New plastic infantry from Battlefront

by Kasper Fischer

Battlefront have finally decided to step out of the dark ages and are about to release a range of plastic miniatures to replace the oldschool white metal. I have been waiting for this for quite some time because my mind really had problems dealing with the oversized proportions the metal ones provided.
On the battlefront website they have just posted these pictures from the first box set and I'm very impressed how they look and if the price is somewhat compatible with the PSC infantry set, I will certainly be making a permanent switch.

1/100 scale German Infantry from Wargames Factory

by Kasper Fischer

In my quest to find suitable plastic infantry for my Flames of War army, I have come across this box from Wargames Factory. The kit has a lot of problems, as I explain in the video but it's still a very good subliment to the infantry box set from Plastic Soldier Company. I'm really looking forward to put these guys on the battlefield along my other soldiers.

Plastic Soldier Company review

by Kasper Fischer

I do not have a lot of money for my hobbies and the official figures and miniatures for Flames of War are very expensive so I spend a lot of time searching the market to find cheap alternative on the internet. If Plastic Soldier and Zvezda hadn't released their range of cheap plastic vehicles and soldiers, I properly wouldn't have gotten into the game at all. I have a lot of different model hobbies and I really didn't need another expense but looking at gameplay videos on YouTube, I just knew it was my kind of game. I am now about 8 months deep and I'm slowly learning my way around the game.

Another aspect that wasn't really to my liking was/is the proportions of the figures and the details of the vehicles and tanks. I don't like how all the details has been exaggerated. Sometimes the figures heads are as big as their torsos. It don't really matter for the game but as a model builder, it's very hard to accept. Luckily the releases from PSC, Zvezda and WGF doesn't suffer from the same issues.

Most the alternative companies has focused on the late war German side so I have decided to start here as well. I really want to play a mechanized list but it wasn't possible with the miniatures available. The infantry set from PSC can form the basic, even though they are in regular Wehrmacht uniforms and the PSC halftracks can support it but there were no weapons options. Everybody that has seen the German army lists know how impossible it is to make a infantry list, without Panzer Schreck's and Faust's, heavy machine-guns and mortars.

These new releases from PSC really closes this gap and finally provides most the units needed for a mechanized army and I am getting started on building my army. So far I have been playing a straight Panzer list and I'm really looking forward to some variation.

Compared with all the resin and metal models I have seen through time, I really like the plastic kits and I will choose plastic every time the choice presents itself. No doubt. It's a cheap, light and durable product. It's also very easy to manipulate and I'm use to working with it so I'm sticking with plastic.

The first video is a close look at the new conversion kit for the German Sd.Kfz. 251 halftrack. I really like the idea behind this kit and I think it's a really good idea to make it as a conversion, instead of making a new kit for every variation of the vehicle. The detailing and the manual is a problem though but you can see that in my review.

The second video is a look at the heavy weapon set. I made this video some time ago but I haven't presented on the website before now. I really hadn't anything to ad so I thought I'd leave it on YouTube but since I also have made the other review, I thought I would post them together.

I think the infantry from PSC are the best on the market and I highly recommend both the Russians and the Germans. I really like the sculpts and I especially appreciates the "true" proportions of the figures. I have tested in game and they are very hard to break. I have dropped them several times and I don't have any issues at all. I would have liked if they had Panzer Grenadier uniforms but I can live with that.

How to add magnets to Plastic Soldier tanks.

by Kasper Fischer

All you need is a circular  file, some super-glue and your magnets.

When you play a game like Flames of War, magnetized turrets is a great feature. It insures they don't come of when you are transporting your units to and from battle but it also protects your tanks when you are actually playing the game. The turrets can easily fall of and hit the floor when you set up your troops.

The new plastic models from BattleFront have incorporated this into the design and included magnets in the kit. All you need is to glue them in place. This is a really good idea which I only can support but if you are like me, and build PSC tanks, it doesn't really help you.

Luckily the PSC tanks are just as easy to magnetize but you have to do it before you build the model. We have created a short video tutorial to show you just how easy it really is.

