Charlotte Flames of War 1000 point Early War Battles

A group of the Basement of Heaped Miniatures Regulars carpooled down to Parker Banner Kent and Wayne for some Early War games with the Charlotte Flames of War group. We played 1000 point armies and several of the guys managed multiple games.I played a Soviet Strelkovt Batalon, Chuckaroobob played French Fusiliers, Jody played French Infantry, Darkrovar played German Armor, Tom played British armor, Gary played British armor, Brian played German light armor and Keith played French Armor.

The Charlotte guys turned out some excellent terrain including this Eastern Orthodox Church on the Russian steppe table.

The action heats up, The French armor being smoked by the German armor.

German armor making the dash across the airfield.

French Fusiliers moving to stop the German Light armor breakthrough.

French anti-tank guns on the flank of the German light tank company.

The Soviet Strelkovy Batalon charges the first wave into the French guns.

The Soviet 1931 B-4 203mm howitzers, standing in for some 122mm howitzers reposition to get a line of sight shot at the French Infantry.

German armor victorious, French armor company destroyed.

French fusiliers still holding the German light tank company from breaking through.

The Soviet high tide, The Strelkovy Platoon fails to assault the French light tanks.

German Stuka strafes the French fusiliers and score two casualties.

The French light tanks move to gun down the Soviet heavy machine gun company.

The German armor takes the field again, this time against a British Armor company.

The German light armor Breaking through the French Fusiliers.

The Stuka returns to add insult to injury on the French fusiliers anti-tank guns.

The first Soviet Strelkovy company is removed from play and I fail the second wave roll so they are gone for good.

The French Light tanks have made short work of the Heavy machine gun company and fire on the 1931 B-4 203mm howitzers killing one. I then have to make the company morale roll and I leave the field.

We ended up with nine players for the day and I think everybody gained a new respect for the differences of the Early War Flames of War. Personally, it was my first Early War game with the Soviets and I have come back with a new plan. I have reorganized the Strelkovy and have picked up a few new units to make a much better army.

ColKG

Early War armies for Charlotte Flames of War

A group of  The Basement of Heaped Miniatures regulars carpooled down to Parker, Banner, Kent and Wayne to play some 1000 point Early War Flames of war games. We ended up with eight players eventually  but I only took pictures of six armies.

First is my Soviet Early War Strelkovy Batalon from the Poland Invaded pdf from Battlefront. I went with two Strelkovy comapnies. a machine gun company and an artillery company.

The guns I used were actually Soviet 1931 B-4 203mm howitzers from Chuckaroobob's collection. I used them as "counts as" 122mm howitzers.

Chuckaroobob's French Fusilier company. Command with 2 25mm guns, three fusilier platoons, a heavy machine gun platoon, a two 47mm at gun section and 3 Hotchkiss H 39 tanks

Keith's loaner french armor company with nine Souma S35s.

Darkrovar's German armor. I believe he had to proxy some of his long barrel MK IIIs for the early war short barreled ones.

Brian's German Armor company. With a command Panzer I, four Sdkfs 231s, a stuka and a mess of Panzer I's and II's.

Last Jody's French Infantry. A command section, two at guns, a mortar section, an AA section with three 25mm AA guns, three French light tanks and three infantry platoons.


The two not pictured were newcomer Tom with a British Armor Company and Gary also with a British Armor  company.

Battle reports to follow soon.

ColKG
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Old School Oop Chaos Rhino Refit

In my quest to add to my fleet of oop old style Chaos Rhinos I managed to pick up another one. I dropped it into the simple green to strip the paint. Well a couple months later I opened up the simple green container to drop in some figure I picked up recently and remembered where I had left the chaos rhino.

The sides had been super glued on and soaking so long had loosened the bond, so they came off the hull. Other than that the paint came off in sheets. I took a brush and hot water to it and almost all of the paint came off.  I still ended up scraping a little paint and sanding down some rough spots but overall it was in real good shape.

 First things first what is a chaos rhino with out spike racks to display your trophies. I raided my stocks of chaos spikey bits and after trimming a couple down mounted them on the back.

The previous owner had already some chaos heads to the tops of the smoke stack but I wanted it to match my other chaos rhinos.

So I broke off the old ones  and after drilling out the mouths added the larger ones to match some of my other Chaos Rhinos.

The Chaos Rhino originally had the metal rear door from the old style vindicator. I removed the door and added a regular rhino ramp to the rear.

To cover the hole and add some more chaosy goodness I glued another chaos plate to the rear ramp.

