Two More For The Painting Challenge

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Two more “first entries of the year” today.

First up we have the return of the Hat, Lloyd Bowler, for his sixth year running. Lloyd starts the year with a bang with two entries: the first some more of his magnificent Aztecs; the second some 6mm paper buildings that look very fiddly indeed to me! Here are the Aztecs:

The second is Ralph Plowman, extraordinarily fine painter of 15mm sci-fi figures. Ralph has entered the Challenge every year since its inception in 2014, so starts (for those of you who have had too many scalpel-related accidents whilst prepping figures) his seventh season. Ralph’s first entry of 2020 is a very nice planetary exploration team:

Finally today another honourable mention for Travis who has already submitted his third and fourth entries of the year: more dwarves and a team of, er, contractors, shown below:

All entries are available to view in the individual galleries, which can be found in the 2020 TFL Painting Challenge folder in the navbar at the top of the page.

First Painting of 2020

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If you’re a regular visitor to this page, then you’ll know that I have recently built a 15mm Sumerian army using Museum Miniatures’ superb “Z Range” of CAD-designed figures.

I was browsing their website wondering whether to go for their Z-range Classical Indians when I noticed that they had also released some Z-range Greek Hoplites. Now I need at least another three Hoplite spear blocks, each 48 figures strong. I actually have 48 figures from another manufacturer waiting to be painted, but doing two of the blocks towards the end of last year (i.e. 96 Hoplites) had quite put me off painting them. Those cuirasses take ages to do properly.

So I had a look and noticed that Museum produced a set of Hoplites with no clothes on and another with only a little kilt to cover their, er, dignity. Ideal: Z-range figures