Firestorm Caen Campaign Weekend - AAR

Hello All

Last weekend Adam ran a Firestrom Caen campaign weekend at Entoyment, set over the Friday night and Saturday. This was Adam's first ever event to fulfill one of his New Years Resolutions. 

The event had one round of games on the Friday night and three games on the Saturday, this left it one round short so the first round (the beach landings) where rolled for using the Generals Wargame. The Friday was optional and I was unable to attend, so I will pick up the story from Saturday morning and round three Operation Espon.

The Road to FearNaught - El Alamein - DAK - Finished!

Hello All, The DAK are done! (Well bar a few decals...) I finished the trucks last night and the crew today. I'm not sure about have I feel the transports turned out, the Kubelwagons and the half-tracks were a pain to paint with my warn paint scheme. Also I think the Zvezda trucks might be a little bit big compared to the Battlefront transports; not to mention that they were also quite hard to put together and bent really easily. Having said that as I army I am very happy with how they have turned out and I'm really looking forward to the weekend and seeing them in action.

I wasn't sure about the blue windscreens at first, but I now think they
add a lot of colour and break up the model nicely.

A full grenadier platoon with transports.

HQ Kubelwagens and trucks for the HMG teams.

These now just need Decals...

The Army as a whole.

 So Fearnaught is 4 weeks tomorrow and my army is done, this feels odd as I can't remember the last time I have finished my army this far away from an event, I'm normally painting up units the night before. So I can put my feet up.... is what I would be saying if I didn't have a commission to get an Italian army painted up for the same event! well the first models turned up this week so I'll be painting them for the next few weeks. Lucky I have the week before Fearnaught off!

I also have plans to add a few more units to the army for both Early War and Mid War. At the moment I'm looking at about 10 Panzer II's, 5 Early Panzer III's, some artillery (probably 10.5cm leFH18) and then a Tiger or 3 (Think I might end up with a Tunisian Tiger company), but that's in my plans for next year.

On other news I will be playing my first Operation Sealion game on Sunday, when my Hungarian's take on a "Free" Soviet army. I hope to have an AAR up on the site either Sunday or Monday (more likely Monday) so keep your eyes peeled!

As always thanks for reading Ben

The Road to FearNaught - El Alamein - DAK - Situation Report

Hi All

Thought I would post up a quick situation report of were I am with the army. Well I was quite surprised to realise I have almost finished my Fearnaught list! I still have quite a few extra bits to get down for when I turn teh army into an EW and later MW DAK but my initial goal of Fearnaught is almost there.

My army as it stands, 5 out of the 6 platoons done (well bar transports).

What I have left to do:-

 SdKfz 10's for my 2 Pak 36(r)'s

Opelbltiz Trucks for my Grenider Platoons

SdKfz 223 (Fu) and SdKfz 222 (2cm)

The only bits I still need to buy is five Kubelwagen for command stands. I'm very confident I can get all of this down on time, even with my first painting commision due for the same event (an Italian army).

As always thanks for reading.

Ben

The Road to FearNaught - El Alamein - DAK - Pioneers and Panzer IV's

Hello All

I have gone back to my DAK for the up coming Fearnaught Campaign Weekend in June. Here is my Pioneers.

Of all the pioneer platoons I have done I think these were my favourite models. The addition of the men with metal detectors and soldiers looking for mines really makes them stand out.My only problem was it's been so long since I painted the 2 Grenadier platoons that a few pieces of equipment are different colours.

And now here is my Panzer IV's

I have painted these in the same style as my Flak 8.8's and Pak 36(r)'s. They aren't quite finished as I'm waiting on decals from Dom's Decals.


Thanks for looking, I hope you like my units.

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

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

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

D-Day Campaign Weekend - Firestorm D-Day

Hello All,

I have always wanted to run a campaign weekend, I have taken part in a few and they are almost always my favourite memories I have about the hobby. So I have decided to have a go at running one! I was playing around with the idea of doing one based on Crete. Thinking it would be nice, small and a lesser used campaign, but when I spoke to my regular opponents and got a lukewarm response. So my next port of call would be D-Day. Almost everyone would have an army for it, it’s an icon battle and it wasn’t too hard to find material other players have done for a D-Day campaign to work from, my gaming group jumped on board so D-Day it was!

I'm have worked on converting the Battlefront Firestorm Rules Set with Firestrom D-Day rules from this forum and the Shifting Sands D-Day Campaign Weekend from the Battlefront Website, with my own twists. The idea being start on D-Day +1 (so the beachs are taken and now it's time to move inland) and go up to D-Day +11 (2 days per game turn).

I have found a good map from one of the above Sites , here is a link to a larger picture.

 The current plan is for this to be in the First Quarter 2013, I would like to run it sooner but I'm getting married in September and I don't want to do a bad job on either (and I don't think the future wife would be too happy with me if I was more focussed on something else other than the wedding!).

I have also written a draft rule set that can be downloaded here.

Well thats all for now, I'll keep you all updated as I start getting things together.

Thanks for reading and wish me luck!