It has been a long time since I did a family photo. These are all my finished British Flames of War models. I’ve tried to arrange them vaguely by time period. The table they are on is 5′x8′ for a sense of scale. I still have a few things to finish up- Mainly another 4 5.5BL guns and some early war tankettes. Of course I have some Germans, Italians, and Russians in addition to this, but Brits are by far the biggest nation I have. Gallery after the break. Read more…
Confession. I didn’t just paint all these armored cars from scratch. I did a real basic paint job on about half of them shortly after starting to play Flames of War. I won most of them at auction and there they sat unloved, unused. With the improvement of wheeled vehicles in v3 I think I’m going to grab my armored cars our of retirement. I painted up the remaining cars- Dingos, scout UCs, Marmon-Herringtons, etc. The rest of them got touched up with things like unit markings, tools picked out, regiment and divisional markings, and antennas. The Dingos are my favorite. They started out as Normandy green, but I decided they needed to do with my desert force. I gave them a heavy dust coat to wear down the green and the crews in desert uniform. Presto- Dingos shipped down from the continent without time to repaint. By the way, I have no idea how you’re supposed to fit the weapons on these with the crew in them. There simply isn’t room. I left them out and they still look great. The scout universal carriers. Ugg. I dropped these while matte coating them. Worst time ever. Paint is soft, and sticky and you’re at the end of a long road. I repaired the “oops” but you can see a chipped corner on the UC. No biggie, I’ll touch that one up. I didn’t notice until it was in photos. Anyhow, its shaping up to be a nice armored car force and legal to use a couple of ways in mid-war. I can’t want to give them a shot. Full gallery after the break. Read more…
I’ve had this box of artillery literally for years. I finally got the motivation to paint it with the new v3 rules and a bit of renewed interest in flames of war. This artillery set was a bit of a labor of love and an art project for me. Normally I wouldn’t spend this much time on a unit, but I wanted it to match the quality of the rest of my Italians. I filled the bases in which is a PITA. I magnetized the 100mm gun bases and made it interchangeable with the 105mm early war guns so I could use both guns with the same figures. The 105′s are Quality Castings by the way. I don’t think Battlefront even makes these guns yet. Anyhow, they have paint chipping on the gun shields and wear areas. They have rusts and grime. Its probably the best unit I’ve painted so far. Its easier to take the time when you’re not in a rush to get stuff onto the gaming table. More pics after the break. Read more…
I’ve been working through a large backlog of painting recently. These were partially finished a long time ago and just now finished up. I’ve long since given up on scenic objectives in tournament play. They just get in the way and discourage me from placing troops in a legal spot. The transport I just never use. Who know, I might actually find a use for it now that v3 allows recall of transport when you need it. More pictures after the break. Read more…
So as sort of a last hurrah for v2 of Flames of War I planned an early war scenario. The idea was that we would have a two part mission that would allow limited interaction with the other zone. Here’s the rules as I sent them out to my friends.
The British are staging on offensive on the Italian and German line. Its a two pronged attack. The main British force is going to engage a larger German force. However while eyes are on the advancing force they are sending a raiding force behind the lines to destroy the enemy’s fuel and ammunition dumps.
The main force is going to be running a modified fighting withdrawal mission.
The raiding force is going to be running a modified raid mission from burning empires.
2000pts of Brits will engage 2500pts of Germans.
The Brits have 700pts of raiding forces, the Italians 1400pts.
Raid objectives interact with the fighting withdrawal. When a raid objective is captured it immediately adds 2pts to the withdrawal count and causes at check at the start of the defending players turn even if the correct turn hasn’t been reached. You’ve just knocked out enough material to prevent some of the defenders from fighting anymore.
I made my annual pilgrimage out to Indianapolis earlier this August. Gencon the last few years has been very tournament heavy for me. I enjoy the games, but the fully booked schedule can be a little exhausting. This year I decided to take a little rest from the tournament scene in an attempt to experience more of Gencon. That was only partially successful.
Thursday was my one tournament I had planned. A 500pt mid-war Flames of War tournament that I only even looked up the rules two nights ahead of time. Turns out it was a little different. You had to take an infantry or mechanized force. You could only take combat or weapons platoons. Any unit with vehicles or horse would start dismounted and transport sent to the rear. It looked like an assault fest. Elite forces just didn’t fit well in 500 points, so I ended up with my trusty assault heroes, the Brit Rifles. They have bulldog, veteran status, and even were able to be Guards for additional morale rolls. I added some machine guns in with the fun bombardment ability. This really took some opponents back. Bombarding machine guns?
