Review: Couple of Hobby Supplies

Lately I have been having marathon painting and modeling sessions to try and clear the painting queue for my Americans. Although I don't really enjoy painting, to keep things fresh I have been trying new methods that will hopefully save me time, deliver good results, and keep me motivated through the end of the project. I have already described how the airbrush has aided me (here and here, for example) and subsequently rekindled my desire for painting German tanks. But the airbrush still cannot really help me with 15mm infantry. Mostly my painting method for infantry boils down to the method described in this article (hint: it's a lot of dry-brushing). But two hobby supplies have recently helped make both my tanks and infantry stand out just a little more. These are: 1. The line of "tufts" by Army Painter; and 2. Vallejo's new pigments.

First, the tufts. These have been, without hyperbole, one of the best values for my dollar that I have ever bought for this hobby. For a mere $5 I was able to place two tufts of cool-looking flowers on each of the 50-ish small, medium, and large bases that I had to complete, with enough left over for at least another 20 bases.

Tactics: King Tigers

King Tigers.  The undisputed 1-on-1 masters of tank warfare in FoW (Battlefront just posted pictures of the Jagdtiger as I write this, so stay tuned).  Plus, the models are cool as ice.  However we all know that FoW requires a combined-arms, coordinated approach, and King Tigers are usually too expensive and too unwieldy to justify including in a competitive list. Although they can probably win any tank duel they come across, trained artillery can bombard them out of the game (AT 4 on bombardments...just don't roll a 1, right?), and my local meta is centered on infantry-heavy lists. But I didn't re-paint these mean cats just to have them sit on a shelf!

Battle Report (some pics)

I was able to get in a game with my friend Joe over Columbus Day weekend. Most of the weekend was spent doing a ton of painting and basing (love the Army Painter flower tufts) as I get ready for a few tournaments this month, so it felt good to get the product onto the table. For this game I wanted to test a list that I constructed for the Warstore Weekend's LW tournament, which requires players to choose Italy-themed lists. I thought about taking the SSF for a while, but ultimately I just don't see them being survivable with their trained rating. So I brought a list of Walt Disney's own 3rd Infantry Division (for those who don't know, the emblem for the 3rd I.D. was personally designed by Walt Disney). They would be facing-off against Herman Goering Panzergrenadiers in the Surrounded mission.

3rd I.D. Emblem

Forgotten Hero Part 1: Finns

At many large FoW tournaments there will often be an award for the best performing "Forgotten Hero", i.e. one of the minor powers in FoW. This rewards the players who take on the challenge of playing and supporting one of the less illustrious nations that took part in WW2. My "Forgotten Hero Series" will focus on each one of these powers one at a time, and will give me a justification for paying for the campaign/nation books that I don't currently have (I'm looking at you, Burning Empires, with your sexy cover...)

Anyway, we will open with my favorite Forgotten Hero and my first FoW Army ever: the brave men of Finland! (by the way, this article series will cover these nations as they relate to the game, not their histories; that is beyond the scope of this article)

Review: Desert Hazards Box

One of my current long-term projects is in conjunction with the Early War DAK that I am building.  My local FLGS, Brother's Grim Games and Hobbies, generally doesn't have a lot of desert-themed terrain.  The war in Africa has always interested me, and so lately I have been working towards acquiring enough terrain for a North Africa table.  I would like to one day have enough terrain to build a variety of settings, but for now I'm just trying to collect as much as I can.

A couple of months ago I saw the Desert Hazards Box by Battlefront on the FoW shelf at Grim. For $30, I knew I had to have it. When I cracked it open I wasn't disappointed. Let's get to the pics (I used a StuG and medium base for scale):