Tag: Modelling

Designing Airborne Figures

with Ales Potocnik

Hi! My name is Ales, and I am a designer behind some of the figure miniatures produced for Flames of War. For this article, I will guide you through the process of creation from beginning to final product. It is quite a specific line of work since the production of miniatures requires knowledge in different areas; such as 3D sculpting, casting processes, working with small scales, materials, and prototyping equipment. I also had a great opportunity to learn from Charles Woods, who was kind enough to provide me with some guidance. I couldn’t do what I do without a great team behind me, providing me with useful tips and ideas to even further push the miniatures look and improvements.
 There are a lot of things that are very specific when you are designing to such a small scale. Not only the size, there are certain technical requirements due to the way the final plastic miniatures are produced. Lines have to be extra crisp in order to get out as much detail as we possibly can, there is a necessary increase in the thickness of certain small bits, because in the end you are left with a choice. Either you can have a detail that is slightly off in size, or not have it all. The same issue would arise with long thin plastic objects which would be prone to breaking. My job is to think ahead for all the processes and final design and adjust the best I can for the best possible result. 


The designing process starts off with a brief that gets written up by Miniature Design Lead Evan. The brief then gets either approved or refined and after that, it ends up in my hands. Briefs will usually include details on uniform and equipment layout, height of the miniatures, and specifics that will need to be taken into account on what we want.  I tend to gather up as much additional material, books and references as I can, since some of the details are very specific or certain parts can’t be distinguished easily in the historical photographs due to quality and size. After all I am looking at gear details on photos where it is not always the intention to capture that at all.

At this point I will start designing in 3d software, usually starting with a 10mm bottom round platform for size reference, moving on to uniforms and then moving on piece by piece. While I design the likes of shoes, pants, belts, entrenching tools, ammo pouches, gasmasks etc., I’m still not designing absolutely everything. Often I am provided with weapons that were designed by other freelance 3D artists working for Battlefront, shaving down the time I would spend on it as an individual, meaning, we are moving faster in the creation. This part usually takes quite some time, since all the parts are designed in a way for them to be as distinguishable as possible, and there is A LOT of gear that differs from soldier to soldier based on their tasks and ranks. While I am at this step, I often bug game designers with searching questions, or I ask for additional information from the Miniature Design lead.

Once we are happy with the miniature design look in digital form, I take over the process of prototyping on our high-accuracy 3D printer. Sometimes when we are in a pinch and we can’t decide for example, a helmet size, it really comes in handy to test them out in physical form. As I am satisfied with the model, it gets a final check up by Evan, and then gets prototyped so we can send it over for inspection.

We make absolutely sure we go through all the quality control steps. Previewed by Miniature Lead again in physical form, checked by our staff members and me, then checked and later on approved by the bosses. If the miniature is not up to standard, we repeat the whole cycle, but most of the time we only need to make minor corrections & adjustments. It is essential that we are communicating a lot at this stage through the way the miniature is designed. If we miss this window of opportunity and we want a change later on to a basic model, I have to make changes to all of the miniatures I’ve already made. For example: if we are not happy with the way shoes are made, I have to remove the old ones, add the new model of the shoes I have made, pose them, and add the details and folds for each individual miniature. Once you stack up 50 shoe changes it turns out to be a few work days of work, making it difficult to stick to deadlines.

Finally, we move on to what I refer to as “making the range”.
This is the process of creating the miniatures and posing them. More direction at this part, since the figure range gets segmented. Riflemen, Mortars, Bazookas, Light machine gun crews and many more. Each usually have different and distinct equipment.

Always looking for cool poses, we base the soldiers on image references, our previous miniatures, and sometimes just trying out something that we think would look cool. At this stage I am looking for any possible undercuts (area that do not have straight lines and would cause the plastic to grab if cooled in the mould) and any other problematic areas which could cause trouble in production by orienting the miniature in an imaginary mould. The gear that I have previously designed now comes into play and gets added on each posed soldier, and adjusted based on the pose, gravity, and orientation. They are also given the right weapons if they carry them.

Each individual figure gets reviewed at this stage again and approved – one by one.
After we are happy with the pose, there comes detailing. Based on the pose, I am adding folds to the clothing, shape to backpacks and pockets based on how full they are, straps and different unique attributes to each single one of them. You must be careful not to overdo it with the gear stacking though! Soldiers can start looking like waddling penguins real fast with all the gear at such a small scale. This process is most difficult for a 3D artist to get used to, since small miniatures are treated completely differently than the large ones. Each crease and fold needs to be exaggerated and needs to be as sharp as you can get it.

