Tanksgiving 2020

 So,

My buddy Mike of Dagreenskins blog threw out a challenge on his live stream to work on Tank models for the month of November. Well Rob and I just happened to play a game of FoW that weekend so I had busted out my collection and saw some tanks that need some paint, so I jumped in working on Tanks!

First up are 5 Plastic Soldier Company Panthers that I built and painted up about a year ago, all I had to do was add the decals and do some weathering on the models.

PSC Panthers ready to Prowl!

Next up was four PSC PanzerIII's, these were built about 6 months ago and needed paint, decals and weathering. I opted to do these as two tone camo just for a little bit of difference on the table so myself and my opponent could tell different platoons apart.

 

PSC Panzer III's with two tone camo.

I then painted up these six other PSC Panzer III's in three tone camo, The reason for 6 is that two tanks will be the Company Command tanks while I have the other four being their own platoon.

More PSC Panzer III's with more color!

Lastly I did up five PSC Panzer IV's (dont know why I have only three in the picture) in a two tone camo scheme, these got paint, decals and weathering as well and were built six months ago.

PSC panzer IV's

So I completed 15 tanks with full paint and five more for decals and weathering for a grand total of 20 tanks in one weekend. By the way, this force is for some Kursk FoW games that Robert and I have been talking about for a few years which I am super excited about trying out.

So there you go, my tanks for Tanksgiving!

TK

World Ear III

 Well I did it!

New Two Player Starter Set

Yes folks, I decided to jump into FOW Team Yankee or World War III this past weekend with my buddy DrunkenSamurai. We had both been eyeing the game and with the re launch and clean up of the rules, we both were very interested. Well earlier last week Drunken and I were talking, and he suggested if we each get a box, we could swap out the extra force to the other one. So he wanted to start an American force, so I took the Russians.

Here is what you get for $49.99

You get 16 vehicles for $49.99 which is a great price and along comes the rulebook and cards as well as dice. And with each of us getting the others side, we would have enough for almost 100 points to start with. Now the only reason I went with Russians was that I already have two T-64s painted up for Tanks Modern. So I could roll those into the army, plus I love having a ton of tanks on the table!

The base forces in the box

So this past Saturday, we made our rounds in the valley looking for two copies of the game, our local shop Imperial Outpost had just got them in so we both picked up our copies. Drunken also got a few Necromunda books as well.

So yesterday, Sunday, I got to building my tank force and after the fifth tank, I was tired of cutting out parts! LOL! But  I manged to power through it and get them all built, the T-80s and BMP-3s were quick, the T=64's seemed to be a bit more fiddly and took a while to build. 

T-64's 

T-80's

BMP-3 and T-80 HQ unit.

So overall, I am very happy with the new set, and by the way, this is my first starter box I have purchased from BattleFront. But the one thing that was a bummer was that most other starter sets come with tokens and objective markers. Now this set does include them, except they are printed on the inside of the box, you have to cut them out. Not a big deal, as you get a lot of tanks and the rulebook, just was surprised it was not in there/

Overall I am pretty excited to get started on a new project and this will be an all BF army to boot! So now time to paint some green tanks!

TK 

Tanks, Tanks and more Tanks!

Well,

I think I finally have gone back to playing FoW in this new edition, our group was slow in embracing it and before the Rona hit we were getting in games again. So while stuck at home, I found this lone Panzer IV F1 that needed to be painted for my DAK force, so after sitting in the box for years unpainted, it hit the bench last Friday and got some new paint.

Panzer IV F1

 So I challenged myself to see if I could paint this one tank up during my lunch last Friday. One good thing about Arizona this time of the year, is that when you prime models they dry very quickly. So I was able to paint up this in about 30 min. Now decals and weathering took place after work, but the basic paint was completed on my lunch.

Panzer IV F1

Earlier in the week I decided to order a few kits from an online distributor to add some needed tanks for my Mid War Eastern Front German army. I had been using some older Battlefront models that were without side skirts. So being a fan of Plastic Soldier Company, I ordered a box of Panzer IV's and two boxes of Panzer III LMN's.

