Ollie paints…. Flames of War (Take 2) (Slow Grow League)

Another 50pts completed today – been waiting to finish the HQ crews before posting the Company up.
Same scheme as the Shermans using the Mig Ammo Olive Drab Modulation paints but went an extra shade lighter on these, seem to make them pop a bit more. Then details, gloss varnish, decals, oil pinwash, matt varnish, sponge chipping with some VMC German Grey on to roughen them up a bit, followed by a dusting of VMC Flat Earth and Stone Grey to weather them up a bit. Unfortunately from some angles it looks like the wheels aren’t painted on the HQ as the dirty wheels merge into the hull! 😀
Now… onto some infantry…

Here we are a week later….
decals finally arrived….
pinwashing has been done….
Matt varnish has been sprayed….
Chipping and dirt weathering has been applied….

6 weeks later than planned…. the Shermans are complete!
Can’t get a decent pic of them to show off the paint modulation though for some reason, all coming out a bit flat! 😀

In the meantime, pinwashing is just drying on the Tank Destroyer Company….

My back-ordered decals got finally dispatched last week….
and then promptly lost in the post….
and replacements are now on back-order again…

So the progress update is, there is none!
(And I can’t face painting infantry right now hence why I havent touched them! 😀 )

Went up to Battlefield Hobbies for an intro game ahead of the Hobby League kick off today…. Managed to knock up a 100pt list after raiding the Mid War units and played the Breakthrough mission…. much fun was had and came away with a glorious victory! Had I remembered to fire the M10s on the last turn I would have tabled them (We played out them firing after the game had finished to see what if), but managed to get them the run away having killed the HQ Panther early on and made a mess of the remaining units (including 2 Tigers)
Looking forward to playing more!

With the Shermans on hold and the reinforcements arriving on friday, thought I’d get the Tank Destroyer Co up and running next…. couldn’t face painting infantry right now 🙂
This pic also highlighted I may have a possible addiction…. as that makes 20 M10s in the past 2 months…

This afternoon has been spent cleaning up infantry ready for priming….. urgh….
An Armoured Rifle platoon, the halftrack crews and tank crews for 8 M10s…. (Pic below) and after doing that you remember there’s more tank crews and another 2 AR platoons to do….
…. and then I went to the OTT Store and ordered more tanks! 😀

Little bit of progress this past week, but been away for 2 days this weekend so Bank Holiday monday was spent playing catch up. Got the first round of Shermans painted earlier this week ready for gloss varnishing ahead of decals and pin washes…. however it’s too frickin warm today to airbrush anything so spent the day assembling 2 units of M-10s

Unfortunately Battlefront are out of US decals and as a result, everything is in a holding pattern for 3-5 weeks as they’re on back-order, so it’s tank assembly and painting up to pre-decal point…. and infantry….. oh the infantry….. honestly not looking forward to all of them! 😀

Realised I had 2 little bits left for the desert force to finish, my 2 objective markers – an M3 Stuart providing some cover for a mortar team, and a Bazooka team taking cover behind the burnt-out wreck of a Honey.

In the meantime, Shermans have been built and primed…

That’s North Africa dealt with, 109pts in 2 months, fairly successfully I think…. time to move onto D-Day! I picked up 2 US Starter Sets as with some minor additions I can create 3 very different core armies. I had an Armoured Rifle platoon sat around from my faltered start in v3 so that’s now added to the mix as well.

2 sets gives me:
10x M4 Shermans
6x M5 Stuarts / M8 Scotts
8x M10 Wolverines
2x Armoured Rifle Platoons
6x M7 Priests

Added to that will be:
4x M10 Wolverines
4x M4 Shermans
4x M4 Sherman 105s
1x Armoured Rifle Platoon (mentioned earlier)
1x Armoured Rifle Platoon HQ
2x Recon Cavalry

Which gives me….
A Sherman Company – a staple formation of armour
A Tank Destroyer Company – well, after a North African one would be rude not to have a D-Day one with them as veterans 😉
An Armoured Rifle Company – always needs boots on the ground
plus various support assets to back them up

So for my first Late War 50pts, 10 veteran Shermans comin up!

Well, there we go! The Fighting First are ready for the deserts of North Africa. This week has been spent finishing the units – the 2nd M10 platoon, the Armoured Recon platoon and the M7 Priest batteries, so here they are in their final glory

Of course it would be rude not to show them in their entirety 😉

Now, onwards to D-Day….

This weekends productivity has been all about detailing and some more detailing… Tracks, tyres, tools, guns, shell casings, crates and seats all done ready for oil washing.
I thought I’d nearly broken the back of it…. then I remembered I still need to paint the crews! 😀 They’re now drying after a brief visit from the airbrush, but in the meantime here’s the remaining units in their near complete glory.

The war effort continues and production is ramping up…
Hot on the heels of the first unit of M10s comes the Tank Destroyer HQ in the form of 2 M3 Stuarts, a 3rd Stuart as an Artillery Observer whilst the 4th is going to be part of an objective marker

(PS – there is place reserved in hell for those turret decals…. even with the use Micro Sol/Set!)

After last weekends mass airbrushing session, I decided it was time to focus on some individual units. As the infantry are finished, thought I’d get their taxis done to complete the unit, and as it’s a TD formation, best get one of the M-10 units done as well.
Taking the units to the next stages from the modulation stage in the previous entry, they were given a pin-wash using AK Interactive Dark Brown was for Green Vehicles to provide some definition. Then came the decals so a coat of gloss varnish in the applicable places, and of course always use Micro Sol/Set on decals to get as decent finish. Next, the crew! They had been painted alongside the infantry platoon so they just needed gluing in place. Finally a coat of matt varnish, before a light dusting with VMC Ivory to add some sand effect. Decided not to go full weathering for these (paint chips, scratches etc)… maybe on my D-Day force instead 😉
Turned out quite nicely, my only complaint being that after adding decals,  varnish and dusting, the modulation looks like it’s disappeared and the paint scheme looks a little flat in the pics, although they don’t look quite so “bad” in the flesh
Now to finish the rest…. and then onto the D-Day force!

Whilst watching the weekender this morning, decided to break out the airbrush and get some layers down on the armour with the Mig Olive Drab modulation set. Quite happy with the result so far

Exactly as the title says, the infantry part of my Fighting First armoured rifles platoon is finished…… I never thought they would take this long! 😀
(only have another 3 platoons to do for my Late War US….)
Now, time to crack on with the real part of the army….. some armour…..

Well, I think it’s safe to say I dived headlong into this one!
I had intended to be at my first FoW event today taking my mid-war Fighting First Tank Destroyer Company for it’s virgin outing, but life (work) got in the way…
Anyhow, here’s a few pics – all vehicles basecoated with Mig Ammo Olive Drab Dark Base and some with a follow up of Olive Drab Base. I managed to finish a few stands of infantry from the Armoured Rifle Platoon off today, with the rest still WIP…..
And I haven’t started on the Late war stuff yet, although I did get my D-Day Americans book and Command Cards this afternoon so will have a good rummage through that later!