TFL Painting Challenge: Mid Week Round Up
/Pleased to say that enough entries have come in to make a mid-week round-up a bit of a necessity: saves me being flooded at the weekend!
All the regulars are smashing their entries in, but it would nice to see some of the less frequent contributors picking up their brushes, paints and cameras as well. As I've said before, Christmas and the end of this year's Challenge will be on us before you know it, and that lead mountain won't paint itself!
Anyhow, in no particular order, here's this week's update:
- Steve Burt is still in Darkest Africa
- Plenty of 15mm sci-fi goodness from Carole
- Matt Slade is off to the Crusades, twice
- Mr Gilbride has an accident with his pillbox and the devil of a time with his church
- It's talk like a pirate day from Mr Stoesen
- Mervyn has suddenly realised he can get points for re-basing...
- And last, but by no means least, Mr Helliwell has some Austro-Hungarians, Gallowglass and a ruined building for us to see
As usual, clicking on the name above will open their gallery in a new window. I'll update the Scorecard tonight.
Here are today's pictures:
Home-made ruins from Andrew Helliwell. Click on the pic in his gallery to see the recipe.
Piratical jump-off points from Mr Stoesen
Black Tree Arabs from Matt Slade
Darkest Africa from Steve Burt
A Pond...a Very Nice Pond
/Second piece of loot from Colours was a pond from Debris of War.
This is shown here with a couple of bases of Polish infantry for scale purposes.
Lovely bit of kit. Not on the Debris of War website, so I'm assuming it was made up just for the show. Whatever, it cost me £10.50 and I'm very happy with it. DoW also do movement trays, resin walls, the odd building: lots of different stuff really, well worth a look.
Expect to see the pond appearing in many AARs to come!
15mm Buildings from Minibits/RedVectors
/First of the loot from Colours: some slightly different buildings to round out my Russian village.
Hadn't seen these before: they are a selection of five laser-cut MDF buildings from a company called RedVectors that market through Minibits.net.
As you can see, there are two different houses, two different open-fronted barns, and a pig pen with fence.
They go together very nicely (not quite as nicely as the 4ground or Sarissa stuff that I have already, but very nicely all the same) and are a great way of adding a bit of variety to your hamlets.
How do they directly compare? Well, I prefer the 4ground roofs, and I think that the RedVector houses look a bit gingerbread, but the open-fronted barns and big pen are just fantastic. Here's a couple of comparison shots with a 4ground Russian shack:
Yes, they look a bit different...but not enough to matter on the 15mm wargames table. I shall probably use the barns and pigpen all the time, and save the houses for when I need to represent a hetman's hut or something different to the run-of-the-mill shacks.
As regards price, the five buildings together cost me £18, or about £3.50 each. 4ground come in at a whopping £8.50 for one house, down to about £7 each for their collections. Yes, 4ground are "better" (more detailed, I prefer the roofs) but £18 for five buildings is a really, really great price.
Incidentally, the RedVector/Minibits buildings also come in a ruined variety, at £15 per pack:
In all, these get a huge thumbs-up from me: a change to the 4ground buildings; I love the open-fronted barns and pigpen; and the price is excellent.
Highly, highly recommended.
IABSM AAR: Heavy PaK Front by Mark Luther
/Another great 6mm IABSM AAR from Mark Luther. This scenario involves the Germans advancing into a hail of fire from Soviet anti-tanks guns...and then there's the JS-IIs to contend with as well. I'll play the Soviets please!
Click on the pic below to see all:
For those who are interested, I will be at Colours tomorrow, Saturday 16th September, probably for most of the morning.
For those wishing to join me, you can find details of the event by clicking here. At only £6 entry, it's got to be worthwhile, either as a shopping trip or a chance to see the demo games. I personally can't stand the venue, but the show is always good.
Rock the Casbah AAR: The Al Bass Crossroads
/Another brilliant Lebanon 1982 battle report from Anton Ryzbak's blog, Anton's Wargame Blog.
This AAR, from 2012, covers the further adventures of the Israeli column featured in his last two games, and is actually written by fellow player Justice and Rule.
The report features vast numbers of pictures (seventy-five in all!) showing off some of the wonderful terrain they were using. Viewing is highly recommended. Click on the pic below to see all:
TFL Painting Challenge: Huge Update
/Morning all. This is what happens when I leave the Challenge for more than a week: huge numbers of entries!