PSC Panzer IV's

 The tanks arrived on Friday and I got to assembling the kits. Now I had built the Panzer IV's before and have 6 of them in my DAK force, but this time I would be adding the skirting around the turret. The PSC kits are good kits, but the turret skirts were a bit of a pain. On the first tank the skirting was too low and rubbed on the lower hull and got hung up on the detail. I had to file down the skirting to get them to move freely. But one that was done, they were perfect.

PSC Panzer III M's

 This was the first time to build the late model Panzer III kits, as once again I have them in my DAK force but are the earlier model types.. I built these as M's and found that the turret skirting was going to run into the smae problem as the Panzer IV's, so I took care to make sure that they were glued on correctly to not interfere with the lower hull. These kits are awesome and I really love the look of the Panzer III's with all the skirting on them and can't wait to start painting them.

I also have been working on some late war German infantry that Robert gave me to add to this force and they are currently on the paint bench now, photos and a post will be forth coming soon.

TK

Battle for the Western Woods

So,

Robert and I got in a game of Flames of War on Sunday. We play Mid War and did a Eastern front game with me taking 100 points of Germans vs his 100 Points of Russians.

The Battlefield

 I had choose to be the Defender in Counter Attack and per the scenario I had Ambush and immediate reserves. First off the Reserve rules are funky, I could only take up to 60% of my force or 60 points. problem was it meant that I would have six tanks on the board to face off against Roberts force. I deployed to the left protecting a objective in the woods. The company commander and 2IC took up in the woods with two Panzer IV's while the 4 Panzer III were deployed in the wheat field.

Panzer III's hiding in the Fields of gold.

 Robert tried a different tactic, he rushed across the open ground to get right up in my face! 10 T-34's tried crossing the river and all but four made it across.

Crazy Russians crossing the river!

 If I remember five tanks fell victim to the German guns and the Russians were only able to knock out on German tank.

First Blood Germans.

 The remainder of the Russian tanks swarmed the company commander and he was killed in the volley leaving the objective open woods.

German commander falls

I shifted the panzer III's to counter, meanwhile the Russians sent two KV-1s toward the center objective. But the following turn my reserves showed up in the form of a lone 88 gun. It took a turn to get it in place and when it fired it killed on of the KV's

Germans barely holding on!

next few turns were close shooting in the woods and the Germans knocked out the remainder tanks there, the 88 opened up on the KV killing it outright.

Was a very close game this time and if the KVs had not went for the center objective and pushed towards the objective in the wood, the Germans would have lost the battle as the two Panzer III's could not hurt them and their high armor. Was a great game and was very interesting to see it play out.

TK

Let’s Try this for the Year

So, 

With it being the first week of the New Year, I have been thinking about how I want to tackle the new year going forward. Usually I do a bid post about what I will do and then at the end of the year look back to see how well I have done. It’s supposed to motivate me and keep me accountable to my hobby, but I find that I forget about some goals towards the middle of the year. So here is what I am going to try, I will do quarterly updates, taking the year and breaking it down to 4 quarters of 3 months each, hopefully this will keep me focused and allow me to see how I am doing on projects.

So, with that said, what am I going to be looking at for the 1^st quarter, let’s take a look:

Kill Team – After playing a bunch of games this past year, I will be working on a Genestealer cult Kill team. I had thought I had used my Cult in games of KT, but actually it was for Necromunda two years ago. So last night I busted out about two dozen unpainted figures to use or add to my necromunda GS cult. I have enough figures for variety and my local shop still has the KT box set for the GS Cult. So will be looking to pick that up as well as the KT annual.

FoW – So I started a Mid War Soviet force and am slowly adding to it, I also have been working on some German forces to go along with 4^th edition, so I will be adding some new units to my collections this quarter and getting in games with Rob & friends.

