Second Polish Infantry Platoon

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Here they are at last: the second Polish infantry platoon. These are a mix of Forged in Battle and Battlefront figures, but mostly FiB.

Love the Poles as an early war army, but thirty-six man platoons are a killer to paint, especially as they're all in khaki! Only one more platoon to go now.

It will soon be time to start on the armour. I'm just waiting for PSC or Zvezda to produce Vickers and/or 7TP tanks, as I need about three squadrons worth, which could get rather expensive if I go the Battlefront route.

TFL Painting Challenge: Sunday Update

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Here are this week's entries into the TooFatLardies Painting Challenge:

  • Mark Luther takes a break from writing his amazing battle reports to paint up some more microvehicles and produce 450 square inches of paddyfield
  • There's a cracking stone barn from Treadhead, printed on his 3D printer
  • Mr Helliwell pops in a few WW2 German vehicles in 15mm
  • There's three ship's boats from Mr Stoesen
  • Matt Slade is still on those Deathguard Pox-thingies, but adds a bit of balance with a second submission of pilgrims
  • The first of our Japanese entries from Mr Haines
  • Mervyn has a few Austrians ready for the tabletop
  •  And last, but by no means least, Mr Duffell has our second Japanese-themed entry: a graveyard and temple dogs

As usual, clicking on the name of the submitter, above, will take you straight to their gallery (opens in  new window)...and keep them coming: it's September already!

Today's piccies are below:

Mounted Samurai from Mr Haines

Where they will end up if they are not careful, from Mr Duffell

Superb 3D printed stone barn from Treadhead

Ship's boats from Chris Stoesen

First of the Tah-Sig

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Whilst I was waiting for my Battlefront bases to arrive (to finish my second Polish infantry platoon - do keep up!) I decided to start on one of the four sci-fi armies that I have in my lead mountain.

Yes, ridiculous to have four entire armies in the mountain, but I've learnt that you have to buy them when you see them in case the manufacturer goes under whilst you're still vacillating over whether to buy them or not!

Anyway, the chosen race was Khurasan's Tah-Sig: part of their Zantin Reconquest range. They are described as:

The Tah-sig are radically different from humans from a biological perspective, using liquid nitrogen as a solvent rather than water, and therefore living in a much colder environment. They are also burrowers rather than surface dwellers and rely on hearing more than sight as their primary sense. The Tah-sig have eyes but their main sense is hearing, and this is as acute, precise, and long-ranged as the human sense of sight. Their armoured environmental suits have built-in aural enhancers mounted on either side of their helmets to amplify and fine-tune this, and to prevent enemy disruption. The suit also has vision enhancement (the faint blue vision slots being visible in the recesses on either side of their helmets), but even when enhanced the vision of a Tah-sig is not equal to the unenhanced sight of a human. 

The current range of figures covers only infantry, but is nicely thought out in terms of the company and platoon OB.

Here's the first couple of infantry sections:

Now to start thinking about what vehicles to go with them...

IABSM AAR: A Canadian VC #11

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One of the things I love about being a scenario writer is seeing how different people interpret the scenarios that I write: how do they translate my maps to their tabletops, how do their players handle the tactical challenges set for them.

I enjoy all this not just with my scenarios but with all scenarios, so it's nice to see the eleventh battle report for a game using the A Canadian VC scenario from the IABSM v3 rulebook: this one posted onto the IABSM Facebook group by James Tree.

I hope he doesn't mind, but I've also reproduced the whole AAR here as well. Click on the pic below to see all...then perhaps go back to the main AAR page to compare and contrast how the other ten games looked and played out.

IABSM AAR: Kursk

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Here's a great IABSM after action report from the somewhat surprisingly named Miniature Bastards* Russian-language blog by Valderech.

I haven't been able to make contact with Valderech, so I hope he doesn't mind me reproducing his entry here, but his game looks absolutely superb and deserves a wide audience.

As for the accompanying words, I have tried to convert the gobbledegook that Google Translate came up with into something resembling good English, so for any clumsy phrases etc, blame me.

Click on the picture below to see all:

*Now whilst my little men do sometimes let me down (my orders are always clear, my tactics always sound!) I'm not sure bad language is called for!

