IABSM AAR: Blenneville or Bust! #01: West of Pierrecourt

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Just before Christmas I had a chance to play a great game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum using the first scenario from the Blenneville or Bust! scenario pack: West of Pierrecourt.

The Allies are moving up the valley hoping to hook round Pierrecourt to the west. In order to do this, they need to be able to cross the Moire River. There’s a major bridge at Belle Maison, but Belle Maison is apparently full of Germans, so it would be good to find somewhere else to cross. Aerial assets have spotted a small bridge west of Pierrecourt, and the reconnaissance elements of the US 107th Infantry Division (nicknamed the Coyotes) have been sent forward to check it out.

The Germans, meanwhile, are keenly aware that the troops in Pierrecourt are relying on the Moire to protect their wider left flank. As the Allied advance begins, their commanders send out 30th Panzer Division’s reconnaissance units to cover as many river crossings as they can. This scenario covers the first clash between the opposing scouts.

Click on the picture below to see what happened:

IABSM AAR: Happy Christmas!

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Over the Christmas period, I got a chance to play in a Christmas-themed game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum set in late December 1944.

It was a Battle of the Bulge scenario, with me playing a US force defending a major supply dump against an attack from a German armoured column. I could expect some support from nearby Brits, but couldn’t be sure when they would arrive.

Click on the picture below to see what happened…

US Tanks for North Africa

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Earlier this year, I bought the Kasserine boxed set at a show, and having already completed the Panzers for the Germans, it was time to have a crack at the Americans.

In the box, you get enough plastic sprues for five M3 Stuarts, four M3 Lees, and three M4 Shermans. To these I added not two French hens and a partridge in a pear tree but some Battlefront special edition Sherman base I’d had lying around for ages. Let’s take them each in turn.

The Stuarts

First up were the five Stuarts. The build did not get off to a great start when the first thing I did was to snap the gun barrel in half on the first Stuart I was building. I’ve often said that clipping the gun barrels from the sprue is often a risky business, and so it had proved again.

This was a real pain in the backside, but I solved it by using a decapitated pin instead. It’s the barrel on the command tank (the one with the chap sticking out the turret) in the picture above.

Otherwise, the build wasn’t too difficult, although getting the upper hull to sit flush on the main body proved almost impossible. That means that there’s a gap on both sides of most of the models, but I stuck the stowage on the side where it was worst and the paint job conceals the other.

As a point to note, these kits have no tolerance for badly clipped parts: you have to make sure there are absolutely no bumps or it just won’t fit together.

The Lees

The same notes about gun barrels and no tolerance applies to these kits as well. Also, you need to make sure that you get the 75mm gun the right way up: get it right and you can fix it in place without glue so that it swivels.

Otherwise, these kits go together well, especially the mudguards: they were actually strangely satisfying to fit!

The Shermans

This is where the fun began…but “fun” entirely of my own doing!

It was quite an overcast day when I sprayed these in the garage and, as is my custom, I took the trays with all thirteen tanks out of my spraying area and put them on the front step just outside the front door of the house. It’s a place that’s in the sun and, once dry, I wouldn’t have to go through the rigmarole of walking to the garage (all of twelve steps!), opening the garage door, getting the models, closing the garage door etc.

I then went into the house and started watching a bit of TV, eventually dozing off as I’d had an early start.

The thunder and lightning of an enormous storm woke me, and for a while I sat watching the lightning fork down and the wind sweep the rain horizontally across the front garden.

Then I remembered my models: still outside “drying in the sun”!

By the time I rescued them, the trays with the Stuarts and Lees were half an inch deep in water, and the tray with the Shermans was nowhere to be seen! I eventually spotted it blown down the drive some twenty metres away!

Rushing out into the teeth of the storm, I managed to rescue the Stuarts and Lees without too much difficulty, and then went back out into the darkness to find the Shermans. We leave no-one behind!

I found all three Sherman hulls, but only one turret, so the models below have been built using the spare turrets from some Plastic Soldier Company Shermans that I’d built some time ago: like many plastic models, there’s one PSC sprue for a Sherman that allows you to build all the variants i.e. it has the parts for various shaped turrets on it dependent on which variant of Sherman you are building.

Okay, so the turrets don’t turn, and have no .50 cal…but that’s better than throwing the incomplete models away and they seem to have turned out okay.

Fortunately, the Battlefront special I was also painting was made of metal and resin, so was a pretty solid affair that hadn’t been blown away in the wind.

