404 Flames of War, Team Yankee, and ‘Nam Teams Painted in One Year

By Tom Burgess

Motivation to finish models when you are facing a huge backlog of miniatures can be daunting. It has been for me over the years and I had to come up with a system to keep ahead of all the new stuff I was buying. I do buy a lot of kit from Battlefront each year.

Even before the COVID impact on 2020, I resolved to complete 365 teams from my huge backlog of Flames of War, Team Yankee, and ‘Nam boxes. As a means to motivate myself to chew through that backlog, years ago I started keeping a log and posting it on the WWPD and then the No Dice No Glory forums when I finished models. It always felt good to post pictures of what I had completed and to mark them done on my tracking spreadsheet.

In 2019, I had completed 292 teams. In 2018, I had completed 178 teams. In 2017, I completed 229 teams and in 2016 I completed 109 teams. So selecting a target of painting 365 teams for 2020, one for each day of the year, was going to be a huge effort.  I suppose the COVID lockdown should have helped me focus more, but I managed to stay fairly active in gaming during the pandemic.

In the event that this is inspirational to some or gives some ideas to others on how to keep motivated, I thought I’d retrace my 2020 month by month progress. For each month I will look at what was motivating me then and what I got done in that month. I do game in other systems and but this article will just focus on the games I love most; Flames of War and its 20th Century derivatives Team Yankee, Great War, ‘Nam, and Fate of a Nation.

January 2020

I really did not finish anything in January, though I did start work on some US WW2 models. I am a “batch” painter.  I will often work on dozens and dozens of models simultaneously. I may not finish many models for a while, but then finish a big lot all at once.  It works for me as I find I can put on some podcast and just drone out while I paint.  I also “watched” all seven seasons of Star Wars: Clone Wars while I painted this year.

I decided to kick off the new year by focusing on what I had left in the backlog for my WW2 US. I knew I could never finish off the whole backlog this year, but it feels good to close out individual lines in my backlog spreadsheet.  I thought clearing out a whole block of lines, thus completing a full nation’s worth of entries would feel great! With that strategy in mind, my WW2 US with its easily painted Olive Drab vehicles would make a great place to start working in 2020.

February 2020

My first completed batch of 2020 was the below Late War US kit. Notable from this collection was the rest of Oddball’s M4 platoon which included some fun conversion work.  The M4 Jumbo on the right is “Cobra King” which I just had to paint when I realized I had the decals for that tank. This lot got me my first 39 teams done for the year.

Another “unit” I got done February 2020 was this platoon of Quad Tractors. Not really that useful anymore in Flames of War but they had been sitting primed on my painting shelf for over four years. Getting these done brought me up to 43 teams done for the year.

The below Fallschrimjagers really were just a rebasing project. “Low hanging fruit.” I debated if I should count them, but since I was not counting extra turrets, passengers, etc. on tanks, that I should count these as bringing me up to 49 teams done for the year.

March 2020

March was going to be a very productive month for me. I started off my nocking out this FLaK 36 unit and Fallschimjager 20mm AA unit.  The D-Day German release had a big impact on getting these units done. The PaK Front Command Card made adding another two 88’s to my previously existing two was a must! I did the FJ AAA along with them as the similar paint scheme would help to get them knocked out quickly.

Another big push for me in March 2020 was Cinycon’s 120 point WW3 Team Yankee Tournament. I decided that I really did not want to add any more ground units to my TY Soviets for this tournament. Technically, my travel case could not accommodate anymore. So I decided to add in something I had never used before, Helicopters and SU-25s. So I completed these six  Hind-24s and two SU-25s.

I won an SA-9 Gaskin unit at Cinycon. Uncharacteristically for me, I assembled and painted it immediately!

The D-Day British book also changed how Breaching Groups were organized, so I knocked out these AVREs and De-frocked Priests to make my force more compatible with the V4 version of the breaching group.

To close out March 2020, I added some simple recon units for my WW2 Bagration Soviets. I know the BA-6s would not be used in the Late War Soviet army, but I like the look of them and run them as BA-10s.

March closed out with me having completed 85 teams for the year. Not far behind the 30 teams a month pace I would have to sustain to meet my goal for the year,

April 2020

I started out April 2020 by finishing off these halftracks. Five of these were in a box set I won at the Cincycon Flames of War tournament. I had plenty of metal US infantry already, so I traded away the dismounts that came with that set.

I also had bought some of the new plastic Battlefront SU-25s to fill out the unit I had started earlier and to write a for No Dice No Glory. These brought me up to 98 teams done in 2020.

May 2020

May was going to be a big British push month.  I started off with the M10C’s painted up to support my Irish Guards.

Now I have never painted an ahistorical unit for Flames of War. I usually tried to be as accurate as possible in my hobby. But I decided to be a bit whimsical with my second box of M10s and paint them up for use in the desert to support my Crusaders. So I painted them to match my Crusaders and will run them using the US M10 Wolverine unit card as an “allied” unit.  I still have not had a chance to game with these but they were certainly fun to paint and will turn heads next time I get out to a Mid-War Flames of War tournament.