Gaming Models' Polish wz.29 Armoured Car

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Regular readers might remember that the chaps at Gaming Models in the US sent me some of their 15mm Polish models to have a look at. A previous post dealt with the Polski FIAT truck, now let's look at the Ursus wz.29 armoured car.

The wz.29 was supposedly obsolete at the start of the German invasion, having been largely replaced by the wz.34. All remaining wz.29's were attached to Polish units in the Modlin area, and fought against the reconnaissance elements of Panzerdivision Kempf and infantry from the SS Deutschland regiment. Despite their apparent obsolescence, the wz.29's fared better than their more modern counterpart: mainly because in addition to the standard MMG, they had a 37mm gun in what must have been a very crowded turret.

So what of the model? Very nice really, and good value at $5 (£3.80) a time. The detailing on the gun is quite difficult to bring out but, as I said, it is a very small turret, and I'm even considering gluing it in place so it doesn't get lost. 

That said, the detailing on the wheels makes the tyres really easy to paint, and you can see how the various doors and hatches come out with a bit of dry-brushing.

The model above was sprayed green, then had the bone and brown camouflaged patches brushed on. A brown wash followed, then a very light bone drybrush focusing on the  edges.

Recommended.

Gaming Models

Intense Frustration!

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I'm not a fan of painting huge numbers of infantry. I love painting a squad here or a squad there, but table-topping an entire company of three platoons of, say, thirty men each, plus light supports, drives me absolutely crazy.

I like to try and do a good job on every figure, but doing 100 good-jobs without going mad is proving more and more difficult as time goes by.

Fortunately, I have already collected most of the WW2 figures that I will ever need (just Afrika Korps and Desert Rats to go!), and as my current non-WW2 focus is sci-fi and moderns, with their smaller, more powerful units, I'm hoping not to be troubled by the 100-plus malaise any more.

So you can imagine how frustrated I was today to finish my penultimate platoon of 1939 Polish infantry (that's three squads of TWELVE men each) and discover that I have run out of 'biscuits of death' bases on which to mount them!

Yes, I had enough small bases to mount the light mortar team, but not enough medium-bases-with-the-holes-in-them for the main platoon.

Obviously I have ordered some bases for tout-suite delivery, but I still cannot get the instant gratification that I require...and require now!

What frustrates you about painting miniatures? Comment below please...

TFL Painting Challenge: A Large One!

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Plenty of entries still flooding in for this year's painting challenge. Plenty of time for you to get painting and photographing if you haven't entered anything so far.

Here, in no particular order, are this week's entries:

  • Mervyn has some Saracens and Greeks to display
  • Mr Slade sends in a cornucopia of GW Deathguard nasties
  • There are some African huts from Carole
  • Stumpy has been basing like crazy: more Napoleonics and ACW types
  • More Hittites and SYW dragoons from Sapper
  • Ralph Plowman sends in some very odd entries: busts and the like (not that sort!)
  • There's a couple of tanks and some pirates from Mr Stoesen
  • Andy Duffell has definitely gone Japanese

As always, clicking on the names above will take you straight to their gallery (opens in a new window).

Here are today's pictures:

IABSM AAR: Defence of Calais #01: Les Attaques

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As mentioned in a previous post, there's now a thriving I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! group on Facebook, which you can visit by clicking here.

One relatively recent post was from James Tree, with a brief pictorial report of his game using the first scenario from the Defence of Calais scenario pack: Les Attaques. I'm sure he won't mind me reproducing it here, so click on the pic below to see what happens as the Panzers first arrive at the outskirts of Calais...

Gaming Models' Polski FIAT 621 Truck

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The chaps at Gaming Models very kindly sent me a few samples of their WW2 Polish vehicles to have a look at.

First off the painting table is the standard lorry of the Polish army in the 1930s: the Polski FIAT 621 truck.

This is a very nice little model, cast in resin, that comes with a separate canvas cover that you can glue in or keep separate. The truck comes unbased but in one piece i.e. you don't need to faff around gluing the wheels on, all you have to do is decide what you want to do with the canvas cover.

