Flames of War - Armylist - Germany - SS-Panzerkompanie (SS Tank Company)

Hi all,

after all painting and building stuff some ppl asked me on how one of my armies actually look like.

Taking a look into "Atlantik Wall" starting page 184 you will find the SS-Panzerkompanie  (SS Tank Company).

Here we have a Fearless Veteran unit:

SS-Panzerkompanie HQ
2 Panther A    - 425 Points

Combat Platoons:
SS-Panther Platoon with 3 Panther A - 640 Points

Gepanzertes SS-Panzergrenadier Platoon with 3 Panzergrenadier Squads - 260 Points
Replace Command MG Team with Command Panzerfaust SMG              -   10 points
Replace one MG Team with a Panzerfaust MG Team                                -   10 points

Weapons Platoons:
SS-Panzer Anti Aircraft Gun Platoon with 2 Flakpanter 38 (t) - 90 Points

Support Platoons:
Light SS-Panzerspähplatoon with 1 Panzerspäh Patrol - 105 Points
(in this case I swapped Command SD KfZ 223 radio with an Sd KfZ 222)

Corps Support (Confident/Veteran):
Amoured Rocket Launcher Battery with 3 Panzerwerfer 42 - 165 Points

Total Points: 1705
Number of Platoons: 6

Flames of War - Tutorial - 78. Sturm Division Begleit Assault Troops (Tankriders)

As some of you might remember the old army book for the 78th Sturm Division also had a StuGG Begleit Assault team (Tankriders)....

While rampaging through my left overs I found two german King Tiger Tanks with tank riders. The tanks  I already had painted up some time back and did not want the tank riders on them as they are the only King Tigers I have... so now these 12 guys find a new home on a StuGG


Manufacturer: Battlefront
Scale: 15mm
Metal/Plastic: Metal

Number of Miniatures: 12

Flames of War - Tutorial - 78. Sturm Division Heavy Platoon from leftovers

Battlefront + Skytex - 15mm - WW2 German 78. Sturm Infantry Division Heavy Weapons Platoon

Leftovers is the topic this month. From the remainers of a couple of boxes and skytex miniatures I am building up some more new units.

This time:

Manufacturer: Battlefront and Skytex
Scale: 15mm
Metal/Plastic: Metal

Number of Miniatures: 17


HMG Section

 Command SMG

Flames of War - Tutorial - Painting up 78 Sturm Division Heavy Platoon from leftovers

Sturm Heavy Platoon
--------------------

The history behind here is also quite funny.. at the start of my FoW career I accidently bought these 2 MG42 HMG and painted them up. Misunderstanding that for 1.15 Euros I only got a stand and not the full platoon.. at least they now find a useful place.

The CmD SMG Team is from the Skytex range and leftovers which I did not use.
Both 8cm GW34 are also Skytex and normally based for my Bolt Action 15mm range.. now they fit perfectly here into my Sturm Heavy Platoon... lets get them painted and primed first :))

So this means repainting, rebasing etc.... but lets do it....

1 Cmd SMG Team
2 MG42 HMG
1 Observer Rifle Team
2 8cm GW34 Mortars

Flames of War - Painting up Germans 78. Sturm Division HQ with leftovers

As mentioned earlier I am trying to get rid of my many leftovers from all sorts of boxes I have. This also includes some Battlefront stuff which I filled up with some of my leftovers from the old Skytex range. Let me know if you find the Skytex ones amongst them :)

Manufacturer: Battlefront , Skytex
Scale: 15mm
Metal/Plastic: Metal

Number of Miniatures: 24

In case someone is interested in my farb scheme:

- Primed Black
- Vallejo Field Grey
- Vallejo Brown Wash
- Vallejo Grey-Black
- Vallejo Flat Brown
- Vallejo Gunmetal Grey
- Vallejo Beige Brown
- Vallejo Ivory
- Vallejo Black Wash
- Vallejo Rose
- Vallejo Dark Yellow

Flames of War - Tutorial - Building von Bits and Pieces 78. Sturm Infantry Division

After reading a bit about my family history I decided to go for a 78. Sturm Infantry Division like the one in "Stalins Onslaught".....

As not wanting to buy everything new from scratch I first took a look at the remaining bits and pieces I had in my collection. So I at least found a suitable HQ.

