A great after action report from Iain Fuller from his excellent Tracks and Threads blog.
A new wargaming shed is christened as Iain and friends lead a force of Canadians against the Germans in Normandy.
Click on the pic below to read all:
After a couple of quiet days, the entries have suddenly come pouring in...so it's time for a quick catch-up before the bank holiday weekend.
So, in no particular order, we have:
As always, clicking on the name of the person in the above list will take you straight to their gallery (opens in a new window), and here are today's pictures:
More Copplestone Barbarians from Carole
Soviet Anti-Tank Gun from Travis
And an SU-122 from Travis as well
A Sherman tank from Matt Slade
The bank of Mervyn
A cast of 'fousands' from Stumpy
I hear you ask! Surely they were due today?
Well, yes, they were, but I'm afraid to say publication will be delayed for a week or so.
The reason?
Size more than anything else. Whereas the other handbooks have ended up being about eighty pages long, the German handbook is going to be more like 180 pages long!
There was I thinking that the Germans in May 1940 were largely homogenous and could be knocked out fairly quickly...but almost as soon as I started I realised that this just wasn't the case.
So, the plan is to publish on Thursday 10th May. Apologies for the delay.
In the meantime, you'll just have to make sure you've read the three other IABSM Blitzkrieg handbooks cover to cover!
The latest Oddcast arrives direct from the Lard Island studios. The team talk Tanking and what hope there is for independent game designers in the age of "battle in a box" generation.
Click on the pic below...
Tony Cane has been working his way through the Operation Compass scenario pack for I Ain't Been Shot, Mum. His last post featured the tank battle at Mechili, this one covers the Australian attack on the Italian aerodrome at Siret el Chrieba.
Here, the Australians are faced by a huge expanse of open ground (“flat as a table and devoid of cover” as the official history puts it) dotted with the occasional hanger or building. Their target is to take the hangar and buildings on the other side of the open ground.
Click on the picture below to see how they do...
Loving the aircraft hanger and the dust-covered Blinds!
A few posts ago I mentioned that I had bought a whole company of Polish 7TP tanks, plus six extras for the dw version, from Battlefront via Element Games. It was now time to build the little blighters.
The jw single-turret versions are very easy to build: all you have to do is add a commander and hatch to the top of the turret, the gun to the front of the turret, the correct turret base plate to the main body of the tank, and then the tracks to either side.
There is, however, one thing to watch out for. There is a spot on the left hand side of the hull, towards the front, where the resin is very thin and very weak. Fully six of the twenty-two models I constructed either came out of the packet with this bit chipped away, or broke there as I glued the left hand track on.
Here's a picture to show what I mean:
Now with the turret on, and after painting, these gaps probably won't be noticeable on the tabletop, but it's enough of a hole to make me think about reaching for the green stuff. Six out of twenty-two tanks broken in this way (about half out of the packet like that, about half caused by me until I realised how careful you need to be) isn't a very good score from Battlefront.
In my earlier post, I did mention that building twenty-two of the same type of tank would be a good opportunity to check quality control. You've got the above weak resin spot, but were there any more problems?
Well unfortunately there were. Two of the twenty-two had genuine mis-casts or breakages, as shown in the pics below:
So if we count half the tanks with the weak spot gone (i.e. blame me for the other half) and add the two shown above, that's five out of twenty-two packs or 22% damaged items.
22% or about one in every five.
That's much worse than I was expecting.
So, Battlefront, and it gives me no pleasure at all to say this, you have an amazing range of great-looking kits but, given availability of the tank I want, I will always go for Zvezda and/or Plastic Soldier Company before you: not because I particularly like plastic tanks, but because your quality control is so rubbish. Simples.
Here's a final picture of the end of the build:
James Mantos posted a few photos of his latest game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum onto the IABSM Facebook page.
It's action on the eastern front: click on the pic below to see all:
You can also check out James' blog here.
Whilst the rest of you have doubtless been outside enjoying the sunshine, I have been stuck at my desk updating the painting challenge...and a very big update it is as well.
So, in no particular order, we have:
As per usual, clicking on the name of the person above will take you straight to their gallery (opens in a new window)...and a shock, horror from me: I've actually fully updated the Scorecard as well!
Here are today's pictures:
Well, the beginning of one, anyway!
That's twenty-two 7TP tanks: a company of sixteen "jw" single-turret tanks, plus an extra six to give me an HQ and platoon of "dw" dual-turret tanks if I need them. That's 1st-3rd Light Tank Battalions taken care of.
It also means that I can proxy them as Vickers light tanks for use as the 12th and 121st Tank Companies.
All I have to do now is paint them all...
PS I plan to do one, glorious un-boxing and construction session: where I put together every tank in one go and use the opportunity to do a little test of Battlefront's quality control. How many of a batch of 22 identical products will be incomplete or damaged in some way? Fascinating stuff!
A quick update to keep on top of all the Challenge entries.
Today we have:
As always, clicking on the name of the person above will take you straight to their gallery (opens in a new window), and here are today's pictures:
Soviet mortar team from Travis
A French Somua tank from Lloyd "the hat" Bowler
AWI French infantry in 15mm from Andrew Helliwell
Stumpy's latest basing: a quick 119 figures!
Ton Cane and friends recently fought the Mechili scenario from the Operation Compass pack using 10mm miniatures.
The game is a tank-vs-tank battle, with the Italians actually attacking for a change.
Click on the picture below to see how the game went:
I'm back from Salute now...and I must say that it was rather a good one.
First, the logistics.
No queue at all. Arrived at Excel at about five to ten. Had a quick coffee and a croissant right outside the door, then walked straight in. Was happily shopping by 10:10. Amazing performance compared to what has been the case in previous years.
Next, the venue.