That's all good though...the more the merrier...but it would be nice to see some of the less frequent contributors upping their, er, contributions. Come on everybody: it's September already. Time to get those points totals up to record levels. All you have to do is beat what you did last year by one point...
Anyway, onto today's entries. In no particular order we have:
- Jon Yuengling with a mix of scales and periods
- More sci-fi goodness from Carole Flint
- Super-painter Matt Slade pops in two entries: some Crusader-period Arabs and, in contrast, some GW tanks
- Fresh from a night out with Yours Truly, Mr Hodge sends in more of his micro armour for Normandy
- Mervyn falls short of expectations. Well, his entry is a unit of dwarves...
- A colossal entry from Mr Ralls: all WW2, all 28mm
- Sapper has more Hittites and a handful of Romans
- Chris Stoesen sends in more pirates than would fit on a dead man's chest
- Stumpy bases some more Frenchies
- And last, but by no means least, Mr Helliwell has been clearing his lead mountain of Germans and Romans
As usual, clicking on the name above will open their gallery in a new window. I'll update the Scorecard tonight.
Here are today's pictures:
28mm British Softskins from Jason Ralls. Loving the windows.
Going down: 15mm Polish tanks from Jon
Continuing the descent: micro armour SdKfz's from Derek Hodge
War wagons of a different sort: Hittite chariots and infantry from Sapper
IABSM AAR: A Canadian VC Re-Visited
/You may remember that when I posted James Tree's AAR using the A Canadian VC scenario from the rulebook, I posted links to all the other battle reports using the same set up.
Well, James had a look at some of them, and decided he hadn't quite played the scenario correctly...so there was nothing for it but to play the game again.
Click on the pic below to see how it worked out this time: take two!
IABSM AAR: Bashnya or Bust #2B: Sorok
/Fellow Lardy Norseygamer has been working his way through a Bashnya or Bust! campaign.
Here's his latest battle report: the Germans, fresh from their victory Near Osen, now try and take the village and ford of Sorok.
Click on the pic below to see all...
New/Updated Army Lists for Q13
/Just realised that some of the army lists in the Quadrant 13 section needed updating...so I've updated them.
First up is a new list covering Khurasan's Tah-Sig: some very non-human aliens for which there are figures to represent a nicely scoped out platoon. No vehicles yet, but the infantry are cracking.
Here's the particle cannon team from Khurasan's website:
Secondly, I've updated the Xar list to take into account the relatively new Xar infantry on flying saucers, and the fact that I've equipped mine with vehicles from Critical Mass/Ral Partha's Kaamados Dominion range.
The pic on the right is a shot of the saucer chaps in the raw, as it were, straight from GZG's website.
I haven't linked here to the pdfs of the relevant army list: how boring would that be! You'll need to vsisit the Q13/Army Lists page to get them.
IABSM AAR: The Battle for San Marco
/Great battle report from Mike Whitaker from a game he played recently: British infantry and armour assaulting German positions in Italy.
Mike's blog Trouble At T'Mill is also recommended reading.
Click on the picture below to see all.
New Sci-Fi Manufacturer: Boon Town Metals
/It's hard to keep track of all the manufacturers of 15mm sci-fi figures: old ones keep disappearing or being acquired by other people, new ones spring up all the time.
Here's one new one whose website went live only about a week ago: Boon Town Metals.
Describing themselves as a niche figure manufacturer, they currently have two ranges: cyberpunk orcs (with a few other bits and pieces included) and sci-fi dwarves.
I have, of course, immediately purchased some of their dwarves. As you all know, my opinion is that, whenever you see miniatures that you like, you should buy them immediately as, if you don't, they can disappear from the scene without warning (e.g. Cactus dwarves where are you now?) so we'll see what these are like in the flesh.
Anyway, good luck to Boon Town, and hopefully they will be around for a long time.
IABSM AAR: For the Honour of France...Again
/Rather than immediately clear away the rather nice set up for the For the Honour of France game played a couple of weeks ago (click here to read the AAR, opens in a new window), I decided to use the same scenario for a game that I was umpiring between John and Dave that took place last weekend.
A very different game from last time. Click on he pic below to see all:
Second Polish Infantry Platoon
/Here they are at last: the second Polish infantry platoon. These are a mix of Forged in Battle and Battlefront figures, but mostly FiB.
