Felix, Author at Felix's Gaming Pages

Grot Mega Tank

At GamesDay 2010 Forge World had on display the Grot Mega Tank. I really do like this model alongside the Grot Tanks. The model is very ship like with battleship style turrets and a prow shaped bow. It is a very ramshackle vehicle and looks like (as it should) if the grots have just thrown it together from parts lying around the battlefield and stuff stolen from a Mek workshop.

The turrets are interchangeable with those of the plastic Ork vehicles and the Grot Tanks allowing you an opportunity to convert the Mega Tank into a different looking model. Useful if you were to get two.

Designed by Stuart Williamson, the Grot Mega Tank represents the pinnacle of Gretchin-built Heavy Tank technology; an overpowering war machine that drives all before it in a storm of scrap and destruction. This full resin kit is festooned with unique details as you can in the images, and Stuart has designed each turret to be fully cross-compatible with Daren Parrwood’s Grot Tanks.

Hammered together out of junk, spare Mekboy know-wotz and unbridled Grot enthusiasm, the Grot Mega Tank adds even more firepower to the battlefield madness that has come to be known as a Grotzkrieg, terrifying Imperial Tacticians, Eldar Farseers and Chaos Warlords alike.

It was also available to buy on the day and I did manage to get one.

15mm German SdKfz 251 Armoured Half Track

The SdKfz 251 (Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251) half-track was an armored fighting vehicle designed and first built by Nazi Germany’s Hanomag company during World War II. The largest, most common, and best armored of the wartime half-tracks, the SdKfz 251 was designed to transport the panzergrenadiers of the German mechanized infantry corps into battle. Widely known simply as “Hanomags” by both German and Allied forces, they were widely produced throughout the war, with over 15,252 vehicles and variants produced in total by various manufacturers.

Like some of my other models I am unsure of the manufacturer of this one. However it is a completely metal model.

I want to use this one to test out my German armour paint scheme.

I might then use it to create a Flames of War objective.

Ork Battlewagon with Supa Kannon

Ork Battlewagon with Killkannon from the Forge World Open Day 2009

Ork Battlewagon with Supa Kannon from the Forge World displays at their Open Day in 2009.

I got this model as a Christmas present, it combines the plastic Battlewagon kit with a resin Supa Kannon. See the full workbench feature on this model.

Flames of War – Battle of the Bulge

One other line in the news from Flames of War caught my eye and that was a reference to the Battle for the Bulge.

Following on from Italy we will be heading into the Bulge at the end of the year as well as creating another set of compilations for the Christmas season as we did last year with D-Day.

It would appear that as they did with the D-Day compilations, late in 2011 we will see a similar compilation for the late war. I don’t know what new releases we will see, but we did get a few new releases for D-Day so we may see some new ones for the late war.

I would like to see two tanks in particular, the M24 Chaffee and the British Comet. These tanks are currently not in the FoW range.

The Light Tank M24 was an American light tank used during World War II and in postwar conflicts including the Korean War and with the French in the First Indochina War and war in Algeria. In British service it was given the service name Chaffee, after the United States Army General Adna R. Chaffee, Jr., who helped develop the use of tanks in the United States armed forces.

The Tank, Cruiser, Comet I (A34) was a British cruiser tank that first saw use near the end of World War II. It was designed to provide greater anti-tank capability to Cromwell tank squadrons.

It was armed with a 77mm HV, a derivative of the 17 pounder, with the result it was one of the few British tanks with the firepower to challenge late war German designs.

I would also like to see some Late War Monsters in a similar vein to the Mid War Monsters that we have seen before. As well as the German Maus, King Tiger II and E series, we could on the allied side see the Centurion and M26 Pershing. There are also the T29 and T30 US Heavy Tanks that could also be fielded.

Talking of Monsters, some Early War Monsters wouldn’t go amiss either, the French Char 2C would be one example.

So a fair bit to look forward to for Flames of War in 2011.