As I add the details, myself and Design Lead go over all of them and review them one more time – digitally. After this it’s more prototypes being printed and again, we all review them since you can never get the exact same result you get on screen. Here we make any final adjustments to the  entire range of figures. When the adjustments are done, we are left with final version, Version 2. The soldiers get grouped up, sprues are added in 3D software to specifications and requirements, and off they go to mass production!

Saving Private Ales

with  Ales Potocnik

Hey everyone!

I thought I would share the creative process of making a special miniature inspired by the now -classic Saving Private Ryan movie. It was done as a fun project for myself to celebrate the release of the first FOW D-Day book and it seemed fitting to honour Tom Hanks in his role as Captain John H. Miller. So, I decided to make my own Captain Miller. One of the most memorable scenes for me was towards the end, when he is, in a final act of defiance, shooting at a Tiger tank with his pistol!
 Since I had been digitally designing Americans from that period, I already had the basic clothing and equipment.  I had to pose it as close as I could to the scene here and make some of the other equipment he is wearing. Funny part, I also put some blocks in the back to substitute for the motorbike just to get the height and pose right. I take every piece of gear I have, make it fit onto his body and mimic how it would behave on an actual human. Some of the details are made slightly over-emphasised so they will cast well and they can be painted by us.


Our soldiers have a slightly larger heft due to the demands of the 15mm size. If I am making miniatures for manufacturing in different materials I will have to make some changes when it comes to facial structures and emphasis, density of folds on the clothing because I can’t only go for accuracy, I also need to make sure when we get the final product it will take paint well, and there will be plenty of details to paint. . Accuracy and attention to detail is our primary concern and we always try to pull out the most amount of detail that we can with the scale we are working on and the end material. When I see  our products that you guys build and paint I am always blown away. Least I can do is show you respect by doing the same when I am designing these for you.
I took a little bit of liberty since it is inspired by the movie and not exact reproduction, and tilted his head back, and raised the pistol. This was done simply to make him look cooler and even more defiant. At this stage there are no details on the character yet, only the fold at the belt, and distortion on the webbing in the stomach area. These come in later. I already did some work on the face too. The amount of detail I am adding is way more than usual since something like a lip would be less than one tenth of a millimetre thick!

Slowly by adding detail, distortions, folds,  we are getting closer. His left leg is slightly further extended and raised in the scene, but I wanted no empty space under his left knee and flat on the platform. I made a satchel, added the grenades, muzzle, ammo pouch and then detailed them. You can never completely finish something at this stage, personally I could fiddle with it into infinity finding small little details like pant folds and imperfections to add, not to mention the face.

I do the smart thing and leave it as it is.

Final result in all of his glory. I greatly enjoyed making him and I am happy with how he turned out, let me know what you guys think!

Painting US Infantry- Evan’s Guide

with Evan Allen

Nothing seems to cause as much confusion as colours of the uniforms worn by the United States Army during WWII. And this seems to be mainly due to the fact that the army entered the war in December 1941 wearing one uniform and finished the war in 1945 with another uniform, mixed them up in between, with a few other articles of clothing thrown in for good measure!

In this article I will attempt to portray these uniforms with pictures of BF miniatures painted with Vallejo’s Acrylics colours that I’ve personally chosen. So please treat all colour suggestions as a guide and not a decree. Also, I’ve purposely avoided one step in the painting process that I
normally use which is highlighting of the base colour. This is so you can see the original colour from the bottle and not just the highlighting I use,
which is add 10-15% VP Deck Tan (986) to the original base colour. For those that don’t use the

Vallejo range just cross-reference the
colours on the FOW colour chart to get your favourite paint brand equivalent. Throughout this article I’m going to use the designations that seem to be most commonly used to describe the uniforms and not necessarily the ‘official’ nomenclature.
7 December 1941. The United States is dragged forcibly into the war and the first US soldiers to see combat in the ETO, or ‘European Theatre of Operations’, land in Tunisia on 8 November 1942 during Operation Torch.

This figure is shown
wearing the M1941 or ‘Parsons’ jacket and Olive Drab woolen trousers with canvas leggings and M1 steel helmet. The G.I. in this uniform could be found in the Bocage hedgerows of Normandy to the snow-covered Ardennes, from the dusty Tunisian roads to the hills of Italy and anywhere else that a G.I. fought in the ETO.

