Blog Highlights - August

Hello All

Starting from today we are going to do a few posts focusing on great posts we have seen on other blogs around the internet to give them more attention.

First this time is Matt Pullens new blog, Papa Bear Wargaming.

He has done a great post about his first year playing in Flames of War tournaments, what he has learnt and what he plans to do next, check it out here.

Flames of War Smoke Tactics

Hi all coxer here again, today I wanted to talk about smoke in FoW and it's uses.

Smoke comes in two forms, direct and bombardment - and it has two principle effects - units shooting through smoke can only see 16 inches, and if the target you're shooting at is obscured by smoke it counts as concealed and gone to ground - except for defensive fire where it's just concealed.

However there are some difficulties with smoke, you have to fire it at an enemy unit - so still need to roll to hit. Bombardments spread according to the wind direction - a random roll on the first smoke bombardment. Smoke bombardments must be the first shooting in the shooting step, and direct fire smoke is resolved before normal shooting from a platoon. Despite all of that smoke is key to FoW.

Quick Project - Airfix Fw190

Hi All,

I've had a bit of a break from Flames of War and Modelling in general for a while since Art Of War. Mainly because the weather has been nice and I've been busy trying to sort out moving to Bournemouth.

I had a spare hour the other day so decided to do something quick and this is what I pulled out from under my desk.

I bought this a while ago for about £5 or £6 and it has been sat there since, along with a P47 Thunderbolt. The main reason I bought the model is that it was 1:100 scale and so a more accurate match for FoW than the 1:144 scale models Battlefront do.

Finnish - Landsverk Anti II AA-tank and Lorries

Hi all another little update for my Finns

This time it's a bit odd as only some of the units are combat units, and some are transports...

But lets start with the fun stuff the Landsverk Anti II AA-tank, it's one of the coolest little units in the game IMHO (though I am a sucker for SP AA)

Beyond the Foxholes Episode 18

Hello All

In act one we join Ben, Winner Dave and Adam as they chat about what they have been up to, Ben quickly chats about his FoW Korean War project and then we round out the act with an AAR from the Breakthrough Assault One Day Tournament. (sorry about the mix up at the start of the episodes...)

In act two Adam is replaced by Alex as we interview Mike Haught from Battlefront, the guys talk about Desperate Measures, Bridge at Remagen, The Great War and a few future books. (sorry the sound quality is a little off at a few points but that shouldn't ruin the experience).

In act three Adam is back as we chat about the UK tournament scene and if it is too busy and what can be done to help it, before we dive deep into Winner Dave's mail bag.

The Great War - Tommies - Mark IVs and Whippet

Here's my next instalment for the Great War, the Tanks.

I found the mark IVs a little tricky to paint, they are very narrow and very long.  The panels on the side are quite nice though and give you plenty of scope for doing simple panel highlighting that's quite effective.

I used this opportunity to try shading and highlighting with oil paints, which is a technique MiG Jimenez teaches.  I bought some cheap oil paints off Amazon for £1.10 and set about trying it.  I definitely worked and worked well, I need a bit of practice with it to get my technique down but I could see how it would work...that's until I applied Matt Varnish...it had a bad reaction with the oil paint and looked really bad...so that's something I need to investigate.

Breakthrough Assault One Day Tournament AAR

Breakthrough Assault 1 Day Event 9th August 2014

So on the 9th of August a group of intrepid players gathered for the 1st Breakthrough Assault 1 Day event (shameless plug the next is October the 11th)

With two new gaming stored opening we all had viewed this as a way to get more people into FoW and Ben liaised with Karl at the new LvlUp Games to host the event - unfortunately the shop was not open in time for the event but another venue was found and we all tracked up the road.

Finnish Panzer IV's

Hi all,

after a lot of Early War love it's time to go to Late War! And not just late war - it's 1945 and the Finn's are in the Lapin Sota!

Yes this is the only Finnish list giving you access to the panzer IV - and I love that tank. I had a box sitting around since I did my ten for my German force, but having long ago discarded my plan for a Peiper list the box has found it's use with my Finn's

The Great War - Tommies - OQF 18 Pdr and HMGs

Hi all,

My next batch of painting is complete. I painted the 18 pounders and HMGs at the same time.

The 18pdrs are cool looking gun and I love the gun carriage that comes with it...really helps to round the model out.

I googled the gun and checked out a lot of pictures.  I found a lot of them had brassy bits on them.  I think the colour I ended up with is too yellow and am thinking of dulling it down a bit...but I'll live with it for now and see how I feel once I've had them on the table.

The Great War - Painting Tommies - Infantry

Hello fellow gamers

I decided to write up a post on how I painted my Great War Brits.  I'm using the OQF 18 pdr and HMGs crew as the demo pieces.  As with any of my painting articles, I'm not saying this is how you should do it, simply sharing how I did it and hoping that helps someone.

Pic of end result

Step 1 :- Prime and Base coatUsing an airbrush I used black Vallejo primer and then base-coated the men with English Uniform and the Guns with Brown Violet.

Project Finland - Late War Finnish List For BA One Dayer

Hi all,

Ok so I'm slightly nervous here as a nail my colours to the mast, it's our local 1 day event and I think I'm going to take the Finns!

Now why the Finns? Well good question - my initial thoughts had been Brit Airlanding or possibly German Panzers from DM, FI or PTTM, or even as an off chance my Italy Brits! But 2 things have swayed me, firstly - I like playing aggressive infantry! There is something nice about your stands of men getting ready to teach the opposition a lesson. Secondly the Finns did me proud at the Welsh Open - I think for that they get a second outing!

The Great War - Infanterie Platoon (GGE702) & 7.62cm Krupp Infantry Gun (GGE560)

Hello all

Following on from the unboxing of the German Army deals (you can see part 1 and 2 here) I have painted up the first two platoons, the first Infanterie Platoon and the Trench Guns.

Beyond the Foxholes Episode 17

Welcome to Beyond The Foxholes Episode 17

In Act 1 we join Ben, Winner Dave and Adam as they talk about what they have been up to, the Bovington Wargames convention and the recent Devizes Attack Mid War comp.

Then in Act 2 the guys look inside Winner Daves mail bag and answer some of the Liebster Award questions they have been sent.

Finally Act 3 the guys round out the show by talking about a few one day tournaments the guys are running, their lists for the Breakthrough Assault One Dayer and then resent rules updates (Navel Gunfire, Panzer's to the Meuse, etc).

The Great War - British Rifle Platoon - GBR702

It's been a bit of a mad dash to get these done, but it's been an incredibly enjoyable painting these fellas.  So here we have my attempt at a Great War British Rifle Platoon.

Group shot!

The Great War - Ze Germans Part 2 - Unboxing

Hello All

Welcome to part 2 of my Great War German unboxing, in part 1 I looked at the Infanterie Platoon's, HQ and the Infanterie Machine-Gun Platoon, in part 2 I'm going to look at the 7.62cm Krupp Infantry Gun and the A7V Tank (the one you have been waiting for!), after which I will close out with overall thoughts on the start set and then future plans.

(GGE560) 7.62cm Krupp Infantry Gun

The trench guns are by far the smallest blister in terms of number of models in the army deal.