Me 262 Sturmvogel!

I've been after one of these for some time and managed to pick one up at a recent show for the princely sum of £6.60!

My intention was that of a Winter camo but it turned out to be more of a traditional scheme albeit slightly paler.

The fuselage stripes are of KG 51 who by the time of the Ardennes flew Me 262s which were used as ground attack of that campaign.

Update on T-34s and Brummbars.

Done a little oil work this evening on a T-34 and Brummbar to see how they looked, I'm not really happy with the brummbar as I went a little overboard on the Zimmerit, however, I stil have time to manipulate this and remove excess.

Quick Update (no pics)

Quick text only update, I've been working on a few commission pieces I've had for a few weeks but I'm having a few problems with them. Mainly in researching the new style basing of Motorcycles, I've been working on and based and base coated 4 small motorcycle teams only to find out that the new style stands have 2 x motorcycle/sidecar combinations on a large base.
 Unfortunately the blister doesn't give enough to field even the smallest amount of teams to use them in a game so I'm at a bit of a loss on what to do. I'm thinking I may actually use what I have here and mod some older models I have in my bits box to make some "action poses"? I've got an old DAK bike and sidecar which is identical to the LW ones that I was thinking about using with a dismounted MG gunner firing over the back of it or something similar? then for the second stand I was considering using a standard bike team but with perhaps a kubelwagen/schwimmwagen based with it. I like to think this reflects some of the ramshackle supply issues that befell the Germans towards the end of the war and that they'll use anything serviceable for the role needed?

New Mini Studio Tester Shots.

So I got a mini photography studio and I've taken some tester shots to see how much of a difference it makes.

I think the difference is pretty apparent, but I also need to dust my tanks :(

Further U.S. Infantry Updates!

Finished these two stands off this morning before I shoot off to work, quick, easy and look good on the table?

Thoughts and CC welcome!

U.S. 3rd Armored Update.

Worked a little more on my U.S. Armoured Rifles today.

Got a couple of test stands 90% complete, they just need basing then hitting with a matte spray. I've gone with a flat grey paint for the gunmetal areas for a change to see what sort of a difference this makes, I've seen it done by various painters and it works very nicely.

Again, I'm really not trying to go all out on these guys, just to have them looking decent on the table top!

U.S. 3rd Armored Update.

I'm a little sick of working on tanks at the moment so I've been doing a lot of work on my Armoured rifle Platoon to support my 3rd Armored Division.

They've been based for a week or so and today I've done the gaiters and jackets on all stands and also their trousers. I'm planning in trying to oil wash all of these guys at once to see how it turns out with a view to using that technique in future for non-camouflaged uniforms. All that now remains for me to do is the webbing (VMC Green Grey), the helmets and larger pieces of equipment (VMC Brown Violet),  flesh areas and finally the weapons (likely to use (VMC Flat Earth).

I'm not going to highlight the uniforms at all and simply oil wash over them with thinned Mig 502 Abteilung Black Oil Paint. I've been using this technique to what I think is a good effect on my recent Elefants and Tiger (P), giving a "black-lined" effect which is manageable. The oil takes so long to dry you can use straight thinner/white spirit to remove excess wash or even adjust where its lying on the model to some degree, I'm hoping this picks out the webbing and things like face details in one fell swoop.

Below is a pic of the current progress on the ARP guys, I'm currently stalled on the Armour for the list as I wait for some better decals and also work out how best to mark the Stuarts in respect to their unit denominations? I've seen large letter/number combos painted on the side of some 1/72 models like C-3 in a very large yellow font on the side of the hull and while I really like this and want to use this sort of marking I want to research it properly first (and possibly find some decals for them too!).

Monday Afternoon Game.

So my mate Stoo, who originally got me into FoW years ago, has picked up V3 and has some renewed interest in FoW so we decided to have a rules game to try out the new rules and a list he'd drawn up from Red Bear. I was running my SS Kavallerieschwadron which is finished model wise but I'm still painting several platoons.

Below is a few pictures from the game and you can see Stoo being a bit vexed by his situation. Warning, there are a lot silver surfers on the table here but it's just a friendly, rules and list tweaking game in my "war-room"!

We played No Retreat with myself as the defender.

EDIT: Yes, the last pic is of 3 bogged Hetzers, "overloaded" is a bloody nightmare!

Unit Markings For My German Infantry

I'm stripping and repainting an awful lot of my older infantry in the hope I can get them homogeneous to some degree. I'm using an idea I've seen many other players use to prevent any confusion over unit formations and painting markings onto a small strip on the rear of the bases. Rather than just use random colour combinations I've decided to stay slightly historical and German themed and use the colours that represent their various medal ribbons.

I've started with my already painted Panzergrenadiers, I'm hoping to base and paint the rest of my infantry to match these chaps to a reasonable level. I've added to the rear of their bases the colour combination of the Eastern Front Medals ribbon:

Sunday 19th Feb Game Pics.

Mixture of game pics from my local club, they're from several different games going on over the course of the day, followed by pics of Rommel my cat and his unnatural urge to lie on not only my tanks but also my infantry....

Yes, I have been busy tonight....

Das Reich T-34s, first 4 hit with the airbrush. Still working out the pressures etc with the finer for the two airbrushes which is what I was using this evening and it shows in several spots. In some areas I got the line beautifully fine but then the other areas were that much thicker I ended up double over the fine lines to bulk them out a touch.

Base colour is Tamiya XF-4 Yellow Green, the green is Vallejo Model Air Cam. Greeny 71022 and the brown is again Model Air Tank Brown 71041. On top of all this is a liberal coating of Migs filter for tritonal camouflage, hence the sheen as it's still wet in this picture.

I think you'll agree from the comparison shot that the filter really brings the colours together and looking much more accurate than you'd think anything with that base coat could look? Well I hope so anyway.

Flak Nest Progress.

So I picked up the Flak Nests at Vapnartak in York two weeks back and I've been working on those alongside, frankly, a shed load of other projects but this is their current status.

 I've literally just stuck the guns and gunners together, which was very hard due to various minor miscasting problems and low surface areas upon which to glue parts together.

Quick Spearhead Update

All Stuarts have had a FoW US Armour spray base over grey polyurethane primer, a GW Badab Black wash followed by a heavy Vallejo Brown Violet drybrush. I've only just done the hulls half an hour ago and below is a pic of their current progress.

The tank on the right is how I'm going to paint them all hopefully, perhaps slightly lighter in tone though as I think it looks too much like a British tank rather than American.

Yesterday I received 160 rare earth magnets to magnetise every one of my turreted vehicles as I've been noticing more and more wear/paint damage to my Cromwells and a few other tanks. These Stuarts have all had their turrets and hulls magnetised to not only to protect their paint work but also to protect the phenomenally fragile .30 Cal MGs and their tiny main gun barrels.

Sunday Afternoon Game.

James and I had a game at one of local (ish) clubs facing off with my box fresh 3rd Armored Light Tank Company against a Panzerspah Lehr Company. We rolled the "Surrounded" scenario from the V3 book and with James being mechanised he was on the defensive, a difficult task for his manoeuvrable force facing my equally manoeuvrable light tanks! Unfortunately the lists aren't fully painted yet but I've only had all of the U.S. stuff for literally a few weeks and I've been painting them like a lunatic to get them table ready ASAP. I hope to have them finished within a week.

The lists were as follows:

3rd Armored Light Tanks:

HQ - 2 Stuarts
1st Platoon - 5 Stuarts
2nd Platoon - 5 Stuarts
3rd Platoon - 5 Stuarts
Medium Tank Platoon - 4 Shermans
Medium Tank Platoon - 4 Shermans
Armored Rifle Platoon
Armored Mortar Platoon
Understrength Recon Platoon

Panzerspah Lehr Company:
HQ - 1 Puma
Panzerspah Platoon - 3 Pumas
Panzerspah Platoon - 3 Pumas
Panzerspah Platoon - 3 Pumas
Panzer Platoon - 5 x PzIV
Panzer Platoon - 5 x PzIV
Panzerpioneer Platoon

This isn't going to be a batrep but just a few random pics from the game.

The first Pumas fall to massed Sherman and Stuart shots! Meanwhile the Panzer IVs form a secure gun line in the treeline using their concealement well and picking off Shermans and Stuarts alike across the open ground between them.

This lone Puma on the bridge was photographed at the end of the battle but he was one of the first casualties and successfully blocked the bridge slowing my Shermans progress over the bridge! This made them take a few turns to get into the accessible, open rear of the board instead of the single turn it would've taken n a clear road!

Stuarts manoeuvre into cover on the edge of a field ready to leap frog to the next available cover (which was a leap too far might I add!).

Stuarts race at the Panzer IVs in an effort to close their targets down then break for side armour shots, they actually bailed a few of the Panzers from the front. Unfortunately they all remounted and returned some withering fire on the headstrong "Spearhead" Division.

Flanking Shermans breakthrough to wreak havoc in the enemies rear, destroying or breaking the last Puma platoons and exchanging fire with the remaining PzIVs!

Aftermath of the "crop fight" leaves many burning Stuarts but has held up this flank for long enough to allow other forces into the rear. As you can see at the top of the picture, Shermans are rushing into the void left by Pumas.

Aerial shot of the end of the battle, company morale check was forced rather than anything clever on my part but I had the top objective capped with nothing to oppose me next turn!