Even if I am now buying all my tanks and other vehicles as plastics from the likes of PSC and Zvezda, I still have a soft spot for the Battlefront infantry. Some of it is far from perfect (British Paras!) but some of the ranges are exceptional...including the relatively new Gebirgsjaeger.
I've only just started painting them up, but here are the infantry guns and an FOO:
Buying all the vehicles you need for an armoured infantry company is always a painful experience, whatever nationality you're collecting. My late war Germans need half-tracks, but the thought of buying four per platoon caused my wallet severe palpitations!
Step forward Zvezda! They do a lovely little SdKfz 251/1 that I managed to pick up at only £2.99 a go. With P&P, my nine models cost only £30: a bargain considering what purchasing them from other manufacturers would have cost me.
The models snap together easily in about five minutes...once you have the knack of it. You need to take care you don't bend the front axles when popping on the wheels, and the curious thread-through, over-and-under body construction took me a bit of time to figure out.
So, how do they look? well, judge for yourselves:
PS I know these are the Ausf. B so technically early war...but who's going to notice once they're on the tabletop!
A great battle report from a Tony Hobbz solo game. Using a variation of Platoon Forward adapted for company-sized actions, a German force attempts to clear a small French town. Some fantastic photos!
A quick battle reports for I Ain't Been Shot, Mum!: I finally managed to get around to playing one of my favourite Operation Compass scenarios: the assault of the El Gubbi airfield.
As those who read this website regularly know, I have recently really got in to buying my WW2 tanks in plastic from either the Plastic Soldier Company or Zvezda.
It means that I can afford to buy tanks by the squadron as opposed to the platoon with, in my opinion, no loss of quality either.
Here's my latest set of paint jobs: a good part of a late war British armoured squadron armed with Shermans and Fireflys. Again, I can only say how easy they were to put together (once you get the knack of it) and how beautifully they paint up.
Are plastic tanks the way forward? Well, all I can say is that Battlefront have just released plastic Panthers. Better late than never, eh?
Then we have another report from the keyboard of Paul Scrivens Smith as he replicates the Carentan action from Band of Brothers: not once, but twice.
We have our first report from the Devon Wargames Group, re-fighting the Neuville au Plain scenario from the All American scenario pack:
We have a flourishing community of Scandinavian Lardies: renown for their good humour; extraordinary combinations of hair style and beards; and wonderful After Action Reports.
Here are three After Action Reports, all from the Miniatyrmannen (The Miniatures Man) blog: two from various Cons, and one from a club game.
A Tale of Wooden Crosses describes how a German reconnaissance force succeeded in its aim of finding the enemy...
The game put on at Incognicon 2012 was based on the Nice One, Kirill! scenario from the TFL Summer Special 2007:
Finally, a good looking Winter War game set back in 1939:
As I have often mentioned, one of the problems with some figure ranges is that they don't include any infantry support weapons. Plenty of men-with-guns, sometimes plenty of vehicles, but very little in the way of things such as the sci-fi equivalent or mortars and medium/heavy machine guns.
I accept that argument that in the future that sort of weapon might be redundant (firepower supplied via enhanced personal weapons, battle suits, different sorts of vehicles etc) but it's still nice to see that Khurasan Miniatures provides "full" ranges rather than just the grunts.
Here's my latest bit of painting: Pouncer Portable Missile Launchers for the Felids, and the other great thing is that the mortar operators can also double as drone operators for the Snaggletooth attack and Whiskers scouting drones.
Talking of Salute, I didn't buy very much, but I did buy some of those nifty explosion markers from Litko to replace the rather tired cotton wool that I usually use...especially as I had run out for the last game and had to use torn up make-up removing pads!
It was great to meet so many Lardies at Salute yesterday. Included amongst the many was Benito and his fellow wargamers from Madrid, Spain. It's therefore good timing to post one of Benito's latest Charlie Don't Surf after action reports, with a scenario taken from the Surf's Up scenario pack.
Inspired by the arrival of Battle for Liberation, here is an AAR from a great Normandy game played yesterday.
I've included details of the terrain and forces used, so you can actually re-play this game yourself if you want. If you do, let me know how you get on!
A third outing for the North of Caen scenario from the IABSM3 rulebook, also from Paul Scrivens Smith:
An Eastern Front game from the pen of Paul Scrivens Smith featuring action from the Belgorad-Kharkov offensive:
James Mantos reports on an early war game where the forces and terrain were generated using the new random scenario generator to be found in the IABSM3 rulebook:
A report on a D-Day game centred around the Paras' defence of Ranville. The scenario was taken from the Summer Special 2006, and you can see other AAR from the same scenario in the Games Day 2008 section of the AARs page.
Next on the list from the Plastic Soldier Company were some 76mm Shermans with wet stowage (i.e. the ammo was kept wet rather than dry).
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These built very nicely indeed: even the usually tricky tracks were not too much of a bother. Lovely kits that take the paint very well: almost too well, as they have come out looking a huge amount smoother than their Battlefront metal and resin equivalents.
Here are some shots of the platoon, and one so that you can compare the Battlefront and PSC tanks.
Here are the Battlefront versions:
And the PSC ones again:
Incidentally, I still prefer to game with the metal and resin tanks from Battlefront (there's something comforting about that weight!) but the PSC plastics are just so well priced, and so much fun to put together and paint, that I think that I shall definitely keep buying them...especially where I need ten to twelve of the same tank.
Next up: the Brits. Some PSC Fireflies and normal Shermans. Two boxes worth!
Here are my latest tank models from Plastic Soldier Company: a Zug of Panthers.
Although up to now I have focussed on the early war period and tended to buy Battlefront tank models, with my movement into the later war period I have expanded into using other manufacturers. These Panthers, along with the Panzer IVs, are plastic models from Plastic Soldier Company, and three out of four of the SdKfz 7/1s are from Forged in Battle.
The reason? Simple: expense. I can field five tanks from PSC for at least half the cost of the Battlefront models: worth it when you're buying tanks by the Zug even if in principle you prefer metal to plastic!
One thing to note, however, is that the track assemblies can be a real pain to put together. If you look closely, you can see the difficulty I had in matching the top and the bottom of the track up properly on the bits right at the front and back. I don't understand why they can't just cast the whole track area as one piece, like Battlefront do. It would make life much easier!
Here's another shot of the Panthers:
Two AARs from the pen of new-to-IABSM player Paul Scrivens Smith. Both describe fighting the North of Caen scenario from the IABSM v3 rulebook, although one re-fight has been transposed to the desert!
Buying Battlefront tanks can be an expensive business, so recently I've been augmenting my collection by adding platoons of Plastic Soldier Company 15mm tanks to my core Battlefront platoons.
Next onto the building/painting table were the T-34s...or, as I should say, the T-34s and the T-34/85s, as each kit comes with two turrets and guns allowing you to field both. That's one hull and two turrets per model : damn good value if you ask me!
Building them proved easy: even the track assembly wasn't too difficult (unlike the flipping Panthers I'm working on now which are a right pain in the arse). Painting them was equally easy.
So, in summary, PSC T-34s (and 85s!) are highly recommended, even if their weight (or lack of) does take some getting used to
Deployed as T-34s
Now deployed as T-34/85s: same body, different turret
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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