And now for something completely different.

Well, I finally started on a project that has been on my to do list for sometime. Flames of War Fallschirmjager! Thanks to my good friend Dave I managed to score a nice sized collection of models to get this army started. I managed to play a couple of games and loved it but just never had the time or motivation to get my own force painted. I think some of that was my own fear of the great unknown (to me at least) in the form of 15mm models. As you can tell from my blog I pretty much exclusively paint 25-28mm stuff. Anything smaller has always scared me a bit. But, after much online research I finally started my first stands this morning. Here, they are in all their glory.

I basically followed the Fallschrimjager color scheme out of the old Ostfront sourcebook along with the color codes from the newer Eastern Front book. I definitely had to rethink my normal painting when it came to these guys. I found myself wanting to do multiple highlights and even eyes! Well, I think I've convinced myself that there was no reason to go to these extremes so I did a slight flesh wash and left them as is. I think the final result looks fine. I'm sure as I paint more I'll get more detailed. Considering the stuff I've seen for FOW I know I could go overboard if I wanted.

Before I go back to the painting table I wanted to share some of the online resources I've been scouring over the last couple of months. I haven't ventured far so I'm sure people can tell me of lots of other places I can check. But for me, the first stop was the FOW site and their forums. You can find them at http://www.flamesofwar.com/. In the process of getting their newsletter each week I found a link to their podcast as well as an independent podcast called "What would Patton do?" (WWPD). I now listen to both shows but I really enjoy the show the guys at WWPD put together each month. They do a great job of talking about tactics, armies and hobby stuff plus they are so enthused about the game that you can't help but get fired up to play. I strongly encourage anyone interested in FOW to check them out at http://www.whatwouldpattondo.net/.

So stay tuned as my force grows and I'll add plenty of new photos, painting guides and maybe even some battle reports in the coming months. Plus, for you history buffs I might even try and come up with a short overview of my force and the history behind it.