Flames Of War, painting infantry update - now with the rural bases!

This post is so that you can have a look-see at the way the Flames Of War Rural Bases Set looks. In no way do I claim to be a professional. I haven't got it all looking great by any means, but I did find that these bases enable you to get more varied looks to your infantry bases with minimal extra effort. The only thing is that you still have to patch up the figures' bases. This takes some doing with the minis from the Open Fire! set because the plastic infantry have thicker bases than metal ones. This means that a certain amount of trimming/fiddling is required to get the figures to fit neatly into the slots on the Rural bases.

But there are lots of good details so that when looking at the tabletop you don't get that sense of repetitious uniformity that often comes with painting lots of units at once.

Step one  -  making the mud look like mud. You can see the wheel ruts on the US Parachute Rifle team base. On the German infantry base there are rocks and logs....

It's better than bad, it's good... LOG (TM).

And then then you add a bit of grassy stuff and you get this ...

Hopefully, you can still see the ruts and logs. These bases are fun to use and you can even adapt the slots for the minis with tabs to fit in to the larger empty slots - again helping to provide loads of options for variety. A decent buy.

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Posted in: Flames Of War

Flames Of War - Rural bases arrived!

Just a quick post to signpost the fact that there will be a few Flames Of War updates in the future containing these -

Click for larger image..

These are the Battlefront Games Rural Bases. In effect they are bases with ready-made details. Trees (damaged), logs (fallen), fences, (wonky), ruts, mud footprints, rocks, wagon wheels etc. All you need do is glue minis on and away you go. You still have a bit of 'patching up' to do as you have to add mud effects to the minis' bases and cover up all of the joins. Well, we'll see ... the detail is good and it might lead to quicker bases than having to build walls and such like for yourself (see previous post - PaK 40). More later.

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Posted in: Flames Of War

Flames of War - Open Fire! Painting update.

Just so you believe me - here's some stuff I done.

So, what you have here is a team of US Parachute Rifle, with prone machine gunner and some mud/grass stuck on the base for scenic effect. Basically, it's a bit slow going, however I am making progress. Next up will be a US rifle/MG team and a German rifle/MG team. Look out!


Down in the dirt!



Stug G and commander.

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Posted in: current projects,Flames Of War

Flames Of War - German Grenadier PaK 40, painted and based.

Today's post will focus on progress I've made on the Open Fire starter set - and in particular the German PaK40 anti-tank gun.

Step one = paint the German gun crew just like the figures in the previous post, with a selection of GW (metal) P3 (wood and leather) and Vallejo (uniforms).



Troops on a stick.



Step two = paint the gun, just like the StugG.



Two step.



Step three = dry fit on base. Then add a little GW mud effect textured paint over base.

trois

Step four = build up a small dry-wall out of bits of slate. I used superglue then repainted the rocks to cover the glue marks.



four - glued wall





Step five = cover base and any gaps/holes with thin layer of Stirland Mud from GW.



With dry brushed wall.



Step 6 = Add clumps of grass. Not that happy with the GW grass clumps, the colour is a bit useless but from a distance and at eye-level, it's OK.



grass



Step seven = add rest of static grass and sand/mud effect under wheels and loading area of gun.



more grass



Step eight = Add gun and ...

see gun here

Finally add crew over left gun trail and photo in natural light!

left

right

All in all, a decent day's work.

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Posted in: Flames Of War

Flames of War - painted US Parachute Rifle HQ and Grenadierkompanie team.

In this post you can have a gander at the first troops I've painted up from the Flames Of war - 'Open Fire' starter set.
The first ones up are the US Parachute HQ and a Grenadierkompanie team with a Panzerfaust. I've used a combination of GW, P3 paints and Vallejo paints. Basically I've followed the painting-by-numbers guides in the 'Open Fire' set and mixed and matched where I've needed to. There are also a variety of guides and tips on Battlefront Games' website.
The uniforms, helmets and equipment have Vallejo paints, wood and leather was P3 browns and, of course, there was a brown GW wash thrown in there somewhere. Metals were GW too. Faces GW with the fleshwash.
Overall - pleased with the results. Love the poses and look forward to getting the rest off them on the table and painted during the summer. Fun but fiddly. Not for the faint-hearted and require patience if not lots of skill.


First a bit like this.




The a bit like this



Then the finished bunch.

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Posted in: Flames Of War

Flames of War - some more tanks. Sherman V StuG G

AS you will see from the images below, there has been some minor progress on the painting front. These tanks are quite easy to knock out, so they are a satisfactory 'stop-gap' to keep me topped up until my next holiday break allows me to indulge a bit more. Having said that - a few Vallejo paints arrived the other day so I might sneak in a few bits of infantry painting when no one is looking... those fantastic little plastics are so inviting.

