Micahel Curtis and friends are preparing to run a demo game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum at Salute next year, based on the Arras counterattack.
To put on a successful demo takes an awful lot of work, including many playtests. Click on the picture below for a very nice looking report of their latest one:
I play To The Strongest in 15mm, but on a 28mm-sized grid. I love the look of the huge armies that you have to field to fill the space.
The problem, of course, is that you have to have the aforementioned huge armies in order to play and if, like me, your collection was gathered to play (my own) Vis Bellica rules, then you find yourself short of lots of figures.
Three of my existing chariots
No problem, I hear you cry: an excellent excuse to buy more…and indeed it is. So there I was, mooching around Warfare, wondering whether to buy the final pack of Ancient British chariots that I needed to complete my 130 point army when I saw a chap selling painted Ancient British (or Gallic etc) figures, including chariots.
Now these figures were old, and painted in quite a basic style, but on inquiry were being sold for only £1 per chariot. Hmmm…four new chariots at about £5 each which I then have to paint, base etc, or just buy four of these and be done.
Well, I prefer to paint my own stuff, but then I looked down at these poor figures, all jumbled together in a box, suffering a bit from lead rot (which shows you how old they were) and thought “no, I won’t buy new, I’ll give these old veterans a new home”. After all, figures are not just for Christmas, they are for life!
So here they are: four ancient Ancient British chariots that look more like 20mm than 15mm; are basically painted (although shroffed up a bit by me); are suffering from lead rot (hence the very heavy coat of shiny car lacquer I’ve given them): but given a new home and a new lease of life. Only a shame I couldn’t have taken them all…
I though I’d at least better mention that Battlefront are currently running a 40% off Black Friday sale covering, as usual, some of their lines that obviously aren’t selling as well as they had hoped: western desert, Vietnam, Great War and Arab/Israeli.
I’ve been through it myself, but couldn’t really find anything I wanted to buy: incredible though that may sound. I’ve got enough to field decent size forces for ‘Nam and Arab/Israeli, and although I had thought to launch a western desert collection off the back of this, quite frankly I’d rather buy a whole load of PSC or Zvezda plastics.
Let’s take an example: Panzer II tanks. Battlefront sale gives you five resin and metal tanks at a sale price of £19.80 or £3.96 each. When they are in stock, PSC will do you a platoon deal of five Zvezda plastic tanks for £15.95 or £3.19 each. They are much easier to build (I used to let my daughter build my Zvezda Panzer IIs when she was seven!) and I actually think they look better than the resin and metal ones. Incidentally, the non-sale Battlefront price for five Panzer IIs is £33 or £6.60 each!
Same with the SdKfz 231s. Four from Battlefront in the sale at £17.40 or £4.35 each; five from PSC not in any sale at £20.95 or £4.19 each. And the PSC models are lovely.
So take advantage of the sale if you like, but do make sure you shop around first…and even if you don’t think you like plastics as an alternative to traditional resin and metal, do give them a go at least once. Makes an army easier to carry for a start!
Okay, okay, I found something to buy!
I’m buying the Afrika Korps 90th Light Division box set. No, you don’t get the whole division for £22.50, but you do get the specialist tank hunters from their 605th Panzerjaeger Battalion: three Diana’s and three PaK36(r) anti-tank guns. At an average of £3.75 each, worth getting in case I ever need to field three of the nine Diana’s that actually fought!!!!!!
Those of you who have been on this year’s wargame show and Lardy Day circuit this year may well have seen Mike Whitaker’s excellent demonstration game Bloody Omaha. This is a fantastic set up representing The Big Red One’s assault of the eastern end of Omaha beach (Colleville-Sur-Mer).
Those of you who know Mike will know that he is a man of mighty generous spirit, as is proved here as he lays on the game for a couple of fellow Lardy’s who hadn’t had a chance to take part in any of the show sessions.
Click on the picture below to see a magnificent battle report taken from the Roll A One blog and Mike’s own blog Trouble At T’Mill.
One of the reasons I love running this site (at great expense in terms of time and money BTW!) is the opportunity to post battle reports from games based on scenarios from the various scenario packs that I’ve written.
I like seeing whether the game worked or not (fortunately they generally do!), and how people have interpreted the situation, terrain, any special rules and the like. It’s also great to see the beautiful figures and scenery that people use as well.
It gives me great pleasure, therefore, to introduce the following AAR by Time Whitworth using the 3RTR at Hames-Boucres scenario from the Defence of Calais pack (the first I wrote). It’s a great scenario that I’ve played several times myself. Click on the pic below to see all:
Here’s the latest update to the 2019 Painting Challenge…and despite the healthy number of submissions in the list below, it’s a bit quiet for the time of year.
We’re just past the middle of November, which means you have about six weeks left to get those last entries painted, based, finished and photographed. Last year’s scores won’t beat themselves, you know!