Enjoy follows!

Scout Platoon for Panzer Lehr.

by Kasper Fischer

 I finally finished my next platoon for my FoW army. This is a scout unit for my panzer company. The unit serves to reveal hidden enemy units for my armour and help them get on target. It's a small cheap unit at 150 points. They are all MG teams so they have a rate of fire at 3 each, making them hard to assault. if they get to close to the enemy. They also have a BMW motorcycle w/ side-car each, making them highly mobile.

I base-coated these guys in black and looks really different from the last infantry unit I made. I'm not sure which I like the most and I'm still experimenting. I really want to find my own style and not just copy what others are doing.

Here is my full Panzer Lehr army list as I play it now. It comes in at 1500 points but I also have the option to upgrade it to 1750 points, which is the two most played fights at my club. Here's the list:

HQ 2x Pz IV + Rec                   195 points
1. 5x PzIV                              475
2. 3x PzV                               560
3. 3x Flakpanzer (38)               120
4. 3x Scouts                          150
------------------------------------------
Total                                    1500 points

Panzer Lehr Division for Flames of War

by Kasper Fischer

My first infantry platoon. All painted and ready for battle. I made the bases so they look like the unit is on the march, down a small road in Normandie. This will serve to recognize units on a large battlefield and being able to tell them apart.

I finally got some decent pictures of my first platoon for my Flames of War army. It's really difficult to take good pictures of these small 15mm models. Due to the models available, I have decided to build a German panzer company. I was looking through the official FoW books to find a good list. I don't want to play any SS units but I still wanted a strong army list, with the best equipment and stumbled over the Panzer Lehr Division.  These guys where the cream-of-the-crop in the German Wehrmacht. Lehr means 'learning' and they were the ones to train the rest of the German army at the panzer school. Late in the war, they were returned to active duty and fought in the Battle of Normandie. The Division was almost destroyed in the allied bombing of the Falaise pocket. They never returned to the school and kept fighting through-out the rest of the war.

All the models are from Plastic Soldier Company and are in 1/100 scale.

Command MG team.

1st. MG squad.

2nd. MG squad.

3rd. MG squad.

I also took some new pictures of my first panzer platoon. I know I already have posted pictures of them but I'm prefer these instead so I thought I'd post them anyway. Hope you guys enjoy.

Panzer IV platoon.

by Kasper Fischer

My first 1/100 platoon for my first Flames of War army.

 I love gaming. Especially strategic or tactical games. I have played about a million games of Risk and Axis & Allied through the years. Now I mostly play computer games but it's still tactical games, like Company of Heroes. I have been looking at wargames videos on YouTube searching for modelling channels and I became real curious about the miniature game, called Flames of War.

Flames of War is a World War II game, where you play company commander and have to carry out either an offensive or defensive mission. It's not really realistic and the rules are a bit strange from time to time but I have joined a local club and have been trying it out the last couple of months. I really like it and have decided to build my first army.

The game is made by a company, called Battlefront and they manufacture almost every WWII vehicle made in the war but they are very expensive. With all my other hobby projects, I don't really need another money pit so I have been looking for a cheaper option. The scale is 15mm or 1/100 and as you guys properly know, it's not easy to find models in that scale. New manufactures are starting to appear with much cheaper kits.

Plastic Soldier is one of the new companies. They have started to make a range of armoured vehicles and infantry but are mostly focused on German late war tanks. Because of that, I have decided to start with a German Panzer company and I have made a test platoon of Pz IV's to see how good the kits are. I most say I really impressed by the quality. The box comes five kits for €22, which I think is a really good deal and the details are real crisp looking.

The unpainted tanks from Plastic Soldier.

I have added some over-sized antennas to make them more robust for gaming.

It took me two nights to complete the five tanks and I'm really pleased how they came out. They are only a test platoon and they will not be included in the final army list because I didn't have the right decals for the numbers and such. I have also since decided to add magnets in the turrets for safer handling during gaming and I don't want to after install them in the finished models.