Home Made Fields

I had an impromptu terrain making weekend and ended up making these fields.
I'd had the brown rigged mat kicking around for ages and always had meant to do something with it.
I glued it down to a bit of ply-board to give it solidity.  Then I glued cat litter around the edges.
I covered the cat litter in emulsion paint to help bind it together, before painting it various greys.
With the stones in place I then glued the foliage on top.

After that I set about making each field different, using whatever terrain making stuff I had to hand.

Gale force nine autumn mix...

Shattered Battlefield and Large Craters and Ruined House Review

Hey folks

Recently I bought the latest terrain products from Battlefront designed with The Great War in mind.  I wanted these as I didn't think I'd find the time to getting around to making my own and as we all know by now, these come pre-painted ready to go.

Great War Trenchline System (BB182) - Review

Hello All

This week I finally got my hands on the Trenchline System (BB182). I have been waiting for this for a while as I didn't want to start playing until we had the trenches. Yes I know you can play without them, but to me playing the first game without trenches would been like a Soviet army without a load of red banners or a German army without any Panzer IV/70's, just wrong! Anyway lets have a look at what you get inside the box!

The trench set gives you a four foot long trench with two foot long communication trenches. It is featured in the Great War rule book and is designed to be perfect for the two missions that use trenches (Through the Mud and Blood & Big Push). It comes fully painted and like all the Battlefield in the Box range can be used straight from the box.

Area Nine Italian Buildings Review

For my birthday this year I was a very lucky WinnerDave, my wife bought me some Buildings for the Italy board I'm working towards.

I had this company brought to my attention by eBay no less, which is good as otherwise I don't think I would have found them http://www.areanine.net/

I got the multi pack - 14 (in the middle), the church - 15 on the right and an out house - 10 on the left.
The multi pack consists of 4 buildings, 1 ruins, and 6 wall sections.

I made one small modification to them, which is to glue plasti-card inside the roofs and upper sections, so they don't slide about too much (thanks to Andy for the suggestion)

Painting Walls Like Stone

Good morning,

This is a quick update on some painting I've been doing and in particular an effect I experimented with.

Flat surfaces can be a real pain to paint...there's nothing to highlight and it's difficult to not end up with a  completely flat painted surface.

In an effort to bring my painting list down to a manageable size, I thought I'd pick something quick and easy. Walls!

These are from Kerr and King (KK-023 15mm Stucco Wall set and KK-083 Stucco Wall Corner Set)

So, I set about trying to make these walls a bit more interesting by using a technique to make the surface look like stone.  Basically you hold a piece of card/wood/plastic right next to the nozzle of your airbrush at an angle.  When you spray, the paint hits the obstruction and flys off in the direction of the angle, creating a splatter.

Here are some of the results...

This is a tricky technique to repeat.  

Making Battlefront Style Trees

Hello All

A few months ago Jeff "Sonbae" Flint did a post on the WWPD blog about making Battlefront style trees with other sources. I loved the post and had been looking for a reason to make some terrain inspired by it, well my Vietnam project with Jersey James was all the reason I need so I set about making some Nam style tress.

The range of ready made trees that Woodland Scenics do are great and they have tress for all your table top theme needs, but my first problem was that the range I wanted are not sold in Europe at all, so I had to buy the set I used from the States on ebay. Not a massive problem for me as it was still a good price (about £25 for 33 tress after P&P) and I wasn't in a rush, but not ideal by any means.

Spring Trees/Woods

Good evening,

I used to try to stick to a strict regime with my modelling/painting.  As in, I will paint this infantry platoon, then this infantry platoon, only then can I paint these tanks etc etc etc.

I've discovered this is simply the best way for me to burn out and become tired of the thing I love doing.

Now-a-days I try to do whatever I fancy at the time, which helps keep my motivation up.  It also means I never know what I'm going to be tackling next.

Commission Figurines - European Walled Farm

Good morning,

I was a very lucky boy to have had this MDF farm by Commission Figurines bought for my birthday by Adam (DrCox)

This is my first MDF building so wasn't too sure what to expect.

It went together quite well, there are a few gaps in between walls, which I'll get around to filling...probably never in all honesty, but at least you get a good feel for what the gaps are like when assembled.

