Again this year I am honored to be painting a Flames of War charity army for the NOVA Open Charity Foundation.  I have participated the past few years and this year contains the largest number of vehicles to be included. With the release of version 4 of the Flames of War ruleset and the return to the desert, it makes sense that we see some models from that theater. The raw models were supplied by Battlefront Miniatures. Assembly, painting, decals, and magnets are provided by TDS.

Fun Facts: 53 vehicles, 112 magnets, ~ 265 decals, thousands of sprue part cuts

There are just a few pieces to be cut from sprues after washing them in warm soapy water.

Each sprue stack above turned out to look like this and then was sorted by part type, cleaned up by file or knife and then the assembly started. As an example, the image below is one set of tanks in all their glory after cut from the sprue.

After assembly, it was time to lay them out and see what we had. They are upside down awaiting the initial coat of spray primer. You’ll notice that the plastic models come color coded for the Axis and Allies sides. There were some choices to be made during the assembly phase so we went with a mix of tank types that would provide a starter army. The idea is then to supplement the force with further vehicles, guns, and infantry units.

Spray primer is applied and then it is time to base coat the major vehicle color.

After the base coat, many steps are performed to transfer the plastic model to look like metal that has been worn and weathered in the North African desert.

Materials used included: NAPA Automotive spray primer, Battlefront Miniatures new desert vehicle spray paints and bottle paints, and decals, Vallejo Model Color bottle paints, Micro Set and Micro Sol for decal application, AK Interactive washes and pigments, white mineral spirits, CGR Painters washes, Citadel shades, Derwent graphite pencils, Liquitex matte varnish, Badger Renegade Krome airbrush, da Vinci brushes, files, x-acto knives, various sandpapers, Model Master liquid plastic cement, store brand CA (Cyanoacrylate) Insta-Cure+ glue.

Two armies were created so there is a German and British desert army for the charity raffle that NOCF puts on.

British Africa Starter Army for NOCF 2017

British Desert Army
6 Grant/Lee tanks
7 Honey Stuarts tanks
6 Crusader III tanks
2 Crussader IICS tanks
7 Crusader II tanks

German DAK Starter Army for NOCF 2017

German DAK Army
5 Panzer III short 5cm barrel tanks
5 Panzer III uparmoured long 5cm barrel tanks
5 Panzer IV long 7.5cm barrel tanks
6 Panzer IV short 7.5cm barrel tanks
4 Tiger tanks

Thanks for looking and my the odds be forever in your favor.

regards,

SteveM.