Salute 2019

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This Saturday it was off to Salute 2019 at the Excel centre in Docklands.

Salute is one of the cornerstone shows in the UK wargames calendar, and it’s easy to see why.

Firstly, the Excel centre is a great venue: easy access by car, parking right underneath (even if it is £20 for the day), huge amounts of space, and plentiful food and drink outlets. My only complaint would be that sometimes I find the lighting in the hall a bit dim, but that might just be my fading eyesight!

The queue to get in used to be an extreme annoyance - one could wait an hour - but for the last few years its been so under control that, for example, this year I arrived at Excel at 9.50, had a baguette and coffee for breakfast, and then walked straight in to the show without queuing at all. Amazing! The only question is why couldn’t they have organised it like this before!

The show itself was full of traders and demo games. There are loads of blogs carrying loads of reports on the show, so suffice to say that it took me all morning and some of the afternoon to get round everything.

The Lardies were running a stunning game of Chain of Command set in Malaya in 1942, a period near and dear to my heart (Fall of the Liongate and all that). I didn’t play, but enjoyed watching the action.

Also Larding away was Mike Whitaker with his Bloody Omaha game. Now I played this game a few years ago at one of the Evesham games days…and its a cracker. Mike had 486 figures on 144 bases on an 8x6 table on display and managed two complete play-throughs of the scenario. And people say my games are big!

Click on the picture below to see all the photos:

As per usual, I did spend a bit too much money, but it was all on absolute bargains, honest! I bought a bag of fifty brushes for £20, which should keep even an established ‘brushbane’ like me going for a bit; and then I also bought one of the “all you can see for £100” mdf sci-fi industrial set-ups from Troll Trader that I just cannot wait to get built and painted up.

The show was nicely crowded all through the day, except perhaps at lunchtime. I hear a lot of people saying that their mates didn’t go because they couldn’t be bothered, or it wasn’t their thing any more or something rubbish like that. All I can say is that they are wrong: Salute is still a cornerstone show and a must-visit for any wargamer in reach in the UK.

Battlefront Jagdpanzer IV in 15mm

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I’m always a sucker for a bargain, so when Battlefront recently had a 25% sale in preparation for withdrawing some models from sale whilst they re-model, I took full advantage and added another peak to the lead mountain.

One gap in my collection that I was happy to fill in were some Jagdpanzer IVs: the infamous very low profile tank hunters.

These were easy to build (therapy after the Steyrs!) and easy to paint. Spray dunkelgelb, then use the sponge pad that Battlefront use as packaging to protect their models to dab on some dark green then brown. Wash with the ubiquitous Agrax Earthshade, highlight with Screaming Skull, do the tracks, crewman and decals and away you go. Simple.

Can’t wait to get them onto the table.

IABSM AAR: Battle at Parczew

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It’s September 29th, 1939, and Independent Operational Group Polesie are marching south towards Koch. Attacked by Soviet cavalry and tanks, the Poles are at first beaten back, but then counter-attack and manage to re-take the village of Milanow. This they then prepare to hold in the face of further attacks from Russian infantry with tank support.

The above is a condensed version of the background given to scenario #31: The Battle at Parczew from the September War scenario pack. I would play the Poles, defending Milanow; with John and Dave commanding the advancing Soviets.

Click on the picture below to see all…

PSC Steyr Heavy Cars in 15mm

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I’m quite a fan of plastic vehicles: the price means you can buy by the company rather than by the platoon, the plastic allows for an incredible amount of detail, and they weigh a fraction of their metal or resin equivalents - important when you’re carrying a company of large tanks around!

So when I needed a re-stock of spray paints for undercoating, and had decided to use the ones available on the Plastic Soldier Company website, and noticed that they had released a set of Steyr heavy transport cars, I impulse-purchased a box-full and looked forward to adding them to my collection. I didn’t exactly need them, but they could join the mass of other PSC products that I already had: Cromwells, Churchills, half-tracks etc.

