Long Time, No Post, Part 2

Battlefront released version 4 of their WW2 game "Flames of War". They've decided to start by revamping the mid-war desert range. Ah hah, I thought; a reason to pull stuff out of the stash and slap some paint on it. Well, OK, I had to add some more stuff to the stash as well, because I had a partial DAK force.

So, DAK first. BF released a new all-plastic box for a 10.5cm howitzer battery, which I duly assembled and painted:

Paints were, as usual, a mixture of Humbrol, Vallejo and Tamiya. I had a scare early on when I used a Humbrol enamel to prime the soft plastic crew figure and it reacted with the plasticiser to form a tacky surface. After a couple of weeks sitting in a corner, the tackiness had subsided but not gone completely. Figuring that I could either paint on and see what happened or spring for more crew, I painted. They turned out OK.

The plastic kit is nice and well priced, but there isn't as much detail on the figures or guns as there is/was on the older metals - details like emblems on caps, chest eagles, medals have all gone away and the breech and recoil mechanisms on the howitzers are simplified. I'm torn about this - I like the detail but I can also see how others might ignore it and it mostly vanished at table-top distances. A couple of close-in shots:

Under version 4, BF have done away with command teams, staff teams and observer teams. The battery does not feel complete without these extras teams, so out came an old metal blister pack. Much more detail on these sculpts.