New Zealand Hobby League: Week 1 This week at the Battlefront Studio we are starting a Hobby League.As part of that we will be putting up articles and pictures of our week by week progress as we start (and eventually) finish our Flames Of War Late War armies. Want to start your own Hobby League? Check out the Hobby League kit in the online store here...

We've put our names on the sign up sheet and we will be updating it with our progress. The people who will taking part in the Hobby League are Andrew, Luke, Alexander, Patch, Cameron, Phil and Ashleigh. Each player has for this week written a discription of what army they are building.

Phil I've chosen to build a US Light Tank Company with lots of M5 Stuart light tanks! It has always amazed me that the US Army persisted with light tanks right to the end of the war. Over a quarter of their tanks were M5 Stuart and later M24 Chaffee light tanks. I figure it's time to put some on the table and see what they were on about. Mike Haught's love of the light task forces that raced across Brittany and the Loire after the breakout from Normandy has inspired my to build a light tank company from a cavalry recon squadron backed up with a platoon of armoured infantry, a platoon of tank destroyers, and some P47 Thunderbolts. They don't have much heavy firepower, but it will be interesting to see how they perform against a variety of opposition. My first 50 points will be 17 M5 Stuarts and three M8 Scott assault guns for fire support.

Ashleigh Hi, I’m Ash and I’ve never played Flames of War before! I decided I wanted to play a British force - mostly because when I was flicking through the Fortress Europe book I liked their introduction the most. So far I’ve made a few Stuarts, I’ll make some Shermans next. For my 50pt list, I’ve decided to take some Shermans, a Firefly, Stuart Recce Patrol, Universal Carriers, a couple of M10’s and a few Churchills!

Luke All journeys start with a first step and starting a new army in Flames Of War is no different. For the Hobby League I’ve decided to go with a British Force. I love my tanks so the first thing I’m going to start with is with my tanks. My very first Flames Of War Army was a Panzer IV Company with a heavy emphasis on bringing lots of tanks and since I’m wanting to keep things new (while also familiar), I want to put an infantry company into the final 100 points. With this focus in mind what better tanks to support the infantry than the Churchill, the ideal infantry tank! My first 50 points will go towards a Churchill Company along with some M10s to help me deal with some of that pesky heavy armour out there. Looking forwards after this is done my next lot of points will be spread around an infantry company (what kind of company I’m not sure on just yet) as well as some more support to fill in the gaps I’ll likely find as we start playing games against each other. I’ve got a nice pile of sprues to build away at and some fresh paints so I’ll be starting nearly the moment I stop writing this!

Cameron Hello I’m Cameron and this is my first ever experience with Flames of War. I picked a Soviet Force based entirely on the promise from the Fortress Europe book that I would be able to overwhelm my opponents with hordes of tanks. Which sounded very appealing.  My first 50 hobby league points are going to be spent building the core formation of my army. With a couple of hero T34 companies, a hero T70 company, and a supporting KV-1s company of three.

Andrew For the hobby league I am recreating one of my favourite Flames of War armies I used to run over 12 years ago, the US Assault Company. I am painting them up the be the 29th infantry division so I will be putting the blue and the grey patches on all my troops. To support these troops I will be also running a small formation of M10s.  Looking forward to painting this army up and playing some beach landing games!

Alexander Alex is making a start on his Luftwaffe troops. You can check out the first steps here...