Two Flames of War Buildings

These two buildings are both 15mm scale World War 2 buildings suitable for Flames of War games set in Normandy. Both are made from pre-cut laser-cut MDF.

Flames of War Buildings

The one on the left is by Sassissa Precision and comes flat pack and unpainted: It costs £9. Obviously I have painted this one myself, and it took 2-3 hours to assemble and paint to this standard.

The one on the right is a new one from 4Ground, and also comes flat pack- the difference is that 4Ground gives the option of having pre-painted models- like this one. This one took about an hour to assemble- it’s a more complicated model that the Sarrissa Precision one- but obviously did not need painting. It cost £13.

Now- personally I think the one I painted looks a bit better- given that you can see the joints on the roof and walls of the 4Ground one, but give that it was a pain in the butt to paint, the 4Ground stuff certainly has some merit. The difference of just £4 for the models is quite surprising, and the fact that the laser cutters adds a thin layer of soot that provides instant weathering is a great feature- so much so that I think I will go back to the Sarrissa buildings I have already finished and add some weathering powder.

Over all, I think that if you want to lavish lots of time and attention on your scenery and have a fantastic looking table top- then I would go with Sarrissa (or even 4Grounds very reasonably priced unpainted models), and paint them yourself. But if you want a pretty good-looking tabletop, and quickly- then go for the new 4Ground stuff.

Me? I think I am too lazy to paint more houses for Flames of War. In future 4Ground will get my business. 

More Bits of Scenery

The "Scenery Making Marathon" continues to gather pace, with some more long awaited projects being finished off.

These little 15mm scale houses are made by Sarrissa Precision, an excellent new company making scenery in various scales using Laser-cut MDF. Like their rivals Warbases, this company's products are well made and beautifully put together- I am not so pleased about the chimneys, which I feel could have been better finished, but the models are great fun to put together and to paint- much nicer than working with resin cast buildings.
Obviously I got these to use with my 15mm Flames of War armies, and as such they are painted in a style suggestive of Normandy and northern Europe, but with a different paint scheme could serve as British terrace houses for a 15mm VBCW Game (not that I am about to change scale).
I plan to do some more in the near futures too.



Next, I didn't make this one, but I bought it from the pet shop instead. It cost £12.99, painted exactly as you see it- All I had to do was cut the price tag off.
It's supposed to go in a fish tank, but instead its going to grace my jungle boards- I can see this being useful in all sorts of games, from Conan to AE Bounty. If this was sold as a piece of wargaming scenery I would have paid more than £12.99 for it, for sure. And I would have ended up having to paint it, and pay postage on it too!
A bargain, if you ask me.

Finally, for now at least, a hobbit hole- scratch built by me. With my steadily growing hobbit army for Lord of the Rings I thought I needed some suitable scenery- this is a prototype, but I am so pleased with it that I will certainly make some more.
Here's a link to a sort of WIP/Tutorial as to how I made it on the Lead Adventure Forum here.

Coming soon....Another 28mm VBCW factory, and more 15mm Flames of War French buildings.

Das Panzergrenadiers

Just a quick Flames of War update- I have finished my first Panzergrenadier platoon, complete with their Opal Blitz trucks. These will support my Panzerkompanie, providing much needed infantry support to scout out the enemy and protect the valuable panzers from the British infantry.

These infantry figures are by Plastic Soldier Company and are hard plastic 15 mm German soldiers. You get over 100 models for £18. The bases are by Warbases and are pre-cut from MDF, as the PSC figures don't come with bases. These figures are nicely sculpted and well cast, with a lot of detail. The box included a few medics, radio operators and ammunition carriers, which adds to the details. I am not sure the sculpting is quite as good as on the very excellent vehicles, but they are inexpensive compared to metal, so I mustn't grumble too much. Another minor point is that they are actually relatively tall when compared with the Flames of War British I have painted- actually a head taller- they are also much more anatomically proportioned. Its only a minor thing, but it's worth noting.

The Opel Blitz trucks are resin and are made by Battlefront for Flames of War.

Das Panzerkompanie

Work progresses on my Flames of War Panzerkompanie, with the completion of my Company Command Platoon of two Panzer IV H and a Bergepanther recovery vehicle. Technically, this Company is now complete, but I feel it needs the addition of some infantry, in the form of a platoon of Panzergrenadiers and a Panzer Pioneer Platoon.


The Bergepanther recovery vehicle is massive, swamping the Panzer IV H and StuG G tanks, but it is only armed with a MG- making it a tempting target for enemy tanks and AT guns.
The crew are a mixture of Flames of War and Plastic Soldier Company- Which shows they go together very well.



The next plan is to build up my British Rifle Company with the addition of a couple of armoured platoons and some heavier weaponry (like AT guns and MMG's). I have also recently bought some scenery, but patiently await its delivery.

Painted Panzer IV

Just a quick blog to show off a picture of my painted Panzer IV for Flames of War, made my The Plastic Soldier Company, and reviewed a few weeks ago in this Blog.