Uniform Part Vallejo Colour
Jacket/leggings Khaki (988)
Trousers US Field Drab (873)
Webbing Green Grey (886)
Helmet Olive Drab (887)
Boots Flat Brown (984)

One uniform Item that can cause confusion is the HBT or ‘Herringbone Twill’ denim fatigue that the US Army issued. These were worn as working clothes during training etc. but were also worn over the top of the normal combat dress for amphibious operations such as the Tunisian
and Normandy landings. The olive green colour of the HBT’s was similar to the colour of the later M1943 uniform, which we’ll look at later.

 

These two figures (Above and left) show a mixture of HBT shirt and trousers mixed with the OD woolen trousers and M1941 jacket. Again, this would be a common mix anywhere the G.I. fought.

 

Uniform Part Vallejo Colour
Herringbone Twill US Dark Green (893)

(Note. To differentiate between HBT and the M1943 uniform I’d suggest adding more Deck Tan to the highlight colour for the HBT material)

To add to the figure with the Herringbone twill trouser choice is the additional items issued for the Normandy landings. These consisted of the Assault jacket, worn over the normal jacket, and the waterproof gasmask bag. The Assault jackets had extra pockets for things like grenades
and ammo magazines that wouldn’t hinder the troops onto the beaches . The Gasmask bags, well just because, who knew what the Germans would do under such pressure?

Uniform Item Vallejo Colour
Assault jacket Vallejo Olive Drab (887)
Gasmask bag German Grey (995)

 

Camouflage uniforms were issued for a select few units in the ETO, mainly some units of 2nd ID, 30th ID and 2nd AD in the Normandy battle. The experiment was short-lived due to the similarity with the German camouflage uniforms, and some ‘friendly fire’ incidents took place as
a result of the confusion. But this does make for an interesting looking G.I.
This camouflage uniform was basically the HBT uniform printed in a camouflage pattern.

Uniform Part Vallejo Colour
Uniform Base Khaki (988)
Camo. Flat Brown (984)
Camo. US Dark Green (893)
Leggings Khaki (988)
Webbing Green Grey (886)

A trick I’ve learnt with camouflage uniform painting is once you’ve finished the pattern then go over the whole figure with a light dry brush of the original base colour. This should help blend in the pattern and prevent it from being to ‘loud’.

The M1943 uniform. This uniform is what usually springs to mind when thinking of the classic image of the wartime G.I. It was the end result of U.S. Army research and testing to develop a purpose made combat uniform that could be worn anywhere, anytime. The guiding principal was the ‘layered approach’ where you start with the basic uniform of Shirt and trousers then added jackets, liners, hoods etc to suit as the weather got colder or wetter. This uniform, with a few modifications, has evolved into the current uniform worn by the U.S. military and many other countries today.

The first issue was to the G.I.’s taking part in the Anzio landings in Italy and the new uniform proved itself an immediate success. Due to internal squabbling however, between the ETO command and the U.S. based command the issue of this much improved uniform was delayed until pretty much the end of the war for the troops already serving there. Most new troop formations that were shipped to the ETO after mid 1944 were wearing the new uniform but the rest had to soldier on through one of Europe’s worst winters wearing the older and less weather resistant uniform. With the new uniform also came ‘Shoe Pac’ which were an attempt to make the G.I.’s boots waterproof. They were a rubber and canvas overshoe that slipped over the boot and had metal clips to tighten. They were black in colour.

Uniform Part Vallejo Colour
M1943 uniform US Dark Green (893)
Shoepacs German Grey (995)
Webbing Green Grey (886)

Tank crews had their own specialist uniforms issued to suit their requirements, namely bouncing around inside a tank! The most obvious symbols of the Tanker are the Windcheater jacket, which was highly sought after by all G.I.’s, and the M1942 Armoured forces Helmet. This Tank crewman has a windcheater jacket and a Tankers helmet.

Uniform Item Vallejo Colour
Windcheater Khaki (988)
Helmet Flat Brown (984)

The standard U.S helmet became popular with tank crews as the M1942 Tankers helmet offered no ballistic protection whatsoever. Also as the M1943 uniform became available Tankers were issued it as well.

Uniform Part Vallejo Colour
Helmet Olive Drab (887)
Jacket Khaki (988)

Contrary to popular belief, if you’ve chosen an American force, you have a wide selection of paint schemes to choose from. Be it a ‘Gypsy’ mixture for a veteran unit or ‘uniform’ appearance for a freshly landed bunch of Greenhorns enjoy your painting and gaming.

