UAR/Egyptians: AA Guns Arrive

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The first lot of anti-aircraft guns for my Six Day War Egyptians. These are ZPU-4's: four HMGs mounted together on a towed trolley.

Figures and guns are Peter Pig, from their Modern Africa range (a very useful range for anyone looking for Soviet equipment from the Sixties and Seventies). The guns don't come with any crew, so I used standard "helmeted crew" for the chaps who are standing up; and one of their "seated in helmets for the gunner himself. The gunner actually has a Kalashnikov flat across his lap, but painted black and with all the gun-stuff, it looks like some kind of trigger mechanism...and, anyway, who's going to notice on the tabletop!

The pic above doesn't actually do the little blighters justice. For some reason I decided to use a slightly different technique on these AA guns than I did on the AT guns I've posted previously. Here I sprayed them black, dry-brushed in the colour I wanted, used black ink as a wash, and then dry-brushed again. Looks great on the tabletop, but a bit messy in close-up.

You'll note that I have mounted two guns in AA mode, and two guns depressed for shooting people on the ground. That's because a platoon is four guns-strong, but I can't really see me ever fielding four guns at a time, so now I can field one or two, and swap models dependent on what angle the Israeli attack is coming from!

TFL Painting Challenge: A Tuesday Morning Update

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Enough of you sent in entries over the weekend to justify a quick Tuesday morning update. So, in no particular order, we have:

  • Andrew Helliwell with some more American Civil War figures in 15mm
  • Ditto for Carole: maybe the two of you should have a game?
  • Owen sends in a literally huge entry and some most amusing penguin-types
  • Mr Douglas pops in some 28mm WW2 guns
  • WillieB sends in his first entry of the year: a colossal entry involving many, many little ships. Plenty of pics and of the mega-game they were used in.
  • Ralph has his usual small but exquisitely painted entry of 15mm sci-fi figures
  • And last, but certainly not least, there's a massive entry from Mr Davenport with more 28mm Napoleonic figures than you could shake a stick at

Lots of pics today:

Just one of the many ships from WillieB

Amusing, from Owen

Exquisite, from Ralph

Plentiful, from Jon

6DW: Revised Egyptian Briefing

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I have updated the UAR/Egyptian briefing for the Six Day War, largely as a result of looking at the AA assets available in more detail.

All that's changed is a clarification of what AA assets are available, and the addition of separate stats for some of them.

To re-cap, the briefing contains an OOB and arsenal for the following forces for the UAR/Egyptians in the Six Day War:

  • A Mechanised Infantry Company
  • A Rifle Company
  • A Tank Company

 

TFL Painting Challenge: Update

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This year's challenge is ticking along nicely: plenty of people sending in their achievements on a regular basis. Here's this week's batch:

  • Carole sends in two entries: some more alien Kra'vak, and some American Civil War troops for Sharp Practice v2
  • Mervyn also sends in two entries: some Gallic cavalry and some more 19th C Egyptians
  • Steve Burt has twelve Parthians to add to his collection
  • Mr Yuengling adds more to his Normandy forces
  • Ralph Plowman sends in a small but beautifully formed set of White Dragon Miniatures
  • and, finally, Mr Luther returns to the fold with some more 6mm aeroplanes

Today's picture is of Mr Burt's Parthians and Mr Douglas' Gallic cavalry:

Parthians in 28mm from Navigator

Gallic cavalry in 15mm

Plenty of time to get your entries in, especially if you have entered in the past but have yet to do so this year. So come on, get painting and get photographing!

CDS AAR: On the Road in 2012

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As I've said before, I like to think of this site as an archive of activity for the TooFatLardies company-sized wargames: IABSM, CDS, Q13.

As such, it's great to be able to archive/commemorate/celebrate the efforts of Abingdon Wargames Club in 2012 as they took their demo game of Charlie Don't Surf on the road to various wargames shows.

Click on the picture below to see a brief collection of words and pics from their UK tour...

CDS AAR: Playing the Beanball

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Another great Charie Don't Surf  battle report from Penfold, this one using scenario #06: Playing the Beanball from the Surf's Up scenario pack.

Here the Communist forces learn an important lesson about playing as insurgents rather than playing as regulars...

Click on the Surf's Up cover, below, to see all:

 

6DW: UAR/Egyptian Towed Anti-Tank Guns 2

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My second platoon of anti-tank guns for my UAR/Egyptian force for the Six Day War consists of a couple of gigantic ex-Soviet 100mm BS-3 weapons.

These are truly huge: jutting out from their bases like...well, I'll leave you to choose an appropriate metaphor given their extreme capacity for, er, penetration!

Nice models, but I did find it very difficult to get the gun barrels straight after they arrived in the pack looking like Audrey Horne had done a cherry-stalk number on them!

The crews are again a mixture of Battlefront and Peter Pig.

