It would seem it was in fact a cunning ploy to get me into moral debt, and he needs a few models painting.  More like 30ish FOW bases/vehicles which he wants me to do for him.  It should be pointed out in his defence that his career choice involves machines which have left him without the fine motor skills to paint well, so he asks others to do the job for him, and this is the first time he's asked me.  Second catch - open the box and explore some of the weird, wonderful and bizzaree methods of painting, basing and building I have been given.  So wonderful were some of the creations that I was initially (and in some cases still am) stumped as to what they were, and had to take a few pictures to see if anyone could shed light, answers at the bottom please!

Remember these are apparently late war British infantry.  Cue the Benny Hill music and roll the film....

Are these British infantry, or Paras?

25pdrs, not Battlefront, and probably early war?

4 Sextons apparently.  Spot the interesting crew error.

Flames Of War: British Vs Germans Battle Report - Late War

With my Thursday evening ruled out for this week (apparently small children can have birthdays on Thursdays) I was lucky enough for Peter to offer to give my new Flames of War British armoured company a game.  He had an eye on a possible upcoming Operation Market Garden campaign, and brought an experimental and newly painted grenadier company – plenty of small platoons of infantry supported by a substantial four gun platoon of PaK40’s, some Luftwaffe AA (including a FlaK36) and a confident trained trio of Panthers.  Against this 1500pt force I put my own never before used British; four platoons of Shermans, two patrols of universal carriers and a platoon of infantry, all confident trained.

The venue was my house, and some fields in an unnamed part of France, and the day went not very well for the British in a Free For All mission.  With many fewer platoons I was set up long before the Germans, who were able to position their PaK40’s, AA guns and Panthers directly opposite the bulk of my armour on my right flank beside a farm.  The railway line, with its steep embankment, slowed my Shermans initially, while the hedgerows hemmed in and slowed down my carriers.  An early firefly attempt on the lives of the Panthers was returned with interest and two Shermans brewed up.  Not deterred, and knowing that aggression was key if I was to get anywhere with armour, I stormed forwards through the fields and along the road, with half of my armour providing smoke cover for the rest.  Unfortunately I sent the right hand platoon too close to the enemy AT guns, and not even the smoke could cover them enough to prevent a murderous fire destroying several of them.

My strong right flank by the farm. 

Panthers waiting.

German AA and PaK40 position.

My recon ready for the off.

My initial attack, advancing across the railway line and then the fields - the Panthers have just cost me 2 Shermans on the near side.

Smoke covers the enemy.

Casualties mount thanks to the Panthers again.

By this time I had identified that the left hand objective represented my best chance of success out of the AT guns fire arcs, especially with my smoke barrage reducing the enemy return fire, but not slowing it enough to prevent casualties.  I sent my left hand Sherman platoon, which had been left out on a limb near a hill, towards it and tried to force a way through with my central one along the road.  On my right the Panthers were on the move, and having dispatched the last of my far right Sherman platoon they began to fire into the fields and road.  A slice of luck saw my two fireflies there survive the fire, but their return shots at close range still could not penetrate the Germans armour, and they fell in the next round of firing as the number of Shermans firing smoke became fewer and the battlefield began clearing of smoke and active British tanks.  The road was filled with wrecked Shermans, and my attempts to support my far left tank platoon with the universal carriers saw the carriers hit by light AA gun and mortar fire and they disintegrated; two running from the battlefield and the rest burning.  The last Sherman platoon proved unable to defeat the surprisingly potent light infantry gun platoon defending the objective, and with German platoons closing in all around it was unsurprising that the British CO failed his moral check.

My aggressive attack down the road.

The attack ends in tears, my tears, despite the dramatic side shot by the Firefly at the Panthers.

My last attempt to secure an objective fails due to enemy infantry and infantry guns.

At that end of that first appearance for my British I learnt a few things, and had the chance to try out some of the ideas I had had beforehand –Armoured companies are best used aggressively, with their manoeuvrability key to hitting one point of the enemy line.  I tried to use my four Sherman platoons together, with one moving while the other provided covering fire, and managed this to some extent, although I had split off one platoon to the far left when I would have been better bringing them all together before the attack went in.  In the end I took too long working out which was the right objective to attack and lost too many tanks moving over ; poor deployment really.  The use of smoke from the Shermans was very effective, although I negated some of its benefits by stopping too close (within 16”) when firing.  The width of the smoke markers was also a pleasant surprise.  The universal carriers were ineffective because they only had one machine gun each so didn’t cause any damage to the dug-in Germans, and they didn’t have much chance to practice their eyes and ears ability, while my infantry scared off a sniper, but did nothing else.  The companies ‘Trained’ status made them horribly vulnerable to enemy fire (that was a real shock when I’ve played with veteran Germans for years!), and the PaK40’s, FlaK36 and Panthers carved through them with ease.  I think some artillery capable of laying down smoke and some air support would really help this army, and then its down to practice and tweaking, fortunately despite my defeat I was greatly entertained and pleased with my armies aesthetic appearance.