Hobby League: Soviets

with Andrew Haught

V4 Late War is here with loads of ways to get into playing Flames Of War— so where do you start? Well, if you want to just get a feel for the rules the FURY is an amazing box set for you, or if you want to get into the game with a friend, Hit the Beach gives you two awesome armies to play against each other. If you have some idea of what force you want to run, then picking up the corresponding Starter Force box set is what you want to do. This article covers the Soviet Starter Force but if you want to learn about the other three Starter Forces, there’s more info in previous posts.

This Starter Force gives you a lot of stuff to play around with right away, and like all the V4 boxsets you get a lot for your money. The British Starter Force has a total 17 armoured vehicles, a full 4-gun artillery battery, and an infantry platoon, with the whole army adding up to 82 points using the Fortress Europe book, the box can also be used for the upcoming D-Day: British book so it’s a great core set to pick up for players who want to play the British throughout the V4 journey. On top of models you will get a complete A5 rulebook,  Start Here booklet, and your Unit cards, so you can start playing games as soon as you’re done building your force.

In The Box
T-34 Tank Battalion HQ with 1x T-34 (76mm) Tank (3 Points)
T34 Tank Company with 5x T-34 (76mm) Tanks (15 Points)
T-70 Tank Company with 5x T-70 (45mm) Tanks (5 Points)
KV-1 Guards Heavy Tank Company with 3x KV Tanks (12 Points)
S085 Tank-Killer Battery with 4x SU-85 (85mm) Assault Guns (23 points)
Katyusha Guards Rocket Battery with 4x Katyusha Rocket Launchers (8 Points)

Total 66 Points

Creating a 100 Point List
This set gives you a ton to work with but Soviets are points-affordable, so we will need to add a few more things to make it a full 100 point list, but let’s keep it focussed. I think after playing around with your Starter force you may get a good feel of what you want to add but for those who want to start off with a full 100 points I would pick up five more T-34s, some flame tanks, and an 82mm Mortar platoon and you will be good to go. To get to  100 points you just need to add the following:

T34 Tank Company with 5x T-34 (76mm) Tanks (15 Points)
KV-8 Flame-Tank Company 3x KV-8 (45mm) Tanks (15 Points)

82 Mortar Company with 6 82mm Mortor Teams (4 Points)

Total 34 Points

Now, I would run the T-34s in platoons of 5 and have two working platoons, but you can combine them into a single ten tank platoon if you want the numbers.

Army Tactics
This army is pretty medium armour heavy, so you want to maximize your speed and numbers to hit tanks on the side amour and use your massive numbers to overrun any dug in troops with the sheer amount of firepower you can bring to bear on them. Your SU-85s are your strongest Anti-Tank assets so you want to place them somewhere that they can hit your opponent’s heavy armour no matter where they deploy them. Your artillery combined can decimate any dug in guns and infantry guarding objectives, while your heavy KV-1 can slowly move towards the objectives to take them.
Your T-70 light tanks are perfect to hunt and kill any lightly-armoured tanks your opponent has or to hold an objective against advancing infantry.

Hobby League


If you are looking to get in on the Hobby League at your local store or club the Starter Forces are ideal starting armies for the league. If you add the units I talked about before in the Creating a 100 Point List section you can easily use it for the hobby league.

If you do not know what the hobby league is or want to learn more check out our video about the Hobby League above.

The main goal of the Hobby league is to create a Flames Of War community where players can come together to play games and work on their armies. To this end players are rewarded for hitting certain painting goals throughout the league. The first month players aim to paint 50 points, at the end of the second month players will aim to finish another 25 points and at the end of the third month players aim to finish their final 25 points and end the League with a fully painted 100 point army. The League also feeds into the upcoming TableTopGaming Global campaign, so if you finish painting your army for the League you will be ready to participate in the Global Campaign.

Month 1 has a 50 point goal; it also ends in a 50 point tournament, so you will want to focus on your core formation to make sure you have a legal list to run in the tournament. For this I would paint the following units first,

T-34 Tank Battalion HQ with 1x T-34 (76mm) Tank (3 Points)
T34 Tank Company with 5x T-34 (76mm) Tanks (15 Points)
T-70 Tank Company with 5x T-70 (45mm) Tanks (5 Points)
82 Mortar Company with 6 82mm Mortar Teams (4 Points)
S085 Tank-Killer Battery with 4x SU-85 (85mm) Assault Guns (23 points)

Month 2 you are looking to paint another 25 points, you just painted core so let’s work on some more support and some heavy tanks.