78. Sturm Infantry Division HQ

Company Command SMG Team
2iC SMG Team                                                        45 Points

These are made of the remnants of an Artillery HQ there the table was missing as well as some remnants from the "von der Heyte" Blister which comes with far too many miniatures than needed.
As base decoration I took some spare parts from an older "Panther A" blister and from the "Ernst Barkmann with Workshop" Box. Looks nice ... taken as a HQ

Additionally I formed

Panzerschreck Team (3 times)                                 25 Points each
Sniper Teams (3 times)                                            50 Points each

Panzerschreck Teams are the remnants of the "von der Heyte" Blister mixed up with some Skytex 15mm miniatures which I did not use for my 15mm Bolt Action variation.

The Sniper teams also uses a couple of miniatures from the "Major Koenig Snipers" Blister which I did not use alongside with a couple of artillery observers which I had left from my "SS-Heavy Artillery Box". As one miniature was missing another Skytex mini found its way on base.

Makes a solid HQ:

78. Sturm Infantry Division HQ

Company Command SMG Team
2iC SMG Team                                                        45 Points
Panzerschreck Team (3 times)                                 25 Points each
Sniper Teams (3 times)                                            50 Points each

Points HQ Total: 270

Lets get them primed and painted :)))

Flames of War - Tutorial - How to build a barn

After reading through OntheStep.net I thought it is time to build a bit more terrain. Also the WWPD.net guys inspired me heavily on building some new stuff.

As to figure out measurements etc... I will give you some hints here on what I used on mine.

Things used:

Foamboard
thin cardboard
Coffee sticks
Small metal pin (old needle cut down)
Beer matt
PVA Glue
Filler
Sand

Measurements:

Front side heigth 35mm, wide 75mm
Back side heigth 40mm , wide 75mm
Both sides approx size of a medium FoW base with heigth going from 35 up to 40mm


Step 1: Cut your pieces out of the foamboard

Step 2: Cut the two doors out of the beer matt and glue them to the smaller front side and scratch in the panels, also glue smaller crap pieces as handle and for the bars

Step 3: Use filler on each wall section so that you will have approx 3mm thick walls (that also matches the beer matt part then and the total thickness includes the foamboard)

Step 4: Stick the metal pin as a bar above the larger door.

Step 5: Put sand on each of your filler filled wall parts and gently press it into the filler. This gives texture for painting and an old worn feeling to the building.

Step 6: Let the parts dry

Step 7: Meanwhile cut your card board a bit larger then the overall building will be. Start glueing your coffee sticks on it (I did cut them before and broke them off, you could also wait and cut them afterwards)

Step 8: After everything is dry basecoat your wall sections as well as the roof part. If you are sure that you sealed your foamboard with the filler you can use a normal spray primer on that. If you are unsure just be on the safe side and prime it with a colour and a brush.

Step 9: After the primer dried the sand should stick in place as you first pressed it into the hardening filler and then sealed it in with the primer. Yeah !

Step 10: Paint as desired.

Step 11: Highlight as desired

Step 12: After drying .. enjoy the result

Flames of War - (Tutorial) - Craters (also usable for 28mm or any other scale)

While moving house you always encounter strange things and have less time... so doing some plaster works is fine here as well as combining work (moving house) together with some eating stuff (yes invite your friends here) anddddddddddddd wargaming:

Pictures first:

First off, the supplies:
-Keebler mini-pie crust tins (made of aluminum, cracker crumb crust things) 

-Patching plaster (powdered, not ready made) 

-PVA glue 

-Craft Paint, Black and White 

-Anything to use for texture: ballast, potting soil, dirt, etc VARIES


Step 1: Make a pie and eat it too
This is the best part of it and involves all of your family !! Make the pie and eat it. You paid for a pie crust, so make it and eat it! Save the tin!!!!

Step 2: Mix the plaster
Mix up your plaster. Generally, the stuff calls for 1 part water to 3 parts powder, but I usually have to add more water than that. Adding some glue helps thin it too, and it should dry stronger too.

Step 3: Crush up the tin to look like a crater
The pie tin needs to be molded a little to get a proper crater-like shape. Turn it upside down (or rightside up for a crater) and press the middle so that you make a depression there. How deep you want it is up to you. This will also warp the sides in a little bit, but that is ok.

Step 4: Fill it with the plaster, and make a crater
Turning it back over, fill it up to the top with plaster. Give it a few taps on the table to vibrate some of the bubbles out to ensure it bonds strong. Let it sit for at least 5-6 hours (go and help me relocate !), then CAREFULLY extract the plaster piece from the tin by bending the edges of the tin outwards away from the plaster piece. Once out of the tin, let dry for a couple more hours. (Do that chore on your "honey-do" list.)

