Project-Flames of War

Now in the last entry I mentioned that I have a plan of where my Flames of War gaming/collecting will lead. Initially when I decided to play and collect miniatures for FoW, I chose the US Airborne mainly because I had some US Airborne in 28mm, and thought it would be nice to carry on the same theme in the smaller scale.

Since I was painting the US Paras to represent the 101st and/or 82nd Divisions in Normandy, ie wearing the m1942 jumpsuit, it seemed logical to collect German forces which featured in that campaign.

Primarily the Airborne will represent the 101st Division 'Screaming Eagles'. Both Paratrooper Divisions were dropped behind Utah Beach on D-day, but were badly scattered, numerous small scale actions took place as a result against the defending Germans. Now this means that I should be able to eventually create scenarios to represent these initial encounters, against the troops of the static divisions defending the coast line. The supplements produced by Battlefront cover some of the units defending the Normandy coast, so it should be fairly straight forward to use these to recreate the Grenadier Divisions.

Yet my initial German forces I have decided will represent the following German units.

The 6th Fallshirmjager Regiment was engaged against the Americans pretty much as soon as they landed. Was involved in the defence of and the attempt to re-capture the city of Carentan.

The 17th SS PanzerGrenadier Division 'Gotz von Berlichingen', was involved in the counter attack to re-capture Carentan from the 101st Division.

Both of these units have 'Briefings' on the Battlefront website allowing for their recreation. So this will mean I can build forces around their orders of battle, rather than use the generic army lists. Though I do not intend to give any of the models specific unit markings, so that any model units can be used to represent other Divisions present in the Normandy campaign or just to be 'generic' units for for use in the game.

After these units have been built for the Germans I will look to add in models for the Heer Grenadier formations, and for the US forces probably an armoured formation. I will eventually move onto the British, and would like to start with the 7th Armoured, who had the misfortune to encounter Michael_Wittmann at Villiers-Bocage.

This will be an ongoing project, but I'm hopeful that by aiming to design my forces and 'real' units it will be one which will maintain my interest.

So why Flames of War?

So why Flames of War? This is a question aimed at myself. I've long had an interest in WW2 gaming, having first used Airfix, Matchbox and Esci model kits and figures to refight the battles of the conflict and then moved onto 1/300th. 1/300th scale, was a) cheaper and b) allowed you to build bigger forces, plus no fiddly plastic kits to build!

I gradually moved away from WW2 figure gaming to play the hex based board games. Avalon Hill, SPI and a few others no doubt. Squad Leader was a particular favourite, Panzer Leader/Panzer Blitz also having a few outings. Of course these board games ranged from the platoon/company level right upto divisional/army level. It was possible to play both the tactical and strategic level of the war.

Then a few years ago I decided to return to WW2 and purchased some 28mm figures, and have used them in some games. But having joined the Evesham Wargames Club, I noticed some of the members played Flames of War week in week out (actually we meet fortnightly, but you get the idea). This intrigued me and made me think that there must be something good about it for people to play the game time and time again.

So I decided to investigate. I was certainly aware of Flames of War, but since it was in 15mm I had never really been interested. 15mm was one of those scales I never really 'got into'. I bought 15mm models etc, most people I have known over the years who are wargamer's have 15mm armies, but I had always found the figures uninspiring to paint and there were always lots of figures too or so it seemed.

A visit to the Battlefront website was about to change all that. My first impression had been that Battlefront were to historical gaming like GW is seen by many in the wargaming community as a whole ie in it for the money (NB. I like GW, they almost make wargaming seem cool). My view changed, on the Flames of War site I found modeling/painting articles, gaming articles and most impressive of all historical articles detailing campaigns/battles and unit histories. The fact that time had been taken to research the period, convinced me that this was a company worth supporting. Plus I liked the models.

So a short while latter I had a copy of the rules and the boxed US Airborne Rifle Company set in my hands. Now having actually played a couple of games, I can say that I like the game as well. I'm aware that the rules have a large competition circuit, and are perhaps viewed by some as being a set of tournament rules but that's not what I intend to do or to use them for. More on that later.

Fire Support

81mm Mortar Platoon, to provide much needed fire support to my US Para rifle company. They had their first outing in the last game I played but were not that successful in my opinion. Nevertheless here they are. I haven't posted a picture earlier since I hadn't finished off the bazooka teams, when the Platoon got its first outing.