Extra T-34s to add to your existing T34 Tank Company with 2x T-34 (76mm) Tanks (6 Points)
KV-1 Guards Heavy Tank Company with 3x KV Tanks (12 Points)
Katyusha Guards Rocket Battery with 4x Katyusha Rocket Launchers (8 Points)
This is a total 26 points (one over but it will count towards your next month so it’s all good)

For the Final month I am keeping it simple, this time you just have to paint up six tanks. This is what I am planning on painting for the last month,

KV-8 Flame-Tank Company 3x KV-8 (45mm) Tanks (15 Points)
Your remaining T-34s with 3x T-34 (76mm) Tanks (9 Points)
At the end of month three you have another tournament and this time it’s a 100 point tournament so you will get to use your full army and get used to how it works in games. After that the Global TableTopGames Campaign begins having you and your friends fighting over Europe, you club or
store with rest of the world will be sending in their game results to contribute on the global scale making this one of the biggest campaigns you will ever participate in.

My final word of advice is to take time to enjoy painting your models your way and to learn as much as you can from others in the league to get the most out of the Flames Of War community.

Hobby League: American

with Andrew Haught

V4 Late War is here with loads of ways to get into playing Flames Of War— so where do you start? Well, if you want to just get a feel for the rules the FURY is an amazing box set for you, or if you want to get into the game with a friend, Hit the Beach gives you two awesome armies to play against each other. If you have some idea of what force you want to run, then picking up the corresponding Starter Force box set is what you want to do. This article covers the American Force but if you want to learn about the other three Starter Forces, there will be more info to come.

This Starter Force gives you a lot of stuff to play around with right away, and like all the V4 boxsets you get a lot for your money. The British Starter Force has a total 17 armoured vehicles, a full 4-gun artillery battery, and an infantry platoon, with the whole army adding up to 82 points using the Fortress Europe book, the box can also be used for the upcoming D-Day: British book so it’s a great core set to pick up for players who want to play the British throughout the V4 journey. On top of models you will get a complete A5 rulebook. A Start Here booklet, and your Unit cards, so you can start playing games as soon as you’re done building your force.

This American Box gives you a lot of stuff to play around with right away, like all the V4 boxsets you get a lot for your money. The American Starter Force has a total of 20 vehicles, and a full Amoured Rifle platoon, with the whole army adding up to 78 points using the US-D-day book.  On top of models you will get a complete A5 rulebook, a Start Here booklet, and your Unit Cards, so you can start playing games as soon as you’re done building your force.

In The Box
M4 Sherman Tank Company HQ with 2x M4 Sherman (75mm) Tanks (9 Points)

M4 Sherman Tank Platoon with 3x M4 Sherman (76mm) Tanks (17 Points)  

M5 Stuart Tank Platoon with 3x M5 Stuart (37mm) Tanks (7 Points)

Armoured Rifle Platoon at Full Strength (19 points)

M10 3-inch Tank Destroyer Platoon with 4x M10 (3-inch) Tanks (18 Points)

Priest Battery  with 3x M7 Priest (105mm) Tanks (8 Points)

Total 78 Points

Creating a 100 point list
This box gives you your core force, so there are only a few more things you need to add to make it a full 100 point list. I think after playing around with your Starter Force you may get a good feel for what you want to add, but for those who want to start off with a full 100 points I would add another Sherman platoon, this time 4 Sherman (75mm) and some Recon with the Greyhound unit, this only gets us to 99 points, so adding a 1 point Command Card (D-Day: American) gets us to a total of 100 points . So to get to 100 points you just need to add the following,

 

M4 Sherman Tank Platoon with 4x M4 Sherman (75mm) Tanks (16 Points)  

M8 Greyhound Cavalry Patrol with 2x Greyhounds and 2x Jeeps Tanks (5 Points)

Lucky Command Card (1 Point)

Total 22 Points

Army Tactics
The Sherman tanks will form the core of the list, putting down fire and threatening your opponent’s defences. The M10s are your tank-hunters, used to hunt down heavy tanks. The Stuarts make a perfect screening unit, they are fast and have just enough anti-tank to threaten other light tanks and armoured transports while having enough machine gun fire to keep infantry in their foxholes. Tanks are great at pushing the attack, but when it comes to defending an objective or holding a recently cleared objective, infantry are key. The Armoured Rifle Platoon is an army unto itself, and once dug in on an objective it becomes one hard nut to crack.

For support you have a Cavalry Recon Patrol, a great recon unit that will give the force some forward momentum at the start of the game, then shifting into a support role helping the Stuarts to keep enemy infantry units pinned down. The Priests are infantry and gun team killers and if zeroed in on an objective at the start of the game will wreak havoc on enemy forces defending that objective.

