Flames of War M4 Sherman Tank Platoons (Battlefront Miniatures) (June-it ’18)

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These ten M4 Sherman models are some of Battlefront’s early product – resin shermans with metal guns. I picked up these two platoons secondhand, and so they lack turret MGs (if these early models even had those). I picked these up as two sets of 5 tanks for £15.00 each back in 2012 – they were old and long OOP even then.

And that’s where this story ended. Or took a rather long intermission until very recently. While I was looking for something else, and had Marouda helping me look through the boxes and tubs of figures in storage, I spied the two sets of Shermans, and then decided to pull them from the shelf, and also grabbed out all the plastic Open Fire! Shermans as well (sadly, they’re the dodgy ones from the first edition of OF!) Thanks to Just Needs Varnish, and his endless stream of cool looking 15mm stuff, I decided it was time to get a few little tanks painted up.

They’re really nothing special. I got two versions of OD spray made up at the local paint store (I’ll need to get a Brown Violet match made as well, but I need to get the Vallejo paint first!). I used the darker as the base, then the lighter as a zenithal shade. I used the Battlefront decals (they’re fucking awful to use – they take forever to lift off the sheet, they’re thin and crinkle and tear easily) as I couldn’t get the PSC ones. I can out of Allied Stars and so found a larger-scale sheet of them from Warlord, and used the smallest ones. I’ll have to buy a bunch more of the Warlord ones, as they were great decals to use.

The ten Shermans have been painted in a rather generic style. I’ve gone for all-Allied Stars to save the ringed stars for later units. I figure I can use the turrets with top-stars on them as Platoon leaders as needed. Not that I’ve played Flames of War in many, many years now. Not since 1st edition, in fact. While I can recognise a lot of WWII armour in it’s basic forms, I don’t know them well enough to know where exactly to place all of the optional markings, or which of the many variants that these Shermans are.

Battlefront Shermans imitate the start of a typical round of World of Tanks.

What will I do with these? Well, I have a few different 15mm armies worth of figures and armour to build and play with one day. There’s obviously Flames of War out there, and plenty of other WW2 rulesets besides for that scale. At one stage I hoped to play Bolt Action with a bunch of 15mm models, using cm for inches, but it never happened. I have a DAK army that’s been in storage for well over a decade now that could probably be a project for both “Finishing Units” months as well as, obviously, Neglected Models. The problem for me is painting 15mm troops. Because as cool as they can look when complete, I find them painfully boring to paint.

I painted the turret ring area to visually represent destroyed/burned tanks.

I’ve been considering picking up that TANKS! game by GF9 as a bit of a light game. It would certainly give me an outlet to use some of these tanks with, not to mention potentially giving me some motivation to paint some additional 15mm armour. I suppose there’s also the Bolt Action side-game, Tank War.

Neglected Model May ’18 Painting Challenge – Community Round-Up

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Wudugast’s Unforgotten.

Wudugast from Convert or Die set himself a task this month, to complete an impressive selection of models which he dubbed “The Unforgotten“. Throughout the month’s regular updates, he managed to get every single one of his models completed, as well as a bonus cultist! Kudos, mate!

 

Dave Kay’s Neglected Nazgul, Ratskin, Bounty Hunter and Wizard.

Next, we have Scent of a Gamer‘s Dave Kay, who selected a selection(!) of his models that weren’t started, but had been neglected for years and turned them into a nice little collection of completed work. Dave’s even continuing to work on the neglected models in his collection after the theme month, which is always cool.

 

Bonecruncha’s Death Guard Helbrute… Done!

Bonecruncha, one of the co-bloggers at Slow and Purposeful completed this Death Guard Hellbrute, which from the look of it could also be called Bonecruncha.

 

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright…

The Japanese Type 92 rolls on down the road.

Justneedsvarnish from, err.. Just Needs Varnish showed that he’s also a William Blake fan and a cat lover like myself this month with a completed Tiger first up, followed by a Japanese Type 92 Combat Car (I wonder how well that would go down in Gaslands?)

 

Ann’s Neglected Tankbusta with Power Klaw.

Ann from Ann’s Immaterium has completed an Orkish Tankbusta, with a rather nasty “can opener” attachment.

 

The Castle

The Shipwreck.

The Oil Platform.

Gabbi from The Childhood Pasttimes of Gabbi (new blog title!) completed three pieces of terrain for Dystopian Wars. What’s even more impressive than how good they look to my eye is that two of them were originally from Games Workshop’s Dreadfleet game, meaning they’d usually be covered in skulls covered in skulls covered in skulls. I didn’t have a clue until I read that he’d modified them.

 

The Imperfect Modeller’s “The Search for Jack” vignette.

The Imperfect Modeller has created an atmospheric and evocative diorama involving Jack the Ripper, one of his fresher victims, and a rather (un)lucky Bobby on night patrol.

 

So, so many neglected Inquisitorial servants. Eternally hunting.

Krautscientist of the Eternal Hunt completed another of his Inq28 Inquititorial retinues, tying in neglected models with those completed last month. Each model an individual and a character, and there are so, so many of them!

Steam Wars – Biplane With Rockets

Steinbergs’ Shed Space completed this Steam Wars biplane, which I forgot to add in initially because I forgot and we didn’t have a link. Fixed now, though!

Then there’s my own stuff, briefly highlighted in my last post, and in detail across the last month of this blog.

 

Once again, I have to offer a hefty congratulations to all of the people who managed to get something done. While the kernel for these challenges are really for myself – to help motivate me, it’s a pretty powerful thing to see how so many of us can help to motivate one another each month. And yeah, I know monthly challenges can get tedious for some people – but like I said, I’m keeping them going to keep my own painting mojo going – as well as for anyone/everyone else that feels like/is able to join(ing) in on a given month.

and…

Did you paint a neglected model during May? Did I forget to include you? Did we discuss neglected models in the comments of one of the posts or someone else’s blog comments and now you’re not included here? Just let me know in the comments below.

Not to be a nagging bastard, but that’s why I ask you to link back to me. I don’t need the money or the fame of a trackback, but it makes it a million times easier for me to round up the community posts and make all of the links. 😉