FOW: Panzer Lehr, the inventory with good and bad news

Last sunday at Ronfest, someone asked me how many Germans I still had to complete. Since I have the units I always wanted (and some more), I tought it would be a good idea to make a work list with the miniatures I minimal would have to make for my Panzer Lehr and 101 SS.

After a couple of hours work I completed the minimumlist with the book at hand. In this list only the miniatures which I have and belong to the Panzer Lehr / 101 SS are mentioned and listed.

The good news:
a) I have completed my panzer Lehr list many times, and always wanted to add some more. But now I am satisfied with the list. Ofcourse I still have some small wishes some extra's, but these are overviewable now.
b) At the local club, there is a FOW fanatic organizing FOW games and I'm quite confident he will keep it alive, which hopefully will keep my attention to it alive as well.
c) I have seriously started with building of the army.

The bad news:
Averaging 2 days to complete 1 vehicle or stand (1 day for assembly and 1 day for painting when working in batches) with 380 vehicles and stands to go, I'll need 760 days to complete this army.....
I am hoping to come up with some genius way to speed that up, because I hoped to finish it in one year.

Any good ideas are welcome.

FOW: Aufklarungs Kompanie, first assembly

Well, I have finally been busy again with FOW.
Early this year I cleared out my hobby-zone and the loft to put all my hobby stuff in the basement (I am renovating my house....for about 3 years now), so I haven't done much with my hobbies.
A couple of weeks ago I played a little game of FOW, which got my interest back in the miniatures.
So, after a few days of sorting the hobby stuff, I found most of my FOW stuff and started assembling.

Well, here are the first assembled aufklarungs SdKfz250's. I am quite proud of these little buggers.

FOW: Counting and Organizing my Panzer Lehr & 101SS SPz Abt

I have started with painting and building of the miniatures, but finding the right parts was a bit of a challenge. I had boxes and blisters everywhere. So I started organizing the parts and counting the vehicles.

Below a photo of the vehicle count. There are still 4 SdKfz 251 in backorder (1 flakvehicle arrived today) and  I forgot to order 1 Kfz68 radio.

The count: 202 vehicles and a lot of parts.

The count is:
37 Unarmoured vehicles (kubelwagen, Kfz11 etc)
54 SdKfz 251 of various types
10 SdKfz 250 of various types
 6 SdKfz 234 Puma
 5 Stug III G
 4 Panzerjager IV
12 Pz IV
12 Panther
10 Tiger
 1 Konigstiger
50 Support vehicles (Flak, Artillery, OP etc)

I also purchased some airplanes, because I used to use Fortress Europe for my army lists regarding the expense of Panzer Lehr in the Villers Bocage book. With Earth and Steel I'll use the Panzer Lehr list again, because of the point reduction.

As I am supposed to have finished my purchases for the Panzer Lehr, the counting made me realize that I want some extra SdKfz 250's and some Puma's. Not because I need them, but because they are so cool.


Next was to organize the parts and men. The stuff lay in different cabinets, some still in blister, other unpacked. I wanted some more storage space, so I wanted to cram as many parts as I could in the boxes.
I tought it would take me an hour or so, the picture below was taken after 2 hours...... A lot of work and still not finished.

the organizing.

The result of the organizing.

130 Panzer Lehr

101SS Schwere Panzer Abteilung

I also started to basecoating in large numbers. I like it. Some 30 vehicles in one go !

Big numbers basecoating.

Next time I will show the armylist.

Till next post.

FOW: Pz Lehr Panzergrenadiere, started painting.

As I have my army as complete as I want it, I have started painting my Panzer Lehr infantry. The goal is to finish the army in one year. I don't know whether the plan is realistic. The 14000 pts took me 2 years to collect (a year longer than planned).

I have painted for about 4 weeks now and I am almost finished with the first batch. They are not finished yet, but good enough to show.

Below som pictures of the WIP's.

Almost finished, some flesh touch-ups needed

Zum Angiff !!!

On the photo I noticed somebody forgot to give the NCO a camouflaged Zeltbahn

Three of a kind

The current batch

I am quite happy how they turn out. I had some difficulties getting the colours right. Especially the epaulettes are a pain in the ...

Well I hope you like them.

Note: Price rise Flames of War

Aargh ! The products from Battlefront will have their prices increased on Monday 9 August 2010.

For more information, see http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=2067

Well, at least they are very open and honest about it.

FOW: StuG III , started assembling the army

About 1,5 years ago I bought my first Flames Of War (FOW) box-set. Having already build some 1:35 British and US kits, my next army would be Germans. It was one of three of my favorites.
Number 1 was Panzergruppe Guderian, number 2 was Panzerdivision GrossDeutschland and number 3 was Panzer Lehr.

Since the available box was the Panzer Lehr, I naturally bought that box. After a few weeks I also bought the rulebook and the armybook (Villers-Bocage). I had an unnatural feeling they might come in handy ;)

In the small hours I made an army-list, and I did that over and over again...
Since I am not a die-hard gamer I eventually decided only to get the models and units I actually like. So I first made a list and then I would count the points. Well the list was really quick made...and the points, well...I don't think I will ever have a game containing my complete 14.000+ points army....

The consequence was that it might take a while before I would have collected all the models from the list since I have to pay for my morgage, food and drink (can't do without), clothing etc. So I announced that I would start building and painting my army the next year.

So now, 1,5 years later, I still don't have collected all the models on the list (I am somewhere between 10.000 ande 12.000 points I think), but I feel the urge to start with my army. I will make a photo of all the models quite soon.

Below 2 WIP photo's of the first models to be painted, the StuG III (G) 's .