The Great Eye Calls!

Here we are, September 1st and it's time to get going on the Tale of Four Gamers project. For me, that means assembling my first 150 points(148 to be exact) which will be made up of the following models.

11 Haradrim Warriors w/ bow = 66pts
2 Haradrim Warriors w/ spear = 12pts
1 Haradrim Warrior w/ horn = 25pts
1 Haradrim Chieftain = 45pts

Stay tuned for shots of the assembled models and the final product for this month. The men of Harad will not fail their master Sauron.

Tale of Four AWC LotR Gamers Begins!

What have I got myself into now? A week or so ago I got an email from my friend Brent Sinclair asking if I'd be willing to participate in an Adeptus Windy City Lord of the Rings Club version of the Tale of Four Gamers. Tim Kulinski and his crew out in Arizona had done the same thing earlier this year and it looked like a lot of fun. Well, I'm not one to rush my painting projects (which sadly explains my lack of armies!), but after some soul searching I decided I couldn't pass up the chance to participate in this project. Not only would it help me get a new army finished, but I'd be competing along with some great LotR hobbyists: Chris Balke, Brent Sinclair and Jeremy Williams.

The plan is to complete 600 points in 5 months. At the start of each month we will plan out 150 points in models and then complete these by the end of that month. The 5th month will be set aside for finishing touches like bases and display boards. Each of us will be responsible for posting our plan and completed work each month on our respective blogs.

Chris Balke: http://galadriels-mirror-cbalke.blogspot.com/

Brent Sinclair: http://thereandblogagain.wordpress.com/

Jeremy Williams: http://chefofwar.blogspot.com/

To keep score we plan to use the following point system:

Models painted on time: +5pts
Models painted late: +3pts
Models not painted: +0pts

And to encourage some gaming we'll score our wins and losses as follows:

Major Win: 5pts
Minor Win: 4pts
Draw: 3pts
Minor Loss: 2pts
Major Loss: 1pts

Games can start anytime after the second month when we have reached a 300 point level for our armies.

So there you have it. Should be a fun project and if I finish with any points by the end I'll be happy. Good luck to Chris, Brent and Jeremy. Can't wait to see the finished work from these guys.

Fallschirmjager vs. US Infantry

This past weekend I had the chance to take my Fallschirmjager out for their first game of Flames of War against my friend Tyler's Americans. It was a great game and we already have another planned for this week. Below are a few pics of the action. I found that, not really understanding all the rules, I played my Fallschirmjager pretty defensively and when I did assault I was to spread out to be effective. The air support I had was fun but failed to really do much of anything. My standouts were my armour, especially my Marder II's. These guys took out a whole platoon of tank destroyers. I'm definitely getting 2 more of these! My Tiger did alright but I realized by the end of the game that I should have just kept him in place to fire as he would have been more effective.


The famed Luftwaffe seemed off their game this time around....but they still looked cool trying!

My Tiger I E taking out some Shermans.

The stars of the game, the Marder II's!

My Fallschirmjager hiding from the American tanks.

Supporting my Fallschirmjager

Since my last post I've been busy with summer trips and other non-gaming activities. But, with my first game using my Fallschirmjager coming soon I got back to finishing up my force for the big debut game. With my Fallschirmjager company completed it was time to move on to some armoured support including two Marder II's and a Tiger I E which is pictured here. The Marder's are getting their final touches and I'll get some pictures up soon along with a battle report from my first game with the new force.

Now for something completely different: Part II

After a couple of weeks of work I finally completed my Fallschirmjager Company! The force consists of an HQ with attached anti-tank gun and mortar sections as well as two Fallschirmjager Platoons. Even though I did not spend as much time on details like shading and highlighting as I might have liked, I'm pretty happy with the outcome. As I stated in the last post, I'm sure I'll be getting more detailed as I paint future FOW projects. I did take some step-by-step pictures and will put together a short tutorial on the painting process for these in the coming weeks.

Below you can see some pictures of the force:

Platoon I
Platoon II

HQ platoon

HQ command section

Mortar section

Anti-tank section

So, with my first full company completed it's time to get back to work on some 28mm projects. First up on the list are a couple of Gorgon Studio models. Then it's back to Lord of the Rings to paint a Dragon and build a Durin's Tower table for GamesDay Chicago. But rest assured, I'll be back with more FOW as soon as possible. There are two Mader II tanks and some Luftwaffe air support waiting in the Que.

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.

Adepticon 2011 in the books!

Well, it's been a few weeks since Adepticon 2011 and I'm finally feeling like I've returned to normal life. The excitement of Adepticon always takes me a few weeks to recover from. Below are some pics of the LotR Championship event including some of the new table surfaces we added this year. You can find the full set of pictures from the event here.I had a great time playing in my first ever Adepticon LotR event. My thanks go out to Brent Sinclair for taking over the event for me this year. And I should also thank Frank Brown, John Humphrey, and Tim Cornstubble who helped in various ways both before the event and during the event. Without folks like these stepping up to help I wouldn't have had the chance to play. So thank you guys!

I managed to finish my new Dwarf army for the event and was making a run at the best appearance award. But I knew this would be a challenge as great painters like Ty Finnochiaro and Marc Raley would be in attendance. Ty walked away with Best Appearance for his AWESOME Black Numenorian force. You can see some pics of his army along with Marc's Dwarves and my own Dwarf army. I was surprised to find that I had won Best Sportsmanship by tie-breaker (i.e. lowest battle score). So really, I won for doing what I do best....being not so great at playing this game I love. LOL!

Ty's Black Numenorians

Marc's Dwarves

My Erebor Dwarves With Adepticon in the books it's time to move on to new projects including a new LotR force for Bilbo's Birthday Bash, also know as B3. This great event is held in November and you can find more information or even sign-up here.