TFL Painting Challenge: The Last Day - Fourth and Final Update!

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Well that's the end of the 2014 TooFatLardies Painting Challenge!

Fifty-five people entered, and have produced fifty-five galleries full of inspirational miniatures.

I'm not going to list who scored the most points, or who painted more of this type of figure than anyone else: that wasn't the point.

The point was to encourage us all to paint a bit more and, hopefully, improve our painting and photography skills along the way...and it seems to have worked. Lots of you have posted on the TFL Yahoo group about how much this has indeed got you painting more, and the sheer number of last-minute entries proves the point. Thanks, by the way, for all your kind words re me running the challenge: much appreciated.

On a personal note, I managed 898 points...missing out on my target of 1,000. That does, however, give me two numbers to aim for in 2015: beating my score for 2014 and reaching the elusive 'Grand'.

The 2015 TFL Painting Challenge starts now. I'll post the empty scorecard as soon as I have time, and you get a gallery once you've entered something! I have a zug of Gebirgsjaeger heavy mortars on the way, so I'll hopefully lead the way!

Finally, there were a few last minute entries that snuck in just before deadline:

  • Mr Ralls with some Austrians and WW2 British
  • Mr Hodge with a large Normandy church and some Paras
  • and Mr Douglas, with eight minutes to spare, with eight 15mm  horse archers

Here are Mervyn's last minute horse archers:


TFL Painting Challenge: The Last Day - Update 03

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More achievements being submitted in a desperate attempt to beat the midnight GMT deadline!

What's good about this lot is that they represent people who have really pushed hard to get their entries in on time...and we even have yet another newcomer.

So, the list...

  • Mr Bloggs attempts to catch Thomas with a mixture of fantasy figures
  • But Thomas is having none of it with an equally mixed bag of figures seemingly taken from the very bottom of the lead mountain, but giving him a respectable score for the year of just over 300 points
  • Mr Plowman sends in his second entry of the day: I think the paint is still wet on these ones
  • Stumpy with more re-basing: this time over 250 Soviets (would drive me potty doing all that re-basing)
  • Leif with some big figs
  • Mr Bax just manages to get himself over the 1,000 point mark with some more of those lovely arctic figures and some CoC jump-off points
  • And, literally last but by no means least, Jim Murray pots some beautiful 1/144 aeroplanes and (a man after my own heart) some big 15mm tank units

And to show we have no bad feelings towards Mr Murray for spurning the painting competition until the very last minute, here are his BE-2s:

TFL Painting Challenge: The Last Day - Update 02

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Second batch of today's last-minute entries.

In addition to another huge batch from JdTN, we even have a new entrant: Andy Duffell and his Fantasy/CoC figures.

Don't read that last bit aloud! 

So, in this update we have:

  • Alexandros and three 28mm vehicles
  • Joakim and some Dust-ers
  • the aforementioned John de Terre Neuve with another bucketload: taking him up to an impressive 1,300 points or so
  • and the tardy Mr Duffell, with 800 points or so's worth of fantasy and Chain of Command figures.

For everyone else, there's still time to get your entries in!

This update's picture is from Alexandros, an internal shot of an SU-76M:

Oh...okay then...and here's shot from one of new-kid-on-the-block Mr Duffell's entries, a rather lovely StuG:

TFL Painting Challenge: The Last Day - Update 01

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Some huge entries coming in as people suddenly realise that the deadline is upon them!

In the first of today's updates, we have:

  • John de Terre Neuve with an extraordinary catch-up entry, some of which dates back to March, that sends him straight over the 500 point mark with a very nice collection of 20mm and 28mm figures and vehicles
  • Proving that anything is possible at the last minute, Kohn submits his first entry for 2014: some 20mm tanks
  • Ralph Plowman adds to his total with some mounted sergeants
  • And the Mad Padre empties his sleeves with a big 15mm painting entry and a colossal 6mm re-basing project that takes him straight and well over the 1,000 point mark

Ideally I'd like to picture all the entries here, but I'm afraid you'll have to look at the individual galleries as there are just too many pics for a post. Here, however, is one of JdTN's entries, and one (just one!) of the Mad Padre's re-basing shots:

TFL Painting Challenge: The Penultimate Day

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Pleased to see that the entries keep coming in for this year's painting challenge.

