The Fighting Irish

Hello All

I have finished my first test model for my Irish Guard. I decided to paint up Joe Vandeleur first as normal my test models end up being the best painted model in my army so I thought it should be an awesome model (and he's Michael Caine!)

I'm happy with the results, and this might have been the easiest paint scheme I have ever done!

It was painted (and this is also a reference for me as when I come back to armies I always forget how I painted the army!) was:-

* Spray it Black then War Paint British Armour Late War
* Dry Brush Russian Uniform mixed with Khaki, then a really light dry brush of Khaki.
* I then lined with model with Devlan Mud
* Next up was add the decals and paint the details (tools, tyres, etc)
* Then dry brush on the mud with Flat Earth, followed by Green Brown and finally a really light dry brush of buff.

Next up is are 10 Shermans and 3 Universal Carriers, I hope to have them painted by the end of the weekend.

Thanks for looking Ben

Review - Plastic Soldier Company Sherman M4A4/Firefly

Hello All

I finally got a couple of boxes of the new Sherman/Firefly sets from Plastic Soldier Company. I have been waiting a while for my local gaming shop to get in the 3 sets I ordered from them, so as I'm in a rush to get the army started I ordered 2 extra set directly from PSC and they turned up two days later.

This is the third set of PSC models I have bought and the second I have reviewed (see my Panther review here). so by now I sort of know what I'm getting and this set doesn't disappoint. You have 2 options from the box, a normal Sherman and a Firefly, the core model is the same, only the top half of the hull and the turret are different. The detail is really nice and crisp as are all of the PSC kits.

Again the instructions are not that clear in places, I had a little trouble with the turret. As with the Panther a dry run did help me work it out but only after a few tries. I do think this problem could be solved by adding numbers to the sprue and instructions as a lot of other companies do.

Another small down side was I had hoped like the T-34 you would be able to make 2 turrets out of each sprue so I could have some of the Fireflies as Sherman's for none Market Garden Sherman companies. But they use the small bottom and hatches so this was no possible.

Another problem was the .50 cal, the gun is very thin and all 5 from my first set broke when I tried to get them take them off the sprue. I tried a few different methods but nothing worked, so I'm not going to use them as if they break that easily when they come off the sprue then I would imagine they will break in game.

On the up side the Sherman's tracks are a big improvement on the T-34 tracks in regards to ease of building them.

I don't have any Battlefront Sherman's but here's a few pictures of built PSC Sherman's and one comparing them with a PSC Panther.

So overall this is a great kit but a few small problems stop it from being as great a kit as the Panther.

8/10

Now to get them all built so I can start playing with my Irish Guards!

Thanks for reading Ben

The Road to FearNaught - El Alamein - DAK - PaK 36(r)

Hello All

Just a quick update, I have finished the 2 7.62cm PaK36(r) for my Schutzen Platoons. I have painted them in the same style to my Flak 8.8's.

And pictures with the Schutzen Platoon.

Next up is the Panzer IV's.

Thanks for looking.

Ben

Playing Favourates

Hello all

I spotted a few posts on other forums called "Playing Favourites" I thought about having a go back then but I completely forgot about it. Then Ferb on Ferb's Fighting Forces did another one and it reminded me to have a go myself. This is basically a list of things you enjoy or inspire you about the hobby, it is also a chance to show how geeky you are! A few other great lists that have inspired me to do this are Too Much Lead blog, Steve's Random Musings, Trouble At T'Mill, Mylardiesgames, Too Much Lead and Ferbs Fighting Forces


Wargames Period
This is an easy one for me, WW2 has always been my favourite part of history since I was about 6 or 7 and my older relatives (both English and German) told me a few war stories (cleaned up because of my age of course!). The one that really stuck with me was the stories of my Great Grandfather who fought at Cassino in 1944 as part of the 1st FJ Division, this I think has lead to my favourite battles of WW2 being Cassino, Arnhem and Bastogne. Well this and popular TV and Films but more on that later.


Scale
A few Years ago I would have said 28mm hands down, but since I got into Flames of War and have got my head around painting 15mm I'm now finding it far more enjoyable! It's easier to paint and doesn't take any were near as long as 28mm and I think 20 odd 15mm tanks looks far more impressive on the table than two or three 28mm tanks.



Rules
This is a hard one. I have played quite a few games over the years, I really enjoy FOW as coming from GW rules sets it just made far more sense. But I think my top set has to be Blood Bowl, I do love the game. When I first started playing it still had rules on how to cheat, how cool is that!


Figure Manufacturer
Now this is something I'm going to have trouble deciding on. I'm a fan of most of the GW ranges (yes I know...) but I think my favourite range of models is Infinity. They all look so impressive, there are so few bad models in the range and each model would be classed as a "character" model in any other companies range.

Metal/Plastic
I guess being from the newer school of gaming I have grown up with both Plastics and Metals and I can honestly say I have no problem with either as long as they are good models. Also they are both far better than Finecasts. 

Opponent
My Favourite opponent is my long time friend George. We have played games against each other for about 10 years now. They are normally close games which George normal wins but his armies are always very well painted and well converted so nice to see on the table.







Boardgame

This is by far the easiest one of the lot. I have quite a few Board Games, not as many as I read about people having on Board Game Geek (some of them buy 10 games a month!) but I do have around 25. By far my favourite game (and that probably goes for the guys in my gaming group too) is Battlestar Galatica. It's a co-op game, except up to 2 of the guys on your team are Cylon agents so will try and screw you over all the time. The game is constantly throwing problems at you; most of these are either bad or VERY bad so the game screws you over at every turn. This all leads to a fun game were if the Humans win you really feel like you earned it. 
Honourable mentions to RISK 2210, Twilight Imperium and Settlers. 

