Matilda Horde!

Hello All,

Been a few weeks since the last time I did an update for my Soviets, so here is a nice little Matilda horde made up of 21 Zvezda Matilda models with a little conversion work.

These are also my first models for The Fourth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. So hopefully a nice up chunk of points for me!

Once More Unto The Breach...

Hi all

Well this is a slightly more interesting post on painting than I usually do I hope.

First off what constitutes a breaching group? Well you get two types, depending on whether you go for Overlord (CT) or Market Garden (CV) (and associated PDF’s). The Breaching group is the 79^th armoured division personified, better known as Hobart’s funnies these were experimental engineering vehicles which were developed from 1943 onwards (if my reading of this article is right). Whilst the 79^th never fought as a single division, their specialist equipment was utilised by many different units in the late war period.

Merry Xmas

Hello All

Just a quick Merry Xmas from everyone at Breakthrough Assault, we all hope you get lots of lovely new toys under your Christmas Tree!

New Plastic T34s Review

Hello, Dave here, i've finally finished the new plastic T34s, they're pretty darn awesome, here's how I did it...
As soon as they were available I ordered 2 boxes of these beauties, i'll probably end up checking out most if not all of the new plastic box sets as they are released so stay tuned, in the mean time...

...Do As The Romans Do

Hi everyone!

It’s James again and this is the second blog post I've written about my first Flames of War Company, which as you found out in the first blog, is an Eastern Front Battaglione Alpini.

In the first blog I wrote about why I chose this army, so when I thought about what to write for the second blog, the first thing that came to mind was to write about the Italian national rules and how I’d use them in my opening games… 

The Unknown Hero, jacket off, shirt unbuttoned and sleeves rolled up 

ready for action!

However…

Germans Having Lunch Britcon Objective Marker

Further to my efforts to get the painting queue down, I completed this Britcon objective marker.  In a similar fashion to my Hs129, this started the year on my list, so it's about time it got done.

I really enjoyed painting this, it's nearly all drybrushing and washes.

Beyond The Foxholes Episode 7 - Christmas Special

Hello All

Welcome to Beyond the Foxholes Episode 7, the Christmas Special.

Today we are joined by Ben, Adam, Winner Dave and Alex in the first Beyond the Foxholes Christmas Special.

In Part One - The Guys talk about what they have been up to, up coming Tournaments and a lot of other random topics.

In Part Two - The Ben and Alex have a quick AAR on Reading, the Guys talk about Battlefront Plastics, Red Bear and Desperate Measures. Then round off the episode with a look about on 2013's New Years Resolutions, make their 2014 Resolutions and then talk about their plans for 2014.
(Sorry we had a few recording issues in the second half and Alex's breathing does effect the recording)

British OQF 25pdr

Hi all and I’m back with another painting post for my expanding Empire army – I’m going with empire as I’m certain my forces will end up representing Britain and many of her dominions eventually.

So the model itself, well I picked up the box off Ebay and also 8 of the desert ones as well (for something like £20) – whilst I don’t write many army lists which need 8+ 25pdrs I like to have the option, and for that price I won’t argue with half the guys being in shorts and topless, thankfully they’re not wearing sandals!

T-70 Company

Hello All

And welcome to the next update for my Soviet army, a company of T-70's from the Plastic Soldier Company.

The Plastic Soldier T-70's may be the second best kit of theirs I have put together after the Panthers (they are truly great!), the reduced components the details, I really can't speak highly enough of the models!

Make It Stop!

Welcome everyone to another random musing from my mind.

Today the question is when to stop with an army. Because seriously I struggle! I always start a project with the idea that it will have a nice clear defined end point, that due to the twin powers of theoryhammer (theory of war in this context maybe?) and also my awesome battle prowess - my first list is the one which is THE list for that force. Sadly I'm thwarted by two equally powerful forces at every turn.