Just to clarify, the deadline is 12 midnight GMT on the 31st (tomorrow!) with any entries after that counting as in 2015.

Today's achievements are from:

  • Egg, with some lovely 15mm buildings. 
  • Dave Humm with lots of 20mm WW2 infantry and some fun 28mm Gingerbread men
  • Jim Catchpole returns with some more Maurice figures
  • Leif also returns with some DAK 20mm figures

And today's picture? I think two, again: Leif's SdKfz 222 and Mr Humm's Gingerbread men

TFL Painting Challenge: The Deadline Approaches

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Well it's the 28th of December and the deadline for this year's painting challenge approaches.

Quite a few entries from people squeezing in just one more unit in order to hit a certain points total: Mr Luther, for example, flies through the 3,000 point mark with four 6mm aircraft doubtless pulled from the depths of the lead mountain.

Quite a few entries from people saying "this will be the last one for this year" or "I thought I might hit x points, but now won't". What defeatist talk is this? It is only the 28th: there are still three days to go.

So, come on chaps: one more push...and no saving stuff for next year!

Today's achievements are from:

  • Mark Luther hits 3,000 points with four 6mm aircraft
  • Dick Bax gets ever closer to the 1,000 mark with some 28mm sci-fi figures and drones
  • Jon Yeungling pops in what he claims are the last figures for 2014...
  • Mr Danziger and twenty-four US infantry
  • And Mr Hodge with loads of re-basing and a couple of AA guns

Just to confirm, the challenge will definitely be running next year.

Today's picture is of Mr Bax's excellent "cold weather troopers":

IABSM AAR: Pasting The Padre

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Exciting news! I have taken advantage of the Christmas break to catch up on the re-loading of content onto the new website, and am pleased to say that all the previous IABSM after action reports are now done. That's a huge library of battle reports to browse at your leisure, many with complete scenario information allowing you to re-play the action for yourself.

To celebrate, here's a new AAR, Pasting the Padre, which gathers together the reports written by James Mantos and the Mad Padre about the same game of IABSM played in November this year.

Click here or the picture to read the report; or use the top navigation bar to go to the IABSM After Action Reports section of the website to see literally hundreds more! 

German Kettenkrad

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I've been a little worried that my Gebirgsjaeger (German Mountain Troops) won't be able to move their equipment around properly, especially in harsh terrain or weather conditions.

Problem solved, however, with eight Kettenkrad (motorcycle tractors) painted up as crewed by Gebirgsjaeger.

I must confess to feeling a touch of pride here as, at time of ordering, Battlefront only provided crews in either the standard infantry helmet or the Fallschirmjaeger helmet, not the cap that most of my existing Gebirgsjaeger wear, so I bought some cap-wearing spare heads from Peter Pig and did head-swaps on half. Not exactly the apex of conversion skills, but more than I usually manage!

TFL Painting Challenge: Xmas Eve Update

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The TFL Painting Challenge doesn't break for Xmas...and just to prove it, here's a quick Christmas Eve update.

Today's achievements are from:

  • The Mad Padre, with some very nice 28mm Commandos that take him to within 70 points of the 1,000 point mark
  • Jim Catchpole with some sci-fi terrain that takes him over the 1,000 point mark
  • And Jon Yuengling with sixty-four arab infantry. Jon claims to be running out of steam, but is still quite a few locomotives ahead of me!

Pictures wise, I'm going slightly back in time with some hots of Mark Luther's treeline, claimed just the other day. Forget Santa coming down the chimney tomorrow, I want Mark and his terrain collection instead...I'll even leave him a glass of sherry and a mince pie!

Website Update: Malaya Day Nostalgia

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The Christmas holidays mean I have more time to finish re-loading all the content onto the new VL website. 

