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.