Gaslands – Well I just added a couple of new cars to the painted and have about 30 more to work on. My buddy Mike of Dagreenskins is going like gang busters on the game and we are talking of doing a Swap meet/Race day at our local shop. So I see this being something that I work on going forward.

More Blog Post – Well I have not done enough to keep the blog posted, so I will force myself to update the blog more often then a few times a quarter.

So, there you go, new plan for 2020, lets see how I do!

The Spoils of War, I Mean Vacation!

Well,

Another vacation is in the books and that means I spent a ton of money at California Hobby Shops. For the last three years now, my wife and I have vacationed with Robert and his family in Seal Beach CA. Each trip Robert and I get away from our lovely wives and families to do a little shopping of our own. Here is the haul from this year.

The total haul, about $400.00 worth of stuff

So the first store we hit was The War House, which has been around for ages. I first visited this store around 1988 or so and I think it is still owned by the same owner. This is a great little shop that seems to have a little bit of everything if your willing to sit and dig through items. There are old figures and merchandise covered in layers of dust and it feels like I am always on an archeologist dig while shopping there. Its funny, but I enjoy uncovering long lost items that I have not seen in years. Whats amazing is that most items are still priced like when they came out originally!The other great thing is that he still continues to bring in new items and I found this little set of books beneath a pile of old Flames of War boxes. So I got the D-Day slip covered books for $85.00. Unfortunately I did not find anything else on my shopping list, but I was happy with this find.
 

Score, two books I was looking for!

Our next stop was the World Famous Brookhurst Hobbies, a Orange County staple for many years. I cant remember the year I first visited Brookhurst, but they were on Brookhurst Way just before Garden Grove Blvd. The shop was tiny and was next to a hair salon shop. Well I always bring a ton of cash and a big list of wants when I visit Brookhurst, this time was no different.

First thing I picked up was two boxes of Perry Miniatures Afrikacorps. Now I resisted buying these since I have a ton a Artizan DAK figures and these guys are way too small. But since no one around here carries Artizan, I finally decided to build up some Parry DAK. Robert has two boxes of Desert Rats so I will have something to fight against that is the same scale.

More DAK!

Next up is a box of Plastic Soldier Company Panthers for my next FoW project. I was looking at buying at least 3 boxes of the new PSC Panzer III's but either they were sold out or did not have them yet, so I settled for Panthers.

Big Kittes!

Next were two Jagdpanthers for my Jagdpanther company I am working on. I wanted these two boxes because they come with a ruined building that I can use for terrain.

More Hunting Panthers!

Next is a box of Panzer IV/70's for my Panther project. Since I could not find a few other blisters I was looking for, I picked this box up to ease the pain of the blisters.

More Tank Hunter!

Next on the old shopping list was some 4Ground buildings. I was looking first for some 28mm old west buildings first, but they did not have the ones I wanted. So my second choice was 15mm buildings for FoW. I had picked out three nice buildings when Robert came up to me and said I should get the ruined buildings. Robert has a huge collection of Battlefront buildings, but what we were missing was some ruined buildings. So I picked up three ruined buildings in 15mm.

Building#1

Building #2

Building #3

Now besides hitting the hobby stores, the wife and I hit a Barnes & Noble since I forgot to bring a book to read while down at the beach. So I shot my brother a text and asked for a good book recommendation, he recommended The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman. It is about this guy who accidentally creates a time machine that can only go forward in time in increments of 12, first 12 seconds, than 12 min, 12hours, etc. A good read but the ending was a bit flat, but I would say it was a 7 out of 10. It was perfect reading for the beach and I finished in about 2 days.

Opps I created a Time Machine!

 The last item my son bought for me, knowing that I am a gamer, he found a large rock dice in one of the local stores on Main Street in Seal Beach. He told me if anyone gives me crap about my dice rolling, I should throw this dice at them or their models! LOL.

Big A$$ rock Dice!

So that was my haul from this trip to CA, I spent about $400.00 bucks on most items that I can not get here at home. Which leads me to a small rant about shops here in the valley.