I decided after the last game heavier fire support was needed so I have started, a battery of 75mm Parachute pack howitzers. First section is prepped ready for painting.

Somewhere in France....the next day!

So last night got to play my second game of Flames of War. It didn't go as well as the last game. The forces were pretty similar to the previous game but I added an 81mm mortar platoon and reduced the strength of one of my infantry platoons from 3 to 2 squads. The scenario rolled was Withdrawal, with me attacking.

Kampfgruppe von Churchill was entrenched on either side of a river. The Germans flanks protected by armour, Tigers on their left, Jagdpanthers on the right. I strung my infantry out across the board, with the mortars being able to set up on a hill (gave myself a big thumbs up for that! How wrong I was to be proved.) Running centrally across the board, from wide table edge to wide table edge, was a road with a village on the German side clumped around a ford. Entrenched infantry clustered around that.

So the scene was set and in a rather mad moment I charged my platoon of Sherman's, down this road (taking aleaf out of Monty's book!), and straight onto the entrenched infantry, the assault failed, and by turn 3 I was short one armoured platoon. The paras then were left to slug it out alone. The mortar platoon was exceptionally ineffective knocking out one AA halftrack, and having no effect against the enemy infantry. The air support was only marginally better, bagging one Jagdpanther, though probably giving the Germans more frights along the way. All I could do was watch as the enemy withdrew their platoons one by one. Not the most glorious of moments for the 101st.

Quite a sound defeat, but still an enjoyable game. Now I must decide what to add next to the growing 101st arsenal, 75mm pack howitzers, 57mm AT guns or the M10 option, what shall it be?

Somewhere in France...June,1944

The scene is set. Elements of the 101st Airborne push south of Carentan in a bid to locate enemy forces. Heading north, on a similar mission are elements of Kampfegruppe von Churchill (no relation to the stalwart British PM). Two platoons of paras move into position and occupy a defensive position. To their immediate front, a infantry gun battery occupies the high ground and AT-guns encroach on the wood land. On the paras left flank two Tiger tanks (scourge of the Allies), move into position. The paras dig in to ride out the approaching storm!On the paras right flank the dull rumble of armour can be heard. Then a platoon of the workhorse of the Allied advance burst onto the scene-M4 Shermans! They begin to advance towards the enemy.

On the left the Tiger's realising that it will be hard work to dislodge the entrenched infantry begin to steadily creep around the flank. Time and again air support is requested and P47's come screaming into attack the 'big cats'. The panzer crews unfortunately hold, and the bombs of the attackers fail to dent the armour of the tanks or break the nerve of the crews. As time presses on more German reinforcements arrive. To oppose the Sherman's, two Jadgpanther's come forward. (In typical Teutonic subterfuge, these machines are disguised as Panzer 111's, is Otto_Skorzeny nearby?!)
Not to be out done. The Americans realise that they will have to take the fight to the enemy. One platoon of paras break cover and advance towards the foe. The M4's occupy the high ground and quickly lose one vehicle to the guns of the tankhunters. The Shermans pull back slightly, and snipe at the enemy artillery, on the adjacent hill (without success), whilst those same guns take a steady toll on the advancing paras, who make it to the next hedge line. The paras now begin to trade fire with the AT-guns and infantry (who had joined them in the wood). The Jadgpanthers, perhaps overconfident that they had halted the American advance, did not seek cover, and then the P47's swooped down again this time knocking out one of the tank hunters on the first pass. In response the Germans rushed forward a platoon of two halftracked AA guns only to see them burst into flames when the Shermans pressed forward the attack again.

The lone Jadgpanther now pressed forward to the hill to take the fight to the enemy, and despite having lost another machine to its 88mm gun, the M4's spotted an opportunity to take the fight to the enemy. Two American tanks outflanked the tank hunter, one pressing forward to the far base of the hill. With the vulnerable side armour exposed the 75mm AP round struck the side of the German machine and knocked it out. The other Sherman turned it's main gun on one of the surviving 50mm AT guns, and torn it apart.

