flames of war Archives - Page 33 of 42

Repainting the Home Guard Standard Beaverette

Standard Car 4×2, or Car Armoured Light Standard, better known as the Beaverette, was a British armoured car produced during World War II.

Don’t remember the manufacturer. 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. I have painted this model. I gave the model a black undercoat, a dark green base coat and “weathered” it with some brown paint. Decided to repaint the model and gave it a coat of Warpaint British Armour.

Looks better already!

15mm German SdKfz 251 Armoured Half Track

The Sd.Kfz. 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 Sd.Kfz. 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.

I found the and added the MG to the model.

I am going to use this as a testbed for my German paint scheme and I will then probably add it into some scenery.

15mm Home Guard MkIV Male Tank

I have had this tank for sometime. Having found the 6pdrs I glued them in. Don’t remember the manufacturer, though it may be Minifigs! When I was planning some Operation Sealion games back in the 1990s I intended that the Home Guard would make use of a museum Mark IV Male tank. I mentioned this also in an article I wrote on a French themed Operation Sealion, Otaire de Vigneur.

To add a bit of diversity to my games, I also have one of Minifigs’ World War One British tanks, for use by a Home Guard unit (stolen from a local museum no doubt).

Now when I wrote that article and bought the miniature it was only an assumption and what I thought would be a nice idea, and probably had no basis in truth….

How wrong I was….

Flames of War – German StuG G Assault Guns

After giving the models a dark brown undercoat, having reflected on this and feedback, I think they are too dark and I think they will need repainting.

I bought some FoW Warpaint, for Late War German Armour and used that on the model, having used it first on my Tiger.

A side view.

See the full workbench feature on these StuG G Assault Guns.

Basecoating the Flames of War Tiger I E (again)

The Tiger was feared so much by the Allies, that most German tanks were referred to as Tiger tanks. Tiger I is the common name of a German heavy tank used in World War II, developed in 1942. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. E, often shortened to Tiger.

Having given the Tiger a basecoat of Humbrol Dark Brown initially, I was not happy with the results.

After looking at some models online and discussions with Simon, decided that this was way too dark.

I bought some FoW Warpaint, for Late War German Armour and used that on the model.

Much happier with the result.

Here is the Tiger next to one my the Panthers.

See the full workbench feature on the Flames of War Tiger 1E.

Flames of war Cromwell IV

The Cromwell Tank was one of the most successful series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in World War II.

The Cromwell tank, named after the English Civil War leader Oliver Cromwell, was the first tank in the British arsenal to combine a dual-purpose gun, high speed from the powerful and reliable Meteor engine, and reasonable armour, all in one balanced package. Its design formed the basis of the Comet tank. The Cromwell first saw action in June 1944, with the reconnaissance regiments of the Royal Armoured Corps.

In the blister you get a resin hull and turret and the rest of the model is in whitemetal.

In the end I picked up a couple more to make a full platoon.

See the full workbench feature on my Cromwell IVs.

Hobbycraft stop the Flames of War

Okay this is based on what I saw, but it would appear that Hobbycraft (in Bristol anyhow) have decided to stop selling Flames of War in their store.

They have moved it all downstairs and are selling it off with most boxed sets and books at 20% off, the blisters appear to be between 10-20% off. There is a little sign that says “last chance to buy” too.
In case you are wondering, it is in the main Late War American, Russian and some German and British. They also have the main rulebook, North Africa and Blitzkrieg. Though I think these may be cheaper on Amazon.
No idea if this applies to other Hobbycraft stores that sell Flames of War, if it does, please leave a comment to that effect.

I am disappointed to see that Hobbycraft are stopping selling Flames of War, it was my only local supplier and it was better than nothing. The problem I found though was that the range was seriously limited, rarely updated and replaced and it never sold any of the new stuff, especially the Blitzkreig range. I did buy my first Flames of War models from the store and I doubt I would have bought them if I couldn’t actually see them and just take them to the till. Of course once the new Early War stuff was announced I was very disappointed to see that they didn’t stock any of the new stuff except the book!

Hobbycraft never seemed to take it seriously and I suspect that is what stopped it selling more than anything else. Any retailer can not rely on casual purchases and by getting the regular customers in on a regular basis they can then push more stock and make more sales. However to Hobbycraft it just seemed like another range of stuff that they sold, no one cared about it, so no one thought to promote it, check that it was what people wanted and in the end they pulled the entire range, which is a pity.
Of course from my perspective I can order from Wayland Games or similar, get a 10% discount and free shipping, but I do like the fact with a local retailer that I can see things I maybe wouldn’t have bought online or via mail-order. Let’s buy a single blister or boxed set and see where that takes us…

So for now I am reliant on online stores for my Flames of War purchases…

Did I buy anything I hear you ask?

Well I did get a Jagdpanther, the one in the boxed set with the building.

Only bought the one though…. Nice model.

Flames of War Rolls Royce Armoured Car

So there I was flicking through the most recent copy of Wargames Illustrated when I noticed in the Hellfire and Back battle report a wonderful looking Rolls Royce Armoured Car.

I believe that this is a new model for Flames of War and hasn’t been released before by Battlefront.

Flames of War Rolls Royce Armoured Cars

I’ve always liked the Rolls Royce Armoured Car and though this is a desert version, wondering if it wouldn’t take much to convert it for Home Guard use. I would need to convert the turrets back from the open ones used in the desert to the older closed ones. Of course it would be nice if a non-desert version of the Rolls Royce Armoured Car was sold as part of Blitzkreig, but I am guessing it won’t be.

I like the Morris CS9 model too.

Constructing the Flames of War French Char B1 bis

The Char B1 was a French heavy tank manufactured before the Second World War. It was a specialised heavy break-through vehicle, originally conceived as a self-propelled gun with a 75 mm howitzer in the hull; later a 47 mm gun in a turret was added, to allow it to function also as a Char de Bataille, a “battle tank” fighting enemy armour, equipping the armoured divisions of the Infantry Arm.

Within the blister you get the resin hull and turret whilst the rest of the model is whitemetal.

Here are the three resin hulls lined up.

They are smaller than I expected.

For some reason I had this impression that the Char B1 was a really large tank. Well compared to other Early War tanks it is, however compared to Late War tanks it’s quite small. Continue reading “Constructing the Flames of War French Char B1 bis”

Flames of War TOG2 Mid-War Monster

The Tank, Heavy, TOG 2 was a prototype British super-heavy tank design produced in the early part of the Second World War in case the battlefields of northern France turned into a morass of mud, trenches and craters as had happened during the First World War.

In the end it never went into production, but as part of the Flames of War Mid-War Monsters range you can buy it and use it in alternate history games. I liked the concept and the model on the Flames of War website is quite inspiring.

The Flames of War boxed set contains three of these monsters.

The hulls are quite plain in comparison to other tanks in the FoW range, however that is much more down to the actual design of the tank.

The tracks are two metal castings for each side. The turret is the same one that was eventually used on the Challenger A30, it was from a design perspective easier to use what was developed for the TOG2 then design a completely new turret for the Challenger in the time they had available and with limited resources.

However this is a different casting to the one found on the Challenger model. It looks like it should be pretty simple to put together, but first to clean up the metal and resin castings.

I do hope that we see future “monsters” for Flames of War, there are some nice concepts and ideas out there for both Early-War and Late-War, though I have a hunch that these did not sell as well as expected.

See the workbench feature on these huge tanks.