Flames of War… the 15mm wargame set in the World War 2 era. Dethtron started getting interested in this a while back, and his infectious enthusiasm was hard to ignore. He’d already decided on playing the (later war) German forces (Achtung!), and well, with me being a Brit, who else would I play? Of course! the Russians!
Only joking :). I had to fly the flag for my country and opted to play the Tommys. I haven’t really had much time to get the ball rolling with this, although I have played a few games (playing the American forces) and it is super enjoyable. I have managed to knock out a bunch of rifle platoon stands, but I just finished the first of eight artillery pieces, which i’m quite pleased with.
To those of you who don’t know me outside of this ‘ere blog, I live in the US, but am a born and bred Limey. I am from Coventry, which has quite significant ties to the whole WW2 thing, in that our city had major factories that produced ordnance for the war effort for Allied forces and also produced tanks and armor at the Alvis factories that were based there. The Luftwaffe also managed to obliterate our medieval cathedral in an air raid (known as the Coventry Blitz). They were actually trying to get the aforementioned factories but missed… The walls of the old cathedral still stand, with the new one built next to it. It’s quite impressive to behold. As a side note, I’ll be getting married later this year about 30 feet away from the old part of Coventry Cathedral :)
Both of my Grandfathers served in the war, one in the Corps of Engineers, and the other a Sergeant in a regiment that served in North African Theater. I’ll be doing a bit of research on them for a later article ;)
The satisfying thing about painting FoW, is that it happens so quickly. I basecoat everything and simply slap a wash over it, apply some matt varnish, and done! I’ve seen people really go to town highlighting 15mm minis, and while it’s an art unto itself, I feel it can sometimes ‘drown’ the miniature. Keep it simple, less is more.
Now that i’ve found a ‘groove’ with painting this stuff, I hope to be able to rattle out the rest in double quick time so I can keep those bleedin’ Germans occupied!
C+C always welcome!