On the American left, the two Tigers and slowly worked their way around the back of the remaining platoon, and realising the danger, the paras, swept forward to assault the enemy tanks. Despite bazooka rounds ricochetting off the hull and infantry, attempting to clamber all over them to exact revenge the two German tanks drove off their attackers .

With the sun setting both sides broke off and withdrew.

So ended my first game of Flames of War. First impressions......I liked it. Didn't remember all the rules, but at the same time didn't seem to difficult to pick up with steady practice. Played the encounter scenario, and fortunately rolled for my reserves on the second turn, which was fortunate only having one platoon to bring on. Chris very sportingly called it a draw, I personally felt that I had come off the worse.

The air support was not as effective as I would have liked, despite having priority air support, but thats the problem with any diced based game. If a recall correctly, I was able to call down air support three times in a row against the Tiger's and did nothing!

Now I just need to paint up more troops to have a variable force to game with.

Carentan in 15mm

This is a Landmark building, Carentan Houses. Purchased mine from Timecast, and at the moment I believe they are no longer being made, though Timecast are hoping to take over production. Nice little buildings overall.

I've decided to mount all mine on to MDF and add scenery. I've also 'weathered' the buildings a little. I can't say painting scenery has ever been my thing. The seemingly recent expansion in pre-painted scenery is for me at least, a bit of a bonus. At the same time I like to see scenery which has been modelled, and hence why I decided to base all the houses. This is the first one finished. I intend to have enough to make a town scene, if necessary. Not sure how this will work in games, since the vogue at present is to have buildings with lift off roofs etc so models can be placed in side. Can't do that with these Landmark buildings.
The pavement is a mixture of textured plasticard from Antenociti Workshop, and good old cereal packet card, cut and scored. The cobble stones in the backyard is textured plasticard from the same company. The advertising poster is also from Antenociti. They do sheets of French or German advertising/propaganda posters, all copies of originals.

Why I love.....

Webbs of Wychbold!?

Mrs G and I took the brood to this fairly local gardening emporium on Saturday. Always a grand day out with the pets section, and climbing frames to keep the kids occupied. I actually went with the intention of pricing up/purchasing shelving for the green house. Now part of the store is given over to Hobbycraft. This area is always worth a perusal, useful for modeling supplies, and imagine my surprise/delight/horror(!?), when I discovered on this visit that they now stock Battlefront products. Not a huge range but enough. I ended up walking away with a Flak36 battery. And the greenhouse? Still needs shelving!

So bravo to Webbs.

I'm back....!

Well the house move went pretty well. I've finally now got round to start painting again, which just over a week on is not to bad.

So on the workbench we have.....

US Para 81 mm mortar platoon. Based and undercoated, just need to be painted. I will paint the base first then the models. I started basing and then painting the models many years ago, if I think I can get away with it. I never liked the painting the model first, then basing routine. Particularly if drybrushing the base detail, paint had a tendency to go on the figure, which would mean touching that figure up again, plus once figures were based some detail could not be seen. So I experimented with basing groups of models and painting them once in situ. At the time I was painting 15mm ancients for DBA/DBM (long since gone), and it worked. FoW bases lend them themselves to this method perfectly. Though I have yet to try and paint more than 4 figures on a base, or camo ie Germans. I work on the theory that if I can't get the brush into an area to paint the detail then it will not be seen anyway! So this area will be left black, representing shade or at least in a base colour. Also I have a 'base' to hold when painting the models, which can make things easier. Others like to place figures on sticks or whatever, this is the method I use and it suits me.

Next up....

Woodland Indians for French and Indian War. Observers may notice that I haven't sprayed the figures on the base, but undercoated them and then applied the model to the base and put on the sand. I've then applied a wash of brown ink to the sand and will then drybrush the base.I wanted to try something a little different, since the black undercoat can make the base colour(s) look to dark. I'm happy with results so far.

P47's Part4 and finally

These P47's are based on the 56th Fighter Group, 62nd Squadron who flew out of Boxted, Essex from April 1944 until the end the war. For more information on this go here-littlefriends.

These models I'm fairly confident represent P47D's not P47M's has I originally thought. For more information on the P47 go here-P-47_Thunderbolt and here-p47.

