GF9 Tanks Skirmish Game

This mini is great. The cards in game for this thing give me such an interesting potential play style. They encourage you to get as close as possible to get maximum perks and shots off, but don’t really have the hulk points to carry that sort of daring do for so long. They can be partnered up with German tanks and the option to swap off the top piece to field as the turreted M14/41 or the Semovente self-propelled gun is a really nice touch.

I primed her with Army Painter Skeleton Bone spray, Agrax Earthshade wash, followed with Wraithbone dry brush and Cryptek Armourshade Gloss on the tracks and machine guns. I added some Vallejo Flat Brown, Leadbelcher and Zandri Dust here and there as weathering.

Hasn’t she doled up nice?

Always loved the look of the Valentine and glad i could get one into my collection. I just wish that Gale Force 9 would release a few of the obscure models from the Flames of War range and make cards for them.

I would love to have a Matilda a Matilda 2 and an Archer, but i don’t really want to buy a whole squad of them and make up cards. I don’t play Flames of War yet, but the starter set i bought is Germans and US, so doesn’t help me with my British tank hopes.

Just a heads up, the Tanks the Skirmish Game Sherman hulls (with the painted stars in the pic) are not the same sculpt as the Flames of War Hit the Beach set. I found that when playing the other day it doesn’t play on my mind if i used the Tanks game chassis with the 76 turrets.

I didn’t paint the stars on the latest Shermans i painted, because I was in a rush to play another game to submit another battle report to the D-Day Global Campaign.

Dugthefug1644 VS Andrew 1573941209

I have submitted another after game report to the D-Day Campaign.

I wanted to see how Shermans faired against a Tiger in game and they faired far better on the table top than they regularly did in real life.

I painted up two extra Shermans to play the game, pics to follow. ?

I discovered that the Shermans in the Tank The Skirmish Game box are not the same sculpts as the ones in the Hit The Beach box. I used the 76mm turrets on the Tanks game hulls and the 75mm turrets on the Hit The Beach hulls and it looked fine. The difference is a bit surprising when they were promoting the game by saying you can dive into the game with Flames of War models from the additional profile cards in the skirmish game box.

Thought i would get some punch for my small US force to take on the Panthers and Tigers I have.

I will probably go for decals for this one, though it will only be partial stars with the stowage baskets and spare track in the way.

US Self-propelled gun.

The weathering was fun. The build didn’t go quite right and I used Greenstuff to cover gaps either side on the skirts and mudguards. I left the finish quite rough and it ended up supporting the weathered muddy look of the finished tank.

The Sherman 75 and 76.

Painting the stars freehand went quite well. The ones on the grill at the back could have been better but happy to call these done.

https://dday.warconsole.com/battles/dugthefug1644-vs-andrew-1572916105

The next battle was against my son on Monday night.

My kitchen counter is 4 feet wide and works great for Skirmish games now I have had a big tidy up and rediscovered it. 🙂

The Barkmann Valley was just an opportunity to use the Barkmann upgrade card and use my sponge rocky outcrops (Thank you Hobby Lab) as I upped the points to 75pts.

The Honey was my MVP again but read the report for the result.

Managed to get my first game played in some time. Check out my efforts on the report online. The Brits were sent to deal with a small force, probably a Recce German operation trying to find out how bad the situation on the beaches really is and report back. The Brits were successful.

https://dday.warconsole.com/battles/dugthefug1644-vs-peter-1572313372?block_updated=226494#block_226494

Vulnerable with the open turret, but packing a punch, this will be a tactically fun vehicle to field.

With no armour stat i will want to move or find cover to avoid being hit, but the game gives bonuses to stay still when shooting too.

Painted in the same scheme as my other British vehicles.

Will need to educate myself on the British markings system and add some freehand markings as a finishing touch over the whole collection.

Had a really rough paint job trying to use the scouring pad spray can technique but bodged it and had used cheap paint.

I didn’t bother to strip the paint i just heavy dry brushed Army Painter Desert Yellow and applied the camo pattern. The brown was mostly Fur Brown with a coat of Darkoath Flesh over the top.

The Stug is technically an assault gun rather than a tank, but i am glad it was included in the game. It was a cool example of repurposing an older chassis during wartime development, to come up with something better and to fill a gap in your current fleet of armour options.

Panzer IV. Refresh of an old paint job to tie him in with the rest of my German tank efforts recently.

I tried to make it a 60 minute makeover and it ended up being more like 80, left over night and another 40. ?

Enjoyed the markings again.

Used the same paints as before apart from a bit of Army Painter Fur Brown in with the camo here and there going over the old camo scheme.

This Tiger 1 was probably the nicest Tanks kit I have put together from the range so far. Maybe because it was larger and easier to handle, but it was noticeably pleasant to assemble. I think the camo looks better than my puma attempt.

I painted the Tiger with the same colours scheme as the Puma apart from using Death Guard Green as a base to get the camo pattern down.

My puma. Wish the camo had come together slightly better but happy with the numbers and markings.

Used the Contrast Paints, Darkoath Flesh for the Brown elements and Dark Angel Green for the camo, with the Army Painter Desert Yellow and Vallejo Dark Sand mix as the base. The rusty chips etc was the same combo as in the other tanks in the project.

Again, I didn’t have all the colours from the guide book, but I did have Vallejo Dark Sand and I used Army Painter Desert Yellow as a base colour. Black Wash again and the same weathering techniques as before.

The painting of the markings is what I am most proud of this time. The German cross isn’t brilliant but the number 12 looks pretty neat. I was going to add a third number, but I was so happy with the first two numbers that I didn’t want to spoil it by pushing my luck with a third digit.

The German wheels hubs need to be painted with slightly more care because you don’t want any sand colour on the black wheel rims, but you can wash quite heavily with Agrax Earthshade to mask any errors as part of making them look weathered and muddy.

Selling these guys. Decided to have fun painting them first though.

In the core set there are extra stat cards for people that already have 15mm scale tanks. I checked on ebay and picked up these 3 tanks.

Zvezda are great for price, I enjoyed painting these Soviets and the details are great. I just realised I have never played with them and that if I do choose to play Soviets in Tanks I would like them to be in the same style and scale as my GF9 Tanks. Zvezda came up slightly smaller in comparison.

I used these as practise for my freehand markings, because I don’t have any decals in this scale. I can’t remember what the primer colour was, but I followed the advice from the Colours of War Book with a black wash followed by a heavy dry brush of Vallejo Reflective green. I enjoyed the weathering with the same spots of orange and Leadbelcher knocked back with Typhus Corrosion.

I know it won’t be great in game but rule of cool dictates you paint what you love… She’s a Honey. ?

I primed in Death Guard Green, black wash, heavy dry brush of Vallejo Russian Uniform Green, light dry brush of Vallejo Iraqi Sand and Wyldwood Contrast Paint for the tracks and wheels. For weathering I used a bright orange, Leadbelcher scrapes and Typhus Corrosion to give the muddy, rusty look.

I posted the pics on Facebook and was told that games with smaller tanks can be very fun to play.

I have the Honey, a Puma, a Cromwell and a Panzer III so I will check out the stats and see how that plays.

I didn’t have all the colours from the book, but the Russian Uniform Green as the main dry brush colour helped give me the look I wanted.

I primed in Death Guard Green, black wash, heavy dry brush of Vallejo Russian Uniform Green, light dry brush of Vallejo Iraqi Sand and Wyldwood Contrast Paint for the tracks and wheels.