Flames of War - Tutorial - Gun Emplacements - Step by Step

While still trying to save some money on an expensive hobby, I came across the Gun Emplacements made by Battlefront. That indeed is something you can easily do yourself.

From my perspective these handy "Dug In" Markers for Artillery or similar stuff makes sense and is easy to build yourself.

Just to give you a basic understanding... these things will cost you approx 15 Euros for a pair of two. What you normally get is two for the front and two for the back side of a large base. Oh come on... this is something we can easily do ourselves.

Let us start with the components I used here:

- Beermatt (Still loving this stuff), substitude with 1mm Balsawood if that is more handy for you
- Sand
- PVA Glue
- Filler

The advanced version will also use:
- Miliput

We also need:

- Scissors
- putty knive or similar

Easy I guess ....

So lets begin the process.

Step 1:
Take some filler and put it into a container for mixing. I used an old youghurt type of thing. But also a newspaper could do this job. Then add some PVA to get a smooth working wet mixture. Add the sand to it and mix it through. Why we are doing this ?
Quite easy.. we get a bit more texture for painting later on. If you feel that painting is a bit not your type of thing you could also add cheap acrylic colour to this mixture. This will be your base tone.. so be carefull that it is indeed dark enought.

Step 2:
Cut your beermatt. I placed a large base somethere in the middle to get some measurements. If you have e.g. a fitting form upfront from e.g. infantry dug in markers you can also use these for the wide side of life. This makes it easier for the measurement part. That also leaves you with a stripe left after cutting of approx 1-2 cm... depending on the beermatt size.

Step 3:
Cut the above mentioned stripe down to approx 1cm height.

Step 4:
Use your putty knive to take up your mixture and carefully place it around the self made base. If you are not that kinda tidy here it is NOT a problem

Step 4. Build up slowly. No extra glue needed !

Step 5:
Use your cut stripe to match to your large artillery base. Make sure it fits in there and that you have a bit spare space in the inner room left. That helps later on to get the base out again.

This is how it should look like after Step 5.

Step 6: 
Let the whole stuff dry.  If you try the advanced version you know use your miliput here to place some sandbags or glue some wood pieces on it... either you can substitute "wood" with beermatt left overs.

Step 7:
Use some cheap primer (black) and prime it. Afterwards basecoat colour it with a cheap brown colour. If you need to add details on the inner parts.... use a knive and do some slight cutting into the beermatt parts. This gives later on the impression of wood. Drybrush and paint as desired.

Step 8:
Enjoy your work !

Total costs:

Sand - nothing , I got it from the beach
Beermatt - nothing, Taken from my local pub
PVA Glue - Whole Bottle 3,99 Euro. So this will approx have used up 10 cent
Filler - Whole 900 gramm container for 3,99 in sales at Lidl Ireland .., used approx for 20 cents
Colour - I used white and brown and later on mixed the stuff ... so 3,99 Each for 100ml, approx 50 cent altogether

Invest for two:

0,80 Cents Euro

vs:

15 Euros on cheapest mailorder i could find.

Saves: 14,20 Euro

Flames of War - Painting Tutorial - Step by Step Winter Fins - FSO101 Finnish Command Group -

After all the time it is also time again to paint a couple of new things... I am always wondering why I am doing that so excessively while not playing .. well easy to say ... I am tooooo lazy to go ahead to travel the way down to Cork city and play at the Other Realms store there.....

So back to "normal" when...

What have I started... it is a finnish army usable for early , mid and latewar. Seemingly I also seem to favour more defensive formations instead of the tactical aggressive ones...

Lets start things first...

What to do...:

As a flavour of mine I normally base my miniatures last instead of others doing this step first.

The unit ahead of us is "FSO101" which is the "Finnish Command Group"
Colours used:

- Black Primer
- Vallejo Grey Green (866)
- Vallejo Sky Grey ( 989)
- Vallejo White ( 951)
- Vallejo Khaki Grey (880)
- Vallejo Flat Brown (984)
- Vallejo Deck Tan (986)
- Vallejo Rose Brown (803)
- Vallejo Beige Brown (875)
- Vallejo Light Brown (929)
- Vallejo US Field Drab (873)
- Vallejo Brown Violet (887)
- Vallejo Neutral Grey (992)
- Vallejo London Grey (836)
- Vallejo Brown Shade (200)


Step 1:
After opening the box I first clean up the models and sort them out. All new BF products come with holes in the bases to more easily conceal the bases the miniatures are cast with. Honestly.. I think this being a bit more annoying then helpful, but I guess this is a matter of taste. So clean up, cut off any excess from casting and head on to

Step 2:
I then glued all the miniatures onto tongue depressors... Why ? I do not like to put them on one small stick and not to touch them from there... instead I glue up to four of them on a tongue depressor and still do not touch them.