My choice of the 56th FG was largely based on a recent vist to Duxford Air Museum and seeing a P47 on display in the grey/green colours, but a could not remember the full squadron details. Then on return and looking through 'The Mighty Eighth' by Roger A Freeman, I came across a coloured drawing of a 56th FG aircraft in the relevant camo scheme so my mind was made up. And the rest is history.

P 47's Part 3

The P47's are finally completed. I've weathered the models with Tamiya weathering master, and painted the canopies.

The canopies have been painted, with a further coat of Regal Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Ice Blue and finally Space Wolves Grey and finally a touch of Skull White to give a final highlight.

For the weathering I used Tamiya weathering master Grey and Green (which I surmised are aimed at weathering armoured vehicles), these lightened the paint quite effectively, then on the upper Sand, then Light Sand, then Soot around exhausts, weapon ports. The underside had the same but with Mud used first (and not the grey and green obviously). Definitely feeling more confident using the weathering powders, they have taken a little getting used to, but practice makes perfect. And less is definitely more.

Once all that was done the models were sealed with Army Painter matt varnish, and where the decals were to go a painted those areas with GW gloss varnish. Decals then applied over the gloss varnish. I read on a forum that applying over gloss varnish would hide the surrounding decal paper, but I think this has been only partially successful. The planes codes were painted yellow to represent the correct squadron colours (more on this latter). Decals were then weathered slightly, and two further coats of matt varnish applied.

The decals, which once upon a time I'm sure were called waterslide transfers or just 'transfers', were not that easy to use. I don't recall the decals which came with Airfix models ( I distant memory!), being that hard to apply from backing paper to model. The decals I used on the M4's were also a bit of a pain. They need to be soaked for a long time and then do not want to come off the backing paper, which results in tears. Oh the trials and tribulations!

P47's Part2

So now some more work has been carried out on the Thunderbolts. The green has had a coat of Catachan Green/Charadon Granite 50/50 mix, then been highlighted with Catachan Green followed by 50/50 mix of Catachan Green/Camo Green. The grey has received a coat of Codex Grey, which I found easiest to apply in several thin coats to get a good coverage, followed by highlights of a 50/50 mix of Codex/Fortress grey and finally pure Fortress grey.


The nose has been painted Scab Red and highlighted with Blood Red, and the tail has had a coat of Iyanden Darksun, then Bad Moon Yellow, and a highlight of Bleach Bone. The cockpit canopies have had a coat of Necron abyss for now.

Next weathering, highlights on the canopies, paint the bombs and then decals and basing.

P47 Thunderbolt's

Now the Zulu War project is on the back burner I have returned to my Flames of War force. I had started these P47's before the getting sidetracked. As before these are Battlefront models, but the planes I believe are 1/144th scale, not 1/100th like the infantry and vehicles.

One of the fighters has been completed, and the two on either side are primed (I use Halford's Black primer) and the undersides have been started. All paints referred to are by Games Workshop (unless otherwise stated).

Now the undersides have been completed. The base colour is Boltgun Metal, followed by a wash of Badab Black. Then drybrushed, Chainmail, Mithril Silver (lightly), Codex Grey (lightly), and finished by applying Tamiya's Weathering Master, silver. The weathering powder is not applied to the whole of the underside, but just were I felt it needed a lift to 'brighten' the paint work. The panels have been keylined with Badab Black, to pick them out.

This was the first plane I completed, and I did not dry brush the model but applied the highlights with a 'wet' brush. I think I prefer the result above so this will be touched up, by drybrushing the underside again. Also no silver weathering powder has been applied.

The upper surface of the model has been painted in a camo scheme of Charadon Granite and Adeptus Battlegrey. The nose and tail rudder (which cannot be seen) have been painted Calthan Brown as a base colour for the respective squadron colours. Again I have keylined the panels with Badab Black wash.

Part 2 to follow soon.

US Airborne

The following are a few photos of a current project. US WW2 paras for Flames of War. I have painted these to represent the M1942 uniform, worn until the Market Garden Operation. Much like starting this blog they have have been a year long project, but I nearly have a 1500 point force to use.

Also have some armoured support, to give Para's a helping hand! M4A1 Sherman's.

The force currently stands at two rifle platoons plus command, and one platoon of upto five Sherman's. Still plenty of support units to add.

All models are from the excellent Battlefront range.