PSC - Ups Release of Yanks

PSC's latest update for 4/10/12.

Four x tripod MG42s, four x 82mm mortar teams, four x 120mm mortar teams, eight x panzerschrecks, eight x panzerfausts; 60 figures and twelve models for £16.50.

What's more interesting is this blurb from the PSC website.

May/June/July will also see a change in the release schedule. Due to popular demand the Stars and Stripes will be fluttering above PSC HQ - the Yanks have been bumped up the list! 15mm Sherman M4A3 (late), 15mm US Infantry, 15mm Sherman M4A3E8 Easy Eight and 15mm US heavy weapons will all be appearing. 15mm M3 halftracks, tank destroyers and Priests will not be far behind.

Odd timing. BG&G hits the stores this Friday (according to two LGS I called today). BF's new Shermans come out in May. Look, PSC is coming out with the same American tanks at the same time! Interesting....

All I can say it's a great time to be a 15mm wargammer. There are multiple rulesets to try, several miniature manufacturers, paint suppliers, books, Google, etc, etc.

Plastic Soldier Company 15mm Panthers

PSC updated their site and the long awaited and hoped for Panther will be here very soon.

The price is quoted at £17.95, which equates to almost $27.50 before shipping. Depending on where you buy your PSC goods, you're probaby looking at roughly $6.50 per tank. In case you're keeping score that's half the price of a Battlefront Panther.

What I particularly like is the late G model with the chin mantlet. It's my favorite version of the Panther.

I can't tell though if the hull and turret are sculpted with zimmerit paste. The assembly instructions below don't hint at zimmerit, though the box art does show the paste. Wait and see, I guess.

I'm really curious how BF is going to respond to PSC plastic kits that are roughly half the price of bisters and also Zvezda with their line of snap-together Barbarossa kits. Otherwise, a big chunk of their sales is going to further erode. If a newbie came to me about FOW, I'd point them to PSC where he can get his basic Sherman, half-tracks, T-34's, Panzer IV, Panther and you know PSC is going to do Tigers and other of the more commonly used WWII vehicles.

Anywho, I'm very excited to see this update. There's already 16 responses on the WWPD forum.

In other news, I played two games yesterday! The mind boggles. I actually won one of them! Inconceivable. AAR's to be posted once I sort through 70+ pics. I think I'll try StevieMac's Batrepper.

PSC Panther assembly guide below---

White Wash M4A2 Sherman Test Piece

I recently started delving into pigment powders after speaking with RJM (aka Ryan Miller). I had asked him how he winterized the Panzer III's and Panzer IV's for the 11th Panzer Division. Armed with this information, I ordered two jars of White Ash from the MIG site, along with Pigment Fixer.

RJM explained that you mix the pigment with water, lather it in on the model and then use fingers or blister packing to rub off the pigment to show the wear and weathering. My first attempt the pigment/water mixture was too runny in my opinion. I added more pigment powder to thicken it. In retrospect, it was too much as can be seen by the build up around the cupola and gun mantle.

Still, I liked the effect for a first try. What I also learned is that it is crucial to NOT be generous with the pigment fixer. Too much of the fixer will wash away the pigment powder, and defeat the purpose.

Next time, I'll apply the water/pigment mixture in stages, gradually building up the white wash and then gently scrubbing off areas of the tank with the most wear. As far as Pigment Fixer, the brush will barely have any of it on the thistles. RJM says you don't need that much.

The test tank in question (if you have guessed by the bent barrel) is an Old Glory M4A2.

I hope you found this information on pigment powder somewhat useful. RJM says it takes plenty of trial and error to get the mixture right and to learn how much white wash to apply.

Zveda Pz II 1/100 Plastic Snap-On Kit

I picked up a couple of Zveda Pz II and Pz IIIG plastic kits. I've heard good things about them and for the price I was curious enough to see how viable they'd be on the tabletop.

Click below to see pics of the Pz II kit.

Plastic Soldier Company M4A1 Re-Toolingn Announcement

CATMAN2 of The Plastic Soldier Company writes:

To ensure close historical accuracy, we are delighted to announce that we have reorganized the existing 15mm M4A1 kit into two separate kits:

•M4A1 75mm with a "small hatch" dry stowage hull
•M4A1 76mm Wet Stowage with a "large hatch" wet stowage hull



Bravo PSC. Treadheads pointed out the inaccuracies of using the single hull for both the M4A1 and M4A1 76. You responded to the criticisms, when other companies may have ignored the error with a "buy it or don't buy it approach".

