TFL Painting Challenge: 2,000 Points Reached!

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Originally posted 5th July 2014

Achievements today from Mr Ralls (more aircraft); Alexandros, whose lovely DAK half-tracks and Soviet BT-5s take him past the 500 mark; Mr Plowman (some nice sci-fi figures); Owen and his Wild West buildings (now a town bigger than Scarborough); and Treadhead with his big poles.

Significantly, Owen's entries make him the first person to go past the 2,000 point mark. Most impressive, and let's see if you can do 5,000 before the new year!

Today's pictures are another double. The first is of Alexandros' half-tracks, the second is Mr Plowman's GZG grav bikes and APC:

PS  If any of you do notice that my maths is out on the Scorecard, or that I've forgotten to add an entry, do shout out. I tend to update this late at night when my usual attention to detail might be wavering slightly! 

Also, thanks for all the kind words from those of you who have said that the challenge is increasing your output significantly. Don't worry: I'm not burnt out yet, and have every intention of carrying this through to the end of the year!

TFL Painting Challenge: Huge Update

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Originally posted 30th June 2014

Bumper entries today as people rush to get in their entries before the end of the second quarter!

So today we have achievements from:

  • Owen, who cruises past 1,500 points at the speed of light with a large sci-fi entry which also takes him into the lead at over 1,800 points
  • Kev, with another forty SYW infantry
  • Vidal, who not only beats me to the first Martin tripod entry but also passes the 500 point mark
  • Jon Yuengling, who is so prolific I now spell his name with ease
  • Treadhead
  • Derek Hodge with a collection of buildings, scenery and farm animals (sounds like my love life) that taxed the points system of the challenge but resulted in him passing the 500 point mark with flying colours
  • Egg, whose wonderful 1/1250 ships are today's star picture
  • Topi with a collection of 15mm WW2 figures
  • Mr Danziger
  • Stumpy, who went basing mad and achieved half points for 375 Zulu War 28mm figures which neatly took him past the 1,000 point mark
  • Mr Plowman whose four Big Men take him past the 500 mark, as the actress said to the bishop (I'm here all week, try the fish).

And Kev and Craig: you were indeed imprisoned in my spam box, but should now be recognised as legit for future entries.

Here are Egg's beautiful boats:

King Tigers!

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Originally posted 21st June 2014

I've had problems painting late war German tanks ever since I first started on them. How do you get that camouflage looking right without using an airbrush?

Of course, the simple answer would have been to get an airbrush...but I haven't, but have finally worked out how to do it. The answer? A sponge!

The Battlefront 15mm Konigstigers below were painted with a base coat of dull yellow, then stripes of sponge applied green and brown paint. Pop a brown wash over the top and there you are. And where did I get the sponge from? Well Battlefront put loads in all their boxes as part of the packing!

Q13 Army Lists: The Quar

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Originally posted 20th June 2014

I have been so busy with Bashnya or Bust! that I missed the next wave of Zombiesmith's 15mm Quar releases.

This introduces some very welcome additions to the range, including the much-needed basic company support weapons for both the Crusader and Coftyran forces. It also includes Coftyran officers, new tractors and a great looking Weedl scout kite. Finally, there is a new nationality of Quar released, the Kryster: desert raiders equipped with fast-moving three-wheelers and their own tractor. I have immediately ordered about a metric ton of these, and can't wait to get them on the painting table.

 New figures means a revised army list, so the Quar list now contains all the new releases plus details of the Fidwog forces as well. My thanks to Josh of Zombiesmith for the free pdf.

New WW2 Figure Manufacturer Added: MMModels

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Originally posted 20th June 2014

I like to try and keep the list of WW2 15mm figure manufacturers as up to date as possible, so it's annoying to have missed MMModels.co.uk off it for so long.

They produce a nice selection of "tail" models (staff cars, vans, buses, tank transporters, landing craft etc) to order. I haven't got any myself at the moment, so can't really comment on the quality, but they certainly look good from the photos. I am about to put together an order which should keep them busy for a little while, and will report back once I have them in my hands.

TFL Games Day: Operation Market Larden 2

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Originally posted 15th June 2014

I was lucky enough to be able to make Operation Market Larden 2 this weekend: a day of Lardy wargaming organised by the Wyvern Wargamers.

This was an excellent day's gaming at which I played Chain of Command for the first time in the morning (my apologies to my opponents for the slightly flukey at-the-last-moment victory!) and Mike Whitaker's brilliant rendition of the Bloody Omaha scenario from the Where The Hell Have You Been, Boys? D-Day scenario pack in the afternoon.

There will be a proper AAR posted shortly but, for the moment, here is a sample shot of the afternoon game.