AAR Tankovy vs Panzer Lehr - Free For All

Hello All,  It's been too long since I have done an AAR so with the new Reb Bear book out and a newly painted Soviet Army I figured it was about time I did one!   My Opponent was Paul (of Adam beating fame) who was running his Panzer's on the Meuse list. We rolled up Free For All which surprisingly it turns out Paul had never played. So with that we got cracking.

Ben's Tankovy (CT) HQ T-34/76 10 T-34/76 10 T-34/76 10 T-70 3 SU-100 3 SU-100 4 BA-64 Limited Tipped Sturmovik

Paul's Panzer Lehr (CV) HQ Panzer IV 4 Panzer IV 4 Panzer IV 3 Panthers 2 Pumas Short Gepanzerte Aufklarungs Full Fausts 3 Nebs

HS129B3

Wat oh Chaps,

It's nearly the end of the year, I remember well the start of 2013 and just how much I had on my painting list. It was big and daunting...I made myself promise I'd get everything off it by the end of the year...well it truth I'm not going to manage that, but in these remaining weeks I'm going to give it a go.

It's about time the Henshel got a slap of paint on it...so here it is.

The Cat Killers - SU100's

Hello All

I have never been one for fashion. but it would seem that I have picked up the new black in 8 SU-100's.

Thanks to the Red Bear updates these guys are fantastic! With AT16, the new Cat Killer rule and a very good front armour, these are the ultimate tank hunters (providing they don't get smoked or move!).

Guards Armoured - Crusader AA

Hi All 

back again with another little unit I’ve been working on.

The Crusader AA I think is one of the coolest little vehicle around, I’ve not had much to do with crusaders before other than stealing a few turrets for my Staghound 3’s – though I’ve seen Alex’s.

When In Rome....

Hi everyone I'm James, I'm based in Bournemouth and Southampton and I'm new to Flames of War!

I've been asked by the awesome guys at Breakthrough Assault to write a few blogs about my first company as I’I've chosen an army outside of the big four Allied and Axis powers.  So hopefully you all enjoy reading about it and at some point, playing against them! Painting these models has been awesome because I really wanted to collect the army but haven't played any proper games. So for this first blog, I'll explain why I picked what I picked.

Here I am on holiday with my partner’s little girl…
there might be a clues about the articles I'm writing behind me!

For my first Flames of War Company, I picked…

Soviet T-34 Tanks

Hello All

I have to tell you all I have caught a bug, after I enjoyed painting and playing with the Early War Soviet army I did for Warfare I wanted more! So the next logical step was to buy 21 T-34's!

These are from Plastic Soldier Company as I wanted the twin turrets (annoyingly the day I started painting them the Battlefront ones we're announced!), bar the Battalion command tank which is the classic use of Kommissar Dedov.

The Deconstruction Of Failing Lists

Hello All

So this is one of those articles which I write to try and really think about how I develop a list and use it effectively. I'll start by saying that every theory I have when it meets an enemy list fails horribly, and I normally have quite an iterative process to how I develop a list, try a tweak here and there my Jagdpanther list is an example of this. Today though I look at my Canadians and how I progress from my pre Oxford ideas to where I am now.

Sunrise over the shermans

The Fourth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - I'm In!

Hello All

As you may have noticed from my 2nd ID and Early War Soviets I'm always up for a painting challenge, so when Curt over at Analogue Hobbies announced his 4th Annual Painting Challenge I throw my name into the hat and (as you might have guessed from the post title) I was fortunate enough to get in!

 So what am I'm going to do?

Reading Warfare 2013 - Early War Tournament AAR

Hello All

So I'm back from Warfare and my Soviet army has been bloodied and tested. The event was 1500pts with a 30 man Early War tournament and a 1750pts 26 man Mid War tournament being run side by side.

My well documented army for Reading. This time I remembered
to photograph the BT-7a's! 

The event had 4 games on and was part of the Reading Warfare Annual Wargaming conversion. We had a slight delay as a few guys had trouble getting in because of a motorway closure, but myself and Alex wasted the time playing Small World on his Ipad (ask Alex about Were-Pixies!), but at 10am the draw was done I was set about facing my first opponent.