Hobby League


If you are looking to get in on the Hobby League at your local store or club the Starter Forces are ideal starting armies for the league. If you add the units I talked about before in the Creating a 100 Point List section you can easily use it for the hobby league.

If you do not know what the hobby league is or want to learn more check out our video about the Hobby League above.

The main goal of the Hobby league is to create a Flames Of War community where players can come together to play games and work on their armies. To this end players are rewarded for hitting certain painting goals throughout the league. The first month players aim to paint 50 points, at the end of the second month players will aim to finish another 25 points and at the end of the third month players aim to finish their final 25 points and end the League with a fully painted 100 point army. The League also feeds into the upcoming TableTopGaming Global campaign, so if you finish painting your army for the League you will be ready to participate in the Global Campaign.

Month 1 has a 50 point goal; it also ends in a 50 point tournament, so you will want to focus on your core formation to make sure you have a legal list to run in the tournament.  For this I would paint the following units first,

  • M4 Sherman Tank Company HQ with 2x M4 Sherman (75mm) Tanks and Lucky Command Card (10 Points)
  • M4 Sherman Tank Platoon with 3x M4 Sherman (76mm) Tanks (17 Points)  
  • M5 Stuart Tank Platoon with 3x M5 Stuart (37mm) Tanks (7 Points)
  • M4 Sherman Tank Platoon with 4x M4 Sherman (75mm) Tanks (16 Points)  

Month 2 you are looking to paint another 25 points, you just painted core so let’s work on some more support and some Anti-Tank,

  • M10 3-inch Tank Destroyer Platoon with 4x M10 (3-inch) Tanks (18 Points)
  • My Priest Battery with 3x M7 Priest (105mm) Tanks (8 Points)

For the Final month I am focussing on the infantry and light armour,this will be a shift form the tanks you been painting but it will fill up those last points. This is what I would be planning on painting for the last month,

  • M8 Greyhound Cavalry Patrol with 2x Greyhounds and 2x Jeeps Tanks (5 Points)
  • Armored Rifle Platoon at Full Strength (19 points)

Now at the end of month three you have another tournament this time it’s a 100 point tournament so you will get to use your full army and get used to how it works in games. After that the Global TableTopGames Campaign begins having you and your friends fighting over Europe, you club or store with the rest of the world will be sending in their game results to contribute on the global scale making this one of the biggest campaigns you will ever participate in.

My final word of advice is to take time to enjoy painting your models your way and to learn as much as you can from others in the league to get the most out of the Flames Of War community.

 

Hobby League: German

with Andrew Haught

V4 Late War is here with loads of ways to get into playing Flames Of War— so where do you start? Well, if you want to just get a feel for the rules the FURY is an amazing box set for you, or if you want to get into the game with a friend, Hit the Beach gives you two awesome armies to play against each other. If you have some idea of what force you want to run, then picking up the corresponding Starter Force box set is what you want to do.

This German Box gives you a lot of stuff to play around with right away, like all the V4 boxsets you get a lot for your money. The German Starter Force has a total of 14 vehicles, 2 big 8.8 AA guns, a rocket artillery battery and a full Grenadier platoon, with the whole army adding up to 95 points using the German D-Day book. On top of models you will get a complete A5 rulebook, a Start Here booklet, and your Unit cards, so you can start playing games as soon as you’re done building your force.

In The Box
Panzer IV Tank Company HQ with 2x Panzer IV (7.5cm) Tanks (11 Points)

Panzer IV Tank Platoon with 3x Panzer IV (7.5cm) Tanks (16 Points)

Tiger Tank Platoon with 2x Tiger (8.8cm) Tanks (24 points)

Armoured Panzergrenadier Platoon at Full Strength (12 Points)

Fallschirmjäger Stug Assault Gun Platoon with 3x StuG (7.5cm) Assault Guns (17 Points)

15cm Nebelwerfer Rocket  Battery with 3x 15cm Nebelwerfer Rocket Launchers (9 Points)

8.8 Heavy AA Platoon with 2x 8.8cm AA Guns (6 Points)

Total 95 Points

Creating a 100 Point List
This box gives almost a full 100 point list, only 5 points shy, so there is not much you need to add to make it a full 100 point list. I think after playing around with your Starter force you may get a good feel for what you want to add but for those who want to start off with a full 100 points I would simply add a Puma Scout Platoon, this only gets us to 99 points, so adding a 1 point Command Card (starting with D-Day: German) gets us to a total of 100 points. So to get to 100 points all you need to add is the following,

Puma Scout Platoon with 2x Puma (5cm) Tanks (4 Points)  

Lucky Command Card (1 Point)

Total 5 Points

Army Tactics
This army is well rounded with artillery, infantry, heavy anti-tank guns, and a great selection of tanks. With the core of your force I would recommend attacking with this force. Your mix of tanks gives you loads of good options to knock out your opponent’s tanks. The Tigers being some of your best anti-tank should focus more on your opponents heavy armour, supported by the 8.8 AA guns. Use your artillery to soften your opponent’s defences and use your German Halftrack infantry and Tanks to assault their objectives and to win the game.

