Death from above

I have been rather lax on the painting font as of late, first I didn't want to do much while waiting for V3 of flames of war and second I got hooked on both minecraft and star wars the old republic. As far as the video games go, I tend to get excited about them for a week or two then get bored and go back to my miniatures games be it playing or painting, so on that front I am good for awhile. V3 being released and the new rules in hand I have not only played a few games under the new rules I have also been getting back into the painting groove now knowing what I want to be using in upcoming games.

One of my favorite changes is the air support rules, I have always liked using air but it was hard to find the points for something so unreliable, but when they work boy do they work. I used Stukas a lot in my early days of playing, I loved them, my opponent hated them. He hated them so much he started taking priority air just to drive mine off. I rather like the new air support rules, first off one plane on the table, this effectively adds 6" to your wave off distance from behind as before multiple planes deployed 6" behind you off to your sides, big improvement in my mind. Second they range in automatically if the target is not in cover, either your opponent learns to use cover more effectively or he is toast. Of course now you only get one attempt to range in if they are in cover but this is unmodified, so you only need a 4+ to get that range in on a veteran unit that is concealed and gone to ground. So even the bad part of having one range in attempt has a silver lining in there (sort of).

While there may be better uses of my points much like there was in V2 I will for now at least be trying to fit air support into my soviet lists, at least until I get a proper artillery battery completed instead. so now I will shut up and share my completed Il-2 Sturmovik.

I am not 100% happy with how this came out and as it is one from one of the battlefront 3 plane boxes I may do another one and try to get a better result. For now anyone pulls their panthers or tigers out into the open is going to have a very bad day.

Next up i should have some SU-85m's completed soon as well as customizing a turn counter for FOW.

Early war french

As I mentioned in an earlier post I have been painting some Early war french. They are coming along and i thought i would share the work done so far. once the tanks are done the only thing left will be the crews for the guns.

current WIP 3 "Steel Colossus"

105mm howitzers

75mm Artillery, I really like these with the limbers.

infantry platoon

Soviet 57mm zis-2 anti tank guns

Just completed a platoon of old glory 57mm zis-2 anti tank guns.

Plastic soldier company Allied M4A2 sherman tank reveiw

As mentioned in my previous post I picked up 2 boxes of these recently. I mostly picked them up as I wanted to see if the quality was there for the cost. I have built up the first box of 5 at this point and can honestly say I am happy with them thus far.

What you get in the box.
   Each box contains 5 sprues and a very basic instruction sheet. Each of the 5 sprues contains all the parts to make one tank, the box says "some assembly required" and they aren't kidding. Most of my experience with gaming models comes from Battlefront tanks which would be something like 7 parts for a tank like this, each sprue here contains 45 parts. going by the basic diagram on the instruction sheet your at about 22 parts per tank and depending on the variant you build it will be even more parts. I myself enjoy assembling a kit like this while watching a movie or some TV, so I don't mind this at all.

 
I am not kidding when I say a basic instruction sheet, on one side it shows a picture of a single sprue and 3 variants which can be made, on the other it shows the major parts to make one variant. This isn't too big a deal though as its not too hard to figure out what parts you need. If there is anything missing from the box its decals, though its not like I am used to getting decals with my gaming models anyway.

The tanks

 The detail on these is quite good, I think they may even have better cleaner detail than the best models Battlefront has put out. The biggest issue I have had with tanks has been the excess metal which destroys the detail on the one part of the tracks you can see, to a point this is replicated on these models though not nearly as bad as it is on a metal model. The tracks are made up of a top and a bottom half which connect at this same point. Very careful clean up of the tracks and careful assembly could make this 100% unnoticeable unlike the metal models where no matter what you do it will never come out right. each sprue has the parts to make a couple different variants, as well as one U.S. and one British Tank commander. There are also a couple of pieces of stowage and a few parts which I cant Identify for sure what they are. The first failing of this kit is in the turrets in my opinion. You have the option to model two different turrets one for the 75mm or 105mm gun and the later turret for the 76mm gun. There are only enough hatches however to do one or the other. One of the biggest things I kept hearing about the T-34 kit is the ability to have both turrets and thus field them as either tank as needed. I intend to scratch build some hatches so I have the option of either a 75mm or 76mm but it would have been nice to be able to do this out of the box.  there is one other failing of this kit and it will be the biggest issue for some. The hull of this tank is an M4A2 while the 76mm turret is for a M4A3. If your not going to use the 76mm turret then this kit seems to have no real issues, if you are and want your model to be accurate then your not going to be happy. I myself am going to try to ignore the inaccuracy, Though it may annoy me to no end in the long run.

