Fow Army list:

Wow, been a while since I bothered to post anything, and that's no good.

So here's a quick one since I haven't finished up anything yet.

When I first took a peak at Stalin's Europe back in December, I was a touch underwhelmed with the German options. The Panzergrenadiers looked pretty standard, baring the ability to take fortifications, but as Earth & Steel had just hit shelves in slipcase, there were plenty of other fortification-boasting lists to consider.
The panzer kompanie, while it did have the alluring Panzer IV/70s seemed questionable. Afterall, German Panzerkompanies are small enough without going for tanks that cost even more than the StuG.
But, recently, I noticed that it can take *two* Gepanzert Panzergrenadier squads. That's pretty interesting.

So I drew up the following list:
CHQ: Panzer IV/70 (A) 135
Combat: 3x Panzer IV/70 (A) 405
Combat: 3x Panzer IV/70 (A) 405
Combat: 3-squad strong Gepanzert Panzergrenadier with Faust 285
Combat: 3-squad strong Gepanzert Panzergrenadier with Fuast 285
3x 15cm Nebbelwerfers 120
2x Armored Kfz7/1 AA Halftracks 110
Total: 1745, though it's probably a good idea to swap the AA for Recon any time you have to deal with ambushes. 

Why I like this list:
It's a tank company, with a respectable number (For Germans, anyway) of tanks, and almost as many stands of infantry (and half-tracks) as a mechanized company. That's pretty cool. It even has smoke, and either AA or Recon.

The Panzer IV/70 looks excellent on paper. One of my biggest gripes with playing a German Panzerkompanie has been the overall lack of focus in the Panzer IV tank. Is it supposed to dogfight other mediums? Fa6 + At11 is okay, but it can't compete with the Russian At12 Fa7 T-34/85. Assault infantry?To expensive to have the numbers for that. Hold ground? Nowhere near durable enough.
The Panzer IV/70 has a clear purpose. With its gun that makes heavies quiver (Rof:2 At:14 Fp: 3+) and takes mediums out with little, if any, resistance their business is tank hunting, and business is a'boomin'. They, similarly, has better front armor than any medium out there, pushing into the realm of heavy tanks (8 on the As, 9 on the Vs)
It does suffer from being both slow and overloaded so it isn't going to be getting assaults off, especially into woods, any time soon, combined with only having 1 machine gun, it falls somewhere betwee mediocre and pathetic against infantry.

Which is where the Gepanzert Panzergrenadiers come in. Two full squads of them puts plenty of MG shots on the table, the ability to dig-in to hold objectives in the open, 12" of movement a turn (via halftracks) and a unit that can assault into terrain without all getting stuck on stumps. Their ability to bust tanks is nearly non-existent, but at least they get a Faust for any tanks that manage to get past the Panzer fire.

Sure, the army is small, and it may not have quite everything you want (I'd love to be able to fit smoke AND recon AND  anti-air) but that's par for the course when you play Germans in late war. It's got 4 good, focused combat units, and that little bit of support to help them synergize.

The downside? Stalin's Europe didn't get the point discounts to MG-infantry, Halftracks, or Nebbelwerfers, all of which are present in this list. It adds up to ~ 140 points that you're "Short". That could easily be a whole recon platoon, upgrade all the Panzer IV/70s to the superior (V) variant, or just cram an 8th tank in there.

Then again, I hear the late war East Front compilation book will be out in time for Christmas. Imagine what this list would look like with that extra ~140 points.

Tune up: POC Tigers

Well, I felt I'd spice up the Tiger 1Es before they see the table (Probably this Wednesday).

It was pretty straight forward, they didn't really need much...
They started like this:

Overall, a bit dull, this was one of the lightest-colored ones. I figured that all I really needed to do was pick out the detail (tools, cable) on the hull, and give it a good wash to get it to a darker tone (like the others)

That's a bit better, now let's slap on those transfers...

Much better, but I still think it needs.... something...
I've still got a bit to add, probably some weathering, and, who knows, I might experiment with camouflage!

Daily Painting, 3/11

I try to paint something every day, hopefully I'll eventually get through my massive back-log of various stuff.

Today, I present to you, 1 Genestealer. Yeap, only 60-some more of these sitting around waiting paint.

First post, A review. Point Of Contact: Tiger I E.

What better way to start off a blog about miniature war games than by talking about some of the miniatures?

I got into flames of war back in November, and have since then amassed a fair share of German models.
But I didn't have any Tigers... yet. It's easily one of the favorite "noob" tanks, and between the 505 and 503 Schwere Panzer Abteilung (in Hammer & Sickle, and Earth and Steel respectively) They're a few interesting options I want to try out, not to mention maybe incorporating a tiger or three into some of my other lists.

