Author: Felix

Flames of War British Sherman Firefly

The Sherman Firefly was a World War II British variant of the American Sherman tank, fitted with the powerful British 17 pounder anti-tank gun as its main weapon. Originally conceived as a stopgap until future British tank designs came into service, the Sherman Firefly became the most common vehicle with the 17 pounder in World War II.

After giving a base coat for the underneath of Humbrol Dark Green. The model was then given a spray of Warpaint British Armour. The Dark Green spray adds shadow.

Flames of War British Sherman Firefly

Flames of War British Sherman Firefly

As you can see from this closeup, the spray does give the model an even coat, and combined with the sculpting does show off the cast turret that the Firefly had.

Flames of War British Sherman Firefly

Here is the Firefly with three regular Shermans (the resin models from Open Fire).

Flames of War British Sherman Firefly with three regular Shermans

See the workbench feature on my Flames of War Sherman Firefly VC.

Flames of War back at Maelstrom Games

Many will remember earlier this year when there was a little strop between Battlefront and Maelstrom Games which resulted in Battlefront refusing to supply Malestrom with Flames of War products.

From Tabletop Gaming News, February 23rd 2011

Battlefront Miniatures Ltd of Auckland, New Zealand announces that Maelstrom Games of Mansfield, United Kingdom is no longer a retailer of its products. This applies to all brands and ranges sold by Battlefront Miniatures Ltd. With immediate effect Maelstrom Games will no longer be one of our retailers.

Well according to the latest news from Maelstrom, they have reconciled their differences and Maelstrom will now be stocking the full range of Flames of War.

We are proud to announce that, in 2012, Maelstrom Games will be renewing our partnership with Battlefront Miniatures to bring you the finest World War II wargame and miniatures out there – Flames of War!

We’ve missed it, we know you lot have missed it, so we approached, apologised and reconciled our differences with Battlefront so we could work together again to ensure 2012 will be a great year for wargaming!

Flames of War, of course, has expanded greatly in 2011 and we will be bringing you all of the superb new releases from this year as well as everything else in Battlefront’s rather enormous range of miniatures. Whilst it will take time to build up stock, Battlefront’s speedy order turnaround times will ensure that even if the items you want aren’t in our warehouse or you can get them very quickly. We will, however, be stocking our store almost immediately, thus ensuring that if you visit the Eye of the Storm you should be able to grab what you need on the day.

Wargames Illustrated magazine and Gale Force Nine hobby products will also return, needless to say (for which we all rejoice), although it may take a day or so to get Gale Force Nine and Wargames Illustrated on the webstore, so please be patient! We will also ensure our venue holds as many Flames of War events as we can possibly fit into the schedule, so watch out for those announcements.

All of the Flames of War items (barring the Vietnam War stuff, which again will appear at some point over the next couple of days) are now on the webstore, so feel free to order them from this point – as well as the superb new late war compilations, Grey Wolf and Red Bear, and all of those lovely new releases coming in January 2012!

What’s interesting is that Maelstom will be offering their usual 10% discount.

I do wonder who made the first move, were Battlefront suffering or was it Maelstrom, I guess we will never know even if the tone of the news from Maelstrom indicates it was them.

Flames of War British Challenger (A30) Tank

The Tank, Cruiser, Challenger (A30) was a British tank of World War 2. It mounted the 17 Pounder gun on the Cromwell chassis to add heavier anti-tank firepower to the cruiser tank units.

Having given the Challenger a white undercoat. The next stage was a base coat for the underneath of Humbrol Dark Green. This added shadow and depth to the main (top) base coat of Warpaint British Armour which was then sprayed on.

Here is the Challenger next to it’s little brother, the Cromwell IV.

See the full workbench feature on my Challenger A30.

Flames of War German Panzergrenadier Headquarters

I purchased a Flames of War box of the German Panzergrenadier Headquarters. In the box you get a bunch of resin, plastic and metal. So having cleaned the metal castings, I glued the infantry to some wooden sticks using wood glue. I then gave the models a white undercoat.

See the workbench feature on this boxed set.

Leman Russ Vanquisher Stygies VIII

This Leman Russ Vanquisher was in the Forge World display cabinets at GamesDay 2007.

Leman Russ Vanquisher
Leman Russ Vanquisher Stygies VIII

The Leman Russ Vanquisher is a more sophisticated version of the basic Leman Russ battle tank armed with the Vanquisher Battle Cannon. The special anti-tank ammunition used in this fearsome weapon is very useful against a foe with many armoured vehicles but of less use when facing a foe with smaller vehicles and hordes of infantry.

The Stygies VIII variant of the Vanquisher cannon, while lacking the immense length of the Gryphonne IV guns to generate shell velocity, utilises a slightly smaller calibre shell with increased barrel rifling.

More photographs of the Leman Russ Main Battle Tank.

UNIT Files – Invasion of the Dinosaurs and the Android Invasion


Quite looking forward to the release of these classic Doctor Who and UNIT adventures.

The Third Doctor faces ravenous prehistoric monsters in deserted London, while the Fourth Doctor battles robot duplicates in a strange village – but are the forces of UNIT friends or foes? Find out in these classic adventures!

The Android Invasion
Starring Tom Baker. When the TARDIS lands in the sleepy English village of Devesham, Sarah thinks the Doctor has finally got her back home. But all is not as it seems…

Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Starring Jon Pertwee. Returning to London the Doctor and Sarah find a city almost completely devoid of life. The civilian population has been evacuated in the wake of an unimaginable event: somehow Dinosaurs have returned to terrorise the Earth.

These are classic adventures with UNIT and lots of lovely inspiration for gaming. Dinosaurs versus UNIT in one episode (and lots of other potential time travel scenarios too). Also androids fighting UNIT soldiers, more potential gaming scenarios.

It will be released on the 9th January 2012, buy it from Amazon.

Flames of War British Challenger (A30) Tank

The Tank, Cruiser, Challenger (A30) was a British tank of World War 2. It mounted the 17 Pounder gun on the Cromwell chassis to add heavier anti-tank firepower to the cruiser tank units.

Having given the Challenger a white undercoat. The next stage is base coat for the underneath of Humbrol Dark Green. This will add shadow and depth to the main (top) base coat of Warpaint British Armour.

As you can see from the top view, the white undercoat is still mainly visible.

See the full workbench feature on my Challenger A30.