I'm still working my way through the IABSM AARs, and great fun it is too. I have done all the scenario pack AARs, and the one-off game AARs, and am now working my way through the TFL Games Day AARs.

I have just finished uploading all the reports from the 2006 Malaya Games Day: a colossal battle involving over a battalion of infantry on either side at 1:1 scale, with the Japanese trying to force their way through the Lardak position, held by British Indian troops.

Click here to go to the IABSM AAR page. The Malaya Games Day reports are in the right hand column, down near the bottom.

Here are a few photos to whet your whistles...

Table2.025.jpg


Even More Gitungi Goodness!

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I have now finally finished the last of the Gitungi that I bought as part of the Micropanzer sale. This makes the army totally viable: with Big Men command figures (sadly lacking from most of my sci-fi armies), a solid mass of core troops, and plenty of support units backed up by some rather nifty specialists.

Units finished in this batch were:

  • the drone operators (very cool: loving the boom-arm aerial thing)
  • the anti-armour guns (nice AT weapons)
  • the HMG drones (I prefer the Assault Cannon drones, but got these for completeness)
  • some scouts with jump packs (I like these, and think they will prove very useful on the battlefield)
  • four huge battlesuits to bulk out my powered armour platoon.

That's it now until the sluog-riding kill team arrives...or Micropanzer release more models!

Drone Operators

The bulked-out Powered Armour Platoon

Scouts with Jump Packs

Anti-Armour Cannon

TFL Painting Challenge: Catchpole Breaks His Duck!

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Not a reference to a dropped resin war-mallard, but the good news that Mr Catchpole has finally got round to submitting some entries for the 2014 painting challenge. Quite a lot of entries actually!

So, today's achievements are:

  • Mr Catchpole with a marvelous 990 points worth of painting and rebasing. Just think: if only you could paint another 10 points worth and submit them before the end of the year...
  • Carole with miles of bocage and a pond
  • Mr Bax with some very nicely painted 28 and 20mm figures
  • Mr Luther with even more miles of scruffy treeline. No photo so I had to estimate the points at the equivalent of two 28mm houses. Mark is now only 22 points away from 3,000 points with just eleven days to go.
  • Mr Slade with four delightful Minions
  • Mr Yuengling with a couple of 15mm buildings

Today's picture? Well, I think we'll do two (it is Xmas after all). Here are Mr Slade's Minions and a nice tow from Mr Bax:

The Eagle Has Landed...I Think!

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I went over to Lard HQ last night for the final game of the year, billed as a Chain of Command re-fight of the climactic battle from the film The Eagle Has Landed.

For those of you who have missed out on this cinematic masterpiece, Michael Caine leads a bunch of Fallschirmjaegers on a mission to assassinate Winston Churchill as he visits a small village in rural England. All is going well for the Fall-ies, who are disguised  as Polish Paratroopers, until one of their number saves a local girl from going under the wheel of a water mill but is killed in the process, with his paratrooper uniform being ripped to reveal his German uniform underneath. Now discovered, Caine's men fight a battle to hold the village against an assault by nearby-based American troops whilst Caine himself (Steiner IIRC) goes off to kill Churchill.

The game, therefore, featured me leading three squads of US infantry supported by a Staghound armoured car into the village to firstly find out what was going on; secondly to identify any disguised Germans; and, thirdly, if any were found, to kill them!

The Germans, meanwhile, who were already occupying the village, had some convoluted mission requirements that seemed to involve tracking down a local woman who was actually one of their spies in order to be told where the secret tunnel was that led to the mansion house where Winnie was staying. I say convoluted because everything for the Germans seemed to get more and more confusing as the game went on: surely nothing to do with the immense amount of champagne that Mr Clarke, who was allegedly running the game, consumed as the evening went on.

After my last Lard HQ Chain of Command debacle (which no-one seemed to have forgotten unfortunately) I was determined to redeem myself. Rather than following the course of action from the film (where the Yanks charge into the village and get shot to bits before retreating for a more cautious second approach), we arrived at the edge of the village and cautiously moved forward towards the first house in order to try and find out what was going on.

