Painting: Battlefront Gepard (TGBX07)

Today on the blog, the freshly painted Gepards roll off the painting desk.

A month and a day ago, I reviewed and un-boxed the Battlefront Gepards. That post is here. We have had terrible weather in Sydney, between high heat, humidity and rainfall. I finally managed a good day for spraying a few days back. The Gepards are the first of that batch of TY West Germans to be finished. More to come!

I used the Plastic Soldier Soviet Green spray. If anyone from Plastic Soldier Company or a distributor in Australia is reading this, your spray cans are great but very hard to come by. I have checked a bunch of shops and was unable to get my hands on a can. I ended up convincing a mate to part with one of his cans that he isn't using just yet. The product is good and I for one would buy more if I could get a hold of more.

Anyway, back to the Gepards. Aside from the Soviet Green spray, I followed my now standard TY paint scheme and it worked well. I couldn't tell from the pictures what colour the radar dish should be so I left it Green. If anyone knows, please sound off in comments.

I hope you enjoyed this review.

Treasures from the Top Drawer - Part Two - FIB Nebs

So earlier in the week, I shared my first Treasures from the Top Drawer post. Here is another.

Unit assembled.

I picked these up a while back. At the time, Battlefront were having issues with meeting supply and it seemed a good opportunity to try another manufacture's wares. I went with Forged in Battle (FIB). FIB have a good range of German, Russian, British and American WWII figures. FIB are probably most well known for the bases that are cast onto their vehicles. This has polarized the FOW community; who knew that based tanks could cause so much angst. Ironically, most Bolt Action players seem to go out of their way to base up their vehicles. I for one don't mind the bases, they serve as an additional area to decorate. Thankfully the FIB ones are smaller so don't really interrupt placement of vehicles. Bases aside, their range is good. Their website is here. Check them out!

Pretty sure the chap at the front is from BF.

The figures themselves are very nice. The crew are slightly larger than BF standard models but otherwise very well proportioned. The detail is crisp and the figures are well cast. From memory, there wasn't any major cleanup required. I suspect there is a figure or two in the mix that are BF crew. I am not sure though, it has been a while. The observer team is definitely from BF.

Crew reloading.

The smoke launchers are slightly smaller than the BF equivalent but are just as well sculpted. The trail is cast as one piece and from memory, the launcher is another separate piece. Not much assembly required. These models look great - you wouldn't be able to mix these with BF nebs in the same unit though.

Close up.

When these were relegated to the top drawer, the figures were glued to the base (which I provided from my spares box) and everything was undercoated black. I have simply painted them in my current method. I have done some work on the basing and I like the scheme. There is a mix of three different products there.

Rear shot

I hope you enjoyed the review. Stay tuned for future tales of Treasures from the Top Drawer.

View from the Cherry picker.

Side shot.

Treasures from the Top Drawer: Battlefront Panzer III Objective.

In my Not a New Years Resolution post, I listed six focus points for the year. Number 2 was the DESERT. Yes the word was capitalised. :) Number 6 was to finish off some of my part painted lead. Well today I am reporting that I have with one single objective, worked on both of those subject areas. I present you with my completed Battlefront Panzer III objective. I don't have the blister and I cannot find this objective in the online store, so I cannot share the code. Perhaps the objectives are discontinued.

This stand was started just after I finished painting some DAK infantry as a test piece for some armour. It was then abandoned as I moved onto an urgent project and the objective lingered part-painted in the top drawer.

It was undercoated in black from the period when I undercoated all my models this way. It had simply then had a drybrush of Iraqi Sand. I have now fully painted the tank in Iraqi Sand, trying to hit every black nook and cranny. I painted the tracks and tarps German Camouflage Medium Brown, the helmets in Desert Yellow and German Camouflage Green and the loose wheels Iraqi Sand. The whole model was washed in Dark Shade before highlighting the tank in Iraqi Sand and the other components with a mix of the base colour and Iraqi Sand. The base is Desert Yellow with a drybrush of Dark Sand. The base colours match my infantry. I will finish the base with tufts and other pieces once I decide on a scheme.

I hope this is the first of many posts as I pull down treasures from the top drawer and finish them off. I hope you enjoyed this post.

Painting: Battlefront Luchs Spah Grupp (TGBX05)

Last week I reviewed the Battlefront Luchs Spah Grupp. The first of the 2 patrols of 2 cars is now painted up.

In order to eventually tell the 2 units apart, rather than use turret numbers - which I find hard to see from the table top, I have elected to add Jerry cans to the side of the 2 cars in the first unit. I will add different stowage to the 2nd unit.

You may recall I originally detailed my plan for painting up the vehicles in the army here. This plan didn't survive first contact with the brush and was altered when I painted up my Leopard IIs. At that point I swapped Black Grey for Panzer Gray.  For the Luchs, I have kept the Panzer Gray but used Soviet Green for the base colour. I think this is an improvement and will keep this scheme for the next unit.

This unit was a ton of fun to paint. I think my technique is improving and cannot wait to paint up the next unit. But that is a post for another day!

Onto the photos. Enjoy!:

Painting: Battlefront Fliegerfaust Grupp (TGR708)

Earlier in the week, I reviewed the Battlefront Fliegerfaust Grupp. You can find that review on this link. I have just finished painting up the blister. Given the short time it took to paint up the Panzer Grenadier Platoon, I was expecting a pretty quick turn around time on this blister.

However the reality was something else. Just the six stands contain 36 figures. The six bases are each large and therefore require extra basing. However I wont need to paint another pack so not a massive problem.

Overall, I think they turned out pretty well. Given the amount of open space on the bases, this pack would have provided a great opportunity to add some more details like walls or fences.

Roll the pictures....

Tournament: Cancon Day 3.

Cancon is the biggest event of the year. It is also the event where the majority of the entrants travel. As such 3 days away is a great chance to catch up with mates, play a game or 14 (if you are silly enough to play day and night flames!) and have a few beers. All this can be pretty tiring. By day 3 I was having a ton of fun but a little tired. I only managed to grab a few photos.

Fortunately, most of those photos were of the spectacular campaign event final big table game. This was an all-in game across too many tables to count.

Results from the Flames of War and Team Yankee events can be found Here

Anyway, this is the last post of my Cancon coverage. I hope I have provided you a taste of Australia's biggest event! I hope you enjoy these last few pics.

German training match. Early Germans and Late, late Germans

Nicely painted late, late Germans

The table I saw was.... this long

Who needs terrain when we can simply hang out beyond range.

Sand as far as the eye can see

How many people are playing this game?

It was this tank. Hang on, no, it was that one. Um...

Another training game!

Review: Battlefront Luchs Spah Grupp (TGBX05)

Today I review some more of Battlefront's West Germans. This time the long servicing Luch Armoured Car.

History:
The Luchs (Lynx) was a Mercedes-Benz developed and built armoured reconnaissance car that entered service in the Bundeswehr in 1973. There are still a number of these in service in the German army.

 4 men crew the vehicle which is fitted with a 20mm cannon and a machine gun. Not a lot has changed in armoured car equipment for the Germans since the 2^nd world war. The 8 rad and the sdkfz223 was similarly equipped.

What has changed is that this car has a driver in each end so the vehicle can drive backwards in the same speed as forward by changing the active driver. The amphibious vehicle can move through water with 2 water jets and on land as an 8x8. I.E the 4 sets of wheels each turn.

 Review:

These armoured cars are huge! I cannot imagine one of these sneaking past or through and enemy line without being noticed. These are very nice looking vehicles. Just like in WW2, the cold war West Germans had the best art department.

The box contains 4 armoured cars. Each made up of a resin hull, a resin turret, commanders hatch/capola (open or closed), gun, searchlight and 8 (yes 8!) individual wheels. The pack also contains a decal sheet, commander and 2 unit cards.

Whilst the new plastic ranges are the way for Battlefield to move forward, the format isn't viable for everything. These Luchs are a excellent example of what they can do with resin and metal. Everything went together well - even the 32 wheels! Despite the high piece count, these went together in about 10 minutes each and were a pleasure to work with. These are my fifth TY box or blister and the best to date.

Of the pictures I have seen, there are a few pieces missing from the models. One of the of the most recognizable is a tow chain on the front deck. However, over all, the model is very close to the real thing.

Here are the pictures of the fully assembled vehicles. I only took pics of two. Look out in the near future for a painting post. I hope you enjoyed this review.

Review: Battlefront Fliegerfaust Gruppe (TGR708)

Today, I review the redeye teams for the West Germans.

Photo from www.designation-systems.net

The FIM-43 was a man portable Surface to Air Missile. Developed in the 1960's, it used infra red to track it's targets. The Germans named it the Fliegerfaust.

Photo from www.designation-system.net

www.wikipedia.com

Review

This pack contains 36 figures, 6 recessed bases and a unit card. The red-eye firing teams are the only new figs in this pack, the rest are a repeat from the Panzergrenadier pack. The figures are magnificent sculpts in the typical BF heroic style. For example the launchers themselves are are a little more chunky than they were in real life (see pictures) however I expect they would be too flimsy if cast to scale. Í am really enjoying the new TY West Germans. The models without exception have been lovely and relatively easy to assemble.

Pack Contents

Some of the figures had some moulding issues with the 2 halves not quite aligning. This is mainly an issue on the helmet. However given the texture on the helmet, this is not such a problem. Don't underestimate the amount of work in this pack, each of the 6 teams have six figures. That is more painting than a normal infantry platoon.

Pictures:

Queue Photos. I hope you enjoyed this review.

Close up of the rear of a stand.

Close up of the front of a stand.

Top View.