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The project that my friend asked me to paint in January 2016 is now done! (I actually started the week after Reapercon 2016....) WiP Pics of the Full Force (Less the 2 Cobras, that I forgot to include!) They are sitting on a special tray that my friend gave me for my birthday at Historicon, 2013. He has one just like it.... (The patch is one that I actually wore as a tanker in Germany from May 1984 to may 1986....) Situation: August 1st, 1985 "We interrupt this program for a special announcement. Unconfirmed reports from Brussels, headquarters of NATO, state that the NATO nations have ordered their armed forces to mobilize and commence deployment to their wartime positions." 2 days prior, we see the small German hamlet of Sinntal, all is very quiet on the pre dawn of a Wednesday morning... Nothing seems out of place.... (This is a 6' by 4' terrain table that I set up to take pics for this show off. These are all piece from my WW II collection, as I have not purchased any of the new 'modern' buildings....) 0400 hrs 4 August 1985 Task Force 'Meatball' C Co, 1-33 Armor, 3rd US 'Spearhead' Armored Division, Captain Calvin 'Meatball' Albondega, commanding, has occupied it's wartime deployment fighting positions.... The HQ Platoon, consisting of C66 and C65, has co located with 2nd platoon, C Company, 1-48th Infantry. This platoon was exchanged for C co 2nd plt, in the normal Army doctrine of combined arms. 1st plt has deployed to the left, 3rd plt to the right. (The company was finishing up transition training from the M60A3 tank to the new M1 Abrams tank at Grafenwoehr / Hohenfels training areas, where 1st platoon was the only platoon to have the chance to finish painting their tanks from the base color that they came from the factory in...) The Battalion mortar platoon has occupied its position in the rear are of the task force. With it's M577 Fire Direction Center. The objective at the back of the church. With a forward observer in the bell tower of the town church, his M113 waits at the base of the tower for when they need to displace... A plt of PIVAD air defense 'tracks' happens to be in the are, swapping 'pogey bait' and parts (Pogey bait is food the troops buy and bring to the field on their own nickel. Poptarts were always a good seller!) (The 4 Gatling gun equipped 'tracks behind the the 3 platoons) A pair of Cobra Tank killer tank hunters is also transiting the area when the hammer falls.... Some pics of what the Soviet Forces would see.... (wish the door mat that the fields are made from had settled down....) (I placed the camera on the table to give a 'mini's eye view') And here they are all packed up for shipment to Charlotte, NC to my friend.... Thanks to all those folks that followed along in the wip to give encouragement! TC Complete!

So now that ReaperCon 2016 is over , my painting desk is clear of pretty much everything, as for the last few months, everything was directed towards that... So I am taking on a project for a good friend, who recently had his first child, and no longer has much time for anything.... We play a game called Flames of War, which is 15mm WWII, and the company that released it, Battlefront, has come out with a new variation called Team Yankee, The title comes from a novel by Harold Coyle about an American Tank team in Germany during World War III circa 1985... Your humble Drow is taking this on as a labor of love, because if the events in the book would have been true, He would have been one of those tank crewmen involved in the fighting..... So I am painting his force as C company, 1st Battalion, 33rd Armored Regiment, 3rd Armored Division.... I served in B Co and Headquarters cos while there, so that is what I will eventually do my troops as.... Anyway the kits are all plastic, just like the 1/35th scale models i used to build back when... The sprues: That builds 1 M1 Abrams Tank, depending on what version you wish to build, there are different parts.... He also shipped me the US paint set, and 2 cans of the base coat / primer for the US Forces... (Aren't the bullet bottles cute? they are only 12ml though.....) Battlefront originally had Vallejo doing their paints, and now I believe it is Army Painter... So I assembled the hull and turret of one last night to use as my test bed, spraying overall with the Yankee Green spray, and painting the track pads and rubber of the road wheels with Vallejo Black Grey... So tonight I am going to read up a bit on what BF thinks is appropriate colors, then mask the tracks and break out the airbrush for some 3 color camo, US Army style, 1985.... Thanks for looking!

So if there are any of you folks out there that played FoW, and don't follow that forum, Battlefront has announced that the new 4th Ed rule set is coming out this year. and as before, they are giving away FREE rule books to those that already play the game. take a look at their site for more details.... So even if you are currently not playing, as I am not, make sure to visit your FLGS anyway for an updated rules set... 'Cause you never know if you might start playing again! SGT George