As you might have gathered already, I like PSC kit, and have built many a PSC model, but I’m afraid to say that these were a complete nightmare to put together! They’ve turned out brilliantly, as you’ll hopefully see from the pictures below, but the actual build process was…well, it was traumatic, to say the least!

So what was the problem?

The problem starts right at the beginning of the build: step 2 in the instructions IIRC.

The first step is to attach the bottom of the vehicle to the chassis that will take the wheels. No real problem here, but my advice is to do this on all the vehicles you are building first, then properly leave them to dry until the glue is rock-solid. That assembly is going to take an awful lot of pressure as you try and complete step 2, and will easily un-stick itself as the shear you will have to use takes effect.

Okay: now onto step 2. Sticking the sides of the vehicle onto the bottom/chassis assembly. This is where the fun starts.

The sides of the vehicle are necessarily shaped and curved to represent the body and the bonnet (hood for my US chums) of the Steyr. This curved piece of plastic is not quite shaped correctly to sit on the vehicle bottom. This means that you have to glue the front of it in place, and then bend the plastic into position on the sides. That means gluing plastic under pressure in place i.e. the sides want to flex back into their natural shape rather than sit in position as the glue hardens. As this is a 15mm model, the surfaces to be stuck together are small, which means there’s not much glue available to hold the plastic-wanting-to-flex-back to-its-natural-shape in place.

One simple paragraph, but a couple of hours of extreme frustration!

No matter what I did, I couldn’t get the models to go together without leaving seam-gaps where there shouldn’t have been seam gaps. By the end, I was using plastic cement, Superglue, and, finally, a paste made up of Superglue and PVA mixed together in a desperate attempt to make things work. I had so much glue on my fingers that, even now, four days later, I still look like someone trying to conceal their fingerprints from forensics!

Things got so bad at one stage that I seriously considered taking two of the models outside and using a hammer to smash them into smithereens! I can feel my blood pressure rising even as I type this!

Anyway, I eventually got them built and painted and, I must say, they’ve turned out very well indeed:

The paint job is simple. Spray dunkelgelb from the PSC spray can. Paint canvas light brown. Wash with Agrax Earthshade, highlight with Screaming Skull. Paint in relevant bits: tyres, tools and the windows.

I’m quite pleased with the windows: they are painted a medium-light blue then very gently brushed with a bit of white.

So a very lovely looking set of transport vehicles, but achieved with much pain and frustration…to the point where if PSC offered me another box for free, I might actually say “thanks, but no thanks”.

PS Note that the Steyrs come with plenty of options: early or late (my bad: the single Steyr shown above is an early model painted in late colours, the only one I actually made that mistake on: the others are all late models painted in late colours); and with the option to have the canvas top down showing the inside and some crew. I would have done that, but was so hacked off with the basic body build that I just wanted to get them finished, so went with the quick slap-on-the-canvas-roof option instead.

IABSM AAR: Operation Sealion #02: Rearguard at Pevensy

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Karim van Overmeire and the Stipsicz Hussars are continuing to play through the Operation Sealion scenario pack, this time they fight scenario #02: Rearguard at Pevensy.

Will the British hold the bridges, or will the fearsome Hun get in amongst them? Click on the picture below to find out all…

TFL Painting Challenge: Not An April Fools Update

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Morning all. Here’s this week’s update to the Painting Challenge, and not an April Fools amongst them.

In no particular order, we have:

  • Mark Luther updates his gallery with some pictures of all the Sugar Islands figures he’s been painting

  • Blue Moose Ken sends in his usual eclectic mix of figures

  • There are some Orc archers and BEF supports from Travis

  • Mr Slade has finished off his Belgian Chasseurs for 1940, and reports that (unbelievably) his newly painted troops have won a victory on their first outing

  • More Condotteri ride into Carole’s collection

  • And more of the usual from Mr Helliwell

  • Jon Yuengling has some early war Germans and Dutch in 15mm for us to see

  • And last, but by no means least, Stumpy bases some Zulus and paints some nuns!

