TFL Painting Challenge

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I may be busy, but there’s always time to update the Painting Challenge!

So, in no particular order, this week we have:

  • Neil Hooge with some 15mm Sikh Wars British

  • Travis makes his usual contribution: a lovely Matilda II and a couple of US MG teams

  • There are a plethora of 15mm Soviet anti-tank guns from Matt Slade

  • Some tall ships from Chris Stoesen

  • Carole has a few sci-fi bots for us to admire

  • Mervyn is back in fantasy land: Conan and LOTR

  • More 6mm ACW from Lloyd (much more!)

  • Bits and pieces from Mr Helliwell

  • Some desert aircraft from Mark Luther

  • And last, but by no means least, some 15mm WW2 Americans from Joe

As usual, clicking on a name in the list above will take you straight through to that person’s gallery (opens in a new window).

Here are today’s pictures:

Quiet Time!

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Sorry if it all seems a bit quiet on here at the moment (it’s certainly unusual not to have a new post for a week) but I’m busy with the final proofing of the next army booklet for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum: which will be the first of the Blitzkrieg in the East series focusing on the Japanese army of December 1941 to July 1942.

A slight change in direction for this one, in that the lists will be ordered not, as the Blitzkrieg in the West lists, by parent division but by geographical campaign: so lists for the Japanese in Malaya, in Burma, in the Philippines, in what was known as the Dutch East Indies, the South Seas etc. I hope to follow this with lists for their opposition: the British & Empire armies, the Americans, the Dutch etc.

At the same time, Rich and I are cooking up an offer of some sort to mark the 80th year after the accepted start of WW2 on 1st September 1939 with the invasion of Poland. That sounds like a clumsy statement, but I don’t think it right to use the word “anniversary”, with its celebratory connotations, for the beginning of something that was so terrible. Keep your eyes and ears posted for more on that soon.

Otherwise, I’ll be at The Other Partisan on Sunday, where there will many Lardy games on show, so hope to see you all there.

IABSM AAR: A Hasty Defence

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John Cooper is preparing to play through “The September War” scenario pack with his beautifully painted 10mm figures.

Here’s a quick warm-up game that he played using the fourth game from the random scenario generator in the IABSM v3 rulebook: “A Hasty Defence”. Click on the pic below to see all:

TFL Painting Challenge: Seven Day Update

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Regular visitors will know that I usually update the Challenge on a fortnightly basis, but there have been so many entries lately that I think I’m going to have to move to monitoring things each week.

For example, look at how many people have submitted entries in just this last week gone by: most impressive.

So, in no particular order, today we have:

  • Mark Luther with more little ‘planes, this time for North Africa; and more Soviets in 15mm

  • Mervyn is back in Rohan

  • Intervention may be needed: Carole has gone all Cultist!

  • It’s pikemen and Hussites from Chris Cornwell

  • Joe McGinn has some Tyrolean Jaegers to add to the mix

  • Two vast entries from Matt Slade: 15m Soviets for Bashnya or Bust! and American GIs in 28mm

  • Partisans and post-apocalyptic types from Andy Duffell

  • John Haines submits three vignettes

  • Fantasy and SYW in two scales from Andrew Helliwell

  • More beautifully painted winter war Germans from Travis

  • And last, but by no means least, three townhouses and a handful of Germans from John Emmett

As usual, clicking on the name of the person in the list above will take you straight to their gallery (opens in a new window).

Here are today’s pictures:

IABSM AAR: Peleliu Warm-Up

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Tim Whitworth and his colleagues from the Like A Stonewall Wargames Group have been preparing the game they are showcasing at The Other Partisan wargames show in a couple of week’s time.

It’s a scenario for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum based on the US Marine assault on Peleliu Airfield in 1944. Click on the pic below to see all:

Second Sumerian Spear Block

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Here’s the second of the six spear blocks that I need to field a To The Strongest Sumerian army in the style of my ancients collection.

Once again these are the almost unbelievably detailed 15mm Museum Miniatures figures painted (all except the bronze) with the new GW Contrast paints. I did the whole lot in one weekend, averaging about 45 minutes for 12 figures.

Only another four blocks to go!

More Praesentia

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Almost finished the Praesentia now: just a few Trinaries and the drones to go.