Hobby League


If you are looking to get in on the Hobby League at your local store or club the Starter Forces are ideal starting armies for the league. If you add the units I talked about before in the Creating a 100 Point List section you can easily use it for the hobby league.

If you do not know what the hobby league is or want to learn more check out our video about the Hobby League above.

The main goal of the Hobby league is to create a Flames Of War community where players can come together to play games and work on their armies. To this end players are rewarded for hitting certain painting goals throughout the league. The first month players aim to paint 50 points, at the end of the second month players will aim to finish another 25 points and at the end of the third month players aim to finish their final 25 points and end the League with a fully painted 100 point army. The League also feeds into the upcoming TableTopGaming Global campaign, so if you finish painting your army for the League you will be ready to participate in the Global Campaign.

Month 1 has a 50 point goal; it also ends in a 50 point tournament, so you will want to focus on your core formation to make sure you have a legal list to run in the tournament.  For this I would paint the following units first,

Panzer IV Tank Company HQ with 2x Panzer IV (7.5cm) Tanks (11 Points)

Panzer IV Tank Platoon with 3x Panzer IV (7.5cm) Tanks (16 Points)

Tiger Tank Platoon with 2x Tiger (8.8cm) Tanks (24 points)

 

Strictly-speaking, this is 51 points but fine enough for the 50 point tournament as it is close enough, it will be up to your event organizer to make the final call on these things but all the core set 50 point armies listed in these articles are fine to run in the Hobby league 50 point tournament.

Month 2 you are looking to paint another 25 points, you just painted core so let’s work on some more support and some Recon,

  • Armoured Panzer Grenadier Platoon at Full Strength (12 Points)
  • 15cm Nebelwerfer Rocket  Battery with 3x 15cm Nebelwerfer Rocket Launchers (9 Points)
  • Puma Scout Platoon with 2x Puma (5cm) Tanks (4 Points)  

For the Final month I would focus  on the last bits, tactically you can add your 1 point command card here to your list’s HQ, and this will round out your 100 point list,

  • Fallschirmjäge Stug Assault Gun Platoon with 3x StuG (7.5cm) Assault Guns (17 Points)
  • 8.8 Heavy AA Platoon with 2x 8.8cm AA Guns (6 Points)
  • Lucky Command Card (1 Point)

Now at the end of month three you have another tournament this time it’s a 100 point tournament so you will get to use your full army and get used to how it works in games. After that the Global TableTopGames Campaign begins having you and your friends fighting over Europe, you club or store with the rest of the world will be sending in their game results to contribute on the global scale making this one of the biggest campaigns you will ever participate in.

My final word of advice is to take time to enjoy painting your models your way and to learn as much as you can from others in the league to get the most out of the Flames Of War community.

 

Hobby League: British

with Andrew Haught

V4 Late War is here with loads of ways to get into playing Flames Of War— so where do you start? Well, if you want to just get a feel for the rules the FURY is an amazing box set for you, or if you want to get into the game with a friend, Hit the Beach gives you two awesome armies to play against each other. If you have some idea of what force you want to run, then picking up the corresponding Starter Force box set is what you want to do. This article covers the British Starter Force but if you want to learn about the other three Starter Forces, there will be more info to come.

This Starter Force gives you a lot of stuff to play around with right away, and like all the V4 boxsets you get a lot for your money. The British Starter Force has a total 17 armoured vehicles, a full 4-gun artillery battery, and an infantry platoon, with the whole army adding up to 82 points using the Fortress Europe book, the box can also be used for the upcoming D-Day: British book so it’s a great core set to pick up for players who want to play the British throughout the V4 journey. On top of models you will get a complete A5 rulebook. A Start Here booklet, and your Unit cards, so you can start playing games as soon as you’re done building your force.

