More For Flames of War #2

It's been a quiet month on this blog, but it's been sunny and I've been enjoying myself outside a lot.  However that doesn't mean that I've got no hobby done, we've played some good games and I've painted a bunch of minis, I just haven't felt the urge to write about them for some reason.  Today I finally photographed the latest batch of minis for flames of war, as usual from a mix of companies, not just 'official' Battlefront ones.

 

Lets start with this British TOG 2* which I bought after seeing the real one at Bovington earlier in the year.  It's a true beast of a tank, ridiculously big and impractical, but I think fantastically cool, I'm rather proud of the camouflage paint job as well.  The TOG 2* wasn't used in combat and was an experimental tank which is included in the Mid-War Monsters book.  We're playing and collecting late war, but can't help adding a few of the nuts vehicles from this book into our games, just because we can really.

These are two infantry command stands to act as company HQ and 2inC stands for when I field a British infantry list.  I think that they're from the Italy range, but look generic enough to me to fill in for almost any formation.

Switching to the Germans now for these two armoured cars.  Here we have a Sd Kfz 223 (radio) from battlefront and a zvezda Sd Kfz 222 (2cm), I already have one of these cars so can now field a recon platoon.

The next four tanks came as a single lot off of ebay, the auction said they were made by 'peter pig' which isn't a company that I'm familiar with, but they came at the right price and I now have four more tanks for my German force.  Starting with this Tiger, which is awesome just because it a Tiger.

The bulk of the lot were these Panzer IV's.  They're not the best minis ever and the side plating seems to be attached at a slightly off angle, but they will do their job.

Somehow this means I seem to have acquired a German army without particulary intending too.  If I take out the tiger I get a list coming in at just under 1500ptsusing the SS panzer division list from Atlantik Wall.  I've no idea if this is a reasonable list, but lots of tanks is fun.

From The Painting Table #12

Here we go again with another collection of newly painted minis for your perusal.

Starting with this classic Dwarf Lord min for Warhammer fantasy.  Covered in Runic Gromril armour this is one tough cookie.

Next up we have these three objective markers to use with my 40K space marine army.  I believe they were originally from the 3rd ed boxed set, although I got these with some other bits off ebay.  The little side coils were painted with boltgun metal, like the rest of the piece and the given a thin coat of blue wash, it's not something that I've tried before, and I'm quite pleased with the final effect.

Moving away from GW and to Mantic games now and another merc for deadzone.  This time the kickstarter exclusive Project Oberon.  Project Oberon belong to the species 'the nameless' who are among my favourite races in the warpath universe, hopefully we'll see a few more of them in deadzone at some point.

Onto flames of war now with this Soviet T34/85 obr 1943 from Battlefront.

And finally this German Sd.Kfz.22 armoured car from Zvezda's art of tactics range that I will also use for flames of war.  I've bought a few kits from the art of tactics range over the last few months and although this is the smallest of those it was also the biggest pain to build.  This was clearly due to the difficulties due to the shape of the vehicle, but I wouldn't advise just 'snap-fitting' this together like they suggest is possible.  With a little work however you can get a good result out of this cheap little kit.

More For Flames of War

One of the advantages of playing a historical game, like flames of war, over a sci-fi or fantasy game is that whilst there will be an official range of models, there are no copyright issues and there is nothing to stop anybody else making cheaper versions of the same vehicles/troops at a compatible scale.  This post shows this with a number of new additions to my flames of war collection and whilst it includes a few official minis from battlefront also features minis from the plastic soldier company, zvezda, forged in battle and wizards of the coast.  This wasn't intentional, it was just the result of a bit of searching on ebay in an attempt to increase my collection and gaming options whilst not spending much money, I think it's worked out well.

lets start with this platoon of Cromwells for my late war British collection.  These were made by wizards of the coast for their now defunct axis & allies miniatures game, which like the star wars minis and D&D minis were prepainted randomised collectable minis.  They're not the best minis, but I did pick these up very cheap (£3.99 for the three) and the previous owner had already converted one into a command tank using a flames of war tank commander.  Although they were already painted I've given them another lick of paint to match the rest of my force.

This next platoon is the most exciting for me, it's a group of Stuart V's from the plastic soldier company.  This is important as this is the other option to allow my armoured squadron to field a 1000pt force when I don't think the Typhoon is appropriate.  They are also fast tanks and recce, and ultimately a whole other bunch of tanks for my opponent to deal with.

How many spare parts?

These are my first ever minis from the plastic soldier company, and I'm impressed, really high quality plastics with great crisp details.  Each tank comes with the components to make it either a early, mid or late production model.  I've gone for a mix, just because I can really.  One consequence of this is that this box of five has come with a lot of spares, anyone got any ideas on what to use 10 spare stuart chassis for?

Another cheap ebay job is this British rifle platoon, it was already based when I got it, but it was unpainted.  Most of the figs are from forged in battle, like my other British rifle platoon, but the command stand and one of the NCO's are from battlefront, and are in shorts!  Still nothing like an eccentric British officer to add a bit of variety.  As I've mentioned before I don't particularly enjoy painting infantry at this scale, but having this second infantry platoon opens up a lot more list options for me.

This is a KV-1 soviet tank from Zvezda's act of tactics range.  I've been picking up odd tanks from this range for a while now, I just can't help it, even when like this they have no obvious current use, I think I may be addicted.

From the Painting Table #10

Another collection of recently painted unrelated figures today that didn't quite warrant their own blog post.

Starting with this Eldar Wraithlord for 40K.  This is the second wraithlord I've painted and I like them a lot, both the model and the concept.  I still haven't quite got the hang of painting yellow though.

Another 40K model next with this Nurgle Plague Marine lord, I have a small squad of plague marines in my mostly Alpha legion Chaos space marine army and I always like to have a leader to sub-sections of my army.  It will allow me to field the plague marine squad as troops as well, which will be potentially useful.

These three Ogres come from the mantic crazy Christmas box I got a couple of months ago, they were one of my favourite items from the box and have been a joy to paint.  They come with the option for hand weapons or these double handed weapons that I've armed mine with.  They fit in really well with my classic citadel Ogres as well.

And finally this Zvezda Soviet T-35 tank in 1:100 scale from their art of tactics range.  It's an absolute beast of a tank, dwarfing even the mighty panther, it proved to be rather impractical in the end though.

Zvezda 1:100 Scale Art of Tactics WW2 Tanks

Oh dear I've been on ebay again and have discovered a new range of cool toys.  This time a range of 1:100 scale WW2 vehicles made by Zvezda.  They are simple snap fit kits (although a bit of glue certainly helps), with reasonable, although not excellent, detail.  What I like about these is that unlike the other cheap plastic kits from places like the plastic soldier company these come singly and for under £3 (inc. postage) a tank as well!  Cheap enough to pick up on a whim and provide an interesting painting diversion.  They are of course the right scale for flames of war, which there has been more mutterings about playing, although that has yet to come to fruition.

The first one I bought was this German PZ-IV Ausf.D medium tank.  A key part of the German forces and the best detailed of the 3 kits.

My next buy was this small and somewhat flimsy looking Soviet KhT-26 flame thrower version of the T-26 light tank.

 

 And finally this monster of a tank the Soviet KV-2, a massive tank with a massive turret and gun.

 

 

Something that these additions have made me realise is the great disparity in size between different tanks that isn't always obvious through pictures etc.  From left to right we have a Churchill, Sherman, the tiny KhT-26, the KV-2, a Panther, the PZ-IV and finally a StuG.