First steps into Flames of War V4

This is the completed force so far. Im very happy with how it has turned out and im looking forward to seeing how it does on the table.

In the future i may go back and add some chipping effects and dirt.

I still have a few points remaining, im considering either a unit with recce to give me more options in the setting up of my force on the table or some air support just incase.

I do have a couple of m7 priest models which would be cool as they are good at removing pesky infantry even when they are dug in.

There are only enough points for one of the above so im going to have to choose carefully.

This is the last of my planned units finally finished and ready for the table.

I have now painted and based my infantry platoon. I have had a bit of a break from painting the army mainly due to the release of warcry as well as a few other projects i have on the go (imperial guard army, 20mm vietnam army, blackstone fortress and a halfling blood bowl team i have to finish)

The figures are from the plastic soldier company and are British paratroopers.

The rifle teams are going to be pretty useful to dig in and hold objectives im thinking it may be an idea to use armoured vehicles to transport them forward and then dig in on objectives.

I think in game they are going to need armoured support as i don’t hold out much hope for the piat against my regular opponents tiger platoon.

The denison smocks were fiddly to paint in the 15mm scale but i am pleased with how they turned out.

The trousers were painted vallejo english uniform, the smocks were based with gw’s karak stone with vallejo chocolate brown and reflective green patches. This was followed by a diluted agar earth shade wash.

The red berets look very bright in the pictures but are much more subdued without the camera flash.

I can’t wait to get the army on the table, i only have to paint the 25 pdr s and then work out what to spend my last 9 points on im thinking something with the scout and spear head rules would be useful as would some air support.

This week i have been mainly working on a way to store my Flames of war force in an old ammo case that i found at war and peace.

I was thinking of making wooden trays, but at work we had a delivery that was delivered in super strong card box’s. So doing my bit for the environment i liberated a few boxes to recycle into trays.

I was planning on using a hot glue gun to fix the card together, the only problem there was that i do not own one, as I’m quite impatient i decided to use pva glue with pins added to hold it together as the glue dried.

This made pretty strong trays that fit nice and snugly into the case they were a little to snug so removing them was a problem. To fix this i made handles using wooden bbq skewers, i just pushed them through the sides and added a blob of glue to hold them in place.

Once the glue was dry i wrapped the trays in newspaper and coated the whole thing in pva glue.

It was then time to paint them using cheap green acrylic paint, I’m pretty pleased with the finish the only thing left to do now is add a magnetic base to each tray to hold the models in place. I may also add some foam around the inside just incase anything decides to slide around in transit.

There is more than enough room to hold my 100 point force with a little space left for dice, tape measure and tokens. I was not able to make space for the rule book, but I’m still pretty pleased with the results.

Thats the hq unit complete and one unit of three tanks.

To make the hq unit stand out i added a flag made of greenstuff

the plastic soldier company models are pretty straight forward  to build and paint. The amount of detail on the tanks is superb.

New toys arrived in the post today, i now have a set of plastic soldier company churchill tanks, these will allow me to build my two tank hq and a three tank platoon.

The box set allows you to build multiple variants of the churchill tank including the avre with the huge boom gun. At the moment I can only find rules for the churchill mk iv so i will be building five of them when i get home from work tomorrow.

My first three units of tanks are now finished after a long night and a lot of episodes of red dwarf and coffee.

I’m pretty happy with how they came out, i may add some detail to the firefly later i think it would look cool with a wavy line on its barrel.

The M10’s were fun to paint but would advise painting the crew before sticking them down.

As a side project i am going to try and make an army case from this old ammo can i picked up at war and peace for five quid.

I know its not from ww2 but the rule of cool rides again.

My plan is to build trays to fit maybe with sponge inserts, its a work in progress at the moment.

Hopefully i should be able to fit my army, tokens ruler and mini rule book.

Time will tell.

I have decided to base my force on the churchill platoon, as this will give me lots of options for a variety of tanks.

My old regular opponents like to go tank heavy weather it  be a few german tigers or floods of russian t34’s it was always a struggle with infantry based forces.

