Tag Archives: battlefront

Flames of War, Wargaming, WWII

Why I was banned from Battlefront Forums

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Webb Cartoon from 2004
Webb Cartoon from 2004

After some email to-ing and fro-ing between Chris Townley (from Battlefront) and myself we arranged for a call from BF for this morning and subsequently today I got a call from one of the owners of Battlefront to explain why my account was deleted from the battlefront forum.  Peter Suminovich was polite and explained very clearly why I was evicted, which is all I was asking for.

Back in 2008 I made a post on a New Zealand political blog, at a time when a major New Zealand politician was in the news with regards to a big political spat over scampi, fishing quotas, alleged corruption, dodgy politicians, paper bags with money in them and an injunction on a video interview with a guy who worked for Peter S who said that he had told him to lie to a Parliamentary commission.   There was this big court case where Peter Suminovich and another joker sued a media company and state-owned TV for defamation and I understand it was settled out of court.  It is all on the internet as part of public record if you want to read about it.  Anyway, that is the background.

I had forgotten all about that period in New Zealand history and could not even remember the comment so after a lot of searching archives on a multitude of political blogs, I think I found the offending post.  I am not sure that there were others but if there were I couldn’t find them.

http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2008/08/hansard_of_hide_re_peters.html#comments

He said to me on the phone that I wrote a hurtful thing and he didn’t want anything to do with me and by inference that included my having any interaction with his company Battlefront. He obviously has a long memory.  My mother was a Southern European, so I know all about that.

So, there you have it.  It was not anything I said or did on the Battlefront Flames of War forums. He is exercising his right of ownership of the Flames of War Forum – and that is that. Perhaps in a similar circumstance I would do the same as Peter S did if someone called me Fat Brian.

Flames of War, Wargaming, WWII

Banned from Battlefront’s Flames of War Forum

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banned_3618517

Today I got an email from Chris Townley (Design Studio Manager at Battlefront) with this rather terse sentence.

Hi Brian,

your forum account on the Flames Of War site has been deleted at the request of the senior management.

Regards
Chris Townley

Battlefront Miniatures

Well, I wondered why – I had hardly said or done anything controversial at the Battle Front Forum. The sum total of my contribution was posting a link to my painted Battlefront Stuart Recce tanks post (in the Galleries section), and to some of my Monday Music posts that had themes that may or may not interest people interested in social history of WWII and Vietnam War (in the Canteen section – the appropriate part of the forum for such posts).

Here is what I wrote about their Vietnam range:

Battle Front’s Tour of Duty line.  Quite extensive and looks pretty good. I have only ever seen the models in blisters but I am guessing that they are of the same pretty high standard as the rest of the BF line – arguments over the shape of a T-55′s turret notwithstanding.

Still waiting to see if I get a response from Chris as to why my account was removed, but I have to ask – has Battlefront become thinner skinned than an Opel Blitz truck?

WWII

15mm WWII – Stuart Recce Tanks, Kangaroos and Staghounds.

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In the years before Flames of War came out we used to be able to by these cool 15mm WWII vehicles made by a bunch of guys who I knew of – some peripherally and others quite well. I had acquired a few models here and there but WWII wasn’t my war-gaming period so it never went beyond that.  Then along came Flames of War and a revival of this period and like many others I got quite excited about it. Not the least of reasons was the fact that it was a local company doing good on the world gaming scene.

I decided to build a New Zealand force to represent the units that my father and several uncles served in during the campaign in Italy 1943-45.  So I began to collect miniatures to represent elements of 22nf Infantry Battalion, Divisional Artillery, Div Cav and 19th Armoured.

My Uncle Stan was in the Divisional Cavalry and I always liked Staghounds.  These models are 15mm Old Glory (Command Decision Code CD-116).

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These particular Old Glory models are great. I like the heft of the full metal model. Based on a standard Flames of War large base with some additional stowage.

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I have a couple of excellent little reference books by Jeffrey Plowman and Malcolm Thomas covering New Zealand armoured forces in the Second World War. 4th New Zealand Armoured Brigade in Italy and 2nd New Zealand Divisional Cavalry Regiment in the Mediterranean and there were several photos of Stuart Recce tanks. I really liked the look of these so decided to model a few.

18012013 FoW Stuart Recce 3

This one has a homemade gun-shield to protect the gunner (reference is photo on Page 11 of 4NZ Armoured Brigade in Italy) showing 20th Armoured Regiment Stuart Recces near Trieste, 1945.

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and another view of same.

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These models were just standard Battlefront Stuart V minis (Code BR0009) without the turret and some bits and bobs added to make them look a little more lived in. I thought that the canvas cover on this model came out quite well considering the scale.

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Finally, Dad used to tell me stories about banging about on Kangaroos. The New Zealand forces didn’t operate them but Canadian or Scottish units used to ferry our troops into battle on occasion according to Dad. He said they were great for driving up to a house and being able to scramble through first floor windows.  He was in one once that took a hit from a German tank, He said they saw it down the end of a street and the driver gunned it to get behind a house. He reckons the tank shell went through the house and still knocked them out.  Anyways, here are a few shots of some Canadian Kangaroos (old white resin Battlefront that came in little card boxes).

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The infantry riding in these Kangaroos are Old Glory 15mm Bren Carrier Crews (Command Decision Bren Carrier Crew CDBC-07).

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Hope you enjoyed these miniatures, my tribute to Uncle Stan (Div Cav) and Uncle Bob (19th Armoured) and unknown members of the Canadian Army in Italy.