Personally, I’m also on my final push: desperate to get to 2,000 points. I missed it last year by a gnat’s whisker…and it looks as if I’m going to do the same again this year. I must obviously try harder: so do join me in a final push.
Here, in no particular order, are today’s entries:
Travis is first up, as always, with some beautifully painted Winter Americans and a few moderns as well
Chris Cornwell submits a large chunk: medievals and a host of Zouaves
Mr Luther is back on the terrain: scratchbuilt houses and some gravestones
There’s more Condottieri from Carole
Steve Burt is in Zululand with the 24th
Joe McGinn goes Airborne for Market Garden
Another big entry from Mr Helliwell…he must be running out of space by now!
And last, but not least, Mervyn has some Haradrim
As always, clicking on the names of the people in the list above will take you straight through to their gallery (opens in a new window). Scorecard will be updated once I can get on my home PC: currently colonised by Minecraft every night!
Here are today’s pictures:
Another quick after action report from Burt Minarot’s excellent Spanish-language blog Las Partidas de Burt.
Here, British troops are trying to slow down a German force advancing towards a vital crossroads designated as the next jump-off point for the Allied advance.
Click on the picture below to see all:
Coming close to finishing the Sumerians now: just two more units of spearmen, some heroes, and some skirmishing archers to go.
That means it must be time to paint the generals: three of them needed, each in a four-equine chariot:
And very nice they are too: this really is a cracking range of 15mm figures from Museum Miniatures.
Although I know that some people hate Warfare (Richard!) I actually rather like it.
Good shopping (even if it gets a bit crowded sometimes), some nice demonstration games, and a huge competition gaming area. Above all, it’s full of people actually playing wargames, and always inspires me to actually wargame myself as opposed to spending my time painting and reading about wargaming on the ‘net!
This year was no exception. I headed over on Saturday morning (so if you’re reading this today, you can still get there tomorrow as it’s a two-day show), and saw the following:
Nice to see Big Rich, John, Bevan, Neil and Carol…and I’ll be back tomorrow for more.
I’m quite a fan of Kickstarter. I’ve backed about six projects to date, and in all but one have received exactly what I wanted…and the exception was very much down to me not communicating properly with the company involved.
So here’s a quick plug for the Loud Ninja Games Ikwen Kickstarter project expanding their Ikwen project with some great new sculpts. Here are a few examples:
I currently use the Ikwen as tech support for my Chuhuac mercenaries. The above will add enough for them to be a force in their own right. Recommended.
Here are some great photos of a game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum from Joe McGinn and Tim Howard. These pics are lifted from the IABSM Facebook Group: membership a must if you enjoy the game!
Click on the pic below to see all:
Friend Dave and company have been playing a mini I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum campaign, Chasseur, and invited me to take part in game three. The campaign is set during the invasion of France in May/June 1940, and I would play a column of German Panzers as it motors towards the Seine.
The AAR contains all you need to play the scenario for yourselves, so click on the pic below to see what happens:
Regular visitors will know that my favourite era of WW2 is the early period: 1939 through to early 1942, with a big focus on the campaigns of 1939 and 1940. This period, however, is not the most popular: most gamers go for the mid- to late-war period with its bocage, big cats, Panzergrenadiers, Americans and tank-riding Soviets.
This means that it can often be quite difficult to find 15mm versions of some of the more esoteric early-war vehicles: it’s just not worth the whiles of figure manufacturers to go to all the expense of having them sculpted and cast - they just won’t sell enough of them.
One solution is Shapeways, custom-printed to order…but it’s often hard to find a Shapeways model that doesn’t look as if it’s been 3D-printed: the build lines can be very apparent, especially when using wash techniques to paint them. Washes, after all, are designed to run into cracks and crevices.
Recently, however, I was browsing the WW2 section of the Lead Adventure forum when I came across a post from a chap who has produced a number of uncommon early war vehicles on Shapeways. The picture of the vehicles looked better than normal, so I thought I’d give them a go. They were, as the title of this post suggests an Adler Kfz 13 reconnaissance car and, based on the same chassis, an Adler Kfz 14 radio car.
Here’s the link to the MojoBob’s Shapeways page.
The vehicles arrived promptly and actually look quite good indeed. Here they are painted up, with a suspiciously familiar command figure for scale comparison:
Adler Kfz 13
Adler Kfz 14
The machine gun in the Kfz 13 is very nice: grown from the bottom of the chassis with a little seat thrown in as well. No awkward sticking teeny-tiny pieces into teeny-tiny holes! Likewise, the antenna on the Kfz 14 comes integral to the vehicles, meaning that for both models all you have to do is undercoat and paint. The Kfz 14 also has a seat and radio-like boxes in the main compartment.
The only downside to the models, along with almost everything on Shapeways, is the rather hefty price tag: an average of £10 a vehicle, or at least double what you’d pay at Battlefront or Peter Pig etc.
But I like them, and they aren’t available elsewhere.
So we’ll give MojoBob a recommendation, especially as I’m currently eyeing up the Guy Lizard command vehicle, the Lanchester armoured car, and all three Soviet artillery tractors!