Step 3:
After glueing and the short time of drying of course... I primed them black... Still being a bit fascinated about that because I normally try to prime white or light grey... but ok black was available for me and I need to use up some of my stuff to get a bit more of a space at home... so use up black and sprayprime them black.

Step 4: 
Take your model and paint it nearly everythere with Vallejo Grey Green (866) as a basecoat. As this will be out darkest layer of the uniform please be so free in doing so. There is no real need to be tidy to the model at this point of time as every other colour will be painted above it. The only parts I left out here are the faces, hands, boots , metal helmets or hats and weapons.

Step 5:
After all the models are dry again and your brush is clean I used Vallejo London Grey (836) as first highlight of the models. Here I did a slight diversion as I will paint a couple of jackets more in a brown colour to get some diversity into the platoon and command. I also left out the trousers as you can see and only did the upper parts of the winter uniforms in this kinda style.

Step 6:
With this done take your models again and second highlight them with Vallejo Sky Grey ( 989). I still do this quite generously.

Step 7:
50:50 Mix of Vallejo Sky Grey ( 989) and Vallejo White ( 951) for edge highlighting.

Step 8:
By now our model already looks quite nice but still lacks the soul. As all the highlights might get a pain in the ass to repaint later I will now cover the flesh areas. So hands (as long as not being covered) and faces get Vallejo Rose Brown (803).

Step 9:
Use Vallejo Brown Shade (200) to get a better look at the eyes , mouth and other face details as well as for the flesh parts of the hands



Step 10:
Again Vallejo Rose Brown (803) to highlight the edges. If you like you can optional afterwards apply a 50:50 mix of Rose Brown with White for extreme edge highlighting. Due to all this colouring you will notice that eyes and mouth already are visible and this is quite enought for me for the face details. I do not need eyelashes etc... on a 15mm figure.

Step 11:
Vallejo Flat Brown (984) on all leather and all wood parts of the model. This means, rifle as well as belt, and straps.

Step 12:
Highlight belt and straps with Vallejo Khaki Grey (880).

Step 13:
Highlight using Vallejo Beige Brown (875) the rifle. Afterwards to edge highlighting with Vallejo Light Brown (929). This gives a good impression on light sources.

Step 14:
Vallejo Brown Violet (887) for any metal helmet being available as well as for every bag that is visible on the miniature

Step 15:
Highlight the bags with Vallejo US Field Drab (873). I used a drybrush technique here.

Step 16:
This is a bit of "I like" or "I dont like". If it is "I don´t like" then please use instead gun metal grey for the metal parts of the weapons... if not ... use neutral grey on the metal parts of the weapons.

Step 17:
Vallejo Brown Shade (200) for the metal helmets and on the just painted metal parts.



Step 18:
Edge highlight metal parts with 50:50 mixture of Vallejo London Grey (836) and Vallejo Sky Grey ( 989)

Step 19:
Colours for officers are sky blue and for any non officers red... so feel free to add a red or blue dot on the cap or furcap of any appropiate miniature.

Step 20:
I first base my miniature normally. This means apply filler which is mixed up with sand on a base and simply then stick your miniature into that and carefully remove any small wave of mixture from the miniature. You will get the surface as desired. After it is dry your mini will be very well placed in it and no extra glue is needed

Step 21:
Basecoat the filler flat brown. Set a few highlights if you have some special sort of area available.

Step 22:
Glue any other needed material for base decoration now on it.

Step 23:
Generously paint some Vallejo Deck Tan on some of the areas you want later to be more snow fields on the base.

Step 24:
Use PVA to cover the whole base.

Step 25:
Use snow flock effect on the base. Repeat Step 25 till snow part is as covering as you desire.