 I gave one tank a basic paint job so you could better see the details on these. While there is still a lot to do before they are done you can see here what you get with these. The last picture here is a comparison with a Battlefront Firefly which is the only type of Sherman I have to compare it with. The Battlefront Firefly's always seemed like they weren't quite wide enough to me, well it seems that compared to these they are about the same width but the BF tank is a bit longer which would make it seem like it needed to be wider. I am no expert on the Sherman tank but the PSC tanks look like they are better scaled to me than this particular BF Sherman.

BF Firefly on the Right is a bit longer

All in all I like these models, I like the ease of assembly and the extra little bits of extra detail on the BF tanks better, but I think the PSC tanks are closer to being scaled properly (though other BF Shermans may be better in this respect).  I would not recommend this particular kit for 76mm tanks however as the hull is wrong but if you need 75mm or 105mm tanks this is a great set. Both BF and PSC tanks have flaws, depending on which flaws you find easier to tolerate will help determine which ones are right for you. For me cost wins the day as neither kit is perfect and PSC comes out on top.

Pak 40

I have been working on and off on terrain a lot lately but unfortunately I have little to show for it yet. So I thought I would share one of my favorite FOW units today. Gun teams may die all too quickly all too often in FOW but I love the way this unit of Pak 40s came out and when they work they work quite well.

command team

holding off the allied advance somewhere in France

Building better roads

Terrain is one of those things that many times we don't have enough of or what we have is just enough to get the job done. I admit that good terrain is often very costly and we want to spend more money on our soldiers instead of little buildings or forests for them to fight in. when you first start out not having much if any terrain is understandable, but if you get into this hobby deep enough then terrain becomes in my opinion just as important as putting painted models on the table. I will admit to being slightly spoiled when it comes to this too, When I finally emerged from the basement to play in public I was playing on some of the best terrain around, I was playing on tables put together by the I-95 crew and friends of theirs. I was instantly ashamed of my poor attempts at terrain. I have slowly worked to build a better terrain collection without going so deep into my wallet that I cant add more troops to the table too. Now that my rambling is done we can get to the meat of this post.

  Roads which are durable enough to last a lifetime of gaming use can be made very easily with a minimum of cost and just a little effort. Tools and materials are fairly basic, A sheet of MDF hardboard, flock for the road edging and possibly the roadbed itself, and of course glue for the flock, a jig saw is What I use to cut the MDF though I am sure other types of saws could be used. One other item which I will be using is completely optional and could easily be avoided or replace with something else to keep costs down even lower is a can of Floquil Diorama paint, This is a textured spray paint which I use for the roadbed itself and is the most expensive item used  (due to using the whole can for one project) at about $6.25 a can.
I made my first set of these awhile ago and made straight sections as well as some curves, For the curves I copied the curve from some pieces of HO scale slot car track I got from my father, if you have something like this available its a nice easy way to get nice even curves for your roads. I am going to be making more straight sections only for this how to though the technique is the same for curves.

Jigsaw, flock, glue, textured paint, and a HO scale slot track section used as a template

Floquil Textured Diorama paint (optional item)

HO scale slot track curve and a completed straight section of road.

As far as what size to make your roads that will depend on a couple of things, I am making mine for Flames of war, thus 15mm scale and I am not trying to match roads I already have. Mine are 3 Inches wide and length would vary depending on your individual needs, the one shown is 10 inches long though I am going to go up to 20 inches with some of the ones I am making now. If you have some roads already and want them to match up you would just make them the same width as what you have.

First off simply mark out the length and width you need for your roads and cut them out with your jig saw. I decided to do a 4 way crossing  as well just because I had a scrap piece left over and it seemed like a good use for it.

Cut to size and ready for a roadbed

The next step it to spray them with the floquil diorama paint and then wait for that to dry, I let them sit over night.

The floquil paint gives a nice texture and color for dirt roads

Now I put some glue down the sides of the road and then add my grass flock. you could also dress them up a bit with little stones or logs lying on the roadside if you wanted to.  once this is dry you could spray a flat coat over it to help hold the flock together, however I have been using the first set I made for almost a year now and I don't think it needs it. Total cost for  supplies is minimal assuming you already have flock and sand to cover with all you need is the MDF and that can be had for around $7.00 or less for a sheet which more than enough for a good set of roads.

I run a line of glue down and then spread it out with a stick or tooth pick

once I put down the flock I let it sit for a minute and let the glue grab into the flock

shake off the excess flock and let dry

The completed roads, the sheet they are sitting on is part of whats left from the original sheet for other projects

 on a final note this could be adapted to a number of other features as well. I have been planning on making rivers in the same way  as well as making more like the roads and putting down rail track and flocking and ballasting the track  which will make it look better on the table than just putting down loose track. Of course with track it becomes a little more expensive to do as you will have to add the cost of the track.

escalation league complete

We completed our escalation league yesterday. I had originally wanted to run some AAR's from the league but found it difficult to keep tabs on what happened in the games, at some point I will make a point of playing a game for an AAR just to see how well I can do it. The real news from the league is that the majority of lists in the league were Armor lists, there were 2 Infantry lists both of which struggled at low points. The league was predominantly new players or players who had played in the past (mostly version 1 I believe). Early on at low points the armor lists were running right over the infantry lists, but as the infantry was able to add A/T assets the tanks began having a rough time. British 17pdr guns were pounding tanks left and right! At one point I did bring the cheese supporting my Panzergrens with brumbars and the last couple of games I brought out my rarely used Panther platoon, this gave the armor players a difficult time. The 2 infantry lists, my Panzergrenadiers, and a company of British rifles, came out in first and second place.

