ONE YEAR ON...

So a whole year has passed since I started this project...

I've been back through it all and it amazes me how i started in one direction just to have a campaign and share it , and before long I was building an entire modification of the FOW v3 Ruleset.

I've been all over the place until I settled on my current course of action and then everything went a bit mad and I seemed to be gaining a really good group of followers, all of which are supportive and interested in this period.

So what have I still got that's gathering dust?

The campaign Map and Campaign Unit Tokens so you can fight out each battle of each Brigade/ Division / Corps as the WARPAC aims to take all of West Germany. I'm going to put these up for anyone to grab and use as they want the map is A1 so if you send it to a specialist printer it looks great. I was hoping to do a Firestorm Campaign type thing. This will be done when I get back a short break.

The future....

Refining the rules, and building the newer style books.

Liaising and supporting Cold War 15mm producers, including grabbing the more unusual models.

Helping to identify gaps in the market, and ways we can fill them with Proxies.

1/100 25mm Bradley Barrel.

Barrels, I've got quite a few. I want to help you guys out there with these excellent Brass items which help to make your models last. So when you invest in QRF Marders or whatever spend a few more quid and gets some Barrels or send me your orders and I'll see what I can do.

Above all thanks for reading, questioning, commenting, e-mailing, suggesting, tweaking and encouraging me this last year, I'm looking forward to the next year with a real focus and determination to deliver a great project to the FOW community.     Mike

DICE-DEVILS do it again!

A fantastic battle report from everyone's favourite Canadian Flames of War Group!

Just look at the battlefield, it's great! A rail-head, some small German villages, some Bundeswehr units holding out, with a huge amount of Soviet Armour pouring forth.

I am blown away by the contribution of these guys to this project, and also their support and on going suggestions.

Marders moving in to Position to use their MILAN's!

When I'm a bit fed up of it, I take stock, have a look at what these guys are doing and a couple of the other sites out there and I feel re-energised to carry on.

I would recommend you go to their site and have a look at the videos.....Their FOW WWII stuff is also a great read!

http://www.dicedevils.com/

ZVEZDA 1/100 BRADLEY - WOW

So I finally got the Bradley from Zvezda via PSC. I've already seen this on other blogs and some of early observations concerned me that the vehicle was a much later variant and not great for the 1986 / Mid 1980's.

Well I had a plan in mind of what I could do to make it suit my purposes....

Frankly I love this model, it's easy to convert, easy to change, adaptable. Okay it's a bit more expensive, but for me I'll pay the extra because I can convert it much more easily.

Key things I did to change it :-

1. Cut off the rear Turret rear cage and stowage to make the turret cleaner. Filed it a fair bit and removed some bits I didn't like.

2. Cut the side armour skirts in half, reduced and cut the front end. Then built a thin strip of plastic-card ready to build Green Stuff over it.
3. Rebuilt the TOW Launcher to be "Up, ready to fire".
4. Cut off the Barrel and then drilled it out and put a Brass Barrel in.
5. Cleaned up the rest of the model, and then added some stowages and packages.

On top of this, you might notice that I've swapped out the Barrel for a turned Brass one. I've got another big post on this for later next week as the Barrels are often weak or easily broken on 15mm Models so I've decided to invest in them and I'm going to make them available to anyone who wants them as cheap as possible as I am ordering them in large numbers. They look great and mean your models will be playable for longer.

Some extra's and additional storage.

EDIT - Post a discussion in the Comments below with Arrigo "the Crazy" about Bradley's and the various mk's I realised I made a mistake in removing the turret bustle....No big deal, but it irked me so I approximated the following :-

It's not perfect, but in future I won't remove the bustle...*whoops - over zealous knife wielding*.

Many thanks to Arrigo for helping out and pointing out something I'd missed. I love this community, adults being adults on the Internet it's such a refreshing change from the rest of the internet.

11th ACR - Colonel Tempest's Boys

So here is another force from one of my fellow Club Members, play tester, fellow FOW nut and all round stand-up guy who has been a dedicated supporter of this project since the off...

So he decided to adopt the Cavalry because he wanted the Bradley's in numbers but he also wanted the freedom to use other US Forces. He did however use Decals of CAV but we don't let that worry us because we aren't "Rivet Counters" to use that wonderful turn of phrase.

Pair of BRADLEY's with 2 x M901 ITV's with TOW Missiles in Stowed position and an M577 Command Track.

One of the two Core Cavalry Platoons!

Oh and you always need some Punch, so the M1 Platoon was added for further support.

I think with his units, and some of my own US Stuff we could do 4000pts of US. With Brits I reckon 6000pts and with COLONEL FISCHER's Bunderswehr Panzer Grenadiers, I think 10000pts of NATO.

I've got 4000pts of WARPAC, and with the other WARPAC Players I think we could have a Huge Dust up! A big battle report is coming!

CAPTION COMPETITION 2

So the Winner  for the 1st Caption competition was Phil Wynne, who has now bagged himself a Battlefront AH-1G Helicopter. (Send me an E-mail with your address!)

"Ok Who put the Cam net in a "HOT WASH"??"

Honourable mentions for :

Keith Gilmore - "I am not sure if this new NBC gear is going to work......"

and

Arrigo "the Crazy" - "'Where is the sun of Austerlitz?'

Keep them coming guys & gals, some good ones in there that gave rise to some rye smiles.  Found some amusing pictures for the next 24 months already.

CAPTION COMPETITION 2

Here is the next one - Same rules apply - Closing date 23:59 GMT 30th Sept 13.  

Prize yet to be determined - I will add it later.

I will not be able to judge until I return from my Holidays in mid-October.