After cleaning off the super glue residue I glued the the sides back on. The one headlight is a bit crooked and I am still debating about leaving it or breaking it off and making it more even with the other one. I plan to add some smoke launcher and I am still debating how to arm it.  I have two Chaos rhinos with a single combi-bolter, two with twin combi-bolters and two with a combi-bolter and a combi-melta. I may just go with a single combi-bolter and add a removable havoc launcher but I need to see the new Chaos space marine codex to see if that is a legal option anymore. I will make the decision and get another post up soon.

ColKG

Another Glance into the Basement of Heaped Miniatures

Hi Kids,  I've been spending some quality time searching the Basement, looking for my long-lost 3rd ed Flames of War rules.  I think they're down there someplace but so far no luck finding them.  They could also be loaned out or in the upper levels of the house.  I did manage to find some things I'd forgotten (all 25mm of course): prehistoric beasts,  Eureka moderns,  WW2 USA and French,  Falcon French Colonial troops, the list goes on and on.  I figured I'd take some pictures so the normal people out there could see what I'm up against.

 The long view of the south wall.

 The closet in the SE corner, its 4x4ft and overflowing with crap.  Yeah, that's an Armorcast Reaver Titan and an Ork Stomper.  There are 100+ 1:72 scale WW2 aircraft for back when we used to play "Mustangs & Messerschmitts."

 Small shelves next to the closet.  Yeah, those are unopened boxes of minis.  I'm a big fan of Grenadier!

 NW corner shelves, including micro-shelves/tool box full of 1/285 stuff, piles of CD's, and Tupperwares full of Sisters of Battle, QRF moderns and Khador.  Yep, got some Hawaiian tikis for pulp terrain.

 Long view down the north wall.  The black tub is full of terrain, everything else is pretty much full of minis; including Dark Elves, Space Marines (can we used those words together now?), Combat Nuns (Reaper), Space Orks, Warzone Capitol, Bauhaus, Cybertronic, Grenadier Barbarians, Khador, Foundry Darkest Africa, Tau, Heavy Gear (Rafm scale of course), Void, Starship Troopers...

And the spot where the magic occasionally happens, the painting table.  Usually it's full to overflowing as in this case, when I want to paint I open up about 12 x 6 inches of surface area.  Yeah, that's more minis on the floor.  I think that's the Chaos Tupperware container, behind that is the colonial Tupperware.  Maybe I should get a table at the Historicon flea market. So everybody look close.  Do you see a FOW rulebook anywhere?

Mi-24 T-shirt for the Chuckster

 Hi Kids,  Now I don't want to shock anyone, but I dig t-shirts.  Maybe too much.  I started buying them as a kid while on vacation and now I just buy them all the freakin' time.  I've always been a firm believer that if my t-shirt is cooler than everyone else's than I must be cooler than everyone else.  Call me crazy.  I probably have 200-300 t-shirts by now, I gave away about 80 a couple years ago.  (Not as thin as I used to be....)  Anyway, one fine day I was crying my eyes out because I did not have a really cool Mi-24 t-shirt.  I was reading "The Chopper Boys" by A J Venter.  Or maybe it was "Gunship Ace."  At any rate, I decided this gaping whole in my apparel  must be eliminated.  I noticed an internet ad to design your own shirts, and low and behold $26.00 later this picture was emblazoned across the front pocket and back of a t-shirt!  WooooooHoooooooooo! Vistaprint.com is the man! I really like the beady little eyes painted on the engine intakes!  It's a Polish aircraft.  Now I am certain that I am cooler than everyone else.  At least when I'm wearing this shirt.

These are some of the pix which were possibilities.  It's not really that hard to find cool pictures on the internet. (Shocking, I know!!) A lot of these came from Airliners.net, an awesome site with zillions of aviation pix.  And you can search for just about anything, including airports and countries as well as specific aircraft.

 Really dug this one but it was too low res to blow up for a shirt.  Looks like a late model Mi-24 since it lacks the chin MG turret and has the side mounted guns.

 There are those beady little eyes again!

Funky color scheme.  I mean really funky.

 So if you're Jonesin' for your own unique shirt buzz on over to Airliners.net and check out all the cool action, then hit Vistaprint.com and bring your creation to life!  My favs are the ones from Kai-tak airport Hong Kong.  Talk about your 747's at low level!  Wow!  I flew in there once 20 years ago but I don't remember it being that exciting.  Maybe I should have had a better seat, I was stuck back in steerage.