I also expanded my Humber collection for Mid-War to allow me to run them as a formation.

I had these 40mm Bofors that I had won as a prize at Historicon a couple of years ago so thought I might as well throw them in with this batch of Mid-War British.

These infantry are the flexible plastic Mid-War British infantry from Battlefront that get so much grief from some. But I really like them for their ease of painting and game table durability.

To close out May, with 135 teams done for the year,  I completed this Dorchester “objective.” The Dorchester is magnetized and can be removed from the base.

June 2020

Apparently, I painted nothing in June 2020. I received an Ancestory.com gift subscription for Father’s Day and I think that sucked up most of my free time for that month. I might have also been burnt out.  Taking a break is OK when you are working a year-long effort.

July 2020

I painted these Jagdtigers for a friend in New Jersey who wanted some. I was going to sell them just assembled and primed, but he asked me to paint them for him. I rarely paint for others or pay others to paint for me, but I made an exception here since he was just starting out with Flames of War. Most importantly, these got me painting again after my June down time.

I expanded my Mid-War British in July by adding this M5 Honey group to my collection. These brought me up to 144 teams done for 2020, a good bit behind the pace by the endo of July I needed to get to 365. by year’s end.

August and September 2020

In these two months, I painted all of the Early War French kit I had left. These 41 teams got me up to 185 teams done for the year. It was going to be tough to get another 180 done in just four months. I have no idea when I’ll play Early War again, but these lads are ready.

October 2020

I must have hit a big slump in October as I did not record the completion of any units for that month. I probably started working on the batch of Soviet WW2 kit that I finished in November.

November 2020

I was fortunate to earn a spot in the 2020 US Flames of War Masters at the end of October. That motivated me to get a push on a big batch of Late War Soviets as I planned to run a T-34/85 Battalion at the event.

I decided at the last minute before US Masters I needed some Captured Panthers for my Soviets and hastily finished off these. These Panthers were “rehab” projects as they were second-hand models that were pretty beat up and needed a lot of reworking.

After having my friend Ed’s ZSU-17’s knock out my Pak Front 88’s all the time in our “Race to Minsk” Campaign, I decided I needed some in my US Masters list.

I found these blisters of British 6 pdrs in my backlog pile. I had forgotten I had them so just knocked them out quickly.

This push got me up to 252 teams done for the year. I closed out November with just over 100 teams left to go with just one month left to paint them in.

December 2020

My wife wanted to see her parents for Thanksgiving and the US Masters was behind me. Knowing I was going to have a lot of extra time during the Thanksgiving break with not much to do while at my in-laws, I looked for a big lot of stuff I could work on while there. The best thing to fit the bill for that was my remaining US models for ‘Nam. I made tremendous progress while at my in-laws getting all the base colors done. I was then able to finish these 89 teams in early December bringing me up to 351 teams done for the year. Now I needed just 14 teams to close out my 2020 goal and most all of the month left to do it.

To get at those last 14 teams needed,  I looked through my backlog for something I could paint relatively easily and quickly and decided that what I had left for my Fate of Nation Israelis fit the bill pretty well with their mono-color paint scheme. These guys got me past my goal to 369 teams done for 2020!

But it was only December 13th when I fished this IDF kit, I still had two weeks left and was on quite a roll.  So did I stop there?  “Hell no!” I broke out my brand new Team Yankee WW3 Soviets and pushed my count for 2020 up to 404 teams. I really enjoyed painting these T-80s and BMP-3s in a camo pattern.  You may note in the upper left of the photo that I also squeezed in another unit of British M10Cs for my Late War WW2 British. I also wrote a for No Dice No Glory on the BRDM-2 models.

I was quite pleased that I met my painting goal for 2020. The hobby year was a combination of slumps and burst, but, man, did it come on with a heavy burst at the end. I did not include the other models I painted for 2020 which included figures for Test of Honor and Star Wars Legion as well as some 3rd Rates Ships for Black Seas.  It was certainly the most productive hobby year of my life.

2021

What about 2021? Will I try to match my record for 2020? I don’t think so. But I have already started .  Unfortunately. I have already added to the backlog in 2021. Despite having already bought some new stuff this year, I think I can make a sizable dent in what remains in my backlog. My main effort in 2021 will be to complete a WW3 Team Yankee US Tank kit I’ve been collecting since Team Yankee came out.

Then, I’ll look to knock off other sets of kit together. Here’s what I start off within the “pile of shame” for 2021. I also sold, traded, and gave away a lot of Flames of War kit in 2020.  If I don’t get active on most of these by the end of 2021 I may just have to liquidate some more.

If you made it this far in this article, I hope you are inspired to kick up the tempo of your own hobby this year. I think logging and tracking your progress really helped me keep going and maybe it can do the same for you.  You will have slumps still and distractions as all gamers do. But if you set a goal and track it…odds are you will attain it. So get at it….and have a great and productive 2021!