Randomly perusing TheWarStore, I found these "Point of Contact" Tiger tanks. 5 for 20$! Prepainted! How can you go wrong?

It was my birthday on the 7th, so I figured I'd treat myself to even more models that I don't need.

So, how do they hold up? Well...

 

I ended up picking up 2 boxes. Why? So I can field over 2k of pure Tigers!

The boxes are adequate. Packaged well enough that nothing was broken, the box pictures of the tanks were as you'd expect, better than the actual tanks. The color difference was the most apparent though. The box picture is quite brown-hued, the actual tanks are much more green.

One of the first thoughts on popping them out of the plastic was "whoa, this is a bit sloppy". The painting is inconsistent (The opposite of what I'd expect from factory mass-painted tanks) and there is black "wash" globed all over the models. Some got almost none, others were coated.

The top 3 were all in the same box, the bottom 1 in the second box. Notice the huge color difference. From a light yellow-green to a dark brown green. Notice also, the difference in stripe density. Some are cluttered, others are sparse.

On some of the models, the black wash they used had bubbled, or pooled excessively.

The painting, while of widely varying quality,  is adequate to put on the table, and forget about. Especially if you don't really care about having a pretty army. It's a serviceable table-top paint job, but could defiantly stand to be more consistent.

And, as a final letdown, the bottom panel wasn't actually painted on any of them, It was just the yellow-green plastic color that had varying amounts of black wash on it.

But enough about the paint job, how are the actual models?

Well, they're plastic, and feel like plastic (light). apart from 1 or 2 wobbly treads across the 10 tanks, they were quite sturdy, and I'm confident they'll stand up well to gaming, and maybe a short drop or two, at last! A German tank that won't lose its mudflaps every time I take it out of a box!

That being said, as you can see in the above picture, the plastic parts do have some gaps in them.

The single worst one though:

They all have these gaps, so it isn't a quality control issue, the models are just like this, I guess.
One last word on the models, as you may have noticed in the above pictures, the turret has a bit of a mold line running across it.

It's not a big deal, and easy to remove (Plastic has its advantages) but is a bit annoying on a "painted" model, as you'll have to do some touch-ups.

This picture also lets you see a bit of the detail on the model (the cables) They've also go the generic German Flea-Market adorning their hulls (hedge clippers, shovel, everything you need for yard work)

The details are pretty clear, and raised enough to pick up drybrushing should you want to add to the tanks.

The treads are pretty good, actually better, in my opinion, than the battle-front treads, as these don't have huge globs of pewter obscuring some of the detail on the back.

The hull machine gun is a bit disappointing though.

In terms of overall size, I think they're scaled pretty well for 1:100 (though I'm a terrible judge of that) being a bit smaller than a Battlefront tiger, most noticeably shorter, though a bit wider, with very close lengths.

Last bits before the score, the box does come with a few extras! They put in the little standard pamphlet about their other products (Their entire line, actually, which is 4 sets).

They also come with a little, 1-page set of rules. It's very, very simple. They're two types of units "Tanks" and "Half tracks" each player gets an equal number of each, and you alternate moving 1 model each. It seems a bit simplistic, but it's a nice gesture, I'll have to try it sometime.

Finally, they come with a transfer sheet:

Its got a lot on it, actually, and is easily worth 5$ in and of itself. It's pretty good for general Germans, having transfers for various famous units (Lehr, Feldherrnhalle, DAK, 21st Panzer) as well as lots of generic markings and numbers. It does have one big downside though, many numbers only appear once on the sheet. Other numbers, like 824, appear 3 times. You typically want the number on each side of your turret, so if you want tank #201, you'll need a second sheet. Then again, 2 sheets is probably more transfers than you'll need for an entire German army in Flames of War. Unfortunately, they don't sell the sheets separately. 

So, time to tally the final score!

Models: 3/5. They detail is there, but the gaps, and huge mold line, are quite annoying. While generally pretty sturdy, a few treads are wobbly, finally all 5 of the tanks are identical, some diversity would be nice.

Painting: 3/5. The quality, style, and color is pretty inconsistent. Some tanks have almost no stripes, some have a few huge ones etc. No detailing is picked out, they just rode off the wash, and some of the detail is actually obscured by the globs of black wash. The bottom panels didn't get the camo stripes. I'd give it a 2, but they're so cheap, you can't really expect beauty. I'd just like consistency

Value: 4/5. At only 4$ a tank, they're still a steal for a durable gaming piece. You're not going to win any beauty contests with these kitties, but they're 100% serviceable, and more durable than the (3.5 times more expensive) Battlefront tigers.

So, should you pick them up? If you want a pretty army, no. If you're looking to get into Flames of War, or any 15mm scale World War II game on the cheap, they're probably a good deal. Especially if you don't like painting.