its been awhile

I know I haven't posted anything in awhile but life has come along lately and slowed much of my work down. The b-17 is coming along and I have completed the detailing of the radio compartment, and work is progressing on the cockpit and nose sections. unfortunately my camera has decided to play hide and seek without telling me first and boy can that camera hide. on another note, one which I would rather not admit to I have traded for a valhallan 40k army. I have always avoided 40k like the plague but that's mostly due to the attitude of the average player found in your local stores. I also never cared much for the figures I have seen, I HATE space marines. a friend of mine and long time 40k player showed me the Death korps of krieg figures from forge world, which I love. soon after that another friend offered up a valhallan army for trade, after looking at the figures which I had never seen before I found I really liked them. So some extra FOW items I didn't need anymore and a warhammer fantasy Empire army I had been looking to get rid of became a decent sized 40k army. I don't know how much I will play this game but I like the figures I have and I have a few friends which play and only for fun at that so maybe it will be ok.

So now that I have stepped over to the dark side I just want to know where the cookies are? I haven't gotten any yet.

Back to my roots

I have been playing a ton of Flames of war over the last 6 months and feel like I have been on Flames of war overdrive. I have decided to take a little time and once again put my Flames of war on the back shelf for awhile while I work on another project.

I got started with this type of hobby 25 years ago when I was given my first plastic model airplane. As I recall it was an old hawker hurricane kit most likely revell or monogram though I really don't remember for sure. I built many WWII aircraft and a handful of armor kits over the years. This weekend I picked up one of my all time favorite 1/48th scale kits. I dont know where its going to go when its done but I will find a place for it. For now here are some photos I took of the subject I will be modeling a couple of summers ago.

While I have a habit of starting projects and taking forever to finish (if I ever do) this one will have to be different, the amount of space this kit will take up during building will force me to finish it in a timely manner if I want to get anything else done. So  look forward to this one.

Customised turn counter

I was in one of the local game stores recently looking to pick up a magazine, I should have known better than to go to a game store with such aspirations of a small purchase. While looking over the Flames of war section I noticed a rack of turn counters behind me, there was an evil evil sign on this rack, "Free turn counter with any miniatures purchase".  Of course the word "free" messed with my head, I mean what do I need a turn counter for? I already have one and I don't need two. Of course I began looking over the flames of war models again, Whats this a box of SU-100's with the option to build them as SU-85M's, crap I have been running my regular SU-85's as the up armored 85M's. so with a magazine, a box of tank destroyers and a turn counter in hand I make my way to the counter. Somehow I don't think getting a "free" turn counter with a $60 box of models I wasn't planning on buying is all that free. I really need to stay out of the hobby stores.

not so free turn counter

So now what to do with this thing, its a nice turn counter but do I really need another boring turn counter with a shop logo on it? No I don't think I do. So I dig through my excess minis and find this guy.

Soviet PTRD Anti tank rifle.

I like these figures but I cant sell myself on using them on a late war battlefield. So here is a perfect time to use one.

Taking the turn counter out of its package I take the pointer part off and put the base aside for now as I wont be doing anything to it.

the counter is magnetic and comes in two parts making this an easy job.

 At this point I forgot to take any more pictures but then you really don't need to see what I did from here as its just like painting and basing any single figure.

I scored the top of the turn counter with my hobby knife just like I would do with any base and applied my painted figure and basing materials. I did paint the gunner up in a summer amoeba pattern camouflage as an excuse to do something different.

Here is the final result of my "free" turn counter.

One final note, I realize that the bipod for the rifle is up much too far however having it like this makes the entire figure much more stable and the rifle is less likely to bend when turning the counter.

Current project

I have been going pretty hard on the painting lately but haven't stopped long enough to take any pictures. Silly me, not taking pictures doesn't leave me much to share on the blog, and if I'm not going to share why bother. I guess the answer is to take a picture. So here is a sneak peek at what I am currently working on.

  

To quote a shirt I recently saw "Share the love, Lend Lease"

 

My soviet army is about to get its own recon Company and thus far what a pain in the rear it has been. I decided to build this army awhile ago but took a little time getting the funds to buy the needed models together. I decided to buy some Old Glory Scout cars from the command decision line as I needed 13 of them and the cost of buying Battlefront made my wallet kick me in a naughty place. Well after a month of no reply to repeated emails and phone calls to the retailer I ordered them through I gave up and ordered Battlefront through My local shop and had them in 2 days. So much for my wallet, it's really mad at me right now.

