Monday 30 September 2013

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.

Sunday 29 September 2013

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.

Friday 27 September 2013

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.

Wednesday 25 September 2013

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.

Monday 23 September 2013

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!

Friday 20 September 2013

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.

Wednesday 18 September 2013

Fate Of A Nation - Book Review and Spoilers

Hello All

This weekend at Colours I was lucky enough to get my hands on the latest Wargames Illustrated with the Six
Days War briefing book. So I thought I would do a little review with a few spoilers for everyone.

First Impressions

The Book seems small, it's only 28 pages cover to cover but this is all lists as all the background text is in the Wargames Illustrated. The book looks gorgeous with lots of great pictures of the three forces in the book. I have to say at this point these look like some of the best painted models in any of the Battlefront books, I have to guess this was a labour of love for the painters.

Monday 16 September 2013

Beyond The Foxholes Podcast - Episode 3

Hello All

Welcome to Episode 3 of Beyond The Foxholes. In this episode we talk about:-

In Part 1
Adam, Ben and Winner Dave talk about what they have been up to, Battlefront News, the rumoured new books and Tournament Restrictions.

In Part 2
The guys start start their new section 10.1 and completely dissect Artillery. Then they look a head to what they are doing in the next month or so.

Sunday 15 September 2013

AAR - Guards Armoured Recce vs FJ - Counter Attack


Welcome again boys and girls to another exciting AAR. 

Myself and winner had decided we'd have a game, I'd suggested we both take lists from Overlord/Atlantik Wall, but when he turned up with a Bridge by Bridge List I instead grabbed my Market Garden list – After all we knew it would be Guards Armoured Recon Vs FJ no matter what!

We initially rolled Cauldron, but as that was also the last game we played against each other we re rolled and got Counter Attack. 

Guards Armoured Recon
  • 2 HQ Cromwells
  • 3 Cromwells 1 Challenger
  • 3 Cromwells 1 Challenger
  • 2 Cromwells 1 Challenger
  • Full Lorried Rifle Platoon
  • 3 UC’s one extra MG, one extra .50cal
FJ (Veterans)
  • Von der Heydte + 3 trap teams
  • HQ with 2 Panzerschreks and 3 Stumelmortars
  • FJ platoon 2 sections + panzerfaust
  • FJ platoon 2 sections + panzerfaust
  • 4 HMG's
  • FJ Scout Platoon + panzerfaust
  • 3 Pak40’s
  • 3 StuH's (CV)
  • 4 10.5 Artillery (CT)
  • 2 FlaK 8.8 + Extra Crew (RT)

Friday 13 September 2013

Second US Infantry Platoon and Pre Colours Analyses

Hello All

The last platoon for Colours 2013 painting challenge is completed! I have finished the second infantry platoon and so I'm done! Again sorry about the lack of terrain in the pictures but my terrain is still with Alex waiting to go to the event.
So long with a little talk about the infantry today I'm also going to talk a little about the event as it's this weekend!

Wednesday 11 September 2013

Weathering a KV1

Hi,
I've been asked a number of times how I did the weathering on my Russian tanks, which is very flattering.  I had 10 KV1s originally, but I knew I wouldn't need that many.  I only fully painted 9 of them and left this one behind so I could a give a more detailed account of how I did the weathering.

and here it is.

Annoyingly I got got carried away and have only just noticed that I actually did the rust already so I can't show the previous step.  Anyhow, you can conclude from the tide marks of the rust, that a) I used really really thin paint and b) I wasn't too precious about applying it.

All ten tanks took no more than 10 minutes.  I took vallejp panzer aces Light Rust 301, added a tonne of thinner/water and ran it into all the crevices.  I then cleaned and dried off my brush and went back over it and soaked up some of the excess.  At this point I ran a few streaks down the turret.

Rust done...if that's all I was going to do, i'd have been way more careful with my application, but as I'm doing a number of steps I was quite splap-dash.



Monday 9 September 2013

US Jeep Recon

Hello All

The last but one platoon for Colours 2013 painting challenge. Maybe not the most interesting of all the units but a Jeep recon platoon is quite important from an army performance point of view.
Sorry again for the lack of terrain with the pictures but my terrain is with Alex packed and ready for Colours as I'm providing a table of terrain.

Sunday 8 September 2013

Poor Bloody Infantry - and a Rural Bases review

Hello all,

Hell the Poor bloody infantry, from normandy to Italy, British, Canadian, Australian etc they are the backbone of the army!
For MG they have the bonus of having a 3+ save when riding on a tank, and also can be in m5 half tracks (soon to be bought) but in the end these guys do the grunt work of assaulting and holding while everyone else gets the glory!

Friday 6 September 2013

US 57mm Anti Tank Guns

Hello All

The Seventh platoon for Colours 2013 painting challenge is completed! The 57mm Anti Tank Guns.
Sorry for the lack of terrain on the pictures but my terrain is all packed up for Colours as I'm providing a tables for the tournament.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

That Useless Unit

Morning everyone,

I'm back again with another article derived from my own going attempts to procrastinate.
This time I'm looking at how to enjoy/use/tolerate that unit which just seems pointless.

What do I mean by this? Well the other day I was playing my friend Army Dave, he's only just getting into FoW and was fielding an eclectic assortment of units. Amongst these were a pair of heavy infantry guns. We spoke a bit about using them, they're not great artillery (2 guns) they're not great anti tank (RoF 1) and they're not great against anything in direct fire (range 16 iirc) but how do you get use out of them? In this case I thought the main use was 'filling the gap' they're useless at everything, but can do a bit of everything.

Monday 2 September 2013

Painting a Hohei Chutai - EW Japanese Painting Guide

Hey guys,

Winner Dave here, talking about how I went about painting the all new Hohei Chutai.  I have an amazing ability to paint something, decide I don't like it and repaint it.  The Hohei Chutai is no different.  I got my hands on a new magazine called Painting War, which features my all time favourite painter Ruben Torregrosa, the guy is a legend and I've learned so much from him.  However my lesson this time round is that I have a style and it's not the same as Rubens.  I tried to copy Ruben's style but I didn't work out so I went back to my own style.  Here's how that went...

(Edit-quick pic of the finished product)



After the ever arduous task of cleaning the flash and straightening the bent bits, I primed and then undercoated  with Tamiya XF9 Brown.  After this I basecoated with Khaki Grey VMC 880, I used an Airbrush to speed the process.







Next I tackled the boots (Flat Brown VMC 984), then any wood parts like the rifle stocks and handles I used Beige Brown (875) and the bag Green Yellow (881).  So far these are the recommended colours you'll find in Rising Sun.

Sunday 1 September 2013

US 105mm Artillery and AOP (Plus Fun with Magnets)

Hello All

The sixth platoon for Colours 2013 painting challenge a battery of 105mm artillery. For me this is a staple unit for the US in FOW as the US and their artillery is an iconic WW2 sight for me.
I don't know how visible it is in the photos but the crew our made up of a mix of the normal crew and the winter crew from the Winter AT guns. I wanted to do this to keep the winter theme I have for the army.