Priced at $5 (about £4 at current exchange rates) it's good value and, as you can see in the picture above, paints up very nicely indeed. Even better value is the platoon pack, where you can buy eight trucks for $32 i.e. $4 or £3.12 each.

Mine required no preparation (I didn't even bother to wash it in soapy water) and was painted by undercoating in green, highlighting, then washing using Agrax Earthshade, then a light dry-brush in first a lighter green then Bleached Bone or whatever the modern equivalent is. I decided that this one-off truck wouldn't be camouflaged:  I have seen paint jobs with very garish yellow and brown stripey effects, but the only appropriate photo I can find with the suggestion of camouflage is the one below:

So, there you have it, a very nice and very affordable model: just what you need to properly motorise your Black Brigade!

Gaming Models

Blast from the Past: Cosmic Encounter

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The original box art

As it is my birthday on Thursday this week, this weekend the family gathered at the ancestral home for a couple of meals and many hours of gossip and high jinks!

I was searching for something in a cupboard in my old room when I came across the box of the board game "Cosmic Encounter".

Now this wasn't the original game that I first played at school, I think, the box of which is shown on the right, but the slightly later Games Workshop version shown below, that dates back to the time when GW sold all sorts of fantasy role-playing and board games, some of which they produced themselves outside of any accepted canon.

The GW version 

Well with the kids now just about in their tweens, this was too good an opportunity to miss, and soon the board was set up, the rules re-read and explained to the younglings, and it was off we went.

Amazing fun. We had two hilarious afternoons of playing...with all the usual Cosmic Encounter agreements, disagreements, assurances, reassurances, alliances, broken alliances, backstabbing, and politics!

Youngest player was ten, oldest player was, er, me (firmly within the 45-54 bracket!) and all the old favourites came out. We shuddered at the Void, were gobsmacked at the Virus' numbers, ganged up on the Judge (unsuccessfully, I might add), hated the Amoeba, loved the Healer and so on and so forth.

Now whilst I wouldn't necessarily recommend spending the £45 or so that the modern version of the game costs, I would heartily suggest having a dig around in the cupboards at home to see what you can find...especially if, like me, you first visited Games Workshop when it was at 1, Dalling Road, and nowhere else.

Now to try and find Apocalypse the Game of Nuclear Devastation!

 

Friday Painting Challenge Update

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Lots of lovely entries already this week, so I'll do an update today rather than waiting until the weekend.

In no particular order, we have:

  • John Haines with more Japanese footsoldiers
  • Two periods from Mr Ralls: Cold War in 15mm and WW2 in 28mm
  • Steve Burt finishes off two of his darkest Africa forest tribes
  • Matt is having a mid-life crisis and has gone 40k mad!
  • Chris Stoesen also sends in two periods: pirates and an M1 Abrams tank!
  • Loads of Germans from Mr Helliwell, who seems to have forgotten that there is only one true ruleset for WW2
  • Ralph sends in a shamble of zombies
  • And last, but by no means least, Mr Hodge has been feeling very productive: lots of 6mm WW2 figures and armour, and some much bigger mutineers as well

As always, clicking on the person's name will take you to their gallery (opens in a new window), and today's pictures are below...

40k madness from Mr Slade

A shamble of zombies from Ralph

Cold War vehicles from Jason Ralls

IABSM AAR: For the Honour of France

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June 1941. A most unlikely conflict has broken out between two former Allies. Vichy French airfields in the Levant have been used by the Lufwaffe to support an uprising in Iraq, and Britain has decided that enough is enough. A task force has been assembled to move north into the Lebanon and Syria to take control of the area for the Free French and safeguard British oil supplies. Unexpectedly Vichy forces resist strongly, fighting for the honour of France.

That’s the introduction to the game of IABSM that Bevan and I played on Sunday evening. An unusual game featuring Australians versus French in the desert.

Click on the (big) picture, below, to see all:

 

Laser Wall from Warbases

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I'm a huge fan of Warbases: their bases are excellent quality, delivered quickly, and their customer service is second to none. 

So when Matt Slade submitted some of their new Starbase 962 sci-fi buildings to the TFL Painting Challenge, I quickly beetled off to the Warbases site to take a look.