I could not find my churchills so have ordered a box of plastic soldier company tanks this will allow me to build the Hq of two tanks and a unit of three churchills that i can use to support my infantry, they can even hitch i ride if they need too although looking at the stats its only slightly faster than footslogging.

The other core unit choice will be a unit of three shermans with a firefly in support backed by a unit of three shermans that i hope to use to contest objectives or hold in reserve to set up ambushes for some flanking shots on heavier armour.

The main support choices will be the 25pdr’s and the  m10’s that i can use as a full unit of four or a smaller unit of two depending on points.

The rifle platoon should be enough infantry for now but i have plenty left on sprues if i have to increase the amount of infantry at a later date.

This should take me to about 91 p0ints which leaves me with a few options. Ideally i would like a unit with the spearhead special rule to give me some more options with my deployment zone  during the set up of the game. Air support is also something i have to think about i still have to read up on planes in V4, they used to give you anti air ability in older versions which would be useful as i am definitely lacking anti air support.

Im thinking maybe a Daimler armoured car troop and a kitty hawk flight which may end up being a typhoon as i have models for that. This would take me to 100 points nicely.

But now its time to start painting so i have plenty of time to think about it.

Thought i may need some troops to help take objectives in built up areas, dug in infantry were always great for holding objectives in earlier editions i guess it will be the same in V4.

I decided on a Rifle platoon, i built a full size platoon it can be reduced down for smaller point value games if i need to.

The models are plastic soldier company British Paratroopers with the command squad from peter pig.

Thought my force needed some fire support as i could only find one of my priest models i used 4 of my plastic soldier company 25pdr’s this should help pin infantry from afar and help subdue any heavy tanks i face by hitting on the top armour.

This is my unit of M10’s with 17 pdrs, the original British crew were missing so i used random figures i had in my bits box. I added some green stuff sand bags and some bandage cameo netting.

I was not sure how the 50 cals should go and they kept on getting knocked off so i angled them so i could glue them in two places making them a bit stronger.

The lead tank is marked by having a brave officer dude looking over the side showing off his spectacular officers hat, pretty sure its not that accurate but the rule of cool overrules.

These mobile anti tank vehicles with the hard hitting 17 pdr should be more than worth the points as my regular opponent loves his heavy armour. I guess I’m gonna have to face a lot of tigers in the future.

This is my two units of sherman tanks after the dettol bath.

I have added some green stuff sand bags and some stowage to give them some extra character.

I was able to make use of all my old shermans apart from my two sherman crab flail tanks, hopefully i will have rules to use them when the British book arrives.

The sand bags were easy to make with green stuff the stowage rolls were made out of strips of adhesive bandage and cotton ( I stole the bandage from my girlfriend’s broken toe, shhhh don’t tell her)

This is my pile of bits so far I’m sure there are some more tanks in my flat somewhere.

This project log will hopefully help me Finish a project. (please forgive my poor spelling and grammar)

As much as i enjoy history i guess that this army build will come firmly under the hollywood idea of a battle group mainly comprising of units i like the look of and have cool rules rather than units that would have been found together during the WW2.

I will be using as much of my old collection of 15mm models from battlefront, plastic soldier company, peter pig and zvezda to build a new 100 point force for use in v4 Flames. (i may treat my self to some new shiny toys as i complete units)

So far i have found some sherman tanks one is a firefly which is a bonus, a group of M10’s, some 25 pdr artillery, loads of sprues of British infantry and support weapons and a set of airborne supply drop canisters  that can be used as swish objective markers.

I know somewhere i have some churchill tanks, if i can’t find them i will have to break my unwritten  rule and order some more as they look great and tend to survive a bit longer in game than the shermans.

The sherman tanks have been in my collection for years and have taken pride of place in multiple army builds  both British and US because of this i am  going to have to treat them to a nice relaxing dettol bath to strip the multiple layers of paint and to bring the detail back. I also would like to strip them as  i have noticed that lighter colours tend in my eyes to look better on smaller scale figures, so i plan to paint the armoured vehicles with vellajo russian uniform rather than the brown violate i used before.

Time to get started.