Thursday, November 24, 2011

Fallschirmjäger 8cm Light Mortar platoon(15mm)


Hi folks revisiting my Fallschirmjäger for FOW and finished up a platoon I've had half finished for quite some rime. These are some light Mortars  which are essential to all FJ forces as they can provide the quickest and fastest means of suppression allowing for rapid deployment of their forces or stop attackers from overwhelming their defensive positions.

I'm having quite some fun painting right now as I'm bouncing around between subjects which keeps me at the painting desk when I have time. I still have plans to add more to this force whenever the mood takes me again. I also attained a very large American Airborne and Tank Company for FOW so stay tuned for that.:-)

As always thanks for viewing!:-)

Miniature Company:FOW Battlefront

Monday, November 14, 2011

FOW Game and a couple wall pictures

"KAAA.... BOOM....BOOM"
Hanz  felt the concussion of the the two Pak 40's firing almost simultaneously but as a veteran of nearly constant action over several years he was used to it and so kept his binoculars trained on the advancing  British Churchill's to check the effect of their fire .  A slow smile turned his normally stern lips into a upward turn as he saw two Churchill's explode in a fountain of burning lead and smoke.  This caused the remaining tank to go in reverse and leave the field which Franz noticed seemed to be what the British were doing across the entire visible sector.  He knew they would be back, but for today they held their position and that was good enough for him.
He could remember the glory days of when he actually was a Jäger jumping out of planes and doing the job of a Fallschirmjäger, but those days were long gone which found him replacing his chute for a spade. Now his only concern was keeping himself and his men alive and for today at least it was by and large a success.
"Ok good work gentlemen now clean the barrels, set a watch and get some food inside you and what rest you can as the English will come knocking  again tomorrow."
With that he lit a cigarette and wearily set his back to a tree and began writing his AAR. 

 I invited a couple friends over to my house for a FOW game to have a game and show off my new room.
We played 4000pts using the Fortress Europe lists with Mixer playing A British Rifle company vs Scnugg(Panzergrenadiers) and myself Fallschirmjäger.
I won't give a blow by blow account, but rather a brief report of the battle.
Things started well for the British when virtually 2 platoons of Schnugg's stugs and 2 platoon's of infantry were shredded in a aggressive attempt to pressure the British. After this the Germans pulled back and started an air and artillery duel where they began inflicting some casualties.
The British decided to take the initiative and go on the offensive and this is were things started to really go wrong for them as the Germans were weakened , but far from out of it. A combination of  artillery, MG fire, anti-tank, a small Tiger offensive combined with infantry stopped the Brits cold and eventually broke their army.
In fairness to Mixer he could have sat back with his Brits and probably stood a far better chance to win, but since this was a friendly game he kept the game fun and went on the counter offence. It didn't help him much that he rolled pretty darn abysmal while doing it and we as a whole rolled quite good for the second half which all coupled altogether spelled doom for the Brits.
I had a great time playing and really enjoyed the company and hope to have them back soon.
Here are few quick pics of the game.  The pics didn't turn out all that well as I need to polish my in game photography skills, but hopefully it gives you somewhat of an impression of our game.


I used a cloth blanket that is spray painted to get ground color texture. I still need to work it up some more, but I'm happy in the direction it's going.  I vastly prefer cloth to any other playing surface as you can place hills underneath to give more subtle changes to the elevation and it's kind to models plus easy to manipulate. I also use sand for roads as it looks more natural in both in color and how it lays out on the board compared to modelled ones in my opinion. The hedges and fields are still raw and need some color foliage added to give better depth which is on my to do list along with some buildings and such. I also plan to base some of my trees in groups and leave others as singles. No doubt plenty of work yet to do on my terrain, but it's progressing as I see more what needs improving.
Here a couple pics I added to my walls of which Troini's 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg takes pride of place as I like the pic a great deal and it's my home state.

Thanks for viewing!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

General blog update


Hi Folks

I thought I would just give a general summation of where I'm at in the hobby so you don't think I've gone off the deep end!

When doing the El Cid project I had to meet a deadline. This put me in a position where I had to paint something when I was often not in the mood to do so which really had me frustrated! I absolutely hate being constrained and forced to paint something when I don't want to and therefore I was often miserable at the painting desk during this period! Of course it's nice finishing a project, but for me not in that fashion. I want to finish projects when I'm ready and not some predetermined date. This hobby is all about enjoying yourself and I will not put myself in that position again. I now only agree to do projects on a loose basis where I can back out gracefully or at least extend the agreed upon finish date if needed.As to events then only agree with something I'm finished with or I'm largely finished with already.

So many may be asking that's all fine and dandy Christopher, but what has that got to do with the blog? The answer is expect to see extremely radical swings in projects on this blog as I jump around all over the place like kids with free tickets in Disneyland!Freedom!!!!!!! That's right folks, I'm going to paint whatever strikes my interest at that particular moment! If you see a period you like and I drift off somewhere else then don't be concerned as I'll be back on it for sure at some point. Yes siree I'm not the best gent to tell you how to start and finish an army in reasonable amount of time, but I guess the good thing is I'll usually have something different on each post. Ok,  I'm reaching, but it's something.:-)  Right now I want to do a multitude of projects all at the same time and my painting will reflect it more then usually! Basically I'm giving an excuse for the eclectic nature of this blog and my inability to keep focused!

Happy painting out there!!:-)