As usual, clicking on the name of the person in the list above will take you straight to their gallery (opens in a new window).

Now, before the pictures, a confession: I haven’t had a chance to update the scorecard with all the points generated form the above yet. I could have done it last night, but chose to finish off some Jagdpanzer IV tank hunters instead! I’ll try and get it done tonight.

So, on to today’s piccies:

Searchlights (literally) in 28mm

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Those of you who have the The Defence of Calais scenario pack for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum, and those who have read the Blitzkrieg: The BEF theatre supplement, will know that during the fall of France campaign the British were often forced to use Searchlight Infantry (i.e. line of communication troops whose purpose was to help anti-aircraft units hit enemy ‘planes by shining big searchlights into the sky) in the front line.

Up to now, unfortunately, there’s been no way to differentiate Searchlight Infantry from normal, run-of-the-mill types: after all, they wore the same basic uniform. Now, however, at least in 28mm, Sarissa Precision Ltd has produced a portable searchlight and generator.

Now the model is actually not quite right for the Searchlight Regiments (they used the searchlights either mounted on trucks, or carried on lorries with a slightly different stand) but is the closest thing I have seen so far.

Credit where credit is due: I didn’t see this on the Sarissa site, but on the Bad Squiddo games site, where Annie has created a Home Front female crew for the spotlight, and is selling the Sarissa model for them to, er, man.

Apologies if you’ve seen this before (the model is not marked as a new release on the Sarissa site) but I thought it worth mentioning. You never know, Sarissa might produce a 15mm version as a result or, equally good, Annie might start doing some of her Soviet female infantry in 15mm!

IABSM AAR: Return to San Marco

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Tim Whitworth and the Like a Stonewall Wargames Group had a second go at the “Attack on San Marco” scenario from the “Cymru Am Byth” scenario pack.

Rather than start a new AAR, I’ve added the words and pics to the bottom of their first attempt.

Click on the picture below to see all:

TFL Painting Challenge: A Normal Update!

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As it’s only been a week since the last update, the number of entries to be processed since week remained with the “normal” bracket, even given a huge first entry of the year from John de Terre Neuve.

So, in no particular order, we have:

  • Andrew Helliwell makes his usual weekly deposit: more SYW figures and a couple of WoR biggies

  • There’s a lovely 28mm garage from John Emmett

  • Travis rocks up with some orcs and some skeletons

  • Massive entry from Matt Slade: the start of a Belgian Chasseurs Ardennais platoon and more AWI

  • Another massive entry, this time in 10mm from Sapper with his Western Desert forces

  • And then it’s time for the truly massive first entry of the year from John de Terre Neuve. A mixture of 28mm fantasy and 1/72nd scale WW2

  • Carole has some more Condotteri

  • The Hat is back with more ships: the rest of the Japanese Fleet box…well worth a look

  • More Star Wars from Chris Kay

  • And last but not least, some Saracens from Steve Burt

Actually that was a pretty big set of entries this week after all!

As usual, clicking on the name of the person above will take you straight to their gallery (opens in a new window).

Here are today’s pictures:

IABSM AAR: Sidi Ahmed

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Another great battle report by Carojon and the Devon Wargames Group.

This time they have ventured into the Western Desert, with a version of the battle for Longstop Hill: the encounter that opened the way for the final Allied advance on Tunis.

What’s great about this AAR is that the forces are detailed as well: so it will be easy for you to replay this encounter yourselves should you want to.

Click on the picture below to see all:

It's Another Russian Church

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Yes, it’s another Russian church: the eighth in my collection.

This one comes from Mark IV Miniatures’ Fury on the Steppes range, and is quite lovely.

The church is in three bits. The base, up to the height of the thatch, the smaller roof, and the larger roof with spire. There’s plenty of room for figures in the base: I reckon you could easily fit a platoon of infantry in there.

What I particularly like is the detail:

You can see that the “onion” is thatch held in place by strips of what I’ve painted as metal; and that the roof, tower and ornamental woodwork really enhance its look.

Recommended.

