Captured Soviet Panther A (Part 3): Finished

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Chris

How ironic. I finally finish the Panther only to find that the original page can’t be edited anymore! Error 505 or something. Oh well. I’m told image size can cause this general fault and, as some of you have noted, the photos are quite large. My intention with these guides has always been to provide large photos that show the models, warts and all. In future, I’ll try resizing the image to get a happy medium between detail and download .

Anyway, back to the business in hand. I finally weathered the Panther through a fairly liberal application of MiG Pigments Po23 Black Smoke, Po24 Europe Dust, P033 Dark Mud and Po34 Russian Earth:

On the whole, I’m reasonably happy with how she turned out. The oval decal isn’t quite right, but it’ll do. The zimmerit has turned out rather dark. I might be tempted to use a sepia colour to shade next time I do something like this rather than the dark, almost black, brown of the MiG Dark Wash. I’m happy with the weathering and the tracks.

Communist Kitty done.

Stalin’s Europe: The Soviet Invasion of Eastern Europe, October – February 1945: a review.

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Justin

I have a good postman. His name is Sean. When there’s nobody at home he puts parcels under our back gate to save me the journey down to the Sorting Office. Well anyway, that’s how Battlefront’s latest Eastern Front supplement Stalin’s Europe arrived at our house.

I always get mixed feelings about the release of a new book. It goes something like this:

Excitement: I’m guaranteed a rash of new releases and the chance to field sumfink new. Those SU100s look nice. The Panzer IV/70s look marvellous and, lo, do my eyes deceive me? A WirbleWind! Whoop, I’ve never had it so good!

Trepidation: It’s released, but I’ve got to wait for it to arrive as I live in a corner of the country where all the wargames shops have closed down (apart from Games Workshop, of course).

Bewilderment: It’s arrived, I’ve got it! Look at all those marvellous photos of all the incredibly well painted minis, 8 ‘new’ army lists (2 Soviet, 1 Romanian, 2 German and 3 Hungarian), 2 new heroes, painting guides, barricade rules! Wow.

Disenchantment: Hold on, isn’t that Soviet Lend-Lease Tank Battalion on pages 15-8, pretty much an up-gunned version of the same Lend Lease Battalion listed in Hammer and Sickle, pp. 28-31 ( M4A2s instead of M4/Valentine VIIIs / Ba4 recon instead of Decoy Recon and the unique option to field luvely SU100s rather than SU85s?) .

Urm…am I mistaken or is the Feldherrnhalle Panzergrenadierkompanie on pages 52 – 56, pretty much the same as that outlined in Fortress Europe, pp. 30-35, but with exclusive rights to Panzer IV/70 (A)s? Gosh, I hope this isn’t a ruse: love the models? Then buy the book.

Aaargh, where have all the scenarios gone? (Answer: Wargames Illustrated). Shame.

Aren’t the Street Barricade Special Rules on p. 89 duplicated in Das Book, p.50? Aren’t the Field Fortifications rules on page 88 a copy of those in Stalin’s Onslaught, page 64, but – inextricably – omitting the possibility of booby traps?

Hmm, come to think of it, I can’t really afford to buy a LW Hungarian or Romanian Army can I? Why would I restrict myself to this Theatre? And let’s say I did, even I can see that aspects of this Theatre aren’t featured at all, e.g. Operation Spring Awakening (Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen – 6-16 March 1945), the Last German offensive of WWII. But I guess Battlefront had to draw the line somewhere…

Acceptance: As a Soviet player, the ‘pick-n-mix’ aspects of the Soviet Storm Battalion are quite interesting (I could use this list in street-fighting games in Berlin). The Hungarian and Romanian lists are new to me (but then I haven’t got the Mid-War Ost Front book so I’m not totally informed). The photos are…nice.

So, if I could get my postman to deliver it all over again, would I?

Well, if I had all of my regular LW Eastern Front formations painted up and ready to go, had the spare cash, time and inclination to paint a relatively niche army then yes, I think I would do it all over again. But if I was just starting out and wanted to fight across the Eastern Front I’d probably be better off spending my hard-earned pennies on Fortress Europe or, if I was into fighting specific Operations, then Stalin’s Onslaught or Hammer and Sickle might be the better options.

But it does beg the question: do Battlefront plan to publish a final Eastern Front book covering March – May 1945? Is there a Stalin’s End Game in the pipeline? Will we be given the chance to say ‘Goodbye to Berlin?’

I’m beginning to get that feeling once again.

We give Stalin’s Europe a luke-warm: 2/5.

Lets Not Forget Normandy 3

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Justin

I’ve been talking to the good folk over at Timecast about the 15mm Landmark Normandy buildings that they’ve got back in production. Unfortunately, Timecast are unable to finance the whole range in one go, but will be releasing 6 of the models to start with in March and not January as originally predicted last year.

These will be:

LNO1 – church
LNO6 – Boulangerie
LNO7 – Cafe
LNO8 – Heisevill House
LNO9 – Breville House
LNO16 – Low Walls

It is hoped that the sales of the first batch will generate sufficient income to enable the release of the rest of the range. No price list has yet been finalised due to the present economic climate in the UK. This won’t be a limited run. Timecast plan to keep these solid-cast models in production for the forseeable future.

We’ll let you know when they become available.

Model Dads chase the American dream

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Justin

The splendid folks on the otherside of ’The Pond’ at What Would Patton Do have been good enough to praise Model Dads’ After Action Reports in their latest venerable podcast. Download the latest episode here and check it out. Oh, and they also talk about other stuff too