Finnish: Mortar Platoon (Winter) and Fokker CX

Hi Back again with an update for my Finn's.

This time I've brought you two units which were both relatively quick to paint, but I think both have an integral role in my EW army.

AAR - Early War - Japanese Hohei Chutai V Soviet Light Tankovy Batalon - Break Out

Ben came round to mine for a game, it's was my first go in Early War and naturally my first stab with Japanese. Following a discussion on WWPD forum with Mike and Eric we had already decided the mission would be Breakout. I had laid the table out with just hills and crops, which is quite light in terms of terrain but hopefully a bit more realistic than Western European houses. In Breakout the defender chooses a short table edge. I was defending because Light Tankovy's always attack trumps my always attack. We both place an objective and then I decide on 2 full infantry platoons, and 1 platoon of tanks, to defend with. In reserve is another 2 platoons of tanks and the Regimental Gun platoon. Please forgive the unpainted tanks - hiding in the middle of the crops.

3rd Japanise Division HQ with Regimental Banner Full Infantry Platoon Full Infantry Platoon 3 Type-89 Tanks 3 Type-89 Tanks 3 Type -89 Tanks 2 Type-41 75mm Guns

Soviet Light Tanks HQ T-26 8 T-26 + Rear MG 8 T-26 8 T-26 10 KhT-26 6 BT-7a 5 DshK AA Guns Sporadic I-153

Generated by WWPD's BatRepper Software.

Motivation To Finish An Army.

Hi Guys,
Andy here with my first update for a while, before Christmas in fact. After finishing the Germans from Open Fire I gave myself a bit of a break and revisited some 40K models which had been occupying my part-done models shelf for far too long. After finishing a couple of small projects I began to feel the call of FoW once again. I also slowly began to remember the vague promise of having a 1000pt army ready for some games by Christmas. Fail. As I listened to the latest episode of Beyond the Foxholes inspiration struck me and I knew I needed a deadline and some purpose to get this army done.

The army so far

Finnish: Jääkäri Rifle Platoon (Winter)

Ok so let's start with the first unit for my 'Project Finland' force. I've decided to go for an infantry platoon initially as they are the core of all the forces and this I always feel a good starting place.

Firstly the models themselves. The models themselves had a fair bit of flash and lines that required trimming and filing, but nothing too excessive. The sculpt quality was very good! Compared to the British infantry I'd last done, the details were clear, hands and faces really sharp too.

Panzerfaust v PIAT

Hello,

You know that weird place you end up in, when you sit looking at youTube videos for too long, you try to stop but you end up thinking "just one more."  This happened to me a while ago and I ended  up watching "Top 6 Weapons we wish we hadn't invented" or something like that.  What stood out in this video was that HEAT rounds were featured as one of the six.  I didn't know much about HEAT rounds, so during a quiet period at work I had a sneaky look at what they are and how they work.  I found some good resources,which explained it all and lead onto me reading about panzer fausts and PIATs.

With my interest peaked, I thought about the abstraction of these weapons into a stat line within our favourite wargame...so that's what I'm going to do now...compare the two with respect to their stats in FOW.

Concepts of Improvement

Hi there,

Adam here once again with my third article on getting better at FoW. I think I was going to talk about one paper I'd read when I initially came up with this idea, but other things have become more interesting so I've scrapped that idea.

Instead I'm going to look at my progression from a FoW novice to an 'expert' (or maybe less of a novice) and one reason I think this has happened.

Plastic Panzer IV H Review

Given I'd just received my two boxes of the new plastic panzer IV's and to keep up with narrowly missing my apparent New Years resolution I got the job of reviewing them. But first a selfie of me and a triceratops:

Anyway, onto the plastic tanks.

So I ordered my two boxes of tanks from Firestorm games and they were in stock and dispatched ASAP so I received them a few days later. This may seem an odd thing to comment on but I don't get any special Breakthrough Assault treatment because I'm not Ben (Editor: I think you'll find I have never had any special treatment from Battlefront - Ben) so this is a sign that Battlefront have done a good job on getting enough stock out to shops at the same time as their publicity. Well done Battlefront.

The first thing I did was check if I had won the golden panzer in either box.

Beyond The Foxholes Episode 10

Hello All

Welcome to Beyond The Foxholes Episode 10.

We join Ben, Winner Dave, Adam and special guest Andy as they talk all things Flames of War.

In Act 1 the guys talk about what they have been up to, look at the latest news from Battlefront and cover our own tournament Breakthrough Assault 2.

In Act 2 we look at the current tournament meta, bring in our new section the Mail Bag, cover some over looked rules and talk about "when do you point out a mistake your opponent has made?" (in Adam's case never!).

In Act 3 we help Andy out with his list for The Art of War (this does turn into a petty competition between the 3 of us!) and round out the episodes by looking at some new lists ideas for Ben and Adam.

Vallejo IJA (Imperial Japanese Army) Model Air Paint Set

Hi all

Today I'm taking a quick look at Vallejo's model air paint set for the Imperial Japanese Army.

In the UK this set of 8 paints costs £14.50, if you were to buy these separately you'd be looking at 8 x £1.89 = £15.12.  That's a saving of a whole 62p, that's enough to get my juices flowing.  That's okay though because you get a guide with it...right. Well no you don't really.  You are told that 3 of the 8 paints you've just bought are applicable for 1942 onward, whilst the other 5 are for the typical early war scheme with the yellow cross.

Review - Tank Killer Company (SBX31)

Hello All

For my ever expanding Soviets I picked up two boxes of the new Plastic Cat Killer (SBX31). I already had 8 SU-100's with the old Resin hulls, but having no SU-85M's I thought it would be nice to have both options.

The box set comes with enough bits to make 5 SU-85's, SU-85M's or SU-100's. The guide on the back of the box makes it really clear what bits you need off the sprue to make each variant.

Project Finland

Hi all,

I'm back with the start of my next project. 

As I mentioned in the aims for the new year I wanted to do an EW army, but as I continuously harp on about, I love versatility I'd also like an army which could do MW or LW too.

Making Battlefront Style Trees

Hello All

A few months ago Jeff "Sonbae" Flint did a post on the WWPD blog about making Battlefront style trees with other sources. I loved the post and had been looking for a reason to make some terrain inspired by it, well my Vietnam project with Jersey James was all the reason I need so I set about making some Nam style tress.

The range of ready made trees that Woodland Scenics do are great and they have tress for all your table top theme needs, but my first problem was that the range I wanted are not sold in Europe at all, so I had to buy the set I used from the States on ebay. Not a massive problem for me as it was still a good price (about £25 for 33 tress after P&P) and I wasn't in a rush, but not ideal by any means.

Review - Heavy Rocket Mortar Battery (SBX32)

Hello All

I picked up a couple of boxes of the new Heavy Rocket Mortar Battery (SBX32) to expand my Soviet army as for some reason I didn't have any artillery. So lets have a look at the models.

Each box set contains enough to make two BM-31-12 Katyusha Rocket Launchers with extra crew, an observer and a command team.

Rule Britannia! Reflections on Collecting My British Canadians & Welsh

So about 6 months ago I did my first post on my late war British (the guards armoured box) and l'm now waiting for the dip to dry so I can add decals and varnish to the last model I have for the list (a 5th Sherman crab).

Looking back at starting collecting this army, it was very impulsive. After the Germans had finished - and as by the end I was a little bored! I thought something small and fast and fun - like the Cromwells would be good for me. As I mentioned in a previous article though I'm not very good at small projects.