In good campany

About time I gave an update on Flames of War.

I've spent yonks leaning over my desk to paint all the figs I've got for this game.



"Here's one I made earlier!" These 2 I did maybe 6 months ago. A good look for winter but these guys are far too similar! For that reason and also due to the lack of winter figs other than basic soldiers, I decided to MIX IT UP! Explained previously.

Presenting you the first finished items.

Me likey.

With my will power at its highest (like the YEaah.. you would get after a Waterstone's pep talk), I got my head down and got stuck into the 2nd squad.

Good start: I painted almost everything in one afternoon/evening. But then, the days went by without progress. I made myself finish them to show Joe (the barbarian) this weekend when we meet again! snif, ehem.

In the end I finished well within the time last wednesday.

So I set myself the challenge of doing the 3rd squad before the weekend!

Dodgy! But upon receiving this on friday:

A light mortar company, I just had to get it sorted!

With painting till 1 in the morning on friday and a few finishing touches at half 6 on saturday before leaving, job done!

So here's ya lot.

And I'm chuffed! Painted figs is still pretty new for me. So long have I faced unpainted piles.

Pics are a bit bit dark, but it's war for fook's sake!

The men are more or less disciplined. Note the bloke having one for the road. Well, it'll probably be his last...

Brave fellows! They advance knowing not fear!

Oh, I see. This explains that. A komissar and his right hand man.

And here's the HQ one. "The first man to retreat shall be shot by this man, comrades!"

My Cossack HQ.

"Get down, fool!"

It's the hardened veteran blisters that really give my army life and character.

Just the mortars to do. I've put 6 in my 600pts list. Pity, all the figs are the same. I'll try to swap some.

Drawing short at a straw target

After having gone 2 years without doing any, I've decided to get back into archery! I fell in love with the sport when I spent a year at Northumbria University, at which the team was then lead by David Wright, a British champion who came 3rd in his BUSA category at the tournament I attended in 2008.

Here's the bow I bought at the time; it's a Prostyle recurve with a draw weight of 34Lbs. Quite a light-weight bow, ideal for a beginner such as myself. Prostyle is a pretty common brand, available in most archery stores. I got mine at a great little shop in Notts called Custom Built Archery. The owners are extremely helpful and kind.

When I told one of my uncles that I was taking up archery, he produced a longbow seemingly out of knowing stating matter-of-factly that it had been "under his bed for years". He generously gave it to me. I have yet to string it and purchase suitable arrows, for budgetary reasons, but I did restore it by sanding off the old cracked varnishy coat, oiling it and repainting the tip markings. Of course, one has to use suitable arrows for each bow (weight, body and length), other wise the archer's paradox can cause this to happen! There are 3 markings on the front of the bow in 2 circles which I have yet to decipher. The draw weight is 46Lbs.

Among my recent purchases are a 3-tube quiver (about time!) and an arrow puller, used to safely remove arrows from the target without bending them.

I also bought a target bosse and target face! The bosse is 90x90cm and is made to withstand arrows shot from 25 to 30Lbs bows from a distance of 5 to 30 metres. None the less, after testing it in my garage, I've found that it can stop an arrow from my bow drawn almost to the max at barefly 6 paces! Good stuff. I now can't wait to go back out into a field to test it properly!

Although I'm a traditionalist, when I bought the bow, I decided to also get a sight and a push button, just for kicks.

Joe the Barbarian, glad to be back doing archery!

Here's my new project. 600pts of Soviets.

What I like about our Russian neighbours is the romance (in the artistique sens you understand, Hugo, Byron, Pushkin. The XIXth century emos) of the harsh climate, the living conditions and the propaganda. I like the power and boldness of communist icons and art.
Russian soldiers, while maybe not being the best fighters, have always been known for their sturdiness. These men suffered far worse conditios of climate and hunger than the rest of europeans. But they shown incredible risiliance against Napoleon, and in the 2 world wars. That inspires me.
So it seemed logical to go for a winter army, in longcoats.
For the army format, waves of men, the soviet image we've come to know, with the terrible losses.
My first purchase was a squad of soldiers in longcoats. There are unfortunately very few figs of this type. Thought to myself "Don't forget the lact of equipment!".
So to represent this along with le chaos in the ranks, men struggling to survive, I bought a squad of regular soldiers and a squad of hardenend veterans, to mix them all.

Before receving them, I undercoated all my winter dudes in an hour and a half. 28 figs. That seement like quite a lot and I was pleased with myself. But now with the others, Yikes!

But the small size and even the Russian armement production style go well with my painting style. Simple but quick. With some embarrassing faults that show up later.

I started by organising each type of fig (normal, winter, veteran) ilteams. Then I randomly re-arranged them.

I spent ages trying to decide on the styles of figs to represent at best the rangs of NCO, lieutenant, co comander, komissar, 2nd in command and general; while at the same time having figs that all the the same for eack rank. You follow? No mean feat! With the various helmets, hats, caps, fur hats and bare heads...
My aim was for brave NCOs, a proud and inspiring co commander, blood-thirsty komissars, 2nd-in command and general with all these qualities.