In The Box
Sherman Armoured Squadron HQ With 2x Sherman (75mm) Tanks (8 Points)
Sherman Armoured Troop with 2x Sherman (75mm) Tanks and 1x Firefly Tank (13 Points)
Stuart Recce Patrol with 3x Stuart (37mm) Tanks (8 Points)
Churchill Armoured Troop with 3x Churchill (6pdr) Tanks (12 Points)
Motor Platoon at Full Strength (7 Points)
Universal Carrier Patrol with 3x Universal Carrier (MG) Tanks (2 Points)
25 pdr Field Troop with 4x 25pdr Guns (14 Points)
M10 SP Anti-Tank Platoon with 4x M10 (17pdr) Tanks (18 Points)

Total 82 Points

Creating a 100 Point List
This box gives you a lot of what you need but you will still need to pick up a few things to get a 100 points, but not much. After playing around with your Starter force you may get a good feel for what you want to add but for those who want to start off with a full 100 points I would pick up a few more Shermans and a Firefly and you will be good to go. To get to a 100 points you just need to add the following

Sherman Armoured Troop with 3 Sherman (75mm) Tanks and one Firefly Tank (17 Points)
1 Sherman OP Observation Post with one Sherman OP Tank (1 point)

Total 18 Points

Army Tactics
This army is pretty Armour heavy, so you want to move fast and hit hard, use your Fireflies and M10 (17pdrs) to hunt your opponent’s heavy tanks while your Churchills and Shermans rush the objective. Your artillery and infantry can be left to hold your objectives or secure your flank, while the Universal Carriers and Stuarts help spear head your army forward and hit advancing enemy troops.

This list is well rounded but prefers to be on the attack, so when picking your battle plans it’s a good idea to pick attack with this army.

The Hobby League


If you are looking to get in on the Hobby League at your local store or club the Starter Forces are ideal starting armies for the league. If you add the units I talked about before in the Creating a 100 Point List section you can easily use it for the hobby league.

If you do not know what the hobby league is or want to learn more check out our video about the Hobby League above.

The main goal of the Hobby league is to create a Flames Of War community where players can come together to play games and work on their armies. To this end players are rewarded for hitting certain painting goals throughout the league. The first month players aim to paint 50 points, at the end of the second month players will aim to finish another 25 points and at the end of the third month players aim to finish their final 25 points and end the League with a fully painted 100 point army. The League also feeds into the upcoming TableTopGaming Global campaign, so if you finish painting your army for the League you will be ready to participate in the Global Campaign.

Painting Goals
Having painting goals can be daunting, but luckily the League makes it easier by creating a community of painters helping each other out and supporting one another during the process. Painting an army is rewarding and is a fun relaxing thing to do, whether you are alone or with a group of friends. To help those trying to figure out how to break up your 100 point army for the League I put together my guide on what I would paint to reach each month’s goals.

Month 1 has a 50 point goal; it also ends in a 50 point tournament, so you will want to focus on your core formation to make sure you have a legal list to run in the tournament. For this I would paint the following units first,

Sherman Armoured Squadron HQ With 2x Sherman (75mm) Tanks (8 Points)
Sherman Armoured Troop with 2x Sherman (75mm) Tanks and 1x Firefly Tank (13 Points)
Start Recce Patrol with 3x Stuart (37mm) Tanks (8 Points)
Universal Carrier Patrol with 3x Universal Carrier (MG) Tanks (2 Points)
M10 SP Anti-Tank Platoon with 4x M10 (17pdr) Tanks (18 Points)
1 Sherman OP Observation Post with one Sherman OP Tank (1 point)

Month 2 you are looking to paint another 25 points, you just painted the tanks up so let’s work on some infantry and gun teams. This is what I would paint up for month 2,

Motor Platoon at Full Strength (7 Points)
25 pdr Field Troop with 4x 25pdr Guns (14 Points)
A spare Sherman to add to your Sherman Armoured Troop (4 Points)

For the Final month I am keeping it simple, this time you just have to paint up six tanks. This is what I am planning on painting for the last month,

Sherman Armoured Troop with 2x Sherman (75mm) Tanks and 1x Firefly Tank (13 Points)
Churchill Armoured Troop with 3x Churchill (6pdr) Tanks (12 Points)

Now at the end of month three you have another tournament this time it’s a 100 point tournament so you will get to use your full army and get used to how it works in games. After that the Global TableTopGames Campaign begins having you and your friends fighting over Europe, you club or store with the rest of the world will be sending in their game results to contribute on the global scale making this one of the biggest campaigns you will ever participate in.

My final word of advice is to take time to enjoy painting your models your way and to learn as much as you can from others in the league to get the most out of the Flames Of War community.