Flames Of War - Battle for Berlin Campaign Update

The Flames of War campaign I have been running has ended this weekend just gone.  The Russians swept into the centre of Berlin in an unstoppable wave with the Romanians to the fore.  The Germans managing to fight the Allies to a standstill to the West of the city, restricting them to the open and wooded areas outside of the urban areas, and even managing to break through to the West to open an escape route.  However they had no answer to the Russians in the East.  The war is over, the Russians control Berlin and much of Europe and Churchill’s fears have come true.  The Cold War is here.

Big battle report to end the fighting: http://flamesofwarcampaigns.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/the-final-battle.html

Campaign Turn 4 report: http://flamesofwarcampaigns.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/four-days-in-berlin-campaign-report-day.html

A Flames Of War German Painting Renaissance

It is a testimony of how my own expectations have changed in that I now feel that to deploy a model on a battlefield which is short of being fully painted is somehow failing myself and the opposition, and to use a model sans paint altogether is heresy!  5 years or so ago when I started collecting my Germans a coat of black spray, a brown base and a dry brush of Codex Grey was enough (I laboured under the inexplicable impression that the Jerry’s actually wore a neutral grey, rather than a grey/green combo).  Getting the figures onto the table was the priority, and when many figures used at the RGMB were unpainted anyway my conscience was clear.

Fast forward to 2014 and many, perhaps most, of my 15mm Germans are at best tatty and in need of a major overhaul.  Over the years I’ve more than fleshed out the collection, but rarely found the enthusiasm to complete paint jobs and finish platoons apart from the odd exception.  My 4 infantry platoons have been the mainstay of almost every list I have used, and I painted 3 platoons of them fully around 2009-10 (the 4^th platoon staying the hideous codex grey dry brush to this day).  They are primarily Old Glory models, purchased at an excellent £9 for 50 figures, and they have seen much in their lifetimes since being bought.  Many of their supporting vehicles are the same – 3 for £9 from Old Glory – including my age old and feared StuG G’s, Marders and 8-rads.

The collection has been greatly added to since I started, particularly in a bulk purchase from a friend that included 8 battlefront panthers and 12 panzer IV’s, and now includes a mix of Old Glory and Battlefront models, and the odd Kerr & King and Plastic Soldier Company half track.  In the past I painted each enough to get them on the table, but often failed to add the finishing touches as other projects appeared.  To my everlasting shame my 4 Brumbarrs even appeared numerous times in a completely unpainted white metal and resin form!  But never more, for whether it’s the lovely models, the possession of a useful air brush, the carrot that is a possible upcoming late war campaign, or simply a lack of anything else that grabs me too paint, I have been painting FOW since May, and I now have lots of lovely fully painted models to use.

PaK40's and PaK38's.

New StuG's, for the first time in 5 years, and PaK43/41's.

I’ll admit that most of the models are vehicles, but I do have infantry prepared to work on to update my tatty 4 platoons, and I’ve finished a number of gun teams that have lain untouched for eons.  In fact a list would be handy, and I’ve two lists because in most cases I have painted from new, or from a base coated start, but in others it has been a revamp of a model which benefited from my improved knowledge and painting style, and needed its bashed corners repairing as well.

Painted:

• 5 x RSO Tractors
• 2 x Sd Kfz 7 (8 ton – to pull the 88’s)
• 2 x kfz 15 field car
• 8 x Panther
• 1 x Bergepanther
• 1 x Konigstiger
• 1 x Stuka
• 2 x PaK40 gun teams
• 2 x PaK43/41 gun teams
• 3 x NW41 Nebelwafer gun teams
• 1 x observer infantry team
• 2 x command infantry teams
• 1 x Panzerschreck man-packed gun team
• 1 x 2.8cm AT rifle gun team
• 8 x Sd kfz 251/1C Halftracks
• 4 x Sd kfz 231 (8-rad) heavy armoured cars
• 3 x Sd kfz 10/2 unarmoured AA half track
• 3 x StuG G (late war – dunkelb)
• 4 x Brumbarr assault guns

Revamped:

• 2 x Tiger 1 E
• 2 x FlaK36 88mm gun teams
• 2 x Flak36 extra crew teams
• 2 x PaK40 gun teams
• 3 x StuG G (mid war – grey)

 So all in all a total of 54 models newly painted, and 11 revamped/refreshed since I gained a sudden wave of enthusiasm in May.  This wave being caused by the target of having to have them finished by a certain time, and a couple of games since have keep it going.