Love the Poles as an early war army, but thirty-six man platoons are a killer to paint, especially as they're all in khaki! Only one more platoon to go now.
It will soon be time to start on the armour. I'm just waiting for PSC or Zvezda to produce Vickers and/or 7TP tanks, as I need about three squadrons worth, which could get rather expensive if I go the Battlefront route.
IABSM AAR: Panzers Attack!
/Another quick battle report from James Tree, first posted on the IABSM Facebook page.
Here, the German panzers steam forward only to be met by a storm of fire from Soviet tankers in reply. Click on the pic below to see all...
TFL Painting Challenge: Sunday Update
/Here are this week's entries into the TooFatLardies Painting Challenge:
- Mark Luther takes a break from writing his amazing battle reports to paint up some more microvehicles and produce 450 square inches of paddyfield
- There's a cracking stone barn from Treadhead, printed on his 3D printer
- Mr Helliwell pops in a few WW2 German vehicles in 15mm
- There's three ship's boats from Mr Stoesen
- Matt Slade is still on those Deathguard Pox-thingies, but adds a bit of balance with a second submission of pilgrims
- The first of our Japanese entries from Mr Haines
- Mervyn has a few Austrians ready for the tabletop
- And last, but by no means least, Mr Duffell has our second Japanese-themed entry: a graveyard and temple dogs
As usual, clicking on the name of the submitter, above, will take you straight to their gallery (opens in new window)...and keep them coming: it's September already!
Today's piccies are below:
Mounted Samurai from Mr Haines
Where they will end up if they are not careful, from Mr Duffell
Superb 3D printed stone barn from Treadhead
Ship's boats from Chris Stoesen
First of the Tah-Sig
/Whilst I was waiting for my Battlefront bases to arrive (to finish my second Polish infantry platoon - do keep up!) I decided to start on one of the four sci-fi armies that I have in my lead mountain.
Yes, ridiculous to have four entire armies in the mountain, but I've learnt that you have to buy them when you see them in case the manufacturer goes under whilst you're still vacillating over whether to buy them or not!
Anyway, the chosen race was Khurasan's Tah-Sig: part of their Zantin Reconquest range. They are described as:
The Tah-sig are radically different from humans from a biological perspective, using liquid nitrogen as a solvent rather than water, and therefore living in a much colder environment. They are also burrowers rather than surface dwellers and rely on hearing more than sight as their primary sense. The Tah-sig have eyes but their main sense is hearing, and this is as acute, precise, and long-ranged as the human sense of sight. Their armoured environmental suits have built-in aural enhancers mounted on either side of their helmets to amplify and fine-tune this, and to prevent enemy disruption. The suit also has vision enhancement (the faint blue vision slots being visible in the recesses on either side of their helmets), but even when enhanced the vision of a Tah-sig is not equal to the unenhanced sight of a human.
The current range of figures covers only infantry, but is nicely thought out in terms of the company and platoon OB.
Here's the first couple of infantry sections:
Now to start thinking about what vehicles to go with them...
IABSM AAR: A Canadian VC #11
/One of the things I love about being a scenario writer is seeing how different people interpret the scenarios that I write: how do they translate my maps to their tabletops, how do their players handle the tactical challenges set for them.
I enjoy all this not just with my scenarios but with all scenarios, so it's nice to see the eleventh battle report for a game using the A Canadian VC scenario from the IABSM v3 rulebook: this one posted onto the IABSM Facebook group by James Tree.
I hope he doesn't mind, but I've also reproduced the whole AAR here as well. Click on the pic below to see all...then perhaps go back to the main AAR page to compare and contrast how the other ten games looked and played out.
IABSM AAR: Kursk
/Here's a great IABSM after action report from the somewhat surprisingly named Miniature Bastards* Russian-language blog by Valderech.
I haven't been able to make contact with Valderech, so I hope he doesn't mind me reproducing his entry here, but his game looks absolutely superb and deserves a wide audience.
As for the accompanying words, I have tried to convert the gobbledegook that Google Translate came up with into something resembling good English, so for any clumsy phrases etc, blame me.
Click on the picture below to see all:
*Now whilst my little men do sometimes let me down (my orders are always clear, my tactics always sound!) I'm not sure bad language is called for!