German Panzerwerfer 42 Battery

I've had my Panzerwerfer 42 battery for Flames of War in the queue for a while now, but with the recent commission jobs I had these guys had to go on the back burner so to speak.  But then, as so happens in life, several things happened at the same time.  First, I finished the models I had for both commission jobs and had time to paint some of my stuff.  Second, the Devastating Bombardment Template I have had on order for months finally came in.  That gave me the motivation to kick the battery into high gear.

And man, am I glad...this battery is ever so nice.

What am I talking about?  The Panzerwerfer 42 was an armored mobile rocket launcher the Germans used late in World War 2.  For Flames of War, the Panzerwerfer Battery looks like this :

In game terms, it can kick butt With 8 launchers I can use the Devastating Bombardment template which is 4 times the size of the the standard artillery template and make the opponent reroll any saves he makes!

Without further ado...the battery:

Battery Commander:

 

 

Forward Observer, 1st Platoon:

 

Forward Observer, 2nd Platoon:

 

The launchers are the same in both platoons, so I will so pics  for just 1 Platoon:

Love this box set.  The launchers are great sculps and you have very dynamic poses with the guys on the launchers.  The troops on the ground are the same ones from the Nebelwerfer platoons...its the same rocket after all on the Panzerwerfer.

The models are very quick to paint up.  I used my standard German paint jobs for the crew and airbrushed the vehicles.

I cant wait to get these guys on the table!

Making Antennas --- A Relook

I made a video a few months ago on how to make and add antennas to your Flames of War 15mm models. 

This method is great for a sturdy antenna...there is one LITTLE drawback to using wire however.  If you aren't careful, you can injure yourself.  Since you built the model (and probably already stuck yourself once (or twice...OK maybe 4 times), you are careful and avoid sticking yourself again. 

This becomes more of an issue if you let someone else use your models... in lets say a demo or teaching game and they weren't aware of the dangers of the wire....until they stick themselves.

Well...this happened to me recently as I was giving a demo at my FLGS to a friend from work...and he stuck himself on the antenna on one of my PzIVs.  He was a trooper and soldiered on...in fact, he kicked total butt because his blood sacrifice to the Dice Gods must have been accepted as worthy.  I have never seen so many 5's and 6's in  game before.

Anyways, I wanted to prevent this from happening again...to others...and to me  :-)

I started thinking and I saw that some folks used very thin fishing line or even bristles from a hair brush.  Those just didn't fit what I was looking for as they can tend to be too thick.  Then I remembered a technique I learned when doing 1:35 scale models.   You take a spare plastic sprue, melt it in the middle and stretch it to your desired thickness.  Works like a champ.

So I did another quick video showing this technique.

 

One great thing about this technique is that it is cheap.  Almost all the Flames of War models come with plastic parts...and that means sprues you can use for antennas.  So make a batch of antennas from every sprue you have and you will never run out for your needs.

 

Off to swap all my metals antennas with the plastic ones now.

 

Hope this helps....and get out there and paint some models!