WWII German Panzer IV F Platoon, 15mm Flames of War

[Whiterook]

This is a platoon build of five WWII German Panzer IV F's, from March 2009. It was the second 15mm miniatures build project I'd done. A Flames of War platoon box, it came with solid resin hulls and metal accessories. The decals came separate from the box set, in a decals sheet bought to outfit several boxed sets over time. The turrets are loose, and I had still not learned about using rare earth magnets to secure them in place yet, but may do so in the future (alternatively, a little BluTac works nicely for that purpose).


The Finished Work!



















Some Swag Shots

Shown along with their most likely battlefield nemesis of the Americans... Shermans!




And some shots in-play in a game I hosted at a couple forums back, "Oil for Panzers"







I loved the way these came out! I remember considering possible weathering, but I liked the end result simplicity. These see regular use on my miniatures gaming adventures!

For a little more detail, see the build thread here

[chromdome35]

This is awesome, how large is the typical game space required for this? How large is the player base?

[mustang1989]

Until recently, when you started posting these, I never knew that these wargaming kits existed. Well....I mean I've heard of 'em but never seen 'em, lemme put it like that. I'll be watchin' in on these with great interest. I'm with Brian, how large of an area does one need for these layouts?

[Whiterook]

Thanks for the interest, guys! I’ve several large moving boxes filled with kits that need to be built: Flames of War (WWII); what is now called World of Tanks (a FoW miniatures version in WWII, very loosely based, but inspired by the online game); Team Yankee (modern as of 1985-ish WWIII); a bunch of Old Glory WWIII; GHQ (10mm little guys in WWII)… so, you’ll see a lot of builds of that nature here! Now that I’m retired, I’ve a reactivated desire and clearer/rejuvenated mental state to allow such hobbies …work did a number on me and I’ve got an unhealthy amount of PTSD from it still, almost a year after bailing that Rat Hole. But I digress! I also have a bunch of sci-fi minis, for my Stargate SG-1 land combat miniatures game and Battlestar Galactica space combat miniatures game, both of which I’m currently developing; as well as DUST Tactics, and Gladiators!!!

As to the diorama layouts, I’ve seen that they do make some prefab sheets that are pretty nice, but fans typically build elaborate dioramas that rival anything you see on model kit build dios. The game is known for its space conservancy, but also a dense footprint of terrain and structures; of being able to be played on as small as a 4’ x 6’ table…that’s what you’ll see at conventions, like Origins and the big historical expos. In major wargaming terms, that’s small! 4’ x 8’ is more typical at game stores that have play space, mainly because they are tables built to hold larger footprint games, like Warhammer.

Player base is much decreased from its past height from creation in 2002, and held court amount WWII miniatures fans for exactly a decade, in my humble opinion. Why a decade? A system called Bolt Action hit the stores in 2012 and all but sucked every WWII gamer into its orbit, laying waste to FoW. Bolt Action is 28mm (as opposed to FoW’s 15mm), so you not only had to learn a completely new system of rules, but also collect vast armors and build Nee diorama play areas! It was such a major shift of consciousness that, everyone headed for them thar new hills, except the FoW faithful fanatics. Now Battlefront, the maker of Flames of War didn’t help things… they consistently and aggravatingly upgraded the rules system, which in turn forced changes in OOB to the point in many cases where you were forced to retool whole forces! They are currently in a 4th Edition, which is not only expanded play, but streamlined a lot, too…but who has the patience and forgot relearn a system, for the FOURTH time! What this all boils down to (…if you’ve read this far) is, Bolt Action gave the gamer to build armies with much larger figures and vehicles, which far greater detail… for the trade of of dynamically larger playing surfaces.

… now the real kicker in this switch to Bolt Action as the flavor of the month is, it’s dropped off. Does that mean FoW will pick back up? It’s kinda teetering in unknown territory these days, with fans of both systems clinging on for dear life waiting for the shoe to drop. 

As an aside, Flames of War tried to reinvigorate the system by coming out with a Starter Set style marketing ply, called Hit the Beaches… then came World of Tanks not long after. I’ve not seen the same for Bolt Action (though I’ve not been paying much attention).

Now if you want to talk to me about my favorite system… ask about Axis & Allies Miniatures!