Some reinforcements for my Vietnam US infantry: three M551 Sheridan tanks from Battlefront. Lovely models that come absolutely ram-jammed with stowage built into the models. The only negative point is the delicacy of the barrels of the HMGs: you can see from the photos how bent they are...and stay, despite my best efforts!
Today's achievements, the first of the month of March, are from Leif (duck-breaker 1); Jason Ralls (another painting machine!); Egg; Plowman; Bailey and Chris Gilbride (duck-breaker 2).
Today's picture is from Dave Bailey: a dark ages watch tower for Dux from Warbases, which they specially shrunk down to 15mm for him.
Craig Ambler has been working his way through the Anzio scenario pack. Here's an AAR from his last battle (although not the last in the pack) covering the opening phase of Operation Fischfang.
This was a truly colossal battle (the Germans have two companies of infantry!) that gave an excellent game.
A few duck-breakers this update. Pingu opens his innings with a septet of 28mm Zombie figures; WillieB bursts onto the scene with seventy 28mm WW1 figures (lulling us into a false sense of security, eh?); and Mr Ploughman enters the lists with fifteen 28mm figures.
Elsewhere we have achievements from Messrs Luther; Ström; and Bailey (the man is a machine!); Owen; Craig Ambler; and Danziger.
Today's pic is a little one from WillieB:
An exciting update today: we have our first "1,000 point" participant: Jon Yuengling.
In honour of Jon's achievement, here is one of his pictures:
Here is another AAR from the Mad Padre, but it's a blast from the past: the report from his first game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum!
Exciting stuff, even if it was from many moon's ago!
Here's today's update: achievements from Messrs Llano; Luther; Stoesen; Bailey; Weir and Ambler.
Mr Weir also gets full marks for trying to claim a biscuit tin in the painting challenge: full marks, but no points. In consolation, however, the offending item is today's featured picture:
An unusual AAR from The Mad Padre: a battle that takes place at night as the Canadians attempt to hold off marauding Big Cats in June 1944.
Whilst waiting for more decals to arrive from Dom in order to finish my Churchill squadron, I thought I'd polish off something that has been sitting, half-finished, on my painting table for ages: the Battlefront US Artillery HQ.
Absolutely pointless in wargaming terms for IABSM, it's nevertheless another piece of battlefield clutter with which to dress the table.
Oh, and for those interested, the maps are made from the QR code found on the cards you find inside the Zvezda boxes. Just cut out a square or a rectangle from the QR code and add a little blue line (for a river) and some green patches (for woods) and away you go.
A quick After Action Report from Paul Scivens-Smith, once again from early-war East Africa. Will the Italian counter-attack throw the British off the ridge that they so recently captured?
Here's today's update: achievements from Messrs Llano; Hodge; Bax; Stoesen; Nissvik; Slade; Yuengling; and the Mad Padre.
Today's picture? No question but it's got to be Thomas', er, questionable tank. So, Thomas, me old mucker, this fascination with Japanese anime schoolgirls...care to explain?
Good news for those awaiting my next scenario book: the writing bug has bitten me again.
I am now deep into Bashnya or Bust! - a Vyazma/Blenneville style scenario pack set in late July/August 1944 during the Kaunas Offensive i.e. the latter stages of Operation Bagration.
Can't promise when it will be finished (early summer's my best bet) but I can promise a linked campaign featuring a possible thirty-one late war eastern front scenarios.
If you liked Blenneville, you'll love Bashnya!
More achievements...always more achievements!
Today's batch are from: Chris Stoesen; Jon Yuengling; Egg; Topi; Richard Danziger; Warrior in the Attic; I'm also pleased to add pictures of his previous achievements from Craig Ambler.
Three candidates for picture-of-the-update, but I'm going for Dick Bax's 20mm Fallschirmjaeger today:
A late entrant to the campaign: welcome Jim Weir.
Otherwise, vast numbers of achievements from (deep breath): Messrs Clarke, Ralls, Hodge; Lowth; Armstrong; Bax; Ambler; and Bailey.
To celebrate the breaking of his duck, here's Mr Armstrong's achievement: two beautifully painted sci-fi vehciles...ideal for Q13!
The end of another working week, and an impressive list of achievements to be added. Today we have contributions from Chris Stoesen; Mr Luther; Egg; Dave Bailey; Kev; Matt Slade; Alexandros; Jon Yuengling and the Mad Padre.
Today's picture was a toss up between Alexandros' 28mm Churchill (love the stowage) and Egg's 15mm Centurions (a very nice green)...so you get both:
So many more achievements that I can't possibly list them all here. What I will do, though, is feature some very nice Saxon-types for Dux B from munsterfan8.
Oh, okay then...if a job's worth doing...
Achievements from Andy Miller (first timer); Chris Stoesen; munsterfan8 (obviously), Egg, Manuel Llano, Benito (I've corrected your numbers!), Craig, Dave Bailey, Joakim, Jon and Vidal. And there are some more as well!
A few more people have joined up: welcome Egg and Bond, Geoff Bond. I'm looking forward to your first achievements.
And there are new achievements from Topi, Chris, and Mr Bailey. Today's featured shot is from Topi: ten Shermans for his US Normandy forces.
A few more uploads: achievements from Owen, Treadhead and Mr Hodge. Here are some of Derek's 10mm Vietnam figures: a couple of Vietcong platoons plus supports from Pendraken.
Those of you who visit regularly will know that I am in the process of painting a whole squadron of Churchill tanks: 19 vehicles if you include the full HQ Troop.
Boxes of tanks from PSC come in fives (although they also do single sprues if you need just a single tank etc) so the four boxes I bought at Warfare left me with one left over.
This I painted up as a lend-lease tank sent to the Soviets. It gave me a chance to practice painting a model from start to finish, which was very useful in terms of finding out if the spray paint I was using would melt the plastic (it didn't) and such things as checking and then repainting the road wheels not in black 'tyre' colour but in 'rest of the tank' metal colour - doh!
So here is my single lend-lease Mk III Churchill from PSC (with Battlefront Soviet tank commander). Lovely model but, as always, the turret was a pain to put together. I'm just glad that all my British Mk IVs have the cast turret! BTW, note the way the varnish has frosted the (very thin) gun barrel...must remember to watch out for this when painting the '19'.
Now I am not normally particularly fussed about making my tanks from specific units: I use the same Panzers for every theatre they fought in. With the Churchills, however, I am endeavouring to paint up one specific unit: C Squadron from 4th Coldstream Guards, part of 6th Guards Tank Brigade. This is mainly because Dom's Decals provide a sheet with the names of all the C Squadron tanks on them, so I don't have to go mad painting the little blighters' names myself!
I thought, therefore, I'd share some of the research I used when deciding which unit to paint up, all of which came via the excellent TFL Forum.
June tank returns:
http://niehorster.orbat.com/017_britain/44-06-06_Neptune/Land/z_tanks_44-06-22_21AG.html
A complete list of British tank names (this is incredible!):
http://mmpbooks.biz/mmp/tables/Vehicle_Names_V3.pdf
The Armour in Focus page of the Churchill tank:
http://freespace.virgin.net/chris.shillito/a22new/
And, finally, the FOW page on Churchill tanks in Normandy:
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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