Soviet Pulyemyetno-Artillyeriyskiy List Discussion

Hello All, I'd like to introduce the last addition to the Breakthrough Assault Team, Dr. Alex. He'll be bring his own brand of "saying as it is" humour. Well thats enough from me, I'll leave you in the capable hands of Alex. 

Hi everyone, I'm Dr Alex.

I'm both everything Dr Cox is not and someone who Ben has been harassing to do some blogs for a while.

I only started playing flames of war a year ago (ish) and am still trying out things to see what I like. I have been using a Strelkovy Batalon mainly but have been getting a bit bored and flicking through Red Bear looking for other options.

The one which jumped out as completely different is the Pulyemyetno-Artillyeriyskiv, which is a fortified company of large guns and HMG's. I like large guns and HMG's and in 2nd edition Epic (back when epic was epic)  one of my favourite ways to play was with the fortification rules in the Space Marine Battles Book.

Review of Commission Figurines' Bases

Over a game, Ben and I were having a conversation about the Russian Mixed Tank Company I'm currently constructing.

I explained that I was thinking of buying a load of bases and pre-etched plati-card, then gluing the plasti-card to the bases.

Ben then very kindly pointed me in the direction of these guys... http://www.commission-figurines.co.uk/ and suggested I contact them to see if they would make them for me.

I did and they would...

I have to say they are one of the friendliest companies I've ever dealt with, I gave them my requirements, 40 bases, large FOW size, pre-etched in a cobblestone pattern.  They gave me a price...£10.  Oh yeah baby, I was very happy to pay that and sort of wish I'd ordered twice the amount.

They made it clear that they can etch other patterns like paving stones etc, which I'm also tempted by.

Turn around was super quick and I received emails telling me when I could expect to receive them.  Also they double checked with me that the cobblestones were going to be small, smaller than a figure's foot.  They weren't wrong.

Just look at these bad boys...

Terrain - Roads

Winner Dave here, continuing my recent kick into sorting out my terrain situation.

Last time, I showed you the standard issue fields (crop and ploughed) along with the bocage/hedgerows I made.

You could also see the embyronic stage of my roads.

Here's the finished article.

European House Subscription Deal - Dieppe House (BB155), Cherbourg House (BB156) & The Extras Spotlight

Hello All

Ben here with this months European House Subscription Deal spotlight. Now after a couple of months with no buildings this month has 2 Buildings and the long waited extras!

So like a little child at Christmas I waited for the postman to arrive and when I saw a very big book I almost started giggling (yes I'm a bit of a geek!). I opened the box to see 4 boxes and a Blister pack (and yes I was getting even more existed the more I saw)

Terrain - Initial Thoughts and Bocage

Good afternoon all, 

For quite some time now a visit to winner Dave's place for a game of FOW, meant taking along some terrain, as I simply don't have very much.

It's well past time I addressed this woeful situation and get my terrain on.  I have one object...get some terrain and get it fast.

Here's my first stab...

European Houses: Dunkirk House - Overview

Hello All

After missing a building last month so they could get more building painted up, Battlefront has released the Dunkirk House this month. As I said on the last review for the Carentan House, I'm not going to do an in depth review as the houses are pretty similar so 12 identical reviews would be a bit pointless! So this will be an overview of the building.

Now I was a little surprised when I got my building this month as it didn't match the one on the Battlefront site. The closest one it matched was the Antwerp building, in fact the picture on the box matches it perfectly. Below are the two pictures from the Battlefront article on the 12 buildings. As you can see the Dunkirk building is white in the pictures were as my building is grey.

 

I haven't seen anything posted up about the building being a different colour and if I'm honest it doesn't bother me as long as when it comes to the "Antwerp" building I don't get the same building twice. I guess this may have been done because Battlefront went back and painted up new batches of the first three buildings, so it would be easier to paint up the forth building the same colour. The only real negatives from this is aesthetics when I play as 3 out of 4 building being grey isn't as nice looking as 3 different coloured buildings, also it's a bit odd that Battlefront still did a spot light with the white building, but I guess they are done months a head before it was changed (if thats the reason for it) but otherwise no big deal.

