I’ve seen FOW: Art of War book a couple of times since last year in various hobby stores I frequent around Auckland. However I’ve only just recently picked up a copy myself after reading Tankred’s review on his Unfinished Armies blog.
I have to agree with his review, this is a great little glossy book and fine value for money at $21nz locally. Personally I didn’t find the hobby tips contained within to include any great revelations but they certainly cover all the bases. What I did enjoy was seeing other modeler’s figures and vehicles so nicely displayed. The modeler’s featured were wisely chosen too, covering a range of different painting styles and armies.
In particular I enjoyed seeing Antti Heiskanen’s collection as my method of painting FOW figures is somewhat similar to his, although Antti’s style is much more extreme in terms of shading. I’m quite tempted to bust out a few spare bases of NZer infantry and try out his suggestions regarding painting and highlighting.
Also if you’re relatively new to Flames of War, or thinking of picking it up then I’d definitely recommend grabbing a copy of this book because it’s packed full of useful information regarding preparing and painting 15mm WWII figures.
As an aside I’m a little out of touch regarding Flames of War at the moment because frankly I can’t stand their new web site. Both forums and the web store seem to have become a lot harder to navigate!
All I can say about the FoW website is that not all progress is good.
Hhhmmmm, sounds like war gaming porn… might have to grab myself a copy
Heh ‘wargaming porn’ is a very apt description!
Stu, thank you for your reference :)
The armies really very chosen very well, they have almost every army in the first book, not just the recently released ones.
The website is not my cup of tea. The navigation is not deep enough, if you are searching for something special you have to use the search. Moreover the graphics are huge and the code is very complex.
Hi Tankred, no worries. I was after reading your review that I picked up the AOW book and actually had a good look through it. The first time I saw it I dismissed it as some kind of expensive brochure.
Yeah I hate the online store. If you want to look at something, you have to like drag your mouse rightward across like four windows-style menus, and if you slip off it all disappears and you have to start over again. Like ->Country —> UK —> AFV —> Tank. Three-four options minimum.
Haven’t had too much problem with the forum, but man the store drives me nuts. I’m not even looking to buy stuff, just want to look at stuff I might buy from “brick and mortar” stores nearby.