I hope you will agree that it has come out well - It's in 15mm scale, and as you can see is a very crisply detailed figure. I will be ordering some more stuff, for my Brits, from The Plastic Soldier Company, very soon.

I have now finished my first bit of the Panzercompanie, having added another StuG G and a Bergepanther. More pictures of the entire company to follow soon.

Plastic Soldier Company Tanks

A year ago, at Salute 2010, I got talking to a stall owner who had just stated up a new project, called The Plastic Soldier Company. The idea behind his company was that if he used CAD to design some World War 2 tanks and soldiers, he could scale them up to either 15mm, 20mm or 28mm.
I thought is was a jolly good idea.
I don't collect 20mm my self, but I know it is a very popular scale with the WW2 lot. 28mm is also popular, with a number of skirmish games being made to suit that scale, such as Operation Squad, and of course, 15mm is very popular with the Flames of War players. Of course, FOW produce their own range of 15mm men and vehicles, but as far as I know no one is making plastic tanks in this scale.
The Plastic Soldier Company now make a variety of pack sin various scales. They make the T-34 soviet tanks, the ubiquitous Sherman, usable in the US, British and even the Soviet armies, and the good old German Panzer IV. These kits come with various bits on the sprue to build several different configurations of these tanks, as wall as some stowage to individualise the vehicle.

Three of the Panzer IVs I built for my FOW army. You can see the impressive detailing- remember this is 15mm!

As I am currently slowly building up a FOW army, I bought a box of five panzer IV. I was delighted when they arrived promptly in the post and quickly put some together.
My first impression was how remarkably well made these were. They went together perfectly, and even though the instructions were a bit sparse, the kit was so well made that it was pretty obvious how to assemble them. A while ago my son and I built a 20mm Sherman tank from Airfix, which was a right bugger to put together. In contrast these Panzers were a joy to assemble. It took me about 30 minutes to build my first tank, but by the third I had got that down to just 15minutes, which is probably about the time I spent deflashing, washing and gluing the my FOW StuG G prior to painting it.
The detailing on these tanks is fantastic, and the lines are crisp and sharp. In comparison to the FOW resin/metal tanks the Plastic Soldier Company fair very well. These Panzers were far more detailed thanthe FOW StuG G's I have been painting recently.
As for the cost, well again the Plastic Soldier Company fair very well, with five Panzer IVs costing about £16.50, which is about half of what you would expect to pay for the equivalent resin/metal tanks from FOW.
That said, it wouldn't be fair of me to not point out that The Plastic Soldier Company's range is very small compared to the huge number of vehicles and infantry available from FOW, but their range does seem to be expanding rapidly. I can see that The Plastic Soldier Company are never going to make the obscure transport vehicles and alike that FOW sell, as their is only so much money to be made from these less commonplace items, but if The Plastic Soldier Company stick to the more popular units, I can see them gathering up a larger share of the market.
If I was to build a wish list I wouldn't mind seeing a Universal Carrier that could be converted into a Mortar Carrier or an MG Carrier, and a Wasp. The ever-present Jeep would be useful too, and could come with spare crews for either Brits (regular army, desert rats and paratrooper please) and of course Yanks. A trailer would be nice too, for the pioneers. And if The Plastic Soldier Company followed FOW into the early war period (not very likely I know) I know that the Very British Civil War lot (me included) would snap up those early war light tanks 28mm.

All in all, this product is first class- well cast, with great detailing on it, and a good price, especially when compared with the FOW range. Definitely one to recommend to others.

First FOW Tanks

My Flames Of war army continues to progress very slowly. I added Five StuG III panzer to the list of completed minis as part of my Lead Painters League entry. The StuG Assault Gun was a workhorse of the German tank companies, even if it was not as respected as the bigger tanks. I just had to have some in my German army after playing Company of Heroes on the PC.

I am rather pleased with the paint job on the camouflage, which involved a lot of blending and so on. I painted on the badge, as I hate using decals, especially tiny ones. The tracks I am not so happy with, however; I might dry brush some weathering onto them to finish them off.

I have found that painting tanks for FOW is much more fun than painting infantry, and on the plus side, you don't need to paint so many either, as they cost more points value.With this in mind my FOW armies in the future will probably feature a lot more armour, and minimal infantry.

Flames of War British Rifles

Never let it be said that I am not easily distracted. Honestly, I am not sure anybody would ever say that. Having recently rediscovered the joys of the excellent 'Company of Heroes' game on the PC I decided to launch myself into another mini hobby, namely Flames of War. I managed to pick up a British Rifles Company for a good price on EBay, and have started to paint them. I imagined that painting 15mm figures would be relatively stress free, simple and speedy, as you don't have to worry too much about details, shading etc (an more importantly, you don't have to paint their eyes) but to be honest their a bit of a pain in the backside. My German force will be mostly tanks, with as few infantry as possible.
I will also have to make/paint up some suitable 15mm scenery to. Some of the VBCW stuff might be able to suits scale-wise (hills, rivers etc) but I think for the most part I will have to start from scratch. I am, however, determined to make sure this doesn't distract me too much from the VBCW stuff I am making.