After the war perhaps I'll sit again
Out on the terrace where I sat with you,
And see the changeless sky and hills beat blue
And live an afternoon of summer through.
I shall remember then, and sad at heart
For the lost day of happiness we knew,
Wish only that some other man were you
And spoke my name as once you used to do.
MAY WEDDERBURN CANNAN
Only eight weeks or so to go before the end of this year’s Challenge…and the paint brushes are flying around as people get their last few entries of the year ready.
Today, in no particular order, we have:
Lots of snake fencing and a squad and a bit of US soldiers for the Bulge from Travis
Squadrons of WW2 aircraft for the desert of Med from Mark Luther
Joining Mark on the aircraft production line is Jason Ralls, but he adds some WW2 shipping as well
Our favourite Valkyrie, Carole, paints a famous shieldmaiden and some Jotuns for her to fight
Mervyn is clearing some of the more obscure bits of his lead mountain
Andy Duffell is all slingers and ogres
There’s a mix of Napoleonics and WW2 from Sapper: they’re all still PBI though
Lloyd is still painting Aztecs: loads of colours never used before and never to be used again
More 15mm SYW Austrians from Mr Helliwell
A mixture of skeletons and samurai from the Hodgemeister
Lots of beautiful paint-jobs on show, so make sure you visit some of the galleries. Clicking on the name of the person will take you straight to their gallery, which will open in a new window so you don’t have to faff around with navigation etc.
Here are a few examples to wet the whistle…
Yet another stupendously huge IABSM AAR from Just Jack: the third in his series of fighting on the northern shoulder of Kursk.
This time, the Soviets are counter-attacking towards Kastenwold, and seem to be doing a good job of it too!
This is another huge AAR: 162 photos if I recall correctly. So click on the pic below to see all…
More of the lovely 15mm Sumerians from Museum Miniatures. This time it’s the bronze fist of the army: the battle carts!
These are a bit like heavy chariots…except for the fact that there are no horses available, so the somewhat less sophisticated equids are used instead; and primitive technology requires the carts to have four wheels instead of two i.e. making them hard to manoeuvre.
Other manufacturers take note: these are easy to put together in that the carts are basically one piece with the yoke and pole being another. Add in the bow cases on the sides and you’re done.
As usual, I’ve painted these mostly with Citadel Contrast paints. I’ve covered how the Sumerian infantry are done in previous posts, but the equids are undercoated as usual, then have the legs and lower body lightly painted in Apothecary White. The upper body is then painted in Nazdreg Yellow. The mane down the back is simple black, black tufts on the ears and in the tail, and you’re done. Horse equipment was Contrast Snakebite Leather.
If I have any complaint, it’s that the warrior in the back is in a bit of a weird pose. I question how easy or practical it is to hold the spear like that for a sustained period, or even to thrust. I know holding a Japanese bo like that wouldn’t work unless you’re talking about literally the very final point of a somewhat unusual overhand thrust: I went and got mine out of the car to try it out!
But that’s a minor gripe: overall very nice figures.
Another update to the list of 15mm Sci-Fi Figure Manufacturers that you can find listed in the Q13 section of this website.
Latest addition, long overdue, is DRS Models: a range of 3D printed models covering seven different factions. No infantry or other units, but the vehicles do look very good and, pleasingly, cover all the different sorts of model that you need i.e. each faction has main battle tanks, APCs, anti-air vehicles, SP guns etc.
Here’s an example from the Cetian range:
I haven’t ordered or got any of these yet, but they certainly look very good. Some of the ranges are quite unusual as well: giving a suitably alien feel to a battlefield.
Click on the picture above to go to their home page.
Great little AAR by Desmondo Darkin, taken from the IABSM Facebook Group.
The scenario was based on Day 2 of Operation Martlet, 25th June. 1944: the British attack on the German line at St Nicholas Farm and the Grand Farm.
Desmondo and friends used the Oh What a Total Bummer dice-driven version of IABSM. Click on the pic below to see what happened:
Next up for the Sumerians (15mm from Museum Miniatures) are another non-core unit: the absolutely insane Straddle Carts:
The view from the rear, below, shows them better, but it’s a chap sitting on a mini-vaulting horse being pulled along by four equids!
This seems like a very good way to die!
What is a shame, however, is that the army lists from To The Strongest rate these as just about the worst troop type you can get: Raw Lights. Now I know that is probably the author reflecting his slight disbelief that these things ever existed (carvings, presumably, being open to misinterpretation), but I think a Veteran rating would be more appropriate. For a start, more people would use them, adding to the uniqueness of the army; and secondly, as I say in the title, you’d have to be crazy i.e. Veteran to ever get on to one of them in the first place!
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.
If you need to contact me, you can do so at:
vislardica@gmail.com
If you have enjoyed visiting this site, please add a link to it on your own wargaming blog: www.vislardica.com.
