I am finishing up the last of the “nice to have” units for the two games I’m running at Fall In! in a couple of weeks, so why not give the lately neglected Splendor of Fire some love?

Here is the Pak 43 88mm gun that will show up in the Valley of Gwangi scenario. It is the pewter kit made by Warlord Games. I’ve had it for over a year now. It sat unassembled for a long time because a) I didn’t actually have need of it, but bought it because it was priced according to the “before times” when Warlord miniatures were still affordable, and b) it was a monster of tiny parts.

But it’s cursed because, once I finally went to the trouble of assembling all of its fiddly bits, I discovered, too late, that it did not fit in the Normandy bunker (also manufactured by Warlord!) that I intended to put it in. So, I had to disassemble it, which meant using the superglue debonder which also removes paint, which of course also means I had to repaint it. Thus, I consider it cursed.

Another way it’s cursed is its performance in the playtest for the Gwangi scenario. It got a couple of good hits in on American infantry when it blocked by smoke (which it was for most of the game), but its real time to shine was in the final three turns of the game when it could have knocked out the M7 Priest which had been pinned out in the open, side-on. Now, the Priest only has an armor of 8, and this thing had a Penetration of +7, meaning it had to roll anything but a 1 to (probably) knock it out and maybe win the game for the Germans. What do you think happened?

It hit the Priest THREE times, side-on, and rolled a 1 for penetration each time. *sad trombone*

Oh well, it looks good, and now reassembled, it actually fits in the bunker!