Flames of War Soviet Tank wrap up

Ok, so it seems I don't post enough still.... Mind you, there are gaps where nothing gets done as family and other interests often push my painting aside. Pathetic.. I know. Life has a way of doing this to all of us I am sure. I often yearn for the carefree days where I had the time to do what I wanted... BUT.. I never had the money....


Anyway, as usual, I enjoy every second behind the brush. I would call these done except I want to add decals to them! I believe they are all FoW battlefront miniatures.... all are plastic except the early war T-34 in the front, it is an early make, resin and white metal.

I actually did these as a "quick paint". I wanted to see how the Army painter aerosol worked out of the can. All of the tanks were base-coated in Army Painter Soviet Green or Soviet Armor... I forget what they are calling now a days. The 4 plastic T-34's went together very well. As a model kit, I would have to say they were very nice. They are extremely light and will make for easy transportation. One thing I suggest doing though is to add in a few small washers for weight. This isn't to give them a heavier feel, it is to help with using them on the battlefield.... they are so light, they slide down hill slopes, etc... without adding some weight to give their treads some grip.


As I have said before, Battlefront was late to the game, but they brought their "A" game for sure.... the plastic is durable, easy to work with and most importantly, Battlefront jumped on the bandwagon with providing extra bits and turrets... this means you have to buy fewer tanks as you can now use them as T-34 early and late by swapping out the turret. Had they not gone that route, folks were buying Plastic Soldier Company and other brands. In the end, for me, the Battle front products won out as they are uniform and fit well with their white metal and resin kits.

So, for these tanks, I base coated with the Army painter green. I didn't highlight them like I have done for others, it is simply a test to see how they would work with minimal paint and time. I picked out details with a combination of Iron Wind Metals, and GW paints.... I absolutely LOVE the IWM Steel.... it has never let me down! I used it for the treads, saw blades and anything else that was bare metal. For the exposed tankers, I did not use my go to Vallejo colors. I used a blend of IWM flesh, leather and tan. The helmet is GW black with some Eshin grey to pick out the details...

The most important detail you can give vehicles is weathering. I am no pro by far... I have played with the inks and rust and even taping to get the "chipped paint" effect. In the end, at 15mm... table top eyeshot... I think the best is to give some texture, for this, I use the Tamiya paint sticks... they work great for snow, wet mud, dry mud, etc... AND, best of all, they are thick, they go on like a crayon almost and then you can feather the edges or blend in other shades to get the effect you are looking for. I mainly use 3 colors... bark brown, tan and white... for adding snow and mud effects to bases, boots and vehicles

Here are the tanks after a quick matt varnish. They appear a little too shiny for my likes, but they will do. I might go back and add some highlights and decals. I also tried using some GW Nuln oil on the SU 85's. I did not like the shiny effect it gave to the flat paint. Once the tanks were matt varnished, it helped a little, but you can still see some sloppiness that I didn't go in a fix.

Below are the two plastic T-34's with the crew exposed. I opted to go with the tan uniforms instead of the black ones... the black would look cool, but that is how most of the German tankers look.. I wanted my Soviet tankers to stand out a bit better, but still match the coloring.

 

In the end, it was a fun little project once I got going on it. Total time invested was actually minimal, even though it was dragged out over a long period of time. This now brings my total of completed T-34's to around 75 I think.... I know, I know... what the hell was I thinking! Maybe I'll have a run at Kursk before I sell some of them off. Like all games, I get in waaaay over my head and I never seem to break the surface again.... My issue here was that originally I only planned on doing an infantry army for the Soviets to do Stalingrad.... well, the way the model kits were released, I wound up buying and trying them all out and wound up with a lot of tanks in the end...


Flames of War is still one of my favorite games, but I must admit, I haven't played in a few years... the constant rule changing was a huge turn off. I heard they went back to the basics again in their latest rules release.... I might have to check it out. I keep asking myself... do I opt to just rebase my infantry and use them all for 15mm Bolt Action? I just don't know. I have soooo much FoW stuff based and ready to go. I just need them to hit the table top.