IABSM AAR: Hauts-Vents at Cold Wars 19

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Matthew Matic and friends ran a game of IABSM at Cold Wars this year. Click on the pic below to see a few photos, including one that shows just how much kit goes into to putting on a demonstration game of this quality…

 
 
 

I’m happy to add any other pictures or info people have about the game: usual address of admin@vislardica.com.

 

IABSM AAR: Sealion #01: The Fight for the Military Canal

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It’s been ages since we saw anything from the Stipsicz Hussars, our friends in Belgium/Flanders, so I was really pleased when the following battle report dropped into my Inbox.

Here we see the first game from the Operation Sealion scenario pack: the British defending a vital bridge against assault from German Paratroopers.

Click on the picture below to see all, and it’s great to see the next generation of wargamers pushing lead round the table…

It’s hard to reach the middle of the table when you’re only nine!

How Big Is This Church!

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Regular visitors will know that I have a thing for 15mm Russian churches.

I have six already, and when I posted pictures of them all (see post here) claiming to have all that are available, several people were kind enough to point out the ones missing from my collection.

The first of these is a truly enormous building from Total Battle Miniatures. It’s not so much that it has a big footprint, but more the height of the thing. It goes up for ever! That’s a BA-64 armoured car for comparison.

It is a nice model, though, and very easy to paint. Spray brown, drybrush in a lighter brown, wash, highlight with Screaming Skull, wash again, and then paint in the bits you want: I did the windows, window frames, door frame and the “onions”!

The piece actually comes in three parts. A base, the bit that goes on top of that, and then the roof of the tower with the “onions”. Each is made to take figures, so you can pop your FOO in position without difficulty.

Recommended.

Sassanid Levy Infantry

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I know no army is ever really complete, but my 15mm Sassanid Persians are now effectively so. I have all the cataphracts, heavy cavalry and light cavalry allowed, and now have two deep units of Sassanid foot as well.

These have been sitting on the painting table for far too long and were effectively blocking me from getting anything done: whilst they were there, I didn’t want to start anything new; and yet the thought of painting them just caused my mojo to flee!

Anyway, they are done now, so hopefully the block is cleared…

TFL Painting Challenge: Another Biggie!

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Which is what happens when you leave it for a week and a half!

Some great looking entries this week, so recommended you take a look.

In no particular order, we have:

  • Mark Luther continues with his Sugar Islands painting in 15mm

  • Carole does a few more Gendarmes, and paints the Bad Squiddo female Soviets. Great looking figures, if only Annie did them in 15mm!

  • There’s Ken’s usual mix of figures: Gauls, fantasy, Ancients and Native Americans

  • And talking of usual, Andrew Helliwell sends in some more Prussians, some more WoR and some more home-made terrain

  • But Travis, on the other hand, branches out: yes, there’s a German howitzer, but there’s also a whole load of 28mm fantasy figures as well

  • Jon Yuengling pops in a bridge and some FJ machine gunners

  • Chris Cornwell sends in a very impressive looking unit of forty-eight 28mm Sarmation cataphracts

  • Some of you may remember I told Sapper to remember that there’s no such thing as a finished army…I rest my case!

  • Steve Burt grips the beast with four Mongols

  • Mervyn is still back in Middle Earth with what must now be just about a one-to-one recreation of the Riders of Rohan

  • There’s a big entry from big Matt Slade (I got the shirt BTW, thanks)

  • Mr Plowman can’t decide if he’s painting terrain or aircraft…or is it both?

  • And last, but by no means least, Stumpy makes his first appearance of the year

As per usual, clicking on the name of the person will take you straight to their gallery (opens in a new window). Here are today’s pictures:

IABSM AAR: Lardiarz or BoB: Near Vcheva

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Captain Cliche and friends have played another game based on one of the scenarios from the late war Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack.

This time, they have adapted scenario #5D (or scenario #5N): Near Vcheva. This is an encounter battle as two armoured forces meet to contest a vital junction.

Click on the pick below to see all: