Mid War Plastics At FlamesCon 2016

Its pretty traditional these days for Battlefront to bring a few rapid prototypes of some of the new plastics we can expect to see over the coming months. This time was no exception and we had a few of the new Mid War plastics we can expect to see on shelves in early 2017.

The models are rapid prototypes based on the CAD data that will go to the toolmakers, assembled and then given a quick coat of primer. They are used to make sure that the model will look right and go together correctly. Much easier than staring at 2D printouts of components.

There were also a few new goodies for the East Germans in Team Yankee. These are traditional metal/resin models and are looking awesome!

 

Ahh, 2017 so many projects for me to start.... will I finish any of them?

Comets Coming Together

With April coming to a close it has actually been a pretty busy month despite what the blog might suggest. I've been playing some X-Wing, checking out a pretty awesome new Auckland store, chatting to Ben from Breakthrough Assault (a lot) and chipping away at 11th Armoured Division.

Currently I am still in the assembly phase and I was really struggling with the new Comet plastics to get a rhythm going and then something suddenly clicked at our regular Thursday night work hobby evening... I just assembly lined up my last five Comets and (doing 5 vehicles at once)

1. clipped off the lower hull, upper hull and hull rear plate and glued together
2. clipped off turret top, bottom, bin, mantlet, then glued together
3. clipped of hatch, light and gun and glued
4. turret pins clipped and glued
5. hull plated clipped and glued
6. machine-gun section of the frame removed from the rest, clipped and glued
7. last but not least, tracks clipped out but not glued! Going to be painting them separately and attaching at the end!

It took me more than an hour, but less than two and I was pretty happy about that effort given two tanks a couple of weeks earlier took me about the same amount of time. I did learn though that a pair of really fine clippers is a must for some of those finer parts. I'd been using my large GF9 clippers and they are just too big and unfortunately I'd left my smaller ones at home. Luckily I borrowed Aaron's Tamiya ones and they worked a charm.

With the 10 Comets now all assembled, it is time to hit the M5 halftracks and Universal Carriers. I have a bit of a deadline to hit though as our offices are going to be moving in about a month and the new place doesn't have quite the space for airbrushing that we have now and I'd like to break the back of this army (and my Panzerschreck one) before the move...

Good luck achieving that I say!

Cut The Bull, It’s The 11th Armoured Division!

One of the personal challenges I set myself, and have regularly failed, is to build a new 1500/1750 point army for each book that comes out. Nachtjäger is really testing both my ability to put time aside, as well as just committing to one list.

Looking at the releases there are three things that really stand out to me; Comets, IR Panthers and Jagdpanthers, and the FlaK Wagons. Comets have a nice blend of stats that really appeal to me; the speed of a light tank which will let them bounce from terrain piece to terrain piece, then push around the flanks. A comparable gun to the Panther – AT14 just gets the job done most times, especially when combined with the ability to push the flanks. Semi-indirect fire – I’ve always wanted to run an army with this because I find it so challenging to face. Front Armour 7 – not a huge value but enough to keep enemy medium tanks honest by bouncing half of their shots. Plus I get to put yellow and black decals on them!

Panthers and Jagdpanthers are just awesome, and I don’t currently have a company painted so the plastic kit is really my chance to finish one. I’d be going with the hypothetical “Solution B” IR option because I think it looks cool and would make the army stand out.

Lastly the FlaK Wagons… I’m really just looking at the Marine Grenadiers as a delivery device so I can put 4-6 of these on the table. Plus I can use my existing Late War infantry and AA, and it gives me an incentive to paint up some extra items.

Looking at all three models I really want to build lists for them but in the short term I think I have nailed it down to one (no surprises given the post title) - the Comets of the 11^th Armoured Division.

Thinking about the lists.

My plan is to build a tight 1500 point and a 1750 point force, with no additional options (at least in the short term) and at the same time maximum the number of models that I am excited about painting.

1500 points

Armoured Squadron HQ – 1 Comet	145 points
Armoured Platoon – 3 Comets	435 points
Armoured Platoon – 3 Comets	435 points
Motor Platoon – 3 Squads (with .50cal AA MGs)	160 points
Scout Platoon – 3 Carriers (with extra MGs)	105 points
Priority Air Support – Typhoon	220 points

1750 points

Armoured Squadron HQ – 2 Comets	290 points
Armoured Platoon – 4 Comets	580 points
Armoured Platoon – 3 Comets	435 points
Motor Platoon – 3 Squads (with .50cal AA MGs)	160 points
Scout Platoon – 3 Carriers (with extra MG and .50 cal)	110 points
Limited Air Support – Typhoon	170 points

As you can see, both lists feature the same units, with just some tweaks as to how they fit together. In the long term I would definitely look at chopping things around but for now I was keen to keep to four platoons. Adding in another two platoons would require dropping both of the extra Comets (or 1 Comet and the Typhoon) and reduce my chances of completing it any time soon. These lists also tick a lot of painting boxes for me; the Comets just look cool and I never got around to doing my 7^th Armoured Cromwells. The new plastic British infantry are really nice and represent a nice way to start building a Rifle Company at some point, plus they are supported by the plastic M5s. The new Universal Carrier is fantastic with a new 1 piece hull/tracks/body resin model with freshly sculpted crew figures. Lastly the Typhoon is just cool and I have been enjoying painting a few one-off aircraft recently.

The next job is to work out how this will fit into my current painting schedule…

Britain and Sweden Go To War!

Over the weekend Wayne and I managed to get together for a game of Napoleon at War – a fun set of Napoleonics rules made by a small Spanish company. The rules themselves feel like they have a bit of a Flames Of War influence and are quite fast. Evan and the Palmerston North guys play them a lot and have nothing but good things to say about them (okay, they have a few not so good things to say, but more about that later).

 

I dusted off an old British army that I am in the process of giving a little bit of a tidy up, whilst Wayne brought his Swedes. We had pretty similar forces with a few Brigades of infantry, a Squadron of Cavalry in reserve and some artillery (Wayne had 3 Batteries to my 2, as well as an extra gun in one).

We both deployed centrally, with our reserves to fill in the flanks. The short version of the game is that I managed to grind out in the centre, where my infantry battalions shot the Swedes off the table, but on my left flank Wayne’s extra artillery battery took out my 95^th Rifles and Portugese Cacadores, allowing him to start enveloping me. On the right flank my Cavalry came flying on, only the fail in a series of tests resulting in them standing around in front of another artillery battery. Eventually they got their act together and overran the guns and some of his Cav, but the damage was done and Wayne won the right flank. At that point we called then game a win to the Swedes, a very close win, but a win none the less…

 

The game was fun but one of the biggest frustrations was referencing the rulebook during the game (this being the main complaint that I’ve heard from players) and finding rules at the right time. We’ve downloaded the FAQ and are planning on having another go soon, in the meantime we are both going to need to read the rulebook another couple of times to try and get it to sink in!

Holding the Centre

British Cav sitting in front of the Swedish guns

Before finally getting it together and breaking the Swedish lines