Here are the rest of the Sentinel and Guardian drones:

Here’s hoping that Ral Partha, the current owners of the range, get around to producing the resin as well as the metal elements of the Praesentia. The infantry are lovely, but are going to be easy meat without some drones to back them up.

Cleaning up the Painting Station!

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I am lucky enough to have a permanent painting station set up on a table under a skylight.

It’s round the corner from the rest of the house, so a little haven where I can quietly let all the cares of the ‘real life’ melt away as I slap a bit of paint of some miniatures.

I got back from holiday yesterday, however, and realised that the week away had given me a new perspective on things:

I think it might be time to have a bit of a clean up, so that I can actually use the majority of the table for work-in-progress as opposed to limiting myself to one small area at the front!

TFL Painting Challenge: Huge Post-Holiday Update

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Remind me never to go on holiday again: far too many entries to the Painting Challenge to be dealt with quickly!

To start with, however, a couple of gentle requests. First, can we remember to clearly mark or list your entries please: counting legs, or heads, or spear tips to work out how big a unit is can be a real pain. Secondly, can you try and keep image size down to under 1MB please. No problem if you can’t, but just means I can down- and upload things more quickly and in multiples.

Anyhow, on to today’s entries. In no particular order, we have:

  • Travis with a whole series of WW2 figures, including the first of his Winter War Americans

  • Matt Slade with more painting than you can shake a stick at. A host of WW2 desert war Italians and Brits; a mythological Greek kickstarter, some Space Marines…it’s a cornucopia from the painting machine!

  • Mr Luther fills in some of his gaps, and adds more ‘planes and terrain

  • There are also more ‘planes from Steve Burt, along with some Romans

  • Chris Kay sends in a couple of WW2 jeeps, and a couple of very strange post-apocalypse specials

  • There are three 15mm Napoleonic units from Sapper

  • Seven buildings from Mervyn

  • More Germanic types from Joe McGinn

  • Chris Cornwell sends in some medieavals

  • Mr Helliwell is back on the Prussians, or are they Hessians…and are those chaps with them Normans?

  • Ed Bowen makes a welcome return to the Challenge with his first entry of the year

  • There’s another convert to Contrast paints: Fred Blogs and his Indians, and a few other bits and pieces

  • Chris Stoesen serves up two sloops (yes, it is a Victoria Wood reference!)

  • Carole sends in a Papal flag-bearer

  • And last, but by no means least, Mr Plowman has three sci-fi vehicles to display

As usual, clicking on the name of the person in the list above will take you straight to their gallery (opens in a new window).

Here are today’s pictures (note that these are only a tiny fraction of everything that’s been sent in, so gallery viewing is highly recommended):

IABSM AAR: Operation Compass #11: Bardia 1

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Another great battle report resurrected from the archives of the A Wargamer in Cyprus blog.

This time, the scenario is #11 from the Operation Compass scenario pack: the first of the three games focusing on the Australian attack on the Italian-held fortress of Bardia.

Click on the picture below to see all:

New 15mm Middle-East MDF Building Range

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If you’ve visited this site before, you’ll know I’m quite a fan of Frank Wang’s mdf buildings, made and shipped from China via www.miniwarfare.com.

Frank has now expanded the range into the middle-east, and is running a 25% off sale to kick start the new releases.

They look pretty good to me:

The houses are $4-$7, dependent on size. The mosque is $21, with the minaret tower $5. Postage is a flat $15.

I’ll definitely be getting some of these to add to my collection.

IABSM AAR: Benghazi Handicap #01

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I do so like it when I stumble across a source of material for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum or one of the other Lardy company-sized games: it does take the pressure off a little…as anyone who runs a blog knows, keeping it fresh and updated is a serious, long-term commitment!

Anyhow, latest discovery is the excellent A Wargamer in Cyprus blog, which contains a plethora of quality wargaming material. I haven’t been able to get hold of the blog’s owner to ask permission (I’m no Tango!), so I hope he doesn’t mind me reproducing some of its content here as part of efforts to support TFL and IABSM etc.

Here’s an AAR taken from the site featuring the German attack at Agheila that formed the first proper German vs Commonwealth encounter in the Western Desert. Just as an aside, I actually have a half-written scenario pack for Sonnenblaum which features this action…and am now feeling all inspired to dig it out and finish it.

Click on the pic below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Anzio #20: Fischfang Day 3

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Nice little battle report from Dan Albrecht and his friends at the Vermont Historical Gamers group in South Burlington Vermont.