TFL Painting Challenge: Sunday Afternoon Update

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A fairly quiet week in the painting challenge, but still enough to justify a cheeky Sunday afternoon update.

In no particular order, we have:

  • Carole taking a break from her sci-fi with some 19th Century figures for Sharp Practice 2
  • Andrew McCarthy with lots of WW2 kit, also in 15mm
  • Matt Slade is also WW2, but 28mm: some very fine Artizan Germans
  • Mr Naylor goes 20mm, with three Soviet AFVs
  • It's back to WW2, somewhere near Caen, for Mr Yuengling
  • And finally the great Gatzemeyer sends in some Anglo-Danish

Today's pics? Mr Naylor's Soviets and the Double G's Anglo-Danish warband:

6DW: UAR Towed Anti-Tank Guns 1

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Now that the infantry and armour are all sorted, it was time to add the other support weapons to my UAR/Egyptian force for the Six Day War. Top of the list had to be anti-tank guns.

Looking at my orders of battle (available here) I could see that the vast majority of Egyptian AT guns were ex-Soviet 57mm Zis-2 pieces (around 300 of them), followed by ex-British 6-pounders (about 100 of them), followed by a smattering of ex-Soviet 100mm BS-3 guns (maybe 70 of them). Off to the Battlefront website to do some buying.

Interesting...the only pack of anti-tank guns that Battlefront has for the Six Day War is a mixed pack of two 82mm recoil-less rifles (which you get as part of the company HQ anyway), one Zis-2, and two BS-3s. Yes, it's technically a three gun platoon, but why use the least common anti-tank gun as the mainstay? Another Battlefront mystery!

So I decided, by buying the two-pack of Zis-3/Zis-2 WW2 Soviet guns,  to get two platoons of towed anti-tank guns: one of three Zis-2s, one of two BS-3s. Here is the first off the production line: the Zis-2s.

The crews are a mix of the crews included in the pack with the addition of spares from the helmet-heads within the Peter Pig Modern Africa range (a very useful range indeed for filling in the gaps in any Soviet-equipment-using force).

I decided to give my guns five crew members each, rather than the usual four, as I have a feeling that I might need every man I can get to turn back the eventual Israeli tide!

New Female WW2 Soviet Troops from Bad Squiddo Games

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I have wanted a platoon of 15mm WW2 Female Soviet infantry for ages. I even started a Eureka Miniatures 300 Club push to try and get some made, but although quite a few people joined, we just didn't quite reach the required target.

It's very nice to see, therefore, that Bad Squiddo Games (aka Annie, The Dice Bag Lady) have released a range of Soviet fighting women...it's just that they seem to have made a terrible mistake and done so in the wrong scale!

Available for pre-order now (shipping 25th April) this 28mm range looks really good. There's enough variety to produce a whole platoon i.e. there are figures with rifles, SMGs, LMGs and officers; and the figures are beautifully proportioned and, dare I say it, realistic looking. I'm particularly liking the snipers and tank riders/commanders.

You can see pics of some of the figures below, and here's a link to the Bad Squiddo website. Now will someone please produce these in 15mm. Please.

Sniper Team, Standing

Sniper Team, Standing

Command, Medic, WO

LMG Team

Tankers

Tank Riders

TFL Painting Challenge: Quick Tuesday Update

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Quick Tuesday update for the TFL Painting Challenge, including two first-of-the-year entries.

In no particular order, we have:

  • Dave Humm, the first first-of-the-year, with some nice Confederates and a terrible pun
  • Mr Plowman paints some Robo Monkeys...must be for Q13
  • Carole's entry, lots of aliens, is definitely for Q13, because she says so
  • Andrew Helliwell pops in another regiment of 15mm Confederates
  • Mr Douglas has some more Ancient Brits on offer
  • and finally, Owen, the second of the firsts, has a mix of fantasy figures

We'll go Reb for today's pics:

Dave Humm's Confederate cavalry

Andrew Helliwell's Confederate infantry

CDS AAR: The Great Rice Hunt

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Here's a battle report for Charlie Don't Surf from 2011, trawled from what looks like a bit of a defunct blog: the Tao of Lard.

It's a couple of reports from 2011 covering The Great Rice Hunt: the first scenario from the Surf's Up scenario book. Click on the pic below to see all:

Incidentally, I would just like to add that it's worth noting that blogs are hard work to maintain. Even if 'real life' doesn't get in the way, it's hard to keep posting day after day or even week after week or month after month.

That's one of the reasons for this site: it's become an archive of writings about the TooFatLardies' company-level rules from all over the place, and that to such an extent that more and more people are sending me their AARs direct.

I do always try and contact people before copying their material here...but so many blogs have no way of directly contacting the owner anywhere on view, and I don't want to ask via a comment for all to see: just too embarrassing. So I hope in this instance the blog owner doesn't mind me resurrecting his content in this way. My contact details are on the left if needed.