The Panther company, with Bergepanther and Konigstiger.

Flak36 guns and transports.

2.8cm AT man-packed gun team and panzerschreck team.

Half Tracks

While the other models/platoons were fairly straight forward in terms of getting the paint and brushes out and copying a previous painting scheme, the half tracks required a bit more work.  Firstly I had to make the 3 half tracks donated by Peter, but of equal need of modelling action were the 9 Old Glory half tracks I’ve had since I started playing FOW.  Mostly painted in the now infamous Codex Grey dry brush they lacked crew, had bent guns, lacked proper basing and didn’t match any of my army.  The HMG’s and their gun shields needed removing and repositioning to be level, and I added Plastic Soldier Company infantry in to man the HMG’s and sit on the benches, as well as some baggage to bulk out the models.  Once painted these troops and the baggage gives the models that bit of variety of colour that brings them to life.  The Old Glory models are that bit smaller than the other brands I’m using (PSC and Kerr & King) so I had based them on medium bases to make them fit in with the other types.  I based my other Old Glory vehicles the same way to give height and bulk.  Finally I started the painting scheme by air brushing them en-masse.  I’ve around 16 half tracks, of which I’ve finished painting 4 half tracks in brush-applied camo, and 4 with an airbrush.  The rest are airbrushed and awaiting work.

First crews go into the old halftracks as I revamp them and turn them into useful models rather than bits box scrap.

Plastic Soldier Company half track.

Post air brush camo.

Air Brushing

Setting up and packing down my air brush is a fairly time consuming process so I try to do quite a lot of models in one go, which leads to it being setup on my dining table for longer than my wife expects it to be!  The air brush was the ideal tool to paint on the late war german camo, and although I struggled to make my starter airbrush set create thin enough lines I’m quite pleased with the results.  I wanted the airbrushed camo to fit in with my brush applied camo so I could happily mix the platoons in one army, although I never intend to mix models painted with the two different styles in one platoon.

NW41 15cm Nebelwafer platoon, ROS tractors and an objective marker.

A whole group of newly painted Germans, but not all of them.

Decals

I’m particularly pleased with my decals on my latest models, especially the Brumbarrs over their zimmerit coating.  Back in my old Games Workshop days I found decals frustrating and rarely used them, but my FOW vehicles need them so I’ve had to try again.  I had ordered some decals from Dom’s Decals for the first time to provide the crosses on the halftracks and with them came a ‘how to apply decals’ note, which recommended using some decal solution.  Following this I bought and used some Vallejo Decal Fix to prepare the surface before I put the decal all, then applied some Vallejo Decal Medium to the decals several times over a few hours.  The Fix makes the decal stick better, while the Medium melts the transfer which causes it to sink into the recesses underneath it.  Although my pictures don’t show it in detail it has come out very well, and the Matt Varnish spray the next day covered up the silvery edge of the decal so it looks the part and almost as if its painted on.  A special note; using Fix then Medium is the OPPOSITE way round from the way the Vallejo tutorial explains it, but it works wonderfully.  I even shaved the decals off my 2 Tiger 1E’s to redo them.

Stuka.

Brumbarrs. 

First finished air brushed half tracks.

Tigers before I added decals onto their turrets.

The German Future

I’ve still a horde of models awaiting painting.  All of the vehicles have had the camo air brushed onto them, and this includes the remaining 8-9 half tracks to enable me to field an armoured infantry company, and 10 Panzer IV’s to make my panzer company a viable option (8 panthers by themselves are just not flexible enough due to their lack of numbers).  I also have two platoons of infantry, a couple of panzerschreck teams, and some spare command bases undercoated and waiting for work.  These platoons have been made up specifically as MG teams with the idea that they would provide the bulk of the foot troops in my armoured infantry list.  My 4^th ‘Grey’ platoon also needs changing, possibly rebasing with the correct figures for pioneer MG teams, especially the flame thrower and goliath teams.  Possible purchases – none are jumping out at the moment, I have most troops that I’d even need, although an additional 3 NW41 Nebelwafers may be an idea in the future, and I’ve always wanted a couple of Jadgtigers.  Plus my Konigstiger is lonely and needs a friend which is currently out of production with Battlefront so I’m keeping an eye out for one of those.