Summary

So that’s another foothill of the lead mountain dealt with.

The Battlefront Kasserine box set is good value (especially the discounted price I paid for it) and the kits aren’t really too hard to put together. Take a bit more care than I do and none of them should be a problem.

One thing: no decals are included in the set. I’d have rather paid a bit more and had the right decals than have to specially buy a pack or two of yellow stars for the US tanks, and I couldn’t find anyone who does 15mm yellow strips to go either side of the stars like on the pictures of the models on the box. I could have tried to paint them myself, but experience has shown me how difficult that is, so I didn’t bother to even try!

Looking back at my post about building and painting the Panzers (click here) I see that I gave the German side of the box set a Recommended. I can’t give the US side of things the same rating, mainly because of the build on the Stuarts and the overall lack of specialist decals: it gets a solid Average for being convenient and good value, but that’s all.

IABSM AAR: All American #03: La Fiere II

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Great write up of a game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum from the keyboards of Dan Albrecht and Shane Waley.

Dan used a modified version of the third scenario from the All American scenario pack, along with a modified version of IABSM using Derek Hodge’s command card activation system.

Click on the pic below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Capturing Rauray

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Earlier this year, at the Lardy Games Day Operation Market Lardon, I played in a very enjoyable game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum run by Phil and Jenny.

The game involved elements of 2. SS Panzer-Division Das Reich and 9. SS Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen attempting to recapture the town of Rauray in Normandy from the 1st Battalion Tyneside Scottish. Noddy and I played the British against some very skilful German opposition.

The game had actually been playtested several times, and here’s an AAR from one of those playtests from the excellent Bleaseworld blog.

Click on the picture, below, to see all:

IABSM AAR: Calais at Britcon 2022

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Michael Curtis ran two games of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum at Britcon this year, ably helped by Phil and Jenny Turner.

This was a truly superb looking game: click on the picture below to see lots of photographs…and to be inspired!

 

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IABSM AAR: Hungary 1945

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It’s heatwave after heatwave at the moment, so Mark Luther attempts to cool us all down with a great game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum set in Hungary, 1945.

This was just a quickie scenario setup that wasn't based on a specific historical battle, but was inspired by the German actions to relieve Budapest in early 1945. Mark also wanted to get his Tiger IIs on the board.

Click on the picture below to see all:

 

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AAR IABSM: Retreat to Calais

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Having recently played on a table set up by Phil & Jenny Turner (click here for the AAR) it’s great to see that they are gearing up for another demonstration game at this year’s Britcon.

Michael Curtis has posted some pictures of the playtest of the game onto the IABSM Facebook Group. Click on the photo below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Breaking the Panzers

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My afternoon game at Operation Market Lardon 2022 was a game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum run by the legendary Phil and Jenny.

I must confess that I got so into the game that I forgot to note the background properly, but from memory Scottish infantry supported by tanks from the Lancers, commanded by Noddy and I, would be defending a village in Normandy somewhere against an attack by a combined force of infantry and armour from the Waffen SS commanded by Andy and friend John.

A superb game of IABSM played on wonderful terrain. Click on the picture below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Le Hamel

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Another great After Action Report from Mark Luther.

It’s I Ain’t Been Shot Mum and Normandy 1944. This was going to be a two part battle, with this AAR describing the first contest covering the attack by 46 Royal Marine Commando and the Fort Garry Horse on the village of le Hamel on June 11, 1944.

Click on the picture below to see all:

Panzers for the Afrika Korps

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I used the long weekend to build and paint up all the German tanks with the Battlefront Kasserine box set.

There were nine tanks in all: three Panzer IV and six Panzer III, all of which could be built in a variety of different marks. I opted for a mixture of tank types to give me maximum flexibility when fielding them on table.

The kits went together very, very easily…even for someone as bad at kit building as I am. Really confirmed my belief that plastic really is the way forward.

First off the production line were the Panzer IVs: one F2 or G with the long 7.5cm gun, and two F1 with the short 7.5cm gun.

Then came the three Panzer III L with the long 5.0cm gun:

Finally another three Panzer III, this time the H or J with the short 5.0cm gun:

All were painted in the same way: a spray undercoat of Desert Yellow washed with Agrax Earthshade then drybrushed with Vallejo Iraqi Sand. Tracks were painted metal and then washed with a heavy Flesh-coloured wash. Finally decals were added with the use of a decal softener: essential if you’re applying the turret numbers to the bumpy bit on the side of the turret (I put a bit of softener on the turret, then apply the decal, then paint more softener over the top; leave for twenty seconds or so, then gently press down with a tissue).

