506. Schwere Panzer Abteilung at 1650 for a spin.

Was going to go with my FJ's/Westfalen to defend in the next game, but, let's try this first. 6 StuGs, 2 KT's, MG teams with HT's, AAA, decent artillery and Sturmvogels to go with. Can have 1-2 KT's, AAA, Artillery on board if no delayed reserves, or maybe 3 StuGs, Artillery, AAA and CiC KT if opponent has AOP or air support. Or all StuGs, or this and that, lots of options depending on enemy. The FA7 of Stugs and the veterancy of the list in general, should make it pretty hard nut for any list.

Easy bocage

I think it has come across, that I like to play Normandy battles, so there has to be bocage for those games. I started the project last year, have played almost every homegame with them, and today I finished. I think.

I bought two kinds of wood profile, triangle and half-round, for about 6 metres of 20 feet. Yeah, it was a lot, and theres still half of them in the first and second stage... But the half of it I finished.

At first, I drilled holes in the half of the profiles and then stuck a bamboo barbeque sticks in those holes. These would be the tree-trunks, because some of the bocage have, not only bushes, but trees too. Then I added some various grains to make the stones.

On the foreground, adding tree-trunks; in the background, stoned bocage.

After that I sprayed them brown.

And had a beer.

(Yes, it's lite, deal with it - even Homewargamer should look fabulous)

Next I forgot the sprayed and dry-brushed bocage outside - as I had sparayed them outside - and  came to realize, that birds don't mind if the grains have poisonous paints over them.

Notice the absence of stones.

 I didn't mind much about eaten stones, because I was going to add the bushes and it would not show.

Just turfed.

The only problem - that I later learned - was that I had used turf, that made really cool looking bushes, but all the loose turf fell off, leaving only a thin coverage.

Turfed bocage.

Notice the big clump of turf, that - and it's kind - lead me to believe it was okay.

It wasn't.

After a year of gaming, the turf had come to a really thin layer. The bocage didn't look like bocage. So this, time I added clump foliage.

Lots of PVA before adding clump foliage.

Finished. Looks a lot better.

Fallschirmjäger from Bridge by Bridge at 1650

After beating my friends US lists black and blue with attacking forces, he's adamant in thinking that attacking is the key to do well in the game, which might not be too far from the truth. 

However, even though I told him to try out mech/tank options if he really wants to attack that much, he insists on wanting to attack with infantry. So without further ado, I'll use next time what I've used before and though originally was thinking of trying out the new FI iterations of FJ's, the BBB boys fit better thematically as they were historically very much in close relations with US Paras.

Here's my take on the 6th FJR at 1650 points, I would be pretty comfortable defending against anything with the list and opted for 4 Stugs in favor of 3 StuHs this time, although the swap is tempting to say the least, could probably go with 4th Pak and 3 StuHs.

4 Stugs

Stuhs, 4 Paks, Faust for CiC and 4th trap added, I think this wins...

I rather dislike the FV infantry vs. FV infantry fests, but we'll see if can make my point with this piece of nastiness.

Fow bloggers of Finland Unite and take over!

We have now 3 active bloggers here, 1 not so active :). Collaboration is good for heart and makes more stuff to any readers we have here. Anyone who wants to put there ideas, minis, AAR's or whatever that is about FOW or similar is welcomed here.

Basically, everyone, you don't need to be Finn to post here.

Kind regards,
Mikko 'Vonrichtofen' Hellemaa

Sound off like you got a pair!

Would you read tutorials written by this man?

I am Pete Pelkonen and I am a new contributor to this blog.

I first started modelling when I was a boy, but in my teens I found another hobbies, but every now and then I turned my thoughts on returning to the hobby. Years went on, I bought a lot of models for Normandy landing diorama in 1:35, but it didn't catch on. Yet.

In the year 2010 I bought a 1:48 Tamiya model of North American P-51D Mustang (Chuck Yeager) that I built and wrote an article of the process to Finnish modelling magazine Pienoismalli (2/2011). The real itch had begun.

In 2012 I happened to walk in a gaming store ("I'm just looking") my eye caught a starter set of Flames of War. The box included two StuGs and three Shermans. The same summer I ordered Tigers March and Panzergrenadier company. Since then, my armies have grown to include two companies of US paratroopers, an US beach assault company, an armoured US company, an SS company with strong support platoons... and in the boxes awaits a German armoured company and Soviet armoured battalion.