On to the building of these things. Trying to clean mold lines and flash off 52 little wheels last night about drove me nutter than I already am and I now have some nice file marks embedded into my fingers. of course then you have to get the wheels all glued on and even so the trucks don't wobble around on 3 wheels, which 3 or 4 of them ended up doing anyway, thankfully its minor. in the back row you can also see the 3 quad .50 half tracks, these aren't so bad as they use the plastic sprues for the wheels, tracks and front bumpers. I honestly prefer the metal parts to the plastic here though I do wish the quad guns were plastic as keeping the 4 guns straight is a nightmare, most of my German quad AA guns are missing at least one barrel due to breakage from fixing the over the last few years. Thus far everything is together and primed with the new Vallejo Color surface primers in Olive Drab. Detail work will continue on these over the weekend hoping to get them on the table this Monday night. They wont be done then however as I have the Soviet crew figures to fill them out with, Cant have anyone thinking these guys are fighting for the Americans now can we?

A sneak peak

One of the guys I game with regularly went to cold wars this weekend and had a small picture to share. He got the ok from the BF reps there for me to share it with you all.

I realize just uploading this picture is a huge tease seeing as how I don't have any other information other than a Mid April release. Once I talk to him next week I will share whatever Info I can get.

I just found a good bit of information on the book and what it contains over at the Flames of war forums. here is a link to the Topic

Plastic soldier Panthers

Yesterday I went over to the model shop hoping they had some of the new PSC Panthers or half tracks in stock. I scored a box of the Panthers to make a decoy Tank platoon for my soviets. Once again PSC has outdone themselves, while these aren't 100% what i would have wanted them to be they are another fine kit for a fabulous price. I myself like Zimmerit on my German tanks, while I know not all tanks had it and some people just don't like it I found myself wishing these had it. This is the only possible issue I could find with the tanks themselves and as its more a personal opinion as to what I like than it is a complaint. This box gives you 2 options which I don't believe are even available from battlefront, Panthers with no Zimmerit (if that's what your after) and the option to make a Auf G model. Another area where these shine is that they don't have the ball MG mount on the hull for the A and D model, Which my quick research tells me was more common on these models than the ball socket. However if you want to add it it would be very little effort to scrape off the MG hatch and mount the ball socket on to that hull.  Dam, I just admitted there is a benefit to plastic over metal / resin, don't let this get out as my reputation will be ruined.

Fresh from the factory, they haven't even received paint yet

note the lack of a MG ball socket in the hull.

Once again Assembly was a breeze. I did make one small modification to these however. I have taken to using magnets on my tank turrets lately and I regret not doing it with the last PSC tanks I built. I like this for 2 reasons, first the turrets stay with the tank better in the bag and second when one gets destroyed my smoke markers have little washers glued to them so they can stick to the magnets and not keep falling off the tanks.

All I did was super glue one under the deck before putting the tank hull together centered on the turret peg hole. Next I cut the peg off the bottom of the turret and glued a thin magnet in its place.

Magnet under the upper deck

Magnet under the turret

 These worked out really well. I did use a thicker magnet in the hull so I had a bit more pull on it but I think a thin magnet may have worked just as well.

the next thing to do is get these boys painted up so they can start harassing some Germans.

Here are some shots of the sides and rear so you can see what detail is on these.

What I do

saw this today and just had to share it. its oh so true.

Open For Battle!

For the last year and a half I have been working hard to promote and grow the Flames of war community here in Central NY, it has been a long haul. We have had a small group of players playing consistently through this time and I was giving demo games to anyone interested. Some weeks I was playing 3 days a week in my efforts to promote the game, and while this sounds great in theory after awhile it gets to be a bit much.

Table from a recent game

Here in Syracuse we are lucky enough to have two stores which actively cater to the gaming community. Having 2 competing shops means that to reach out to the community as a whole means I needed to be active in both stores, so I finally began running games in 2 locations on a regular basis. Through out this month I have been there every Friday night running demo games as well as playing actively with one of my regulars. The interest level surprised me, I ran more demos in the last couple of weeks than I had in the last year and almost everyone has shown a very high level of interest. We have picked up 2 new players locally as well as a couple which are on the fence but close to falling onto our side of it.