I eagerly await the M4A2 76mm kit and will purchase a few boxes. It's companies like PSC that need the communities support. Having several options available to purchase 15mm or 28mm WWII minis is a good thing and when I see a company respond so quickly and right before a major release is amazing.

Bravo.

You've won a new fan.

Plastic Soldier Company Shermans Release Dates

The Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) made ripples in the 15mm miniatures market with the release of their T-34 kit with a 76mm and 85mm turrets. Instead of having to buy a T-34/76 and a T-34/85 model, a player can just swap turrets on a PSC model. In effect, PSC gave the buyer two tanks for the price of one. The kits have receive positive reviews by the gents over at WWPD (see Steve's June 16, 2011 post showing more T-34's spawning. Yes, Steve finally saw the light and joined the comrades). Craig's Wargamming Blog (see Blog List) also reviewed PSC's Panzer IV kit. I've been hoping and crossing fingers and toes hoping the Sherman would get the PSC T-34 "treatment". The wait is over.











The PSC site hasn't put up the sprue for the M4A2. Hopefully that will be soon. The M4A1 looks like it will have a cast hull, while the M4A2 will be the welded hull (my preference). I'll definitely pick up a couple of M4A2 boxes for use in my third company of Emchas in anticipating of a LW Soviet compilation where some Confident Trained Lend Lease Tankovy formation would be most welcome (cough, cough, cheaper, can field 24 M4A2 at Confident Trained).

Estimated Release Dates-

M4A1: 6/30/11
M4A2: 7/8/11

Old Glory Pz IIIF - Dab Technique

Did a couple of test pieces of the Old Glory Panzer IIIF platoon for the upcoming Barbarossa EW book due in 2012. I used the "sponge technique", dabbing a torn piece of blister foam into Vallejo German Grey around the vehicle to show wear on the winter whitewash.

M4A2 Test Models

A couple of posts ago I asked advice about drybrushing two M4A2 test models. One model was painted with Model Master Forest Green, while the other was Model Master Olive Drab.

I drybrushed Russian Uniform over the Forest Green. As you can see, or can't see, the drybrushing hardly shows up because the Forest Green is a deep color.





Next up is the Model Master Olive Drab M4A2.





It turned out extremely well. It's the best tank I've painted. I was very proud and posed it on the FOW Gallery and received good feedback.

After the Model Master Olive Drab, I a light drybrush of German Camo Beige was used. Then GW Badab Black was used as a wash, being careful to dab up any access. Seal a couple of times with Testors Dullcote and voila.

I'll be doing up a company of M4A2 in this scheme.

Thanks Chevalier de la Terre and Griddon for the drybrushing help.

Drybrush question

These are BF's LL Imo 76mm Shermans. They are painted with Model Master Olive Drab (left) and Forest Green.

The question I have for you modelers/painters out there is this - - do I drybrush Brown Olive (tank on the left) and Russian Uniform (for the right) before or after I dip? I have Army Painter medium shade. I wonder do I dip and then drybrush or is better to dry brush, dip, then use Matt Varnish to remove the gloss?

Any comments appreciated.

By the way, these Lend Lease 76 Shermans are my new favorite model done by Battlefront. I like the look, feel and there's a presence to the model. It looks great on the game board or just sitting in the foam, waiting for the next game.

Old Glory Pz IIIFs

Sorry for the lack of posts, lately. March is a month I'd rather soon forget. The only good thing about the month is that mom is home and doing better.

In the meantime, I had bought and assembled some Pz IIIF's from Old Glory for my last EW Russia panzer platoon. I got 6 Pz IIIF's (3x pack) for $13.20. Hard to beat that price by anyone's math!

Here's some photos.







Comparison if Battlefront Pz IIIE and an Old Glory Pz IIIF


I like these Old Glory Panzer IIIF's a lot! I can't stress how much easier it was to assemble them and not have to worry about gluing the main gun to the turret. If you recall when I built Battlefront's Pz IIIE's, I had to trim the base of the barrel in order to get it to fit into the gun mantlet. Bleh.

