(Lead) Mountain Musings - "Flames Of War" September 2021

"While their resilience may have been limited, the beach defence troops still held out."

Ordinarily, I like to start each hobby month by planning out how I intend to reduce my embarrassing backlog of metal, plastic and resin models by focusing upon either a specific game, range, or manufacturer. But recently I’ve found my mojo somewhat struggling to maintain its focus over any given four week period, and I don’t therefore feel I’ve been as productive or attentive as I could/should have been.

As a result for the rest of the year I’ve decided to return to an old weekly challenge I somewhat successfully used to employ many moons ago, where every seven days I randomly choose (upon the turn of a playing card) a small number of miniatures to paint from a certain scale. Spookily, the first of these tasks will be a unit of 15mm figures, which rather neatly ties-in with my current project to field a Panzergrenadier platoon for “Flames Of War”.

"Battlefront Miniatures" WIPs - Three Riflemen primed, shaded and dry-brushed

In addition, I still plan to ‘pick away’ at a particular theme for the month, and perhaps unsurprisingly I’ll be sticking to “Battlefront Miniatures” range of 15mm plastic World War Two Germans. Indeed, with my inaugural play-test of the rules fast-approaching, I am somewhat powering through my first platoon’s MG34 and K98 Rifle teams, and hope to be able to bulk-up my Beach Defence’s core Combat Unit to its maximum strength within the next fortnight or so, as well as perhaps start building a Panzer IV (7.5cm) Tank Platoon.

I have also not lost sight of the myriad of 6mm “Epic” Daemons by “Games Workshop” which are currently littering my painting table, nor the bases populated with plenty of “Timecast” resin pieces I was planning on submitting for this year’s Season of Scenery Challenge. Both of these ranges will be fitted in whenever possible, especially the terrain, as I still need to get a few more bits done so as to properly populate a small-sized battlefield for my “Catalyst Game Labs” Weird War Two walkers.

August 2021 - My continuing interest in 15mm models means "Alternative Armies" finally make the list

From a progress perspective, the last month was something of a disappointment, as I only managed to finish one of several 6mm bases I had planned to add to my burgeoning “Epic” collection. In fact, without the incredibly ‘easy wins’ of some 10mm Small Creatures by “Pendraken Miniatures” and 15mm Xenomorphs by “Ground Zero Games”, the past four weeks would arguably have been a disaster.

I am however, rather pleased with how my German Beach Defence force for “Flames Of War” is coming along, having completed another fourteen infantrymen for my Grenadier Company. Furthermore, my ability to continually ‘chip away’ at my excess of Retained Knights by “Alternative Armies” has finally paid some dividends as the company are currently now my fourth most popular manufacturer of the year.