Too much to do but I'm going to find time to do it...

I'm having trouble keeping up with my hobby, or at least getting done what I would like to do.  Between selling old hobby stuff (40K) to support FOW, gluing the new items, basing the already painted infantry, reading the new V3 rules, forum distractions, and dreaming about and researching armies I don't have, I'm falling behind schedule.  I did find time to glue a bunch of Soviets since they are my latest distraction, but I really need to get the basing of the 8th Army finished.

I also found time to create a banner for my blog.  I cropped a picture I took until it seemed the right size and made it black and white.  I then added a logo with a font that somehow reminds me of a WWII movie font, but I don't know why.  I believe the original picture is posted previously in this blog.  I'm quite satisfied with it for now.  I had been wondering how to do it and one night during the week just did it.  Feel free, and I mean free,  to use any the pictures I took if you want .  Maybe something will catch your eye.  Just send me a link if you do.  Would be pretty cool.

I recently attended a lecture about WWII German Fighters at the Chino Planes of Fame Museum where I got to meet a a member of the WWPD site.  Very cool.  A FW 190 was featured and here are few pictures and videos I took there...

    

                                                  

North Africa, DAK Poser Shots

Well, as usual, nothing goes as planned.  With the revelation that FOW V3 will be released in February, I thought it best to delay our first game in order to use the one rule set to avoid confusion.  As it turns out, that works out well since I haven't finished basing the British yet, anyway.  The good news is I have finished basing all the painted DAK figures with only the new Pioneers to be finished.  Also, I need to add transfers to the tanks which seems a bit intimidating since I have nearly no experience with it.  

I had a few hours spare this morning so I set up the table and a few pieces of terrain, and took some poser shots after I stared all googly eyed at it for a while...

I am very happy with the current Battlefront desert terrain, and I am looking forward to getting the newly released desert buildings I ordered.  I am especially happy with the theterrainguy mat I bought a while back. Originally I had thought the color was a bit too monotone for my liking and I was going to dry brush it this weekend, but after laying it out and putting some terrain on it, it looks great; matches the new terrain quite well.  As you can see in the immediate picture above, I finally settled on Tan-Earth (Vallejo 70874) as the base color.  This color works well with both the mat and the terrain.  Again, very happy with how it is all coming together.

I bought the 8'x4' theterrainguy mat since my table is that size, and then I have the option of using an 8'x4' table for larger battles.  This worked well with Warhammer 40K.   Most of the time a 6'x4' table is used and the extra two feet is used for staging the armies, supplies and casualties.

Next, the British and the much anticipated new rule books.

B-17G Ball Turret Gunner

My grandson and I decided to drive to the Chino Planes of Fame museum today.  We were particularly interested in the B-17G they have parked out in front, the Piccadilly Lilly II, since my grandson's great grandfather flew in B-17's during the war. They are currently working on restoring the plane to flying condition.  According to to the informative attendant, the restoration will take many years to complete.

Climbing into the plane, although seemingly large from the outside, was very cramped inside.   What was nothing short of amazing was the ball turret in the belly of the plane.  It is hard to believe that there would be a person in there for hours at a time during flight, and in combat.

A flyer was provided with a collection of newspaper articles and information provided by B-17G crewman.  The following is a snippet of the mission information provided by a ball turret gunner's combat missions around D-Day:

Date         Target                                          Air Time         Bomb Load        Comments
6-5-44      Pas-de-Calais                                 5:05                 12-500#              Called out at Midnight
6-6-44      Caen Area Coastal Defenses           7:15                 12-500#              Take off 3:30 am
6-6-44      Caen Area RR Marshalling yards     7:40                 12-500#              Flight suit off, very cold
6-7-44      Nantes Area                                    9:55                 10-500#              Late Launch

Three days and almost 30 hours of flight.   Was all that time in the ball turret?  A big thank you to that veteran and all that served; it's hard to fathom what they went through.  The Pas-de-Calais mission must have been part of Operation Fortitude, the Allied plan to deceive the Germans where the invasion would occur.

Our next trip will hopefully be to orange county and the Lyon Air Museum where they have a B-17 on display that is in flying condition.

It's good to be back...

Good news, I passed my certification exam for work so I'm able to spend time on Flames of War again. Woohoo! It's good to be back and focus on something recreational for a change.  It has been almost three months.

I spent the day continuing to base my DAK army, and hope to have it completed by the end of next weekend.  In between, I'll start basing the 8th Army.  The DAK pioneers are going to have to wait since the new Battlefront figures came out and I would like to use them.  I originally had used a combination of DAK Grenadiers and Heer Grenadier Pioneers, but I'll incorporate the new ones somehow.  I'm hoping to have two armies painted for my first game at home with my son, and my first battle report to be posted during the week between Christmas and New Year.  I plan on giving Steve's at WWPD Batrepper software a try.

In the future for North Africa:

DAK:   Finish basing and add vehicle transfers.  Glue and paint new Pioneers.
8th Army:  Finish basing and paint tanks.  Glue four more 25 lbrs and paint so I can Stonk and Murder.
Bersaglieri:  Finish gluing tanks and paint.  Base figures.

Work Bench:

Chino Air Show 2011

Flames of war has been in hiatus for a few weeks now, and will continue to be until early December while I complete an online class and certification for work.  Earlier in the year I attended the Chino Air show for the first time and really enjoyed it.   It was a blast!  It had rained all morning but as the show started, the skies slowly cleared up.  I live close enough by to have the planes fly over my house occasionally during the show.  Either I forget about the show until I see the planes or I can't make it.  Finally, this year, I got to go.

Some cool footage of the show from the official website DVD promo.

From desert plains I bring you love...

Title inspired by Judas Priest.  It has been a while since my last update.

Recreating North Africa during WWII is time consuming!   Instead of concentrating on DAK and the British, I allowed myself to get sidetracked by Italian Bersaglieri (oh yeah, and fantasy football).  The good news is I now have pretty much all three armies glued and, thanks to my friend, much of it painted.  Getting close.  My desert mat arrived from the terrain guy website today.  Very nice quality.  A little bit too uniform in color for my liking, but nothing some dry brushing can't remedy.  Overall, very happy.  Terrain is also being purchased and worked on.  Still haven't played yet though, but I like the idea of it all looking like it is supposed to be when the time comes.  Everything is starting to come together nicely.