First two battles were 6/1 in my favor. The first against a newer player, and the next against someone who just didn’t make a roll at a critical time. That’s the way it happens sometimes. Third battle I was facing the only other guy to get 6/1 twice and got down to the end where it would be a horrible nobody wins “fair fight” end. I hate those. I kinda threw the game and played stupid so one of us would win. I lost 2/5. Oh well, I figured that would happen. Last game was vs a player I’ve met a few times. He was just too aggressive and I took a 6/1. Thanks in large part to my bombarding machine guns. I’m wandering around and I see the top table ending in a fair fight. Maybe I’m still in the game after all? Come prize time, I get awarded first place! I find out later that I was down one point in generalship, but I made up the points in sportsmanship and painting scores. Read more…
I designed a gaming table in Google Sketchup. The well is 10″ deep, enough to leave a game in progress and put a second top on the built in rim to act as a normal table. Around the edge are dice and measuring tape storage, plus a book rack lower. The ends lift out so terrain tiles may be slid in and out on the playing surface. The rim height is 42″- correct for bar stools and comfortable for standing. I realized I needed a lower storage rack after I rendered that, so that’ll be v4. The one thing I haven’t worked out yet is how to design this lift out end so that it can smoothly butt up against other tables so you can extend the surface- on of the reasons I wanted lift out ends. Most likely Ill have to extend the playing surface a few inches and then drop the ends on top of it. Read more…
I know I’m not the most amazing painter you’ll ever see, but I manage okay for tabletop models. I thought it would be useful to share my process with you so you can duplicate the models if you like the paintjobs.
Cleanup
The first thing you need to do when you get a new model is clean it up. This means carefully removing mold lines, and fixing small issues with the model. Remove your model from the blister and use a small pair of clippers to remove any parts from the sprue. If you don’t have clippers, nail clippers can work well. I then use a modeling knife to remove flash and vents. Flash is the flat thin bits of metal caused by metal seeping between the mold halves. Venting is the small vents cut to allow air to escape the mold during the casting process. Sometimes these can be difficult to see, but try and get it all now as its much more visible later. After cleaning the venting and flash, I remove and additional mold lines with files on assecible surfaces. Be careful not to go too far and grind off details. For more complex areas I use a hobby knife and scrape it along the line. After the model is cleaned of lines, you want to make sure it doesn’t have any mold release agent on it. Use soapy water and a good stiff brush. Rinse well and let dry. A hairdryer can speed the process, but make sure they are completely dry before proceeding.
Assembly
After cleanup, I assemble the models. How much I assemble depends on the complexity of reaching certain parts. Gears I normally assemble the legs torso, and head. I leave the arms, engine and weapon off to ease access to those areas. I use CA glue for most models. Larger models you should pin. You should mount the model in such a way that you can handle it without touching the model itself at this point. Gluing to the base and then using blue tack to hold it to an old paint bottle is a pretty common trick. You can also drill a small hole and the bottom of a foot and glue in a short rod. Then you can use a pin vice to hold the model for painting. Depending on the model, you may also need to use an epoxy putty like green stuff to fill larger gaps. Read more…
I recently downloaded the Miniature Mentor painting tutorials. After watching the speed painting tutorial, I knew I had to try it for the huge bunch of battlemechs that I had recently stripped of their 1980′s paint job. Zenithal highlighting is a technique in which you attempt to apply a global lighting scheme, generally as if the light were directly overhead. Some people do this by hand, but the tutorial recommended doing it with an airbrush. I primed my mechs black, then based gray with an airbrush. I then used orange in successively lighter tones and smaller circles, sprayed from above. This created a miniature that looks bright orange from above and dark gray from below. The big advantage here is you already have where your highlights and shadows should be worked out. all you need to do is reinforce them. The original intent was to do blue with orange highlights. You’re really supposed to paint with translucent glazes and the blue was just overwhelmed by the orange. Not to worry as orange is generally a highlight for red. I just swapped over to an red wash and tried again. In the shadows I added some blue for purplish shadows. The first try, a Phoenix Hawk, came out a little sloppy, but the shading is pretty amazing looking. The Warhammer was a second try and is a little more controlled. I still need to refine what I’m doing, but the mechs are looking far better than my previous efforts. Note the pics showing the mechs from the top and bottom. Gallery after the break.
It has been a long time since I did a family photo. These are all my finished British Flames of War models. I’ve tried to arrange them vaguely by time period. The table they are on is 5′x8′ for a sense of scale. I still have a few things to finish up- Mainly another 4 5.5BL guns and some early war tankettes. Of course I have some Germans, Italians, and Russians in addition to this, but Brits are by far the biggest nation I have. Gallery after the break. Read more… 