Step 5: Paint and glue
Mix up a sticky paste consisting of PVA glue, black paint, and your texture medium. Using one of your lousy brushes (a big one), glop this stuff on the entire thing. Really build up the middle portion to make it more gradual, so the depression you made doesn't have such steep sides. Wait for this stuff to dry for several hours. On the plus side, because you added the black paint you don't need to base coat it again.

Step 6: Final drybrushing and sealing (Urban style, skip if you have different paint scheme in mind)

Take some black paint and add a glob of white to make a dark grey. Drybrush the entire outside of the crater, and the crater rim. Don't do the interior so much, but give it a light drybrush. Add more white to your grey, and drybrush again, but lighter this time. Adding a lot more white to your grey, give it a x3 very light drybrushing. On the inside of the crater, drybrush a light coat of earth-colored brown. Seal it with your preffered sealant (varnish, spray matte, modge-podge, etc).

Flames of War - (Tutorial) - Rivers the easy way

Hi all,

still not moved house and even now a bit time to do some stuff. Due to the fact that I have quite some cardboard now staying around I took the opportunity to get some for some rivers.

What is needed:

- Cardboard
- Special glue that keeps a shiny surface
- PVA Glue
- Stones/Gravel
- Sand
- Flock
- Sticki paper
- Filler

Measurements:
My river is approx 8 cm wide including the sides

Step 1:
Take two pencils and a ruler. Use some cheap tape and wrap your pencils around ruler in your desired wide (remember mine is 8 cm). Looks funny, but is a great thing to speed things up

Step 2:
Take your cardboard and simply outline your river

Step 3:
Cut your river pieces

Step 4:
Use some sticki paper to seal all open sides.

After Step 4 it should look like this ....


Step 5:
Now do the banks of the river with filler and place stones, sand etc.. in it

Step 6:
Basecoat all... I did it black

Step 7:
Paint your stuff when it is dried.. I used different brown, red and yellow for the river banks as well different blue , green and brown colours for the actual water.

Step 8:
When everything is dry and highlighted use your shiny glue on the water surface.... this will later on still reflect the light as would real water do as well.

Step 9:
Flock the river banks....

finish :)

Flames of War - (Tutorial) - Last part of bockage

So.. I still owe you the coloured and flocked version.

This whole stuff
a) doesnt work against your bank account
b) is easy to be made
c) doesnt take up much time

Enjoy

Flames of War - (Tutorial) - Building Bockage the easy way

Happy Easter to all of you !

I enjoyed a nice and easy day at Garretstown Beach today with Wargaming in mind.

Small stones for no money
Sand for no money

What else you need ? Similar "products" lets you pay a whole sum for buying. Now I enjoyed the sun , had a lovely day outside... took my dogs out for a walk and got cheap materials in extraordinary amounts... yeah.. thats the way it should go...

So Bockage it is tonite.

Take a Tonguestick , stones and simple filler....

1) Use filler to build up a larger part of a hill
2) cover the stuff with your small stone
3) carefully press a bit here and there
4) extract your stuff again
5) do some finetuning adjustments to get the correct high and leave to dry
6) Paint
7) Glue some flock on it

Enjoy :)

Flames of War - Tabledesign - New table in progress

Hi all,

as eastern leaves you with a couple of days of from work I bought this excellent stuff called:
Xtratherm tf80

Great stuff for building larger things with a nice carved out side so you can easily stick more then one of these together. My local DIY store had a special offer regarding 5 of those sheets (measuring 120cm by 45cm, TF80 means its 8cm high or thick). You do not need any special hot metal to cut it as a normal kitchen knife will do the job as well without you getting to sweaty. Love this stuff.

So first of all the plan:
Get a gaming table of approx 120cm by 135cm
Get some hills on that and carve in a river section.
Paint the stuff upfront
Do finetuning...

here is the actual look alike of a sheet 120cm by 45 with the hills at the highest point raised to 16cm. For flocking....you can either buy an overextent of flock from your local hobby store and get your wife angry because you always will lose some of the flock later on and it will be transported through the whole house or you take a look at Lidl Ireland and get your hands on this:
Artificial Grass Mat (100cm by 200cm):

Special offer in Cork approx 8 Euro for that size. Nothing you will lose and so the best choice of a gaming mat with gras. In regards... a similar product by Games Workshop costs approx 30 Euro (for what ?????)

Next steps include the finetuning of the stone areas and then cutting the mat to fit here :)