Finish

So tell me how you paint your winter fins :) Looking forward to your suggestions !:)

Flames of War - Scenario - Skirmish / Soloplay - Dunajek Bridge

Eastern Front - 1944 January- Army Group North - Poland

Historical Background: 

On January 12, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (Konev) launched a mayor attack from the Baranów bridgehead towards Silesia. With tremendous troop and material usage Soviet attacks smashed the german lines after two one hour each lasting artillery barrage. On the first day there were deep penetrations into the german front line done, and on January 15 there was no coherent German front in this area anymore.

German orders:
For hours there was this tremendous artillery barrage on the frontline troops. You are a bit backwards with the duty to fortify the wooden bridge for retreating own troops which are located at the city of Zabno some couple of kilometers away. The small town you made a home during the last couple of weeks is called Wai Ruda. The next german "fortress town" there your staff is awaiting orders is Szczurowa. The bridge is ready to be blown up but instead of doing so after this soviet attack you wait for german refugee units. Your orders are to hold open the bridge as long as possible for retreating german units. If soviet forces try to cross the river blow the bridge up.

Soviet orders:
The attack is going well and the germans are withdrawing. We smashed through their lines and now our spearhead to the west is making fast progress. We just passed through Zabno without encountering any resistance at all and now are approaching the small wood between Zabno and Wai Ruda. Our orders are simple. Try to sniff our more german intruders and punch them into the snow. Any resistance is to be put down. Capture the bridge if it is not blown up already.

Tablesize:
This is a limited table sized 60cm by 120cm. The german deployment is on the southern part of the river. Every unit is entrenched. Pak and SMG are laid in ambush as well as the infantry.

Soviet forces start in the northern part. Mainly on the road with the two T-34 leading.
The river does not support a ford. The only crossing is the bridge. Whoever secures the bridge wins the game

Terrain (table size 60cm wide, 120cm long):
The river Dunajek divides the table into two halves. From the upper left corner a road commences in a corner towards the bridge which sits in the middle of the table. The area in the soviet deployment zone supports some more woods. A small hill covers the advance of the road starting from the corner.
The lower side has some small woods on the left corner. A hill is located on the right corner. Right before the hill two russian houses were build. In one the german SMG Team starts. A bit left you have the entrenched Pak38. The road commences from the bridge in an arc to the left corner. Foxholes for the infantry are dug before the wood.


Specials:

Due to heavy snowfall during the last days the communicationline to blow up the bridge doesnt work properly. To fix the problem the german player sends out one stand each round to fix the problem. This takes one full turn. Means the german player needs two turns in total to find and fix the line properly. The line can only be blown up by the Pak 38 crew. As the missing link is recognised in turn one this specialty starts in turn 2.

The german Pak Stand can only be penetrated by a shell from the ISU-152. However the T-34 shells can force the Pak team to hold their heads down.

Forces:

German Forces:
1 Pak 38 
1 SMG Team
1 Platoon Panzergrenadiers (free choice if you agree to use anti tank weapons or not)


Soviet Force:
1 T-34-85 OBR 1944
1 T-34 obr 1942-OT-34 (57mm gun) 
1 ISU-152
1 Platoon Strelkovy (Winter) without Komissar

Making the winner:

Victory Points:
Soviet Points:
+1 Capture the bridge
+1 for the soviets if they destroy the Pak Stand before the bridge can be blown up
+1 for the soviets for each stand destroyed who tries to fix and repair the line


German Points:
+1 hold the bridge or blow it up 
+1 for each stand of killed infantry
+2 for each tank destroyed

Germans can´t win on points if bridge is secured by soviet forces. Soviets can win on points even if bridge is destroyed.

 


 

Yes it has been quite

.... and I was nearly about to finish this blog and return to "normal" life... anyway.. as everything seems to be changing all time... I am back...

I also tried a bit to restructure the blog but I am not toooooooo good at that... so we will keep it as it is.. and simply add what is needed to be added...

So what will be new or different you might ask yourself....

First of all I finished a couple of things which will be available through ebay during the next weeks and months...

I am also planning to open some sort of small online shop for my built stuff which I finally managed to get a couple of good moulds from... These will include:

- Earthen bunkers
- Gun emplacements
- Special designed bases ranging from small to medium and large
- Dug In Markers

and other stuff. I also started painting up some winter uniforms especially with a new army ...

Finland is calling....


Further on I also managed to assemble, built and paint a smaller soviet force and so on.. so lots of things to post :)))

I will also repaint all my german units as I think I improved a bit on my technic in painting and so need to adjust my units accordingly.

Hope you will enjoy it.