Lions Den I - 654.Jagdpanzer Abteilung List

Lions Den I is a few days away. It'll be my first FOW tournament and I can feel the nerves of excitement already starting. My goals are to give a good game, be a good sportsmen, score 10 VP's for the tournament and have FUN.

I've been reading the rulebook, in particularly focusing on the 3 scenarios for the tournament:

Fighting Withdrawal
Encounter
Hold the Line

Tim {Theatrix} says there are 10 Allied and 6 Axis lists thus far. I wonder if this means I'll be running into several para lists from the Hells Highway or A Bridge Too Far source books. Yikes! I also know Tim is asking everyone to bring terrain {I have none} for the estimated 9 tables. Tim loves terrain! Heavy terrain boards could negate the big guns. Bleh.

It looks like we'll have 18 players. Bill Wilcox {Gothmog} will be there. Check out the new FOW rankings and you'll see Bill ranked #1. Jeff, Daniel and Jose of The Realm fame is part of the group. Tim's two sons are also scheduled to be present. It'll be good to put faces to the FOW board names.

I went to Staples to laminate The List. I borrowed an Excel Spreadsheet from the good folks of Wolfkrieg, made a few changes, input my data and color codes and printed it on white cardstock. Presto, instant army list reference. I'm also bringing the Noak and Vehicle Data laminated sheets from the Know Your Enemy-German briefs.

During lunch yesterday, I ran down to Brookhurst and purchased the M4A1 (promptly lost the gun mantle d'oh) and T-34 objective markers because I didn't have objective markers worthy of a tournament board. Besides, arriving at a tournament without objective markers just shouts Noob!

The List:

2x Jagdpanthers (CiC, 2iC)
1x Panther A {Noak}

2x Jagdpanthers

3x StuG IIIG

1x Grenadiers 7 stands (PF)

1x Grenadiers 7 stands {no PF}

1x 4 GW34 mortar tubes

Pts = 1,750

See you Saturday!

Lions Den I - Hear me roar!!

The Realm is hosting Lions Den I on Apr 3, or a week from tomorrow. I've decided on running the 654th Jagdpanzer Abteilung from the Intelligence Briefing PDF of the same name.

I will post the complete army list next week.

In the meantime, here's a look of the big guns painted by GeekEGuy.

Heinz Noak - Warrior and Abteilung Commander


CiC and 2iC of the Jagdpanzer Kompanie


1st and only Jagdpanzer Platoon


StuG G's supporting the 326.Infanterie Division


Noak and the StuG's. Thinking about attaching him to bolster this CT unit.


Panther, 4 Jagdpanzers and 3 StuGs. Plenty of AT.

Panzer IV E Platoon - Basecoat

Yes, I know, another exciting post about the Panzer IV E platoon. =)



Yesterday the platoon was basecoated with Testors Panzer Grey spray can.

After researching winter white washing and the various techniques (wash, hairspray, salt chipping, masking, marmate, etc), I've decided to use Testors Panzer Grey in a spray can and then white wash the tank with various thicknesses of VMC white paint. It seems the easiest. The hairspray technique gives really great results on 1/72, 1/35 and even 28mm (WH and WH40K) miniatures, but I do not believe the benefits outweigh the headaches on 15mm vehicles (unless it's a Tiger, Panther or King Tiger).

So, no airbrushing for me. Saves me $$ and bugging a buddy to borrow his and all that entails with worrying about not breaking or ruining his airbrush.



The next step in the process is detailing the tracks, stowage and add worn areas to the basecoat.

I likely won't get near the platoon until April. Lions Den I is in two weeks and I'm working on what list to take.

Panzer IV E Platoon - Primered

The weather has been beautiful. Sunny and 70+ degrees.

A perfect day to primer 4 PzIV E's.



I haven't glued the tracks to the hulls yet. I'll be dry brushing Red Leather and Gunmetal Grey over the tracks and then I'll glue them. In this way I have good access to the complete tread and won't have to fiddle with using smaller brushes.



I used this for my primer. There's plenty of blog posts about this and that primer. I like Krylon Black. The nozzle yields a good, powerful spray that is easy to control.

The Hogs of War has an article with a different primer option.

Replacement gun barrels arrived

Battlefront Customer Support came through when the two replacement PzIV E gun barrels was delivered to the doorstep by UPS.

I'm not naive enough to think anyone at Battlefront USA reads this blog. On the off chance that they do, I'd like to suggest the following:

It's great that I received a prompt reply to the e-mail describing my plight with the missing gun barrels. What I didn't receive was any follow-up for two weeks. When I copied and pasted the original e-mail and Battlefront's reply in a second e-mail I finally received an e-mail detailing the UPS tracking information and expected delivery date. But that was it. No other words from Battlefront USA in the UPS e-mail. No further contact information in case the parts didn't arrive. Nothing.

The key to customer support is communication. A business can make a huge error and anger its customer base. Yet, if the company makes amend for the mistake and COMMUNICATES the steps it will take to resolve the situation, people can be very forgiving and willing to do business with the company again in the future. However, the company must be open and maintain an open avenue of communication. Customers hate it when they are left wondering how and if the mistake is being fixed. It shows to a customer that the company is on top of the issue and wants to resolve it satisfactorily. Hey Toyota, are you reading this?

Battlefront, you've blasted on the boards for your non-communication regarding the fate of WI268. In the future, I hope you will learn from that episode and take it as a sign to improve what is generally good customer support.

Now, back to the PzIV E platoon!



The German extra stowage blister is very nice, with plenty of extra tracks, stowage bins, jerry cans, and road wheels to give character to a platoon or tank.

Next up - it's Primering Time!

The Pacific

Last night HBO began it's The Pacific mini-series. Being the WWII history nut that I am I felt obligated and my personal duty to resubscribe to HBO to watch it. =)

I wasn't disappointed. What Band of Brothers did for 101st Airborne, I suspect The Pacific will do for the US Marines.

If you have a friend with HBO, think of excuses to be over at their house on Sunday evenings. Don't wait for the DVD release before seeing this series.

Early March status report

The Panzer IV E platoon is sitting on the shelf and on hold and awaiting parts. Out of the four blister packs I bought of Pz IV E's, one of the guns had so much flashing that it looked like a solid sprue of metal. A second blister pack was missing the gun completely. I e-mailed Battlefront USA Customer Support and I received a quick reply on Feb 22nd, stating that two replacement guns were being mailed. It's been 9 business days and I'm hoping they will be here soon.

The weather hasn't been cooperating either. This week two storms, separated by three days, hit the area (it's raining now). Last week, a bigger storm dumped more rain on us. I've had the urge to prime the other two Panzer IV's, but decided against it because of the high humidity. Plus, I wanted to wait so I can do all four at once.

When the guns come in, I'll post pictures of the assembled hulls and turrets and get the ball rolling again.

On a side note, WI268 finally arrived in the mail today (Saturday). Check out the Battlefront forum for a thread on how tardy WI268 is (now locked).

Nafziger TO&E Files - Free!

I was stomping around TMP (The Miniatures Page) forums and found this:

I'm not sure if this had been posted before. But a treasure trove of TO&Es from the Nafziger Orders of Battle Collection is free online.

What a great source of information!

Directory Listing of Nafziger Documents

The file names do not offer anything in the way of descriptions. Here is a link to a PDF with the files descriptions.

Nafziger Collection description