The show had a much better feel this year. Okay, it was still dark, perhaps darker than I remember, and it did take half an hour or so for my eyes to adjust, but it seemed more open than in previous years. Plenty of room around stands, no backpacks in the face, and it was till bustling and crowded as ever. Very good.
Nice variety of trade stands. A few special offers: Troll Trader especially, who took money off me for a cut price Battlefront, Battlefield-in-a-Box Bastogne Church and several very cheap Army painter spray cans.
Then, the games. Some nice looking, big games, two of which are pictured below:
I particularly covet that 15mm E-boat. It would look very nice on my table!
As for the Lardies, they ran two games: a General de Brigade game and a participation game featuring the newly published What A Tanker! rules (WaT).
I actually played in one of the WaT games, commanding a Sherman Firefly in the face of the some very formidable opposition:
How did I do? Well I think the answer is best summed up with another photo:
But then I did enjoy myself enough to buy a copy of the rules!
Anyway, in summary I thought it was a great Salute this year. Those who weren't there should feel sorry they missed out, and that's not something I say every year.
I'm off to Salute today, so hope to see you all there.
Don't forget to visit the two Lardy games that are running!
Always nice to see some of the IABSM scenario packs in use, especially "Operation Compass", as it's one of my favourites.
Fellow gamer Yarkshire Gamer is working his way through the pack but using his own house rules rather than I Ain't Been Shot, Mum.
Click on the pick below to see his latest AAR...
It's been far too long since we saw one of Mark Luther's amazing 6mm IABSM after action reports...but I'm pleased to be able to say that the drought is over.
Mark played one of my scenarios - Wave Goodbye - taken from the 2011 TFL Summer Special: a French armor counterattack is hitting the flank of a German panzer column in an area east of the Ardennes in May 1940.
Click on the pic below to see all:
Entries continue to flood in for this year's challenge. Not so many taking part, but those who are are hugely active...I can't believe how much some of you manage to get painted!
So, in no particular order, here's the latest batch:
As always, clicking on the name of the person above will take you straight to their gallery (opens in a new window).
One quick thing: could I ask people to specify how many figures are in the photos they send in. All very well saying to me "Some Napoleonic Austrians", or similar, accompanied by several pictures of densely packed 15mm figures, but counting the bayonets, or the feet, or anything else that gives me a clue to how many there are, is a real pain in the backside!
Now as for today's pictures...well, they were all so good that I could almost post up everything sent in. Here's a selection:
Just one of Mr Cornwell's vignettes
A 6mm paper terrain Vauban Fort from the Hat & co.
15mm British WW2 carriers from PSC from Carole
28mm SdKfz 221 from Andy Duffell
A very quick battle report from James Manto, taken from the IABSM Facebook Group.
Here, James gets a chance to get all his lovely new Soviet stuff onto the tabletop for the first time.
Click on the pic below to see all.
Those of you who live in the UK may be aware that the Wyevale Garden Centres always sell off their winter model Christmas trees in early January (see previous post here). This year, I’d taken full advantage of the sale and bought several packets worth, and then added a new snow mat from Tiny Wargames to put them on. Now all I needed was an excuse to get everything onto the tabletop, and a game this Saturday just gone gave me the opportunity to do so.
As I seemed to have bought lots of trees, it would need to be a big game. Out came the extra bit of table, giving me an 8’ by 5’ playing area, on went the new mat, and on went the new trees. The result: a winter wonderland of epic proportions.
This was to be a Soviet/German encounter battle set sometime in and around January 1944. As I found myself short of time in the preparation stages, I used the troop lists from one of the scenarios from the IABSM Bashnya or Bust scenario pack. A couple of the scenarios give listings of a re-inforced company for each side from which the players pick a number of platoons. As this was to be a big game, I used those lists but gave each side the entire list, not just a proportion of the list.
See how we got on by clicking on the picture, below...
As I actually have a game tomorrow, Saturday, I thought I'd better clear this week's Painting Challenge entries today...and what a lot of lovely entries they are.
In no particular order, we have:
As always, clicking on the name of the gallery owner in the list above will take you straight to their gallery (opens in a new window), and here are today's pictures:
I'll update the Scorecard tonight.
Real life and all the work I have been doing on the IABSM early war handbooks has kept me away from the painting table recently, especially as what currently lurks there is the company of 15mm PSC late war Germans with all their camouflage and bits of kit...so, it was a relief to actually sit down and paint something else.
What did I paint, I hear you ask? A company of this? A company of that?
Regrettably not: I managed one 15mm tank!
I was reading the IABSM BEF handbook and realised that I only had two Matilda I's painted and ready to go and, as all those of you who have kindly purchased the handbook will know, they came in troops of three tanks.
I did, however, have a Zvezda Matilda I in the lead mountain. Not sure why...but I think it might have been an impulse purchase using up the last few pennies at Warfare last year rather than anything considered.
Anyway, I had one and I needed one, so built and painted it in a couple of hours.
The kit snaps together in about twenty seconds and, as you can see, paints up to be perfectly serviceable for the wargames table. I paid £1.95 for it, so very cost-effective for a tank that won't get used very often.
How does it compare to the Battlefront version?
Well, it's slightly smaller, particularly in the delicacy of the tracks, but not enough to make a difference at a distance of 3ft or so.
I am quite a fan of the Zvezda models. They are a great way of affordably fielding large numbers of tanks. Recommended.
Vis Lardica is a website devoted to wargaming and military history, with a special emphasis on the company-sized rulesets produced by the TooFatLardies: I Ain't Been Shot Mum (WW2); Charlie Don't Surf (Vietnam); and Quadrant 13 (science fiction)
Welcome to Vis Lardica, a not-for-profit website mostly dedicated to the company-sized wargaming rules produced by the TooFatLardies, but encompassing my other gaming interests as well.
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