There (well in the outside privy to be exact) we met a section of British infantry who confirmed that the Germans did indeed have men in the village, disguised as Polish paratroopers. That was all they could tell us...hardly surprising as they turned out to be more Germans on a mission to stop the main German mission for political infighting reasons.

Confused? Not as much as we were when Rich revealed that he'd brought the wrong box of figures with him so we would have to be portrayed using German figures. So we have Germans using British Paratrooper figures pretending to be Polish; more Germans using British infantry figures pretending to be British, and being played by a Scotsman; and Americans using German figures pretending to be...oh, no, sorry: actually being Americans!

Anyway, having sussed out what was going on, the Americans went forward cautiously: one squad hanging back as a base of support, one moving towards the church, and one moving up to the Whippet Inn (also somewhat confusingly portrayed by a German beer hall).

The squad advancing towards the church took fire from the steeple and lost a man, but our return fire was incredibly accurate and wiped out the German Bren team that were doing the shooting. The squad then started cautiously moving into the church itself. Meanwhile the Staghound moved into a position near the first house from where it could cover the village main street with its .50 cal.

The other two squads then leapfrogged forward until one was in the inn providing a base of support whilst the other was pressed against the back wall of the first house in the village, covering both the main street and the gardens to the rear.

Stalemate then ensued until the Germans realised that firstly all we had to do was keep them occupied until the end of the game and secondly that they needed to get back into the church to find the woman to find the secret passage to find the Churchill...you get the picture.

As false-Polish paras hit the high street, heading for the church, we opened up with everything we had: the Staghound's .50 cal, chewing up scenery as the two squads covering the high street actually did the damage. The first German squad was effectively rendered hors d combat (no, no French on the table...at least I don't think so...but at this stage, a bottle and half in, who knew) but another moved up and threw grenades into the church in an attempt to clear it.

This was not as effective as it should have been (one dead American), and the Germans soon suffered as a hail of grenades and small arms fire came right back at them. That squad was soon pinned and then wiped out as well.

The game then drew to a close. We occupied the church and commanded the main route through the town; the Germans needed to control both in order to fulfil their mission, but were now down two full squads against our losses of four men (three killed by a demented local high on home brew).

All in all, a great game of Chain of Command, if somewhat chaotic. I was quite rightly accused of taking the game far too seriously (it was the Lardy Christmas game, after all) and have no excuse except to say that after last time I had no choice lest my reputation be damaged beyond repair!

My thanks to Rich, Nick, Panda, Trevor, Dougray McScot, Al, Noddy, Mark, Harpers, Panda, Elton etc for a most entertaining evening, with mince pies and booze thrown in for good measure. Just make sure you save me an After Eight when the packet is eventually opened!

TFL Painting Challenge: colossal Monday Night Update!

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Now I understand why the challenge has been a bit quiet of late: you lot were storing them up for me so that I could process them all in one go!

A colossal update tonight, we have:

  • Vidal with over 100 Austrians in 15mm. How about some pics, Vidal?
  • Mr Yuengling with some 15mm WW1 vehicles from Shapeways (the future of wargaming?)
  • The Mad Padre with an eclectic mix of 28mm figures and scenery
  • Mr Luther with a collection of odds and sods from the South Pacific (no, not the musical, Sid)
  • Steve Burt enters the challenge with a bang, a big bang. Hundreds of 28mm figures that give him an immediate 1,408 points. 
  • Mr Hodge with some more Paras and a very nice ruined building
  • Mervyn with some more 15mm Ancients that he assures me "that is definitely almost certainly it for the year". Come on, Mervyn, you can manage just one more wafer-thin figure...
  • Thomas surprises us all with 40 points worth of Martians
  • and, last but by no means least, Leif (can you see what I did there?) with some lovely 20mm figures

Difficult to choose one picture to go with tonight's achievements...but I think it has to be Leif's roadside shrine/CoC jump-off point in 20mm. Lovely.