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.

Garage Days Re-visited! Updated a bit.

Been moving from our last apartment to a new one nearby for the last weeks, now I have a small backyard to BBQ in, my Weber One Touch Premium coal grill still in it's box, waiting for Spring, which sadly will be postponed as the weatherman says we'll get some winter starting tomorrow... Grrr.

Well, I also got a nice, warm, cleanish, roomy garage I have no intention of keeping my car in. I've already gotten quite a few interested in helping to create a gaming table and scenery to have a nice gaming depot at home, which should make it easier to play games as the government will be happier with me drinking beer nearby :)

Once all the boxes are out from the garage and in the house, the project will begin.

I'll try to update this blog with the process.

UPDATE.

Pfft, still no chance to do anything to the garage but dream of the mancave, I fear the local government is getting ideas on how to utilize the space...

Well, summer's gonna hit Finland soon, so Garage days are awaiting :)

Looking for collaboration / Kiinnostaako Flames of War blogi yhteystyö?

Writing a Flames of war blog alone is something I like to do but if somebody wants to do posts here, I'd like to hear from you. Any ideas how to make the blog more interesting would be something I'd like to hear.

- Finnish language posts?
- AAR's
- Tactics
- Cartoons
- Painting stuff
- Another games

Please contact me at mikko.hellemaa(at)gmail.com

Video Games -- the Horror.

Bought a PS3 game yesterday, Bethesda Id Software couple of years old 1st Person shooter called Rage. It was only few euros and it sort of reminded me of fond memories with Fallout saga, and also quite a few RPG sessions from my youth.

Don't know if it's me getting old, or are the games getting more difficult nowadays, last night stayed far too long awake trying to blow up a hummer with a turret, with bullets running out all the time,,, Guess I'm more fit to pushing little men on a table..

Location Change - Moving is hell... Nothing to do with Fow

Well, now I can safely say I've lived in all kinds of accommodations, barring igloo. We just moved after living in a wooden house built post-war for almost 3 years. The owning a house really opened a new world to a city-dweller. I still think it's the optimal form of living if you don't consider your own time really expensive...

I've done my share of gardening, branch-cutting, mole-hunting, mouse-trapping, cutting down trees and the myriad stuff that the interior of an old house needs to be done in order to keep rolling... I even changed the windows of the thing before we sold it. The last three years were also snowfall records here in Finland...

Selling a house in the economic climate of today is another thing I don't really like, especially a fringe-of-city one, still we managed to get that done, so might be getting more gaming done in the near future.

Our sons have aged from 5-3-  to 7-5-2 years old during the stint to the country-side, and happy to move to apartment in the capital, as they tend to sense the emotions of the parents. Funny enough, now we've got beach less than 500 m from the house, not to mention the public transportation, the shops and social life :) As in the small town we got rumors, cars and petty politics..

It's quite heart-warming when your neighbors are really sad to see you go, never imagined myself as the good neighbor type...