I am not a competetive player, but a recreational player. I like small games, but I love huge Total War games. I like the games to represent the true history and therefore I have played with few of my friends the Normandy landing and later the Market Garden. Still to come, the Bastogne. In talks are the Kursk and Berlin. The thing in common with all of these games is, that they were played at home. Hence, Homewargamer. Hence, lots of terrain at home.

Some scratch built nests.

My contribution to this blog is mostly going to be easy building tutorials concerning terrain features, but I will also write out our 5000+ point Total War games.

Why I like to stay at home? Wife, two kids. Questions?

Also, I'm trying to raise a next generation of wargamers.
Pictured the Normandy anniversary game, that my kids started to play,
but I ended up finishing with a friend.

Incoming! - Homerwargamer infiltrates the trenches

Mikko asked me to contribute to this blog and every now and then I will share something from my own blog - Homerwargamer - in here. First, I would like to write about making trenches. So here goes.

I didn't take pictures of the earilest stages of the making - that's something I will revisit when I get around making intersections and shorter trench pieces - but can still describe how I did them.

At first I thought about the trenches a lot. There is a thing that cannot be overlooked, the mindwork. Don't just make them, think about it first, especially when making modular elements as my trenches: will it work compared to other pieces of the modularity; what if I put this piece backwards, would it work; etc. After I had stumbled through these things I was ready to go.

I had decided to make three triangle corners, four square corners, five pentagon corners, nine straight trenches measuring 20 cm (8'') and four gun pits that could join the trench system. From early on I had decided the trenches to have back wall too, because that models the trench being dug better than just the front - at least I think so.

I started by sawing the bases for the trenches out of hard board (recycled old table pieces) and made them 10 cm (4'') wide, which is almost 7 cm (2 3/4'') wider than the medium base. This way, I had enough room to slope the sides and fit the logs inside the trenches.

I glued the logs first. I put four bamboo barbeque sticks on the table vertically, spacing them so that the outmost sticks were 20 cm (8''), the length of the trench section, apart from each other. Then I glued four sticks (already cut to length) side-by-side horisontally. I left a small space and then repeated this as many times as there were room or when I had enough loggings (sic? - not Kenny, though, younger readers, ask your dad or watch Top Gun). After the glue had dried, I cut the log elements out with pliers. (This whole paragraph is hard to describe in words, but as said, I will revisit the subject.)

Next I cut styrofoam to about 1 cm x 2cm strips that I glued to the bases (I had carved the the edges of the bases with my Sissipuukko - google it) so that there were enough room for medium base and log elements. Then I glued in the log elements. For corners I did not make the log elements, but glued the sticks straight to the styrofoam.

Finally, a picture!

I carved the rectangular styrofoams edges off. The coarser the styrofoam and duller the knife, the more uneven and therefore more realistic did the slope end up.

When cutting styrofoam, have the vacuum cleaner standing by. If you don't and The Wife walks into the mess, they will never find your body.

Added some sand to the slopes and to the bottom of the trench.

Sand added, stolen from the kids sand box.

I thought about the painting and ended up taking the easy way: I sprayed the trenches first with hardware stores "brown" (gloss, damn them) and went over it with Mil-Tec's Dunkelgelb. That's right, Dunkelgelb.

Dunkelgelbed. No - coyote browned. No - beiged. No - sand browned. It's  light brown, fellows.

I also painted some gauze bandage with olive green, so I could cut it to desired size, soak in watered down PVA and mold in place.

"I think these bandages are past 'best before' -date..."

 In total, I made 180 cm (6') of straight trench, add corners and that comes to total of about 340 cm (11' 2'') of trench. Plus the gun pits.

Stacked trenches.

 Of course I had to recreate a scene from a TV show on our kitchen table...

Not Sponge Bob Squarepants.

...And then I had to play the scene from a TV show with a friend.

This time around, Lipton actually blew up a gun.

As said, I am forced to revisit the trenches when I make the intersections. Maybe foxholes, too.

-Pete

Brainstorming German Mech - 1650 punkte.

So, the hunt for mech to train with goes on.