I would like to thank Randy for the time and effort he put into the league, without him this would have not happened and Syracuse, NY Would still be a FOW dead zone, I would also like to congratulate him on Taking First place and without a doubt showing that Infantry can win the day!

jagdpanther better pics

I took the camera outside and got some pictures in good light. I really need to find a better indoor photo setup but who wants to spend money on that when there are so many more minis to buy!

jagdpanther

Finished the jagdpanthers today. these have been sitting on my shelf half done for I think almost 2 years now, I really like the models but its hard to push myself to finish something until I want to use it. Now that they are done finaly I am wondering if I will use them or not, oh well.

I took a bunch of pictures but my camera hates me and only one came out decent.

there is no kill like overkill

Our league here is coming down to the last couple of games. Running German infantry against mostly armor lists I have been hurting for AT support at the low point levels, now the points are in my favor and the question is which variety of overkill shall I take? 3 panthers and 3 Brumbars or 2 jagdpanthers and 3 stugs? yes it might be a bit overkill but who doesn't enjoy just a hair of overkill now and again. so I put it to you all out there to help me decide, tell me what you would take and why.

This thought also gave me an excuse to finish up the last bits on my Jagdpanthers, photos shall be up soon.

Soviet infantry

I have never claimed to be a fast painter, I have finally finished the first company of infantry for my soviet battalion. This is a complete company of 3 platoons one which is all sub machine gun teams, with its own Komissar and a maxim hmg team. I intend to do one more complete company and then a number of different support options I have available. I was going to do a Tankovy Battalion but I decided to just buckle down and paint the Infantry and do a Strelkovy Battalion as the massed infantry is what made me want to do soviets in the first place. The local Escalation league kicks off next weekend and I still haven't made a final choice for my list, though it is either going to be soviet infantry or back to Germans. I am the master of last minute decisions. If I go with Germans the Soviets may become my first mid war list, A horde of Fearless Conscripts will give the opposition a reason to run and hide.

Challenge accepted

A member of my local gaming group challenged my Germans to take on his Brit Commandos. I couldn't let such a challenge go unaccepted, so out came the .78 Sturmdivision to send them back to the Tea House with their tails between their legs. Most players expect certain things in an infantry force, but they rarely account for HMG's encased in solid concrete bunkers and Infantry running around in a Trench line. I do Love a Fortification list, I have run the Sturm about 10 times total and they have suffered one defeat. Today I ran 2 games, the first was a no retreat mission and I slaughtered the commandos, That game proved how valuable HMG's are, though having half of them encased in bunkers makes them survivable enough to make them worth having. Of course on the other hand my opponent now understands just how important it is to neutralize the rarely seen HMG's. My second game ended in a draw due to running out of time though I did have another surprise up my sleeve for him. Just as he got the remnants of a commando unit onto an objective my Pioneers launched a Goliath into his midst (yes I know its cheese but I like cheese). that was all she wrote for that unit. Unfortunately we had to stop just as I had 3 Marders contesting my objective on his side of the table (free for all) at the same time he moved up 4 priests. The game ended in a draw though it would have been mine if I had time to blow away the preists. oh well.

Building a city

The last week has been far to busy, trying to find time to paint much has been almost impossible. Seeing as I have nothing to show in completed miniatures I figure I will instead cover what seems to me to be the sometimes forgotten element of war gaming, Terrain. I also want to say that its funny how much alike it seems gamers sometimes think, even when we have never met. One of the guys over at What would Patton do (a great blog and podcast by the way) has begun building "Steve-O-grad". about a week before I heard of his project I had ordered some buildings from JR Miniatures to begin the same project. Of course my city will not be "Steve-O-grad" and I am not sure I like the sound of "Matt-O-Grad" (that confirms it seeing it in type its awful). I intend to use a selection of somewhere around 50% JR Miniatures buildings and 50% built myself. Here are some pictures of the current buildings either completed or close to completion for "yet to be named-o-grad" If you have a good idea for a name for my city feel free to leave a comment who knows you might end up naming a city.

Marders

I haven't been happy with my pictures thus far so I thought I would try something new to see if I can get better pictures.

So here are some marders I did awhile ago taken today with my new photo setup.