The best part of all this outside of new players is the fact that the interest level has been high enough that the new store gave Flames of war an official night on their calender and now stocks Flames of war, while the stock is minimal for now, as interest grows and sales move along the stock will grow. Syracuse now has 2 locations supporting Flames of war, Play the game, read the story and Comix Zone both open for battle.

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Comix Zone initial Flames of war stock

As a final note on this post, while the work to grow the community is not and will never be over this is a huge moment for me. As such I want to thank everyone who has been there by my side in one form or another. Thank you Randy for getting the ball rolling here initially, without your efforts I wouldn't be where I am with this now and Thank you Brandon and Jeff for being there week after week playing game after game.

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.

A whole year!!

A year ago today I started this blog to follow my flames of war gaming. It wasn't the best year for Flames of war here but we are still holding on and playing on a weekly basis. Also anyone who has been following for even a minute or two has probably realized by now That I suffer from a severe case of the Ooh Shiny syndrome, So I just want to Thank you all for bearing with me this year And I look forward to 2012 bringing us all more hobby and gaming...............oh whats that..........Ooh Shiny...............

looking forward to another great year!

Addicted

I havent posted much lately and that is due to the fact that I haven't done a thing worth posting here. I have become addicted to playing Minecraft, so instead of painting little men I have been building virtual structures. I did pick up a copy of Grey wolf to go with my Red bear. While in the store I  noticed they were giving away a free Gf9 turn counter with any minis purchase. While I don't need another turn counter I couldn't resist a freebie so I picked up some minis too and got my counter. I will hopefully soon be making a custom counter with it and once I get moving on that I will share it here.

As a side note anyone living in the Syracuse NY area interested in Flames of war is invited to come to Comix Zone in North Syracuse on Fridays during the month of February where I will be running demos beginning at 5:00pm.

Score!!

This past Sunday I got a hold of some older fantasy minis. I knew these were coming my way for a couple of weeks though most of them were unseen before I received them. But now I have a slight issue, open them or not? it almost seems wrong to me. These have been in their little plastic and cardboard tombs for 20+ years now, when these were sealed up I had never even heard of miniatures gaming (I started much later than most of you). Somehow opening them feels just plain wrong.

 I love these minis, not only do they look 100 times better than 90% of the stuff available today but the citadel packaging is amazing, it is so bright and colorful and each faction having its own unique package really makes them feel unique. I will most likely add the skaven to the army I have in progress. The dwarfs however are another story, I love these sculpts, I wish I could get enough of them to make an entire army even if it never saw the field of battle it would still be worth it. However I will have to settle for the few I have and maybe a few more will find their way to me so I can paint them up and display them in my case.

I will be sure to share pictures of the individual sculpts once I crack open their tombs.

Skaven weapons teams

imperial dwarfs

marauder dwarfs

New year, new armies and new games

As I am holding back on Flames of war until I see the Version 3 rules I have been working on a a Warhammer fantasy skaven army. I am sure I have said this here before but I find it somewhat disturbing that I have these fantasy armies and I have never played the game. I see minis I like and I buy them, I plan armies, I plan out how I would use them on the field, yet I don't even know for sure how the rules work. I have someone who is going to teach me how to play fantasy sometime but I don't know for sure when that will be. of course I wouldn't be me if I didn't get sidetracked from this project just like the rest of them.

 So last night I went over to one of the local game shops and quickly got sidetracked from my skaven. I was given a demo game of warmachine by one of the local press gangers, as usual I cant remember his name. I was confused by most of the mechanics as they are so far off from what I am used to but I was impressed by the unique rules some models had. I played as khador, I had a warcaster and 2 warjacks, I remember the warcaster was soascha and one of the jacks was a kodiak, I dont remember what the other jack was. The kodiak had the ability to pick up an enemy and throw it which I thought was awesome even though it got slaughtered before it was able to pull of such a move but my warcaster was able to freeze the entire enemy force in place and she then charged up to the enemy warcaster and basically beat the hell out of him while he was frozen solid and couldn't do anything. the almost cinimatic quality of the game made me grin and I am now building a small Khador force of my own. The game apealed to me for a number of reasons but 2 of the big ones is the chance to play something other than Flames of war as there is a thriving group of players here as well as the chance that maybe as I get to know some of these other local gamers I can interest a few more people in Flames as well.

 I will try to get some pictures of both the growing saken horde and the warmachine force as soon as I can find my camera.