These really are very nice kits that paint up beautifully, even with my crude skills. At less than £2 a tank, I cannot but recommend this boxset for anyone wanting a quick fix of Afrika Korps.

IABSM AAR: Relieving St Omer

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Another excellent battle report from the equally excellent Bleaseworld blog.

Set during the Blitzkrieg in May 1940 the game was based around efforts by the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment attempting to relieve the French defenders of St Omer who were under attack by the 1st Panzer Division.

This AAR features a beautiful table put together by Phil and Jenny, so is well worth a look. Click on the picture, below, to see all.

A New Project: Afrika Korps

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One of the gaps in my collection of WW2 figures is the Afrika Korps. I have Western Desert Brits and Italians, but no Germans. When, therefore, I was at the Vanquish show a couple of weeks ago, and saw the Battlefront Kasserine boxed set, already good value at £42 for twenty-one vehicles/guns, reduced by another 20% by those nice gentlemen from The Pit, I quickly reached for my wallet and snapped it up.

I also bought one of their Team Yankee sets to join the others currently languishing in the lead mountain: so when I do eventually get around to painting some modern Russians, I will have everything I need to hand.

Anyhow, those who are regular readers will know that this year’s rule is that I’m only allowed to paint something new if I also paint something from the lead mountain as well. Lucky then that also lurking at the back of the cupboard of shame was the Battlefront 90th Light Africa Division “themed formation” box set that I’d also picked up at a heavy discount somewhere else. A quick shop to buy the right paints and bases etc, and I was ready to go.

SdKfz 6/3 “Diana”

The first unit off the painting table was a zug of SdKfz 6/3 “Diana” self-propelled anti-tank guns, unique to the aforementioned 90th Light Africa Division. There were only nine of these ever produced but, hey, I might be able to field them one day even if I have to write the scenario for myself.

The models were very easy to put together, even the usually tricky ‘mounting the gun and shield’ bit and, as you can hopefully see, paint up nicely as well. I painted the crew figures (there are two manning the gun in the back) effectively on the sprue by cutting a small slit in a blister pack blister and fitting the tab on the end of the crewman figure into the slit. That was much easier than detaching them and trying to hold a small tab whilst painting.

PaK 36(r) 7.62mm AT Guns

Next up, and from the same 90th Light Africa Division boxset were some ex-Soviet anti-tank guns. These had been captured in 1941 and re-purposed for north Africa.

The models (metal guns with plastic crews) also went together very well, although I had the usual problems with getting the gun barrels absolutely straight after the mangling they had taken in the Battlefront factory and in transit. Is it really so hard to take what is arguably the most important part of the model, or certainly one of the most noticeable parts, and ask your staff to be particularly careful when extracting them from the mold?

Finally I was on to the first unit from the Kasserine box set: a zug of PaK 38 anti-tank guns. The whole box set is plastic, so these needed to be clipped from a sprue before use.

Pak 38 5cm AT guns

Now plastic gun barrels don’t bend like the metal ones but you have to very careful when clipping them from the sprue, as thin barrels can flex as the clippers go in and end up snapping…which is what happened to the gun at the back in the photo above. I glued the barrel back together, but it just looks wrong at most angles. How very annoying! Of course I could have scrabbled around in the bits box for a different barrel, or sent off for a replacement etc, but I was painting them now, so I didn’t, so will have to put up with the wonky barrel for evermore!

So that’s a fair start on the Afrika Korps. Nine Panzers to paint and then I’d better think about what infantry to buy…and what I’m going to paint from the lead mountain to justify that expenditure!

Colours

Vehicles and guns were undercoated with Army Painter Desert Yellow spray then washed with GW Agrax Earthshade. They were then dry-brushed with Vallejo Iraqi Sand.

Crew were undercoated with GW Wraithbone spray then the uniforms block painted using Vallejo Yellow Green. I painted this lot wearing full Afrika Korps uniforms, but when I come to do the infantry, there’ll be a mix of Afrika Korps green and Italian yellow elements i.e. trousers, tops, caps. The helmets, gas mask cases and webbing were Iraqi Sand. The whole figure was then washed using GW Agrax Earthshade. I had then intended to highlight using Yellow Green, and did on the crew for the Dianas but, to tell the truth, it didn’t make much difference, so I just highlighted the faces on the gun crews (forehead, nose, chin, cheeks).