So back to the building. It's pretty much what you expect from the Battlefield in a Box range. It's well painted, good quality, well made and sold for a pretty good price. I'm a big fan of the Battlefront terrain, in fact almost all my Flames of War terrain is Battlefront terrain.

I'm still really glad I got the sub deal and I'm looking forward to next month when I get the Bastonge Church along with building number 5 and have a small village!

As always thanks for reading Ben.

Can't see the Wood for the Trees!

Forest tutorial

So I love making terrain! It adds so much to a game. 

When I returned to war gaming 7 years ago I was quite happy to use books for hills, unpainted GW buildings and fish tank decorations. As I've gone on though I have developed such a love of painted terrain, it really makes the whole game cinematic, and allows yourself to get lost in the narrative. 

My current FoW terrain I've mainly been working on this year, the biggest part is my 'realm of battle board' I picked it up cheap with a minor deformity but it looks great as a base for all types of games.

The one thing I've missed up till now has been woods. I like the battlefield in a box ones, but it's not much for what you pay for. So I decided to do my own!

 So I started with some MDF board which I carved into some irregular curved shapes of various sizes. This way I can either have lots of small woods, or put a couple of smaller pieces on a larger bit, for a bigger foot print but still easily stored, and easy to move models over!

Once it was carved I sprayed it all black. This way if anything chips off later it will show black which always blends in IMHO.
Next was making mounds of Stone this breaks up the base, and adds a different texture I picked up a big bag from my local model railway store

 I find terrain making very thirsty work - i recommend frequent hydration to keep you going

Following this I mixed up a load of sand and PVA and spread it unevenly over the rest of the base to give some texture.

After that a liberal coat of brown spray. (Fur brown by army painter)

With that done I dry brushed the brown with some 'tau sept ochre' gave it a nice warm sandy base - in keeping with my other terrain.

After that it was the stones, painting on some dark grey first roughly ( I used the last of my adeptus battle grey) following that it's uneven dry brush of 'astronomicon grey' and then 'skull
 white'

 Next it's the beautiful hot glue gun, and attaching my trees (again sourced from my local model railway shop!)

 Depending on the size of wood I placed 1-4 trees, it was mainly down to aesthetics, but having a base to help work out what was 'too close' helped

With these in place I the painted on patches of PVA glue and water over exposed areas, sprinkling on some dark grass initially and then a little lighter grass. 

And that's it forests for all!

 Sherman's on Patrol through the forest - knowing me they'll all bog down in a sec!

European Houses: Carentan House - Overview

Hello All,

This morning the postman brought me my second European House from the Battlefront subscription deal. I have decided like when I got the first building the Calais House that I'm not going to do a review. My reasoning is I don't see the point in doing 12 similar reviews of the buildings. Instead I will be doing an overview for this house and the next 10 comparing them to the other houses and pointing out any big problems or improvements over the series of buildings.

So when I first got the building out of the box quite impressed. The grey was a lot more consistent than the Calais building, but on the down side the white is a little patchy in places.

Now to compare it to the Calais House.

I know a lot of people are worried that all the house will end up looking to similar once you have all 12. While I can see why people are worried I do think there is a case for the fact that most builds in a village or small town would look the same or atleast similar. Having said that in my opinion these two house are different enough that it's not something I'm worried about anymore.

Overal I'm still very happy that I bought the sub deal and I'm looking forward to getting a few more so I have enough for a village for the gaming table.

As always thanks for reading.

Ben

European Houses: Calais House - Review

Hello all,

In today's mail my first house from my subscription deal turned up, the Calais House.

Now I'm a big fan of the Gale Force Nine Battlefield in a Box range, but I will try and give a honest review.

The build is what you would expect if you have bought any of the other Battlefield in a Box terrain. It's very solidly built and painted to quite a good standard, not award winning but more than good enough. One slight problem with my building is the two floors are slightly different colours. This isn't a massive problem as I can either dry brush or wash the build to bring the two levels together, but I'll wait for the extra bits before I try anything just in case they are also a different shade.

 It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be from the description on the Battlefront web site.