The End of the Beginning

Hi Folks,

I've finally finished the second Grenadier platoon after what felt like a real slog, so to mark point in the project I thought I'd steal a line from Churchill for the title of this post because it seems rather appropriate. As far as painting an army for wargaming goes this is the first army that I have finished…except I'm not finished and I always knew that. But personally this is quite significant in that I completed what I initially set out to complete and for a time I can relish in the achievement, however small it may be!

Universal carriers and Wasps

Hello All

Adam here with my next unit I've done are the tiny universal carriers, and there related unit, wasps.

These guys are a one piece hull, with the crew coming separate, to paint this I did the hull as I do all my tanks and then did the crew separately - I was relatively pleased until I found out that the crew attached to the MG on the carriers just didn't fit smoothly into the socket on the front of the carrier which was a bit irritating.

AAR – Welsh Guards vs FJ’s – Road Block.

Hello All Welcome once again to another exciting AAR. Once again I'm up against Winner’s FJ’s – but we thought we'd take a different approach to this game. For a start we're playing the mission ‘Road Block’ this was in the Wargames Illustrated back in September I think, but with it being a possibility at Corrivalry in February and also a nice different mission, we thought we'd give it a go.  We'd agreed before hand to slightly theme our forces, and also to pick matching armies, so I returned to my Welsh Guards and Dave went for Von de Heytes FJ’s.

Guards Lorried Rifles HQ Full Rifle Platoon Full Rifle Platoon 3 Cromwells and Challenger 3 Cromwells and Challenger 6 Universal Carriers 4 25 Pounders 2 Bofors

Fallschirmjagers VDH + 2 Trap Teams HQ + 2 Panzerschreks Full FJ Platoon Full FJ Platoon 3 Pak40's 4 10.5cm Artillery (CV) 1 Jagdpanther 4 HMGs 3 Mortars 3 Mortars 2 Recoilless Guns 2 Flak 88's (CT)

Generated by WWPD's BatRepper Software

Soviet KhT-26's and Pre Reading Warfare Analysis

Hello All

This is the last update for my Road to Warfare challenge. A platoon of Kht-26 to round out the army

These Kht-26's are from Zvezda and it's a pretty nice piece of kit. My only worry with them is the Flamethrower, it's very thin and one or two of them have already started to bend...

Review: Plastic Soldier Company Churchills

Hello All, Adam here,

It’s been ages it feels since I did a proper review of a product, but with plastic Churchills I thought now was a good time.

So where to start, well firstly the box is what I've come to expect from PSC artwork on the front and a simple painting scheme on the back, it’s to the point and easy.

I-153 and Soviet Anti Air Platoon

Hello All

Update number 3 for my Reading Warfare challenge, this time around a Plane and some Anti Air.

I don't want to say these are the runts of the list but in same ways they really are! Most of the list wrote it's self but I had a awkward number of points left, not enough for a nice 6th platoon so I ended up with the cheapest and some air support

Early War Soviet T-26 Horde!

Hello All

Been a while since I updated my army progress for my Reading Warfare challenge, so here is 25 T-26's!

These Zvezda tanks were very quick to build and paint. I was surprised by the level of detail for the cost, still nowhere near as good as the Battlefront versions but for the cost I think they are excellent!

Beyond The Foxholes Episode 6 - The Road To Oxford Pairs

Hello All

Welcome to Beyond The Foxholes Episode 6

We join Adam and Winner Dave as they travel up to the Oxford Pairs Event.

In Part 1 the guys talk about what they have been up to, their lists for the events, their expectations and then Winner Dave and Adam butcher some German and Finnish pronunciations as they talk about the lists they will be facing.

In Part 2 the guys are a little hungover as they talk about the first 3 games of the event and Adam's new found hate for using Land Mattresses.
(Note- Adam means the 150th Panzer Brigade and not the 150th Panzer Division in his game 1)

In Part 3 the guys talk about their last 3 games from Oxford, what they would change about their lists and their overall thoughts on the event and the incoming storm!