First one is your bog standard Atlantic wall - Panzer Lehr. This should attack infantry pretty well, due the ample recon and some digging power as well. Defending versus tanks would be doable as well.

Second one would be da Puma horde, likewise from AW. I kinda like this one, myself, Pumas, strong infantry platoon, Panthers/Pak40s.

Third one is geared towards getting there fast, and holding the objective long enough, all the while limiting risks with smoke. The mortar wagons double as digging tools.

4th option doesn't lack speed, either, and has my new favorite tool, StuHs on top, this might lack some staying power though.

Sharing is caring, people, let me know if you prefer one, or if you think they all suck, let me know as well. I'm gonna pick one of these to start getting good with. And promise to do a show and tell afterwards. :)

Looking at the lists, Halkomahooli is producing, makes me wonder a bit...

2./506. Schwere Panzerabteilung reinforced!! UPD. Now also 2./512. Schwere Panzerjäger Abteilung reinforced!

"Sir, we have replacements. Two PzKpfw VI Ausf. B "Tiger"s has just arrived from maintenance. Company is now at full strength."

Old KT in the middle, new KTs on the sides

This means my troops for Oosterbeek are now ready. Let those British and American dogs walk straight to our trap!

My oldest KT was made long ago and you can tell. But somehow now that all the KTs are ready and I put them side by side, I like the camouflage on the oldest KT is the best... strange! I thought I'd have learned to paint better by now. Perhaps I need to redo some of the camouflage on the new KTs. Perhaps some fading is in order.

Anyhow I wanted these to look that they have had some repairs in the rear areas and hastly sended to aid in the defense of Oosterbeek. That's why there are replaced guns and turrets etc. without camouflage paint (though should have bought the non-zimmerit ones, these look awful with zimmerit!).

Now to finish some Jagdtigers(done!) and 3,7cm FlaK43s!

UPDATE: 2./512 Schwere Panzerjäger Abteilung

Carius with his company

Now we have more Jagdtigers to deploy to the fields of battle. Their leader is the most famous Otto Carius, better known for his actions leading a Tiger I E tank.

My Carius' model is not the BFs Carius but rather a normal Jagdtiger that I use as Carius. No need to buy one more Jagdtiger when I have 3 already!

Here again, as with KTs, I went with a worn look. Also some fuelcans and other stowage was added to personalization.

Enjoy!

EasyArmy version 2.0

So after a long silence Battlefront has come to tell us the big and waited news concerning EasyArmy.

"Forces Of War!
For many years one of our play testers and proof readers Gregg Siter has in his spare time been running Easy Army. He created it out of a personal desire to have a tool to manage his armies but it has grown so that many other people can now do the same. For those of you who don’t know this is a force building software package that helps you create and use army lists. When we gave Gregg the okay right at the start to do this we always assumed this would evolve into something more and now that time has come.

Easy Army is going to evolve into Forces of War. This will be an official FOW army builder that at its core uses Easy Army but now will have more features and graphics than ever before. We still have a little more work to do until we can show you the final version but our goal is to have it up and running before our next book, Barbarossa, is out in October. Stay tuned for more news as we will be showing you what it looks like and how it will work in the coming weeks.

~John Paul"

Few questions arise.

1. What will happend to those books already bought from EasyArmy, can we keep them or do we have to buy them again and for what price? 

2. What will happend to all our armylists in EasyArmy? This relates directly to the question 1 as I think if the books will be gone so will the lists.

3. What will the new pricing be? Once for a book, monthly or annually for whole content or some other. What level will the price be for one book?

4. Updates, this is perhaps the easiest. As it's going to be a software (mentioned in John Pauls post) it can check updates via internet every time it's started.

Well we'll need to wait for now. All I hope for is that we can keep our bought books and armylists.

Cheese on tracks - StuH party! 1650 points.

Well, Stuh, 32" range, rof 2, direct fire smoke and breakthrough gun, what's not to like?

8 of these beasts might be too many, but had to try it on...

Hq:
Knacker/smgs
3 schrecks

Cp1 full pzgren MG zug and Faust
Cp2 same as one
Sp1 4 Stuh
Sp2 4 Stuh
Sp3 nebs
Sp4 8-rads
Limited Stuka D

1650 points, 6 platoons, smoke, air, recon

Kicked the crap out of night attacking Brit para list. Tomorrow, new try versus US list.