Sherman V from the side.

From above.

German StuG G stuF F



Group photo everyone, no shoving at the back.

 All painted using Battlefront paint schemes and Vallejo paints. The hard part is stippling carefully to achieve a careful a camouflage effect when carefully putting on camouflage. It's a bit of a pain. Just the lil' fella in the command SuG G and the decals on a coupla StuG Gs to do.

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Posted in: Flames Of War,tanks

Websites what I browse...

What I thought I'd do for this post is to reveal the secrets of my favourites list from my web-explorer. It's not a complete replication of all of the bitz and pieces that reside therein, but you might get a kick out of having a surf from here to one of these sites - who knows what you may find -

Starting with the 'BIg BOys' gaming companies -

http://dark-age.com/
http://www.games-workshop.com/

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/

http://www.grindhousegames.com/pages/incursion-home

http://company.wizards.com/

http://www.infinitythegame.com/

http://www.malifaux.com/index.php

http://www.smartmaxstore.com/

http://www.flamesofwar.com/

http://privateerpress.com/

http://www.mercsminis.com/

http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk/

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/

Next the websites/blogs that bring news and views together....  

http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/

http://www.miniwargaming.com/

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/

http://www.beastsofwar.com/

http://www.coolminiornot.com/


AND LASTLY - painting and gaming and hobby blogs from wherever I have ended up on the tinternet...


http://fromthewarp.blogspot.co.uk/   

http://thefrontlinegamer.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.front-toward-enemy.us/   

http://space-wolves-grey.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.talesfromthewarzone.com/  

http://toomuchmetal.blogspot.co.uk/

http://ratdorg.blogspot.co.uk/

http://handcannononline.com/

http://www.awesomepaintjob.com/

http://robhawkinshobby.blogspot.co.uk/

http://pressganger.blogspot.co.uk/

http://itslikewatchingpaintdry.blogspot.co.uk/

http://taleofpainters.blogspot.co.uk/

http://docsavagetales.blogspot.co.uk/

Happy browsing.

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Posted in: 40k,board games,CCG/TCG,Dark Age Games,Dystopian Legions,Flames Of War,Magic:The Gathering,Malifaux,stuff,Tannhauser,Warhammer Fantasy,Warhammer Invasion,Warmachine

Open Fire! A Flames Of War starting point.

Here we go then - a few pictures of the infantry sprues from Battlefront's Flames of War starter set - Open Fire! There are already videos posted on my YouTube channel (http://youtu.be/vn8ec0d5O34) showing off the Sherman (and Stug tanks on other videos). Now, although these are from the previous starter set - Achtung! - they are just about the same, though in green plastic for the Sherman/Firefly models.

The Open Fire! set is fantastic. The infantry (German troops and US Airborne) are superbly detailed and in fantastic poses. There are helpful bases with slots to put the troops in. There are guides to modelling, painting, basing the units correctly and expanding your units. There are counters and flat scenery.You get a great deal for your money and can get going really easily with the quick start rules and two small 'armies' ( a small-sized, full version of the rules is included too). I couldn't be more happy - or could I?

My one and only gripe is that I can't get hold of the paints that they suggest on their own website. They used to do Infantry sets of Vallejo paints - but these seem to be unavailable at the moment. So you need to buy individual ones - and that's the advice from Battlefront themselves - not all those are appear to be around all  either of the time. Ho hum... I'll be patient, hopefully they will have something up their sleeves!
Some more pictures -

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Posted in: Flames Of War

Flames Of War - British Sherman V,StuG g - painting of.

A quick post to cover the painting of the first two models from the Actung! Flames Of War Starter Set.

A) British Sherman V.

Vallejo Russian Uniform - armour.
Citadel Boltgun Metal - tracks/metal.
P3 Gun Corps Brown - straps/wood/boxes/handles.
Citadel Desert Yellow/Catachan Green - fabric stowage.
Citadel Gryphone Sepia/ Devaln Mud wash over most of model. Devlan only on tracks.

Citadel Kommando Khaki - uniform.

I'm fairly happy with the outcome though the wash makes the model slightly shiny. Matt varnish and decals needed...

StuG G Middlestone  (a very Shiny paint) from Vallejo for the armour colour. As above for everything else.

Vallejo Reflective Green and Flat Brown for the stippled camouflage. Not exactly happy with the effect but it looks OK with Gryphone Sepia wash all over. Some more skill needed with the stippling effect but it looks acceptable. Decals needed.

Finished  one of each.One more StuG G and two more Sherman Vs to go. See Monkeyreado vids. on YouTube too.

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Posted in: Flames Of War

Incursion board game, Game Of Thrones Living Card Game and starting Flames Of War. Who's a busy boy then?

Ere are sum vids wot I dun.

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Posted in: board games,Flames Of War,LCG