Also, I didn't have to shave much of the extra flashing from the mini. Battlefront tanks are still bigger than their competitors. Yet, these Pz IIIF's definitely past the eye test from the tabletop distance of 3-feet and closer.

The one thing missing from the Old Glory tanks is a tank commander. None came in the bag. =( Ah, well. I'll identify the platoon leaders in some other fashion.

Affordable Housing FoW Style

This past Saturday, it was Hobby Day at the Knights of Columbus Hall. I was there early and saw Frank busy making buildings from corrugated boxes. I found what he was doing fascinating and wanted to share it. Frank is one of the more creative people I know, he should be he was an art major, and always has cool scenery ideas.

What follows are the steps Frank takes to create a building.

Battlefront Pz IIIE's - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Good

wargmer of Bartertown has been offering individual EW vehicles for $12.50 (no shipping charges or sales tax) by breaking down the EW army boxes. This is great since the Pz-IIIE blisters don't appear to be scheduled for release until after November.

I ordered three Pz-IIIE's for my Barbarossa 2012 project and received them within a week. All tank components were there. Thanks wargmer for the prompt service! You can order EW vehicles individually at store.waterloominis.com.

Next, I was presently surprised to see that Battlefront pre-drilled the hulls for magnets. Take a look.



The rare earth magnet is 1/4" x 1/32" and fits perfectly! I did have to drill holes into the turrets, but with the hulls already done, it cut down the drilling work by 50%. Thank you Battlefront.

I found it odd though that Battlefront drilled out the hulls but then didn't include any rare earth magnets in the Light Panzer Company box.

The Bad

Here's a close-up of what I consider clean lines on a turret.



Now here's an example of a "bad" turret. Note how the molds for the turret MG's didn't come out as good as the first turret.



The detail on the track stowage, such as tools, spare road wheels, etc, is also hit and miss.

This roadwheel looks like a smashed danish treat.



And this is just plain poor quality. The roadwheel sucks and so does the towing line etched onto the track guard. Wait a second, there is NO towing line. It's gone!



The best track of the bunch.



It's difficult to see in the picture below, but one of the tracks didn't fit flush to the hull. I checked for any blemishes or raised mold lines that would cause the track not to fit snugly. Nope. The hull mold didn't come out correctly and there's a gap between it and the track piece.



The Ugly

I didn't take any pictures of this bit of quality from Battlefront. The main gun is a metal piece that is intended to go into the cut out square (see close up of turret above). Well, the main gun is too big. It didn't fit. I had to cut a portion of gun base down in order to fit it into the square.

At $12.50 a piece, I expect things to fit reasonably well and not require me snipping off a portion of the gun base. =(

Nobody else has reported this problem, so maybe I received a bad batch of Pz III's.

Oh and to top it off, when I primered the vehicles, I sprayed too far away and the guns received a flaky layer of primer. Arggh! I scrapped the flaky parts away and will just blast it with the German grey and hope for the best. I hope this doesn't mean the gun barrels are cursed and I'll never make a FP roll in future games. LOL

Thanks for stopping by!

Greatcoat PzGrenadier Commander

I despise painting infantry. I'm too methodical. I'm too much of a perfectionist. I cringe when I make an "error". My painting skills make cute kittens weep.

Okay, okay, I might be exaggerating a little. =)

My point is, it will take me awhile to paint up an infantry platoon of any size. When I see the infantry that Rich "GeekEGuy", Steve "indierockclimber", Carlos "Sentinel", Bill "Gothmog", Ryan "RJM Miniatures" and numerous other great painters out there I just sigh.

They are great painters and it's a joy to see what they come up with when they post samples of their work at the FOW Gallery.

Still, I've had a blister of greatcoat grenadiers sitting in the bin for months. I finally decided I should paint them. I have my daughter to thank for kicking me in the rear with motivation. Okay, she guilted me into starting by saying I was hurting "their" feelings leaving them all alone in the blister. Or maybe it was the fact she got hired to paint a squad of 40K Termies (more on that later with pics).

Here's the commander. He turned out alright. What I struggled with the most is drybrushing the german grey (with white mixed in) for highlighting. I messed up the brush work and it gave the coat a dust-look. I went back and hit the recesses with german grey again to provide shading.





The one area I'd like to do better is the faces. Instead of dots for eyes, I want to paint a "T" and "U", leaving the black primer to give definition to the mouth and nose.

It took me 2.5 hours to paint this guy, doing about 20 - 30 minutes at a time. At that pace, I'll finish 7 stands of infantry by 2012! LOL

On a side note, I want to shout out Steve over at WWPD. His blog is "Blown Up". He's also a featured writer at Bell of Lost Souls, writing about FOW. Now, he and his buds are planning a monthly podcast!

Great work, Steve! You're an example of the FOW community needs to keep this great game growing.

M4A2 Shermans with two different washes

I received a couple of M4A2's, so I painted them up for the 229th / 3rd Gv Mech Corps.

I didn't use the Army Painter dip. Instead, I wanted to try Badab Black and Devlan Mud washes.

Sherman 02 is washed with Badab Black. Sorry, the camera flash distorts the color, but the green is much darker in better light.



Sherman 03 is ashed with Devlan Mud. I liked how Devlan Mud can weather the decals. Also, I think it takes several coats or layers of Devlan Mud for it to be effective.


The turrets and hulls are magnetized. If I get more Battlefront M4A2's, I'll remember to stop putting the main gun at a raised elevation.

Hull decals still have that faint outline, despite using Micro Sol and Micro Set, plus liberal use of Testors Dullcoat. The camera picks up every detail with 3X Zoom, so I can't be too harsh on myself. The decal outline is barely noticeable without focusing on it.

I'm at a crossroads though. The prices of individual tanks is eating my gaming budget. I may decide to just strip and repaint the Old Glory M4A2's. Doing so will put two armies out of action though, so I'm a little reluctant to do it right now with modeling time limited.

The other thing I have to consider is after the Budapest books is out and there are M4A2(76)'s available, how much is it going to cost to equip? If I go with Old Glory, then I'd want to use the Old Glory M4A2's, because they're the same scale. Battlefront minis are slightly bigger.

I guess I'll wait until Budapest is out later this year.

Thanks for stopping by!

SU-152 Assault Guns

Maus Haus III is coming up this Labor Day Weekend (Sep 4-5).

It's a 1,750pt Mid War tournament. In order to boost the 229th Separate Tank Regiment from 1,500 to 1,750, I've added two SU-152 assault guns. There is much debate on the usefulness of Conscript SU-152s. If its gun hits anything, it's dead. Even Tigers will need to give it respect. I plan on using the unit for overwatch and just to give an opponents armor something to worry about.

I used Model Master's spray can of Medium Green. My can of Army Painter dark shade "went bad", so I used Games Workshop's Badab Black for a wash. I hand painted (did a poor "K") the cyrillic. It roughly translates to "Bite Me", in honor of Bart Simpson.

Pz IV E Platoon - new photos

I went 0-for-3 in Flames of War games the last two weeks. No, I didn't lose 3 games; I didn't get to play 3 games. Family and work stuff came in at the last minute to derail my chance to get the games in. Last Wednesday, I was unpacking the army to set up when the phone rang. It was the woman and back in the bag the tanks went because I was suddenly needed back home.

C'est la vie!

In the meantime, I didn't like the outdoor photos of the Pz IV's I posted earlier. I've been thinking about buying a portable photo studio, but I'm not sure how often I'd use it.

I briefly used a shelf of the wife's curio cabinet because it has internal lighting. Yes, those are Godzilla figures in the back. She's nice enough to have me place them there amongst all her figurines.

The photos didn't burn out half bad and at least show the winter whitewash to better effect than the other photos.

Still undecided about the photo studio after posting. How much will the wife tolerate me moving her figurines out of the way to take pictures of tanks and infantry? Not much.

Panzer IV E Platoon - Winter Whitewash

The winter whitewash is added. Before the whitewash, I sprayed Testors Dullcote on the tanks. I highly recommend Testors Dullcote because it's easy to apply, didn't mess with the decals and dried quickly.

I did a lot of research on whitewashing effects and settled on using watered down VMC white in various coats.

Little did I count on my daughter, the aspiring artist, to break out her artists palette, mixing tools and her animal hair paint brushes and demand to do the wash herself after seeing my test piece (an old Pz IV F-2).

I handed her turrets and hulls in assembly line fashion while she mixed the white to a consistency and transparency she liked. She used q-tips to soak up any access white if it pooled too much.

She doesn't play FOW, but she knows how to do a fine job adding washes!