It amazes me that I can always find what I am looking for in shops in CA as opposed to here in AZ. Most shops here in the valley have stopped carrying FoW since they can't keep up with all the items that Battlefront carries. I get it, what I would like to see is my local store actually order items in for me. I have tried many times to order from my local store but have had numerous special orders go missing. Heck I even order other items other than BF items to have them never come in. Whats the deal? Heck if the War House can get new Fow Items, why is my local store not getting them?

So in the end I will spend my money with folks that carry or can order the items that I am looking for. So if my money goes to CA so be it, I wish I could do that here at my local shop, but oh well I guess thats the way it is. Rant over.

TK

Been Busy, Really Busy!

So,

May is almost gone and I figure I better get in a blog post, so here you go folks! So what have I been doing, well for one thing playing games and to be more specific, Flames of War. A few of us have been talking about doing some late war games with the Operation Market Garden book. Unfortunately I did not have any late war models, so I had to get on the ball and figure something out.

Well after looking through the Bridge By Bridge book and saw the Jagdpanther list, so after a quick trip to my local store, I picked up these big cats. So here are three vehicles that I painted up over the last few weeks. I plan to pick up at least three more of these awesome tanks.

Three Jagdpanters!

Here Kitty Kitty!

The Platoon Leader

 So besides the kitties, I started working on a US Para force based off of the 82nd Airborne. The 82nd saw a lot of combat and is not as well known as the 101st airborne. Also I wanted to paint some airborne up a little differently than what I have done in the past. The 82nd jumped with the new green uniforms, so I thought this would be different than the standard khaki color. So here is what I got finished up this weekend for the army. 

The Commander and 2iC

Platoon 1, all plastic airborne BF models

Platoon #2, all metal BF models

Platoon #3, all metal BF models

MG Platoon, BF models

57mm Anti Tank guns, BF models

Armored Jeep, BF models

British Armour, BF models

The whole army so far!

So there you go, one new army ready to go for Operation Market Garden. Also stay tuned fans, I will have a new announcement very soon on another project that I am working on, many people are going to like this one, it will be HEROIC!

TK

From Down Under Comes a Package

So,

About a month ago wile I was surfing the blogs I follow, I came across a fellow blogger, Scott of Scott's Wargaming was looking for some LotR models. So I stepped up and sent him a care package from AZ. He was shocked at how much stuff I sent and some of the items I knew he would not be able to get (like a GitD Shirt!). Scott wanted to know how much he owed me, well I told him how about a trade instead of money. The catch was he had to surprise me with what he would send. I have been slowly collecting figures from friends so I told him to send me a painted figure. I left it up to him on what to send me and today, I got a package from New Zealand.

An Easter Package!

So above is the box and below is what greeted me from New Zealand, it is always interesting to look at newspaper from other parts of the world, yes I looked at the newsprint! Here is what the items looked like in the box.

Hmm, did he send food?

Inside the box on the right, were 6 stands worth of British 8th army figures as well as two 28mm figs.

8th Army and a few Reaper minis!

The figs were from Battlefront and these two below are from Reaper minis, on the left is a flesh golum and on the right is a plague zombie painted up by Scott.

Hmm Reaper Miniature

Next up is some British anti-tank guns from Battlefront that Scott started to paint, just need to finish up the guns on the trucks.

Ohh some anti tank guns!

Next up is a little air support, Scott sent one Typhoon for the 8tharmy.

Incoming!

And here is the big score from Scott, 8 old boxes of British 8th as well as two armored cars. The good thing is that these figures are all current and will get used! It is also nice to see the old Battlefront packaging as opposed to the current blisters.

A ton of British!

Lastly Scott include a nice little note giving me a detailed list of all the items.

A Note from Scott

So, there you go, a good deed returned. Scott is a awesome guy and I hope to one day be able to meet him in person and shake his hand, have a beer with and throw down some dice. Scott, if you ever make it to Phoenix, you have a place to say and a place to play some games, thanks man!

TK