Scenario is #20 from the Anzio: Wildcat to Whale scenario pack: part of the German counter-attack that was Operation Fischfang, Day Three.

Click on the pic below to see all:

First 15mm Sumerian Spear Block Finished

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I’ve already posted pics of half of the spear block, here’s the block now I’ve added the other half:

I am really happy with these. The speed that you can achieve a detailed paint job with Citadel contrast paints is extraordinary. I know I sound a bit like a fan boy, but I painted one row of these (i.e. 12 figures) from start to finish in about forty minutes: a miracle, and such a relief when you have 288 to paint in all.

I’m not 100% sold on having the command figures in the middle of the second row, but it certainly makes for a striking unit. Only another five spear blocks to go!

Incidentally, CP Models are now doing a 28mm version of the above. They are using the same 3D printing files, so the figures are identical…just bigger! They look amazing:

More Praesentia

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I’m still working my way through painting my Praesentia army: high tech chaps originally from Critical Mass Games and now available through Ral Partha.

First up are another two platoons of RAL robot infantry led by their Enlightened ‘Trinaries’ or collection of three Big Men. Painting them was easy: the robots got an undercoat and then one coat of one of the new Citadel Contrast paints. Add in a red dot for the eye, a tiny bit of green as detail on the weapons, and done! The Trinaries’ robes are painted in the same way, with their bodies a dark blue highlighted by a sky blue.

I’ve also started on the drones that the Praesentia use instead of manned vehicles. Here are three Sentinel drones:

Just a few more Trinaries and drones to do now…

TFL Painting Challenge: Wimbledon Final Update

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Peace and quiet whilst the distaff side of things watches the Wimbledon Men’s Final. If only daughter number two wasn’t downloading some OS update, making everything else in the house very slow. The joys of family life!

Without further ado, however, here are today’s submissions for this year’s Painting Challenge.

  • Big fantasy figures from Carole before she disappears on hols

  • Two lovely WW2 vehicles in 28mm from Chris Kay

  • All sorts of different things from Mr Hodge, including some very nice Napoleonic Marines

  • And a first appearance this year from Mr Hooge (with a very odd entry!)

  • RAF reinforcements from Steve Burt

  • A mixture of skeletons and WW2 from Travis

  • Mervyn is still Conan-ing

  • The usual entry from Andrew Helliwell

  • Amazing animals from Ralph Plowman, and a bit of sci fi too

  • Mr Luther has been very productive this week

  • Some lovely Indian Mutiny Highlanders from Joe McGinn

  • John Haines pops in some AWI Militia, rather a lot of it actually

  • And last, but by no means least, is Lloyd Bowler with a selection of Italian WW2 shipping, and some barges!

As usual, clicking on the name of the person above takes you straight to their gallery (opens in a new window).

Here are today’s pictures:

40% off Sale from Mini Warfare

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Some of you may remember that back in April I mentioned a company called Mini Warfare, based in China, who do some great 15mm mdf Vietnam style huts. The post was at:

https://www.vislardica.com/blog/2019/4/9/15mm-bamboo-houses-from-miniwarfare

Good news for all: as Frank is busy preparing to launch his new range, he’s running a 40%-off clearance sale on his old range. Well worth taking advantage if you need some far eastern huts.

Website is here: Mini Warfare

First of the Sumerians

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When I first saw the new Museum Miniatures Sumerians, I knew I just had to get some. Designed by CAD, they looked absolutely amazing.

The thing with Sumerians, however, is that you need to have an awful lot of them: to play To The Strongest (my current system of choice for Ancients) you need five or six spear blocks, with each spear block containing (the way I base) 48 figures. That’s 288 infantry: a significant investment in both money, and perhaps more significantly, time.

So a test unit was called for: 48 figures were ordered i.e. one spear block’s worth.

This was to be a double test: one for the figures themselves, and the second for the new Citadel Contrast paints I keep banging on about. I couldn’t face painting 288 figures my normal way (basecoat, wash, highlight i.e. paint each figure three times) but maybe I could if I only had to paint each figure once.

Sold!

The figures are as good as promised, and the paint as well. To emphasise again, the flesh, kilts, spear shafts, cloaks and shields are painted with one coat of a Contrast paint each. Only the bronze is double-painted, but that’s using non-Contrast paints.

Right, once more into the breach: only 264 spearmen to go!