Durin's Folk the next 175 points

I have finally selected the next 175pts (actually 178) for our tale of four gamers challenge. My first 175pts played really well but now it is time to beef-up the numbers. I am adding 4 Khazad Guard, 6 Dwarf Bow, and 10 Dwarves with two handed axes. This will give me a 347 point army with 31 figures and 10 bow. I think it will do well in the next round.


On an unrelated side note, I spent last weekend repainting the office/hobby room and I cleaned off my paint desk. Here is a picture for proof.

Plastic Soldier T34 76/85

Ever since I started playing Flames of War I have wanted to do a mid/late war Soviet tank army but the high cost of Battlefront tanks kept me from jumping in. A few months ago I found out about Plastic Soldier company and the 15mm plastic tanks and infantry they are producing. I saw some pictures of the T34 set and was really excited. This was especially true with the price per tank about half of Battlefront.

Recently my local game store, Imperial Outpost Games, ordered in a few boxes and I was finally able to see these in the flesh. I was hooked! These things are amazing.

As you can see the kit will make 5 T34 models as either the 76 or the 85. The first tank I built was the T34 76. To be more accurate this is the T34 Model 43. It is the hardedge turret and the all rubber road wheels and lack of the box fuel tanks put this as a late 43 production. I would have loved to have seen the steel road wheels and the box fuel tanks as an option in the kit but it is still very nice.

The back of the box has the assembly instructions and a painting guide with Vallejo paint colors. The modle only has about 16 parts.

The sprue is very clean and well molded.

As you can see the finished model is very nice. I think it may be the best looking T34 in 15mm. My assembly is not the best and I found the tracks to be a little fiddly. I am sure this will improve as I build the remaining four tanks.

I will be buying several more boxes of these tanks and I will also be buying the PZ Mk IV for my Germans. I am really excited about the news that they will be producing a Sherman kit. The future of plastic kits for my hobby projects is looking bright.

Flames of War Late Germans Part 3

I finished Tom's Tiger platoon last night. This project is slowly coming together. Next up is the Panther platoon and then 10 Pz IV.

175 Pt. Durin's Folk

OK! I just made it! Tomorrow the first 175 points is due to be painted. I have it on good authority that some participants in our tale of four gamers have already painted all 700 points. This means that I have to get all these done on time.

What happened to Tom's FoW army you ask? (Shhh) I am making progress and I am hoping he does not notice this little distraction.

Now I just need to pick out the next 175 points to paint. I figure I have a few days to work that out. A soon as I know I will post the next batch. Now I get to see how these guys do in our 175 point games.

A Tale of Four Lord of the Rings Gamers

My friend Tim has conned a few of us to join in a LOTR army building challenge based on the White Dwarf article from many years ago. Basically, we are building 700 point LOTR armies in 175 point increments. There will be some kind of scoring and maybe some one will get some food and beer. I am a little fuzzy on the whole thing but I decided to jump in anyway. If you are really interested in all the rules check out Tim's original post on his blog. Now I should have done my introduction last week I guess, so I am hoping I don't loose points for that.

Anywho, the army I will be building is a 700 point Durin's Folk army. This is a generic Dwarf army that will have lots of models - 59 to be exact. The first 175 points (actually 169) consists of the following:

Dwarf Captain with shield and throwing axes

7 Dwarf warriors with shields

4 Dwarf warriors with bow

Twelve models - not bad. I have until June 1 to paint these models. Ordinarily, that would not be an issue but I have a problem. Technically, this army does not belong to me yet. You see, I got this in trade for painting Tom's FoW late war Germans...which I have not yet finished. This means that I cannot start on this project (in good faith) until I finish the FoW project. This is a problem.

The answer is simple, I just need to finish Tom's army. OK, easy. This means that I may be a couple weeks behind the other guys but I will not fail. Stay tuned...

Flames of War Late War Germans Part 2

I have finally finished the next unit in Tom's late war Germans. Here we have a platoon of Old Glory Sd Kfz 10/5 2cm AA guns. These are pretty nice models and like the rest of the project they came to me assembled. They don't look like they would be to bad to build.

Oops! What is that in the back-ground? No peeking, Tom. Now I just need to finish 15 tanks and this project is done.

New Project - 1812 French

Ever since the release of the Perry and Victrix plastic Napoleonic kits I have been interested in starting a collection. After acquiring a copy of Warlord game's Black Powder I knew it was only a matter of time. I kept telling myself that once plastic Russians and Plastic Austrians were available I would jump in. Well, the Perrys, Warlord and Victrix are working on plastic kits for Russians and Austrians as well as Prussians. So I decided that before the armies I really want to do are released I would start my collection with the French. Basically, no French no Napoleonic wars so it had to be done.

Today I picked up two boxes of Victrix Napoleonic French Infantry 1807-1812. This is an amazing set of multi-part figures. Each box contains 60 figures and I paid $40 per box (I am sure I could get these cheaper but I was supporting my local shop). The kit allows for a wide range of poses as well as command figures. This set includes parts for Fusiliers, Voltiguers and Grenadiers.

There are two different sprues on the box and you get four of each sprue. There are over 100 different heads in the set which is pretty cool. I will have no trouble modeling very unique and interesting units.

The set also includes a very simple set of rules which I doubt I will read. On the rules booklet are eight regimental flags. These flags are very nice but they are printed on the back of the assembly instructions and I am not sure if the text will show through to the flags. I may make color copies of these.


The bad news is that I will not be working on these any time soon. Before I can start on these I need to finish Tom's FoW later Germans, I need to get started on my LoTR Dwarf Army (more on that later), and I need to paint some Poncho Villa Mexicans for some LoTOW games. Oh yeah, I need to paint up a few more units of ACW so I can actually play some Black Powder games. I will post of more as I get to this but for now I am just buying stuff.