I'd bought a cossack command for fun and I thought their savage look, fur hats and the sword would be good for the HQ.

I'll give more details when painted.
But here's a pic, with 2 of the 3 SU122 tanks.

To complete my 600pts, I'll need another squad, or heavy support.

I think you'll see a big difference in numbers with BarbarianJ's Krauts. And having the advantage on my side is far from unpleasant.

Tank you very much!

Well, it took some time, but I'm back on the blog with 2 Marder IIIMs, a birthday present from my brother, to join my first German Grenadieren platoon for F.o.W.! I need to re-do the camouflage, as I've since noticed that the actual base colour for summer cammo on Gerry vehicles had a slight green tint, so some Vallejo Middlestone or some such like will be required. I'm taking the opportunity to finally decide on whether to go for Summer or Winter as a theme. The 26.V-G saw its most famous actions at Bastogne, so Winter, and on the Eastern front during the summer... so like a Western Winter.

As it is, the cammo needs some more work anyway, as the base colour should be a lot less visible, with more dominant green and brown strips of paint.

I am rather pleased with the mud effect, though. This was acheived by applying all-purpose D.I.Y. filler, which I then painted in the same colours as the infantry stands, before giving it a coat of gloss varnish, thus obtaining a wet mud appearance... I hope.

Note that as Marders are self-propelled guns, the epaulettes have red piping, rather than the white braiding on the shoulders of the Grenadieren.

As promissed, I have also got back into my E.C.W. project, by doing some G.S. touch-ups before praying the last 1st & 2nd rank pikemen and 8 musketeers with a great can of brown Humbrol undercoat I picked up over Christmas.

Joe the Barbarain, humbly begging your pardon for my tardiness.

Their blood shall flow like vodka

To remind people that BarbarianJ is not the only person using this blog, and to fill up the time between his projects which are as plentiful as they are varied as they are violent, here are some Russians, of the Soviet type for connoisseurs.

I'm starting a modest army. More on that story later.
Here are 2 SU122 self-propeled guns.

Bit of a problem on opening the blister pack.
But with a bit of this...

And a spot of that...

Sorted.

Painting may commence.
Some black.

One green.

2 green.

Mud. LOTS of mud.

Nice motivational slogans. Here, "For the Motherland" and "Onwards to Berlin".

Just the red stars left to do. Or buy...

Shiny shiny!

Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. As many a wargamer before me, I have succumbed to the illness that haunts us all; shiny object syndrome. Whilst working on my Pike & Shotte troops, I started painting The Green Knight, until a new chimera entered my den... 2 F.o.W. German Marder III Ms and a battery of 3 Nebelwerfen (=""smoke thrower"), knicknamed 'Screeming Meemies' by the Allies. Fortunately, Marders are fairly quick to assemble and paint, so I should be back on track with my other two W.i.P. by the end of the weekend. Natürlich, some photos will also be up soon.

A German WWII Marder IIIM

Gentlemen with high standards: Pike & Shotte command

After an almost unforgivable lapse of time without posting, here are some pics of my Lieutenant-Colonel and standard bearer for the company of the Earl of Manchester's regiment of Foote which I'm painting up. The standard is still very much a work in progress, so please forgive the sloppiness of it. I opted for blue as my Lieutenant-Colonel's suit. This will let him stand out from the grunts, whilst tying him in, as blue is the colour of the ribbons the foot soldiers were in my company.My understanding is that officers could wear pretty much what they liked. As I got into E.C.W. after reading a book on Marston Moor, I've sculpted on a band around the Lieutenant-Colonel's hat, into which is sculpted a piece of paper; it was reported that many of the soldiers in the Parliamentary armies present at Marston Moor wore such tokens, in order to distinguish themselves from the enemy in the heat of battle. Indeed, when Sir Thomas Fairfax, in his characteristic manner, got too far ahead of his cavalry corps and found himself caught up amongst an enemy horse regiment, he is said to have removed his white token to slip back through the lines to the Parliamentary side.

I opted to dress the ensign in black, so as to avoid his detracting attention from the Lieutenant-Colonel and the flag itself. The ribbon in his hat is white, following the same logic as with the Lieutenant-Colonel. I've not managed to find any detailed info on Manchester's flag, although I believe it was blue. As I understand it, the standard system for the flags within a regiment was as follows.

• C/O: plain field colour
• Lt-Col: Field colour with St George’s Cross in canton
• Major: As above, with addition of a device or wavy pile (which looks like a streaming line coming down from the corner of the canton towards the centre of the flag).
• Captains: As major, with increasing amount of devices or wavy lines to denote rank (the more wavy piles, the lower the seniority)

However, some nobles appear to have elected to use a device from their coat of arms on all their flags, using wavy lines. This could be understandable with some coats of arms. Manchester’s arms contain 3 lozenges and therefore it wouldn’t look particularly good to use the lozenges to denote rank, as heraldic devices in 3 could have a special significance. I therefore took example on the Sealed Knot and used the lozenges as standard on Manchester’s flag.

As always, comments & constructive criticism are welcome.

Joe