The Building comes in 3 parts (as you can see above). Each of the 2 floors can hold 2 infantry bases with ease.

 A lot of people have complained that the range might look a bit to similar from building to building. I can see why people would be worried, but as you can see from the above picture by not using the upper floor you make a fairly different looking cottage from the house. This combined with the extra bits you get in the subscription deal leads me to think that a village of these buildings will look different enough to look good.

Overall I'm happy with the buy. The colours being a different shade was annoying but not enough to put me off the range. I'm now looking forward to the next one, shame I have to wait a month.

Review Score - 8 out of 10.

Thanks for reading and until next time.

Ben

So I Bought A House Today... No Wait A Village!

Hi All

So I was looking over the Flames of War site this morning for the weekly update and I saw they had put up a subscription deal for their new Western Europe Building sets. I was planning on buying all the building anyway as they look good, I'm a massive fan of the GF9 Terrian sets and I wanted a village for my Flames of War games (Also I knew if I didn't buy them I knew I regret it).

The deal seems a good one to me. You get free P&P and you also get alot of add on bits for the buildings for free. These bits include:-

Walls and Monuments

and Out Buildings

All in all a great deal and somethings I had to sign up for! The only down side is I'm now planning on spending more money roads so I have enough for the village!

I'll do a review when the first one turns up.

Thanks for reading and until next time

Ben

Hobby Plans for July

Hi All

I thought I would do something a bit different this month. My painting production has been down in the past few months so I'm going to post monthly goals on the blog to help keep me focused. I would also like everyone to post friendly reminders as the month goes on as I dare say I will forget what I'm meant to be doing from month to month (lets face it I'm a hobbyist, all it takes is something shinny to distract me!).

So what I have got planned for this month?

Painting wise I'm planning on finishing off my Irish Guards, this will be:-

A Sherman Platoon (2 Shermans and 2 Fireflies)
A Stuart Platoon (4 Stuarts) - This one might end up in next months if they don't turn up on time

 This will let me use this list

Confident    Veteran

Guards Armoured Squadron

British Late-War

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Guards Armoured Squadron HQ  p.17	1 1 1	Sherman V Sherman V with .50 cal AA MG Warrior JOE Vandeleur in Humber	240
Combat Platoons
Guards Armoured Platoon  p.17	2 2	Sherman V Firefly VC	390
Guards Armoured Platoon  p.17	2 2	Sherman V Firefly VC	390
Guards Armoured Platoon  p.17	2 2	Sherman V Firefly VC	390
Weapons Platoons
Guards Recce Patrol  p.18	3	Stuart VI	165
Company Points:			1575

www.EasyArmy.com

Source document: Hell's Highway

I have some Terrain on the go, so I'm planning on making and paint:-

3 Kerr and King buildings to finish my French Set
2 Large Woods - I say woods I have made a few bases to use the GF 9 trees I have
5 Wood Strips for the sides of roads - sort of the same as above

Building wise I have a Soviet Army and US army on the go so i would like to get all of them built this month:-

20 Plastic Soldier Company T34's - for a Mid War and Late War army
Kommissar Dedov's T34 for the company HQ
3 ISU 122
Spetsnaz Platoon for 5 bases of infantry and 3 German Half Tracks
8 M18's
5 Stuarts
Support vehicles for the Tank Destroyer company

I have also been busy with a few trades on the WWPD Forum trading section, so I have some US Paras on the way to me for yet another project! But that's for a future month (probably September/October).

So let the painting and building begin and please keep sending those reminders!

Thanks for your time Ben

DIY Flames of War HMG Nest

Hello All

I have been really busy over the past few weeks but I found some time to mess around with a few bits and make some HMG Nest for my Hungarians.

I roughly copied a guide from Model Dads but changed some of the bulk out bits plastic sprues as that's what I had to hand.

I'm currently working on some Hungarian Infantry which will start off as Motorised but will move into a normal infantry which I will do the options to make the list fortified. But that probably wont happen until the end of the year and only if the new Devil's Charge models don't distract me.... (Otto Skorzeny’s commandos!!)

Size comparisons with my Hugnarian troops

Thanks for reading and until next time

Ben