Now did he build them then paint them, or paint them then build them?

Now I already have quite a few sci-fi buildings (mostly Critical Mass Games, RIP) so, nice as they were, I didn't fancy investing in any of their standard constructions...but what I didn't have and, funnily enough, what Matt hadn't shown, was what Warbases call a Laser Wall.

As you'll see in the picture, this is individual sections of either straight or corner pieces consisting of a wooden base and pylons, and then a glowing plastic "laser field" that slots in and out.

Each section, straight or corner, is (at time of writing) £2.50 plus p&p. This seemed like a good deal, so I bought twelve sections: four corners and eight straights.

Opening the box, I was immediately impressed: the plastic bits are indeed very glowing (mine were orange not yellow, but still looked great) and very solid as well: each is a serious chunk of plastic. The wooden base and supports are the usual Warbases laser-cut mdf, and each upright back-bit has two little holes in it to take teeny-tiny magnets to keep the fence together on the tabletop.

Getting the magnets was no problem:  one day delivery from first4magnets from Amazon meant that I had them in my hands literally, er, the next day! The twenty-four magnets I needed cost me £5.50 plus another £1.10 p&p.

Building the basic fence was easy: went together in the usual excellent Warbases fashion. Getting the magnets sorted, however, proved a royal pain in the posterior!

As you can imagine, I carefully worked out the positive/negative order in which the magnets needed to go. I then used PVA glue to bed them in and waited for the whole thing to dry. I then went to build my lovely laser-walled compound and found that I had half the bloody magnets in the wrong way round!

That meant working everything out again, then popping the upside-down magnets out of the back support and then re-siting them. Whilst I was doing this, I discovered that PVA glue isn't strong enough to hold the magnets in place: you need superglue for that.

So I then re-sited all the magnets using superglue, only to discover, to my horror, that in the process I had, yes, you've guessed it, reversed some of the magnets...so I now had a number of joins in my compound wall that actively pushed each other apart! And the magnets were superglued in.

I now discovered a use for an old pin drill: popping magnets out of the frame backs: a quick tap with a hammer did the trick, although you have to be careful where the magnets end up, as they are quite small!

One other thing you have to be careful of is that there is not much tolerance for anything sticking out into the groove the plastic laser field sits in on the frames. If a magnet is not flush to the (inside) frame, or there is a lump of dried superglue impeding the groove, those lovely chunks of plastic will not sit right. It took me about an hour to carefully clear each groove (for that read angrily chop at them with an old scalpel and the aforementioned old pin drill) until the plastic at least went approximately in smoothly.

Now that I had the raw compound built and successfully sitting together, it was time to paint it. That was easy: a quick spray of grey undercoat and then a dry-brush in a lighter grey.

See how the bases bow upwards where the plastic doesn't sit flush

As you'll see in the pictures, I still haven't managed to get the walls to sit perfectly together: the bases tend to bow upwards where the plastic doesn't sit flush. However, that is a pretty clinically taken photo against a smooth, white background: on the wargames table, the bowing is hardly noticeable at all.

Here's a pic with a couple of Felids in place, to give you an idea of scale:

Well I'm happy with my new laser-walled compound, and at a total cost of about £40 once p&p is taken into account, I think that's pretty good value too.

Now to write rules and a scenario to get the thing onto the tabletop...

Post Holiday Painting Challenge Update

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Hi All!

Yes, just back from my holiday, surfing in Polzeath, Cornwall. Terrible weather, quite dampened down my bushy, bushy blond hairdo, but we surfers don't care about the rain...and at least I got the chance to share the waves with David Cameron and a restaurant with Nick Knowles.

Apparently the D&D of Cornwall also drove through Polzeath whilst I was there, but as I didn't see their convoy, I'm not sure that counts.

I know: friend to the stars or what!

Back to business: today's Painting Challenge update. In no particular order, we have:

As always, clicking on the gallery-owner's name will take you straight to their gallery, which will open in a new window.

Today's pictures are below:

Highlanders from Mr McGinn

Egg's Canadians

Japanese Masked Men from Mr Haines