Film 
This is a hard one as I like a lot of different films, but the film that inspires me the most for wargaming is a Bridge Too Far. I watch it when I'm painting and I like to have the sound track on when I'm gaming. Close second would be either Battle of Britian or Saving Private Ryan (but I can't paint when the first 30 minutes of saving Private Ryan is on it's too noise!).






TV
Now this I will have to put into more categorize:-
* Documentaries - The Battlefield series, this is one a very few Documentaries series I own on DVD which says alot as I watch alot of Documentaries. I have watched them all too many times to count, they are well done and very informative (well the first 2 seasons anyway).
* TV series - Band of Brothers or Battlestar Galatica. I really can not choose between the two of them! Both are great and I have watched both so many times.
* Comedy (while not wargaming related I have included this for completeness)- About a year ago I would have said family guy, but not now! The lastest season have just not be than good. Some times I can watch a whole episode and not laugh once! I would say now it's either Archer or American Dad, both for slightly different reasons so I can't pick.

Internet Site
WWPD or Model Dad's by a mile hands down. WWPD is great as every day there is something new on the site. While Model Dad's doesn't have the some amount of stuff what they do have on their site is top class, almost to a professional level!
But I will say there are so many great blogs out there, I have over 100 that I follow just for FOW  inspiration, check out my blogs list to the right for more details.

Miscelania

• favourite tank: Panther with the Cromwell as a close second
• favourite colour to paint uniforms: green, to be more precise Anything that Reflective Green or GW's camo green works with as it's easy to paint and vanish really finished it off with so little effort.

Thanks for Reading Ben

The Road to FearNaught - El Alamein - DAK - Flak 88's

Hello

A quick update. I finished the Flak 88's today. They were a lot of fun to paint. In fact I had so much fun I'm about to start painting the 7.62cm PaK36(r) after this post!

I based the scheme off the DAK from the Early War DAK from Hell Fire and Back, with my own take on it. I wasn't sure this was going to work but once I had finished I was very happy with the results.

Thanks for Looking Ben

Bag The Hun - Me 109's

Hello All,

I have finally found time to finish off the 12 Me 109's I started at the beginning of the month.

I was not happy with them until after I put on the decals, they really seemed to add a lot to the overall look and feel of the models.

I'm also not sure if they are 100% historically accurate, but they seem to look at least iconic in style to me.

I'm quite enjoying the change of pace to painting these 1/600th scale models, my only problem is I find the Decals take longer to put on the models than painting them takes!

A Schwarm of Me 109's bounce Blue Section of the 38th Fighter Squadron

Next up will be the 9 He 111s, then after that either 12 Ju 87s or Me 110s.

But more importantly I can now start playing! I just need to find someone to play with.... it shouldn't be too hard I have all the models needed to play with..... Any takers?

Thanks for reading Ben

The Road to FearNaught - El Alamein - DAK

Hello All

Last year I took part in a campaign weekend called FearNaught - Market Garden, I had always loved campaign weekends and this was one of the best ones I had every been to. So this year they are planning on running 3 weekends, two Desert based ones and an Eastern Front one. I was going to go to the first Desert one (Gazala) but my friends birthday was on the same weekend, my memory being as good as it is I didn't make the connection until after I had bought most of the army (Doh!). Fortunately I can use the army for the second desert weekend! So now El Alamein has been confirmed for the 16th and 17th June 2012 I have dug out my DAK and have started planning my army for it.

I have decided to do the 164 Leichte Afrikadivision, as they were an important part of the battle fighting in the northern part of the front. The list for FearNaught have special rules, firstly they have to be themed around the battle the weekend is based on (sort of the point really). Secondly the organiser Alex like to keep Artillery and Air Support controlled by a central command so you can't have any in your lists. With this in mind my List will be:-

HQ:- Company HQ with 2 HMG's     105pts

Combat Platoons:- Afrika Schutzen Platoon with 3 sections, 7.62cm PaK36(r) and Panzerknacker     250pts
Afrika Schutzen Platoon with 3 sections, 7.62cm PaK36(r) and Panzerknacker     250pts

Support Platoons:- Pioneer Platoon with 3 Sections and Supply Truck     230pts
3 Sd Kfz 222/3     110pts
2 Flak 8.8cm with extra Crew     255pts
3 Panzer IV E     300pts

Total 1500pts

My army so far

The first Afrika Schutzen Platoon

The Second Afrika Schutzen Platoon

 Trucks for the Afrika Schutzen Platoons

These are the first of 12 or so I will paint up. The first set of trucks are British, I did this for 2 reasons, firstly I wanted an easy way of being able to tell which squad was which on the table and secondly the Germans used a lot of British Trucks and other captured equipment during the Desert war.

Pioneer Platoon - WIP

3 Panzer IV E - WIP

I have used the WWPD Tutorial for the Panzers, I'm planning on doing all the Anti-Tank guns and Flak 8.8cm in the same style.

Flak 8.8cm - WIP

7.62cm PaK36(r)s for the Afrika Schutzen Platoons - WIP

Well thanks for looking, I will be updating my progress as I get the models painted. I only have around 12 weeks to get the army done.

Ben