300,000 Page Views!

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If my calculations are correct, some time yesterday this website hit 300,000 page views since its launch in October 2014 i.e. just about five years to the month!

That’s not bad going for a hobby site that concentrates so specifically on the company-sized rules from the TooFatLardies (even if yesterday’s post was about To The Strongest!).

So thank-you all for your support and visitations over the last five years, and thank you especially to those who have kindly given permission for me to use their content on here.

If nothing else, and along with its Facebook page, I reckon we’ve kept I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum from going out of print, a worthy achievement by any calculation.

A few facts to amuse:

  • Most visitors come from the UK (42%), followed by the US (26%) and then Australia (7%) and Canada (4%). Quite surprised that the US number isn’t higher…

  • The most popular content is After Action Reports (so keep them coming) followed by the Army Galleries.

  • There are 956 individual battle reports on the site. I think I’m probably the biggest contributor, but honorable mentions have to go to many, many more people

More Sumerians

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Closing in on the last few units of my 15mm Sumerian army for To The Strongest.

Today’s offering is firstly a fifth spear block of 48 spearmen: a rather daunting prospect when you see them all ready to be undercoated, but fine once you get into the rhythm of painting them.

Next we have some of the marker pieces I’ll need. These are the Heroes: allowing you a one-off re-try of a round of melee i.e. draw the wrong card, use our hero, draw another card, discard hero.

As you can see, each of my heroes comes complete with their own scribe (to record their valiant actions) and their own parasol holder (to keep the hero cool until he is needed).

Once again, lovely 15mm figures from Museum Miniatures.

IABSM AAR: South of Cherbourg

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It’s always nice when you hear about someone returning to I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum after a bit of a break and having a thoroughly good game…so here’s a quick AAR from Rob Goodfellow of the Tamworth Games Club.

Here Rob and friends play through the second sample scenario from the IABSM v3 rulebook: South of Cherbourg. Click on the picture below to see all.

Even better, Rob tells me that they are now thinking of playing through the Blenneville or Bust! scenario pack: so I’m sure we can expect plenty more AARs in the near future!

TFL Painting Challenge: Huge Update

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Well you all seemed to respond to my request to get those last few entries of the year in…especially as we’re now in the final month of this year’s competition, and last year’s scores won’t beat themselves!

Just one of Doug’s 28mm Hetzers

Today’s entries are:

  • Doug Melville with an incredible amount of WW2 28mm kit on show. So huge an entry was this that I almost considered giving Doug his own update!

  • Some casualty figures and sabot bases from Chris Stoesen

  • More beautiful Aztecs from The Hat

  • Travis pops in three LVTs and some more winter Americans

  • Five houses and, most important of all, a pub from Mervyn

  • A massive re-base from Jason Ralls…but hasn’t made the classic “cardboard base” error in the past?

  • I scoff at Steve Burt’s claim to have sent in the last of his Crusades figures: it’s never the last!

  • Carole returns to Games Workshop, spiky bits and all (the figures, not Carole)

  • Bits and Bobs from Fred Bloggs

  • And last, but by no means least, Andrew Helliwell with his usual plethora of figures

As usual, clicking on the name of the person above will take you straight to their gallery (opens in a new window) and I do recommend doing so: there are some magnificent paint jobs and collections on show.

Keep them coming: the end of the year beckons…

Here are today’s pictures:

IABSM AAR: On the Northern Shoulder of Kursk, Fight 4: Karpunevka

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Here is another stupendous After Action Report from Just Jack, taken (with permission) from his excellent BlackHawkHet blog.

I say “stupendous” because not only is it a really good read, but it’s huge as well: 144 photos, all individually captioned with an account of the action that’s shown. It’s so huge that it actually broke my attempt to get a post every day in November: I managed one every day right up to Monday 25th and then ran into this monster!

It also didn’t help that Squarespace was playing up: I had to type out about one caption in every five as the cut-and-paste just wasn’t working. Thanks for the bleeding finger tips, Squarespace!

Anyhow, enough of my moaning. It’s a great read: click on the picture below to do so…

Praesentia Hyperion Drones

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Remember the Praesentia? Excellent 15mm sci-fi figures from what was Critical Mass Games, but is now Ral Partha.

Well I started painting all the figures I bought in CMG’s “closing down” sale but never quite got around to finally finishing them off. The half-painted remainder have been sitting on my painting table, occasionally shuffling their feet and giving a polite cough to remind me that they are there.

As I’m a bit sick of painting Sumerians (yes, I know I’m supposed to be on the final push to finish them, but I’ve painted hundreds of the little blighters!) I thought I’d just clear a bit of space by finishing the Praesentia off.

So here’s the first of the three lots of Praesentia: a platoon of Hyperion drone AFVs.

These are actually quite large. The bases are a good three inches long, so you can see the drones come in at about 5 or 6 inches in length.

Unfortunately I believe that they are out of production at the moment (they are certainly not listed on the Ral Partha website) so I’m quite glad I bought them when I did. Just goes to show what I always say: never hesitate to buy figures, as they might not be available when you finally do decide you want them!

Ancient, Ancient British!

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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…

Battlefront 40% Off Black Friday Sale

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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!

Postscript

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!!!!!!

IABSM AAR: Bloody Omaha Re-Visited

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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.

IABSM AAR: 3RTR at Hames-Boucres

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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:

TFL Painting Challenge: A Bit Quiet For The Time of Year!

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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:

IABSM AAR: Objective - The Crossroads

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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:

Sumerian Commanders

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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.

Back from Warfare

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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.

Q13: Ikwen Kickstarter

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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.

IABSM AAR: Chasseur 3: La Ville

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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:

Kfz 13 and Kfz 14

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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!