Shermans and Fireflies

Hi all

Doing a post on shermans feels slightly stupid! I would guess that almost all FoW players have played against them, and almost all probably have one kicking around somewhere! They are so ubiquitous appearing in MW and LW with many variants and employed by many different forces.

US Sherman Easy Eights

Hello All

Another bunch of my 7th armoured done and dusted, I have done 5 Easy Eights!

First thing I need to say is I love this model! It has the right balance between bulk, coolness and looks. These models were also a dream to paint. I will so sorry for some of the pictures, I'm not sure why but these just didn't come out as well as normal no matter what I did.

Oxford Pairs Doubles Tournament - AAR and Photodump

Hey everyone,

just got back from Oxford pairs, thought we'd share some photos from the event.

The upcoming podcast will have our 'full' (if tired/hungover) review of the event which will be up shortly. Hopefully this will give you an idea of how it all ended up.

Through the magic of the FoW forum

Flak 88s for my FJ army

Apart from the awesome games and the opportunity to meet like minded people, tournaments really help me get my painting done.

For colours I had to borrow some Flak 88s, however as Ben's replacement for pairs I was determined to take all my own miniatures.

AAR Canadian Rifles vs KG Spindler - Free for All

So welcome again to another exciting game of Flames of war.

This one was fought between myself and Toby, we'd both got upcoming events and were keen to try out list, he was off to a Market garden themed event so was choosing a German force.This was the first outing the canadian rifles had and getting to grips with them took a bit of time.

Land Mattress Launcher and Ram Kangaroos

I thought I’d look at the two units which are quintessentially Canadian first of all, Ram Kangaroos and Landmattress’s. There are some lovely articles on the FoW website detailing the history of both of these unusual units, and I found as I read them I really was quite inspired to crack on with both of the units – that and a deadline also helped!

Faust Wielding Nut Jobs, or 3rd FJ Platoon

In preparation for Oxford pairs, I need to finish third platoon and my Flak88s. Once done, that'll be it for my Fallshirmjager...

Beyond The Foxholes Episode 5 - Podcast

Hello All

Welcome to Beyond the Foxholes Episode 5

Ben, Winner Dave and Adam talk about what they have been up to, some updates on the blog, Tournament Restrictions part 2, an Update for Breakthrough Assault 2 and News from Plastic Soldier Company.

In Part II the Guys ask "HMG's, are they worth it?", in 10.1 we look at Deployment and Objective tactics for the Fair Fight missions and then round out the show with a look a head to Oxford Pairs.

Japanese Nikuhaku Teams

Good afternoon,

This weekend I continued painting my Japanese forces, this time its the infamous Nikuhaku teams.

I actually enjoyed painting these fellas, as there's a lot less of them than the Hohei Chutai, so it was less of a chore.

Burnout!

Hello everyone and welcome to another rambling article.

I've been musing over how to construct this article for some time, as every time I start it I'm normally unhappy with it in ten lines!

So what is burnout - simply speaking it's when you can't be arsed/actively dislike some aspect of anything - but in this case it'll be more wargaming related.

Stug III's Finished

Hi All,

Andy here with another painting update. As you may have noticed its been a while since I posted up anything, I really can't match the output of the other guys! Also summer just isn't the time to be inside painting models for me. I definitely made the most of the summer while it lasted, but now its well and truly over I managed to find to find a bit of time to finish the Open Fire! Stug III's off.

Options for Oxford

So welcome to what has been my headache for the last month.

At the end of October Ben and myself are off to Oxford pairs, one of us has to be allies (Ben) one has to be Axis (Adam).

Now there had been quite a few messages flying around about this event in our local group, and with the thought in my head that I'd possibly be facing hoards of allied infantry I began to think about what to take.

Spring Trees/Woods

Good evening,

I used to try to stick to a strict regime with my modelling/painting.  As in, I will paint this infantry platoon, then this infantry platoon, only then can I paint these tanks etc etc etc.

I've discovered this is simply the best way for me to burn out and become tired of the thing I love doing.

