Feldhernalle Panzergrenadier Platoon

Done these in about a week, quite pleased with them. I still find doing faces and hands well a REAL chore so I just do them very simply.

IS-2s + Tankos = headache.

So the IS-2s are still here, I'm keeping them.

I recovered from my rant and decided in all honestly, it was my own fault for making such a stupid list, I've now bulked it out and it's 5 platoons. I need a lot more model-wise to finish it but it's acceptable and covers more possibilities.

I've been looking for methods to mount tankos to my IS-2s and still be able to do a couple of things, these things being:

Rotate turret to face ANY angle, remember this has a RoF 1 but does NOT have slow traverse so in situations where faster tanks are moving for side shots you're going to want to turn your turret to fire, not your hull which would give you +1s needed to hit.

Have the ability to remove the tankos to symbolise casualties/dismounts without starting to mess around with keeping a written record. This would also be useful when I don't field tankos in my list at all and I don't need them on.

My solution so far is this:

They're Gone!

First game with the IS-2s, Encounter - Half my forces off the board, that meant I had one IS-2 and one platoon on the board = Loss. Can't physically contest 2 objectives, utter loss.

Think they'll be going on ebay due in part simply to my poor list making skills, that said there's very little extra these guys can run.

They're Coming!

So I've been busy today, I stripped and worked on the older sculpted IS-2s I got from my mate Stoo and assembled the 3 new ones that arrived today.

I was in such a rush to get these painted I brushed primed them when my black aerosol ran out then I even brushed the Russian Green on when I broke my airbrush (more on that at another time, I've already ranted once today).

The discrepancies between the newer and older IS-2s is minimal, the newer models have resin sculpted cupolas whereas the new models come with 3 different white metal cupolas, open, closed and one modelled open with the commander manning the Dushka AA MG. I've used the manned AA MGs on all the new sculpts I've got, my reasoning for this is threefold:

1) They look cool as hell

2)All my IS-2s have them fitted in my list

3)Glueing the loose DShK to the loose cupolas will only end in tears. Sdkfz 250/251 AA MGs, I'm looking at you!

I'm thinking of doing these along the same lines as my T-34/85s but perhaps without the oil wash and just a standard GW wash. This for no other reason than I'm almost out of gloss varnish and I'll probably only get one coat for each tank out of what I have left. One things for sure is that I'll be using the same wear pattern (rust over pale blue) on these as on the T-34/85s (link).

[rant]

So I've been playing Flames of War for a good few years now and I always thought it was reasonably priced, I've spent into the thousands now in total. It was never cheap, and from a very old school GW player I remember when GW hit its pricing peak 10-15 years back and things were ludicrously priced. Thankfully my GW playing days had finished long before that so I was never subjected those costs.

Recently I've been looking at new options and lists for various periods and nations in Flames of War, I got myself some IS-2s to make a pure heavy guards armoured list and get into soviets without too many withdrawal symptoms from my Tigers and Panthers. A friend of mine had some old BF casts of these which we made a deal over, a day later he has two blisters of Russian 122 howitzers to inject some new life into his Strelkovy and I have 4 IS-2s to match the 3 new ones I've ordered.

The point in my post is this, I looked at the content of the 2 blisters I'd ordered for the upcoming trade and there really isn't a lot to them, I then looked at the price, then back at the blister. I'm just aghast at the cost of some of the blisters and packs you get from Battlefront and what you actually get in them. For £26 I've managed to get 4 guns, which is only 170 points of additional options for a Soviet Artillery Battalion, you need another 8 guns (£52) of blisters. That's a phenomenal  £78 (At Battlefronts RRP) for 400 points of Soviet Arty Company before your artillery HQ  blister.

The same can be said for other units, I priced an 8 vehicle Guards Rocket Mortar Battalion at £76 (again BFs RRP) for a 210 point option!? Starmonkee on here has noticed the same issue with a relatively low points costing battery of Panzerwerfer 42s at nigh on £80 with the arty HQ added in!  Frankly, this is just ridiculous. yes, I know the point isn't about the cost per point on the table but the cost for the models, construction and packaging. That said I'm frequently seeing more and more poor value and a lot of poorly cast items from Battlefront, I love the quality of Battlefronts products in general but they are very, very small and no I'm not referring to the scale in general but to how much you get in a blister. When you unpack, de-flash, file, trim and base a Blister that just cost you £13 you appreciate just how much a few tiny little men and 2 small guns just cost you. I know that Battlefront is a company, not a charitably organisation but genuinely if this gets any worse I'll be dropping my whole collection on ebay for somebody who has the time, patience and disposable income to keep pursuing this hobby.

[/rant]

LW Panzergrenadiers almost finished!

So I've literally started from scratch with these in two days, quite happy with them, camo is so-so, not as good as my FJ but I spent NOWHERE near the amount of time on it.

I've tried some easy over highlighting on parts of the fieldgrey uniforms and some of the webbing in and effort to make them stand out a little. Better than most of the other infantry I've ever done so for a day or so's work I'm happy with them.

T-34/95s finished

Finished the T-34/85s Stowage etc this afternoon... Then Rommel fell asleep on the stuff I was going to do next!