Return to Vietnam

Flames of War will be returning to Vietnam…

Last year in Wargames Illustrated we tried something new and let a charge of enthusiasm for an exciting period, led by Pete, culminate in our first attempt at adapting the Flames Of War mechanics to other periods. The result was a wonderful success and with so many people getting excited about both the idea and the period we realised that it could not simply be a one-off. What we have decided to do is bring you Vietnam part II this April with a following instalment each year. The rolling plan has us adding to the forces, models and how it can be played. This has made us realise that Flames Of War Vietnam has become our second period and it will receive ongoing support.

Phil takes us back to a Vietnam in WI282 to bring you the armour and new helicopters for the US and the big guns for the PAVN. Rather than just taking up space in WI we decided to include the 48 page intelligence handbook as a bonus with WI so that everything you need to play is now its own book as well as being free. Phil being the excellent chap he is did not only get you new lists but included everything from the first outing we made to Vietnam so this booklet really has everything you need to play.

There are going to be a range of new models too, including tanks and the M113 APC with variants.

Quite like the models. Not so sure I will be buying into the era though. Apart from NVA and Vietcong infantry, the US seem to have all the firepower and armour (as they did in Vietnam). Then again I did enjoy Full Metal Jacket and Platoon, so maybe…

Forge World Anphelion Base

At GamesDay 2005 Forge World showed off their fantastic Anphelion Base diorama that used their then new buildings. They also had the scenery on display at their Forge World Open Day.

Forgeworld display of Valkyrie touching down on landing pad.

We will have railway tracks…

The latest issue of Wargames Illustrated #281 has a battle report involving the Polish Armoured Train. Well it is worth seeing how big that train is… the more I think about it the more I realise that £52 isn’t that bad for the model.

Anyway, as well as seeing the Renault Ft-17 light tanks in the battle report too, the interesting thing that was mentioned at the end of the article was that an A4 box of pre-painted railway track will be released on March 20th.

There are three good articles on the armoured train in the magazine, one describing the use of armoured trains by the Polish army, a battle report using the armoured train and a modelling and painting article for the armoured train.

Update: Photo of the new Renault FT-17 tank.

15mm British Vickers Dutchman

I have had this tank for sometime. Don’t remember the manufacturer. It actually took me a while to work out which tank this was exactly… I used this site as a reference.

Mechanically similar to the Mark IV, though armament and other features were like the Mark II, the “Dutchmen” were a 1936 commercial version. 40 vehicles were sold to the Netherlands. All 40 were taken over by the War Office in 1939 before export. All vehicles were used for training only by the British Army. The term “Dutchmen” or “Dutchman” was an unofficial moniker.

Though never used in service, in the event of a German invastion (Operation Sealion) they probably would have been used to help defend the country.
After a bit of internet research I believe it is an old SDD miniature. Not convinced totally, but other miniatures in the box it was in carry SDD codes.

Operation Sealion – Airfix Magazine

The Vintage Wargaming blog has a nice series of posts with scans of the 1975 Airfix magazine that explored Operation Sealion, the possibility, the weapons and wargaming the invasion. Some really nice pictures of old 20mm wargames complete with Airfix railway scenery (the kits now available from Dapol) as well as Airfix military vehicles. Well worth a look.

Paint problems…

So there I was going to spray some models using some spray cans when disaster struck…

Well not quite disaster, but certainly did not work as smoothly as it should have done.

First up I was going to undercoat some models with white paint. I had a new can from Hobbycraft and the nozzle had broken. I didn’t realise so as a result paint didn’t go through the nozzle but squirted and dripped over the can… In the end I found an older can of Citadel white spray and used that, which worked fine.

Next up was some Flames of War British armour. I had purchased the Warpaint can of British Armour Green and this worked just fine, and as it should be.

Then onto some Late War Germans. However this can of Warpaint German Armour was missing it’s nozzle entirely… Well did I send it back to the supplier, in this case Maelstrom Games? Hmmm, in the end I took a nozzle off an older can of empty spray and used that. Didn’t work perfectly and took a few attempts to get a decent spray going, but the German models did in the end get done.

So what should have been a quick and easy undercoating and basecoating session turned into a bit of a nightmare.