Now-a-days I try to do whatever I fancy at the time, which helps keep my motivation up.  It also means I never know what I'm going to be tackling next.

BT-7a Self-Propelled Gun Battery (SBX25) - Review

Hello All

As part of my Road to Warfare Challenge I picked up two boxes of the BT-7a Self-Propelled Gun Battery (SBX25), so I thought I'd do a little review.

So what's a BT-7a? Well it's basically the same model as the BT-7 just with a short barrel. I will be honest until I read Rising Sun I had no idea these tanks existed! Still with an army with a lack of Breakthrough Gun or high firepower I'm sure these will find a lot of use in most peoples Early War Soviet Armies.

Plastic Soldier Company M5 Stuart.

Hello All

A month or so ago I picked up a box of the new Plastic Soldier Company Stuarts for my up and coming 7th Armoured Company.

My first impressions of the boxset is that the PSC has learnt a lot of lessons from the older kits, the tracks, running gears and sides are one piece! I can't tell you how much aggro the T-34 tracks caused me until I finally worked out the trick to them.

Fallschirmjäger Artillery

Good afternoon fellow gamers.

If you listen to our podcast, you'll know that I had chickened out of going to the FOW tournament held at the Colours convention in Newbury.  One of the reasons for my not going was because I knew I wouldn't be able to field an army I wanted and would instead be taking what I had.

In the end I was persuaded to go by all the awesome guys in Bournemouth/Poole, my wife cancelled her run, the guys said I could borrow what I needed and so I ended up going.

Beyond The Foxholes - Episode 4 - On The Road To Colours

Hello All

Welcome to Beyond the Foxholes Episode 4

Ben, Winner Dave and Podcast first timer Alex chat on the way to the Late War Tournament Colours 2013. The guys talk about their lists, expectations and how Adam is winning 6-1 in life.

In Part 2 the guys talk about their first two games, the food and the convention as a whole as well as the dangers of letting animals roam around a village and Cylon Animals!

In Part 3 the guys round out the cast with games three and four and look ahead to the next few weeks of Flames of Waring.

Guards Armoured Recon - Redux

Hello All

This final post about contents from my guards recce box is looking at the non model pieces. A lot of these I mentioned in my review but with a bit of time I've got some deeper insights.

Guards - SP Anti Tank

Hi again all,

I'm back with another update for my Guards, this time the M10's.

Whenever I look at these guys I always have a small pang of jealousy about how much more fun their US counterpart is! Though the extra UK AT is always appreciated. I often consider how worth it is the extra AT to go from 14 in overlord to 15 in MG and I don't often see the benefit. But that is life you have the great glass hammer, though with more access to duckbills I do find them a better choice.

Commission Figurines - European Walled Farm

Good morning,

I was a very lucky boy to have had this MDF farm by Commission Figurines bought for my birthday by Adam (DrCox)

This is my first MDF building so wasn't too sure what to expect.

It went together quite well, there are a few gaps in between walls, which I'll get around to filling...probably never in all honesty, but at least you get a good feel for what the gaps are like when assembled.

The Road To War(fare)

Hello All

So, I'm back again with another painting challenge to get an army painted for a tournament (note to self for next year's resolutions, keep using the same army!). Firstly I need to be honest, I stole the title off of Fez-man's for his Fallschirmjager Glider army for Warfare, I hope he doesn't mind and this little plug helps smooth things over!

Anyway I'm off with Doctor Alex to a 1500pts Early War tournament in Reading at the annual Warfare convention. I have decided to go for a Soviet Tank army as this will be something completely different from my normal veteran infantry armies I have been using. Having a quick read through Rising Sun I decided that the T-26 was the tank for me mainly as it's iconic from the Winter War (well destroyed ones littering the roads of Finland anyway), but also I didn't fancy Armour 0 Tanks!

Guards - Recon - Stuarts

Well here I am again with yet more models. This time it is my Stuarts

I know Ben has done a recent exposé on the new ones from PSC but I like these ones from BF, though the box only comes with three I managed to source a 4th for various occasions.