Typhoon Fighter Bomber - FoW, and decalled British Vehicles...

In between, weekend activity work on my Victorian Terrace house, I have been steadily working away at other model painting...

 I recently finished my Typhoon Fighter Bomber for my British FoW forces, primarily aimed at accompanying my XXX Corp Guards Armoured force for Market Garden, though also useful for D-Day service, especially with it sporting the Allied Invasion stripes, and for the remainder of the allied North West European theatre of action...

I did paint one up some time ago for our Hit the Beach scenario, that we demo-ed at the Kapiti Wargames Club last year...

However, that was for my mate Paul, as part of our groups planes swaps, after the FoW V3 rules changed how they handled planes in the game...

So after a long time, I finally got round to doing one for myself...

The typhoon in action...firing rockets... exciting stuff, you almost feel sorry for the Germans on the receiving end!

After getting a set of Allied Recognition marking decals for my British that I recently used on the British recce Stuarts and UCs, I set to marking up the rest of my British vehicles... and so it only seems right to feature the Typhoon, alongside JOE Vandeleur and his Forward Air observer...

Avres...

Dingos...

Humber LRCs...

Daimlers...

M3 half tracks... I got these to tow my two 17pdrs...

Lloyd carriers... for towing my 6pdrs...

...and a command UC for the AT gun platoon, whether 17pdrs or 6pdrs...

I will probably get round to adding some divisional markings at another time... I did also re-matt-varnish the older vehicles; Half tracks, Lloyds and UC as these had been done originally several years ago, (you can probably tell by the different shade of green, though I think they still look fine). The re-varnishing was done as they had originally been 'matt' varnished with GWs purity seal, which gave mixed results back then at best, and I have since switched to the brush on vallejo matt, which is far superior...

Anologue Hobbies Winter Painting Challenge (AHWPC) - update

Just a quick shot to show where I am upto:

• 20 PSC Half Tracks assembled, base coated, and washed
• 3 Typhoons assembled, undercoat basecoat done
• 3 Command HalfTracks from GpPzGr HQ pack assembled and base coated
• 3/4s of the ' driver' figures trimmed ready for paint for the PSC Half-Tracks.

So next jobs to do:

• Drybrush Halftracks 'middlestone'
• Paint halftracks tyres black
• Drybrush 'mud brown' to Half track wheels and tracks
• Do stowage options for halftracks
• Do crews for halftracks
• Wash command halftracks, do command figures for GpPzGr HQ
• Paint Typhoons
• Add decals to halftracks and typhoons

So still a fair bit to do, but its started raining here, and its set in for the weekend :-), so I'll get some painting done hopefully, and have a game of Flames of War lined up too!

And so it begins...

Anologue Hobbies Painting Challenge is officially on!

Well here's what I managed to get assembled to start the ball rolling:

15 Half Tracks, 3 Typhoons and a partridge in a pear tree!

Ok maybe not the partridge ;-)

One small fly in the ointment - when I unpacked the typhoons I found 3 of the under wing rocket racks were missing, so a frantic email to battlefront customer services, has 3 replacement parts zapping their way to me as we speak, through the frantic xmas courier rush! As it is I can still probably make a start on them as the rocket racks will have to go on last after I have done the invasion bands on the wings.

The half tracks are good to go, these will mount up my three platoons of grenadiers and have some for the prospective HMG platoon to have 'battle taxis' awaiting them.

I havent glued on the tops of the half tracks and will be doing them seperartely like this as I need to add the drivers inside and paint the internal seats too.

Right, off to get spray painting...

Good luck to all!

Early Santa, and the dilemma of unpainted plastic !

Early Santa for me :-) I was pleasantly pleased to see a couple more boxes of goodies waiting on my doorstep when I arrived home yesterday, that I had ordered a little while ago.

First up was a box of Flames of War Typhoons to add to my commando force. These came courtesy of Wayland Games.

I must admit, the recent Remembrance day on 11th November got me thinking about all things WWII again, and I started flicking through my FoW rulebook and supplements again. I have never fully got to grips with the rules having only had a handful of games, widely spaced apart. My last one was probably over a year ago when Simon McBeth offered to show me the ropes over at the Hutt club. So yep I've probably forgotten whatever I learnt back then...

Not wanting my German forces to feel left out [and to give my typhoons something to fire at ;-)], I got some goodies for them too, from Mealstromgames; SdKfz 251/D and Panzer IV's from the Plastic Soldier Company. I've read good reviews of these new plastic kits and they are great value for money I think compared to the Resin/Metal style of figures.

I decided to add the half-tracks to my German forces to convert my Festungskompanie to Panzergrenadiers, giving me a bit more bang for your buck, with the troops I already have painted up. I also ordered the Panzergrenadier command pack and a bunch of Panzerfausts and Panzershreks to effect this change. Again from Wayland games, just awaiting delivery.

You just never can have enough Panzer support! ;-)

I have also managed to find a local player, or at least someone who has a force ready (bought second hand but as yet untried) who's willing to learn the rules with me, so it will be the blind leading the blind no doubt! Brett is bringing his Yanks over tonight, and I will be holding them off as best I can with my plucky German defenders. The only 15mm buildings we currently have are Bretts African style adobe buildings, so we figured we will use them in a Sicily type scenario... I'll try and take a few pics and write a report afterwards.

Along with the Maelstromgames order also came 3 boxes of WargamesFactory WSS cavalry.

I now have enough WSS troops to create an army for Black Powder with 6 units of 24 infantry, and 3 units of cavalry, so three brigades of 3 units. I'll try and add some infantry guns too and that will complete the set up.

Now of course all this plastic WSS is going to take me an age to assemble and paint before its ready for use, at my glacial painting rate.

So what I thought, and troubled me a little as it is most definitely NOT in the finest traditions of the Kapiti Fusiliers, is to simply assemble and temporarily (blu-tac) base it all, and at least then I can get a game with it, and paint it up as and when I get a chance to do a unit.

The same goes for my back log of Perry ACW and Perry Napoleonic Brits, all destined for Black Powder gaming.

It would mean any Battle Report pictures are liable to full of drab unpainted grey plastic, so I apologise in advance if this occurs.

But at least I'll get to get some games in :-)

So what's your thoughts, do you mind playing with unpainted figures? Is it OK generally, or complete anathema!? Or somewhere in between? ;-)