Panthera pardus

Finally my Flames of War Panther are finished! Just in time to support my good friend Tom at the tournament next saturday. And off course just in time to kill off my T-34's and JS-2 when we batttle it out at this tournament....

Originally (and in the long run they will certainly be used for that) they were intended to support my 'legion of the damned' dutch waffen ss army. And in the first battles of this army they actually fought, in mono-color mittel gelb bare skin.

The idea was to give the Panther are worn out and 'dirty' look, in the process of loosing their winter fur... 

I find it's hard to create 'realistic' damage, dirt and soil in this scale and imho it's a bit overdone.But I had a lot of fun doing so :-)

New game board

Yes I went for the realm of battle boards (only before I found out of the existence of battle mats, but more on that later!). How to paint this set with not too much effort.y dwarfs are stone based so would also go nice with snow I'm guessing. I bought some good paint, bright blue (icy) and white and went to town with it! First all sheets are painted blue (took me an afternoon and week of drying). Then first layer of partly drybrush white since all the ice is covered mostly in snow. Now we have Icy blocks and icy skulls and lots of snow. Looks good on the battlefield in my opinion.

I came up with the winter theme, since my Ogres are also winter based! My dwarfs are stone based so would also go nice with snow I'm guessing.

I bought some good paint, bright blue (icy) and white and went to town with it! First all sheets are painted blue (took me an afternoon and week of drying). Then first layer of partly drybrush white since all the ice is covered mostly in snow. Now we have Icy blocks and icy skulls and lots of snow. Looks good on the battlefield in my opinion.

Full battlefield overview here! Some snowy trees to finish the setting of!

While gaming the paint held nicely. I might go and add some more white in order to get a thicker layer there as well but other then that: great stuff!

 Skulls are painted blue with white highlight as well. I am thinking of making them skull colored but they might also be covered with ice water.

Details of just finised snow tiles


 A nice dicebag from the dicebag lady to complete an awesome gaming table!

Flames of War: Italians

I already posted some stuff on my first steps into FoW, but since the blog has been silent for some time, I thought it a good moment to get back into the saddle with my ventures on FoW. I am active with twitter and my mini's but now the pictures are auto synced to google and direct accessible in blogger! Good stuff and easier to post posts!

What have I been doing then on the FoW front. I am collecting Italians for some time. Mostly little tanks to create a carri army. This is mid war period. All of sudden a tournament popped up that was only a stones throw away from my home. Ideal to get some real battles in and finish my army. Only point being, this tourny turned out to be late war! OK, new army list: paracadutisti, loads of infantry and all new paint work. How did I fare?

First up I installed my airbrush setup so I would only have to sit down and spray. This helps a lot when wanting to airbrush. If you have to get everything out of closets and clean up space to set it up, you are don't have the spirit any more to use it. And indeed I got behind my spray booth and sprayed the base color on the italians with shading and highlights. Only faces, guns, packs, canteens, etc. to pick out and your done! Oh, and basing! Easy....right.

 Well basing was covered with sandy paste from vallejo. Still took a lot of time to do, because you have to be careful with not toughing those lovely painted mini's! Also touching up on the footing of the mini and covering its base was a session in itself!

Painting and toughing up took me days! Every night a session painting only 160 pairs of boots, and next only canteens, etc. etc.!

 And then I found more! And I needed more to get a good and full paracadutisti army list (actually now the list is finished I think I might need more!!!)

 Painting away and making bases. I am going to use these awesome Lancia models as 88's anti aircraft fire in my list. They look so good!

 Mortar teams, machine gun teams, they are all there and under way of basing here! Now all finished and ready for battle!

 Yes, finally one the first battles testing the list, not everything is based here but playable!

First battle didn't go well, I lost but found out I missed 300 points in my list so that would make up some troops I needed actually in this scenario.
Meanwhile I have been playing 2 other test battles with a good list last one, and won those 2. All is looking well, I am getting a feel for the FoW game system. Lots of rules looking up though and forgetting my Italian special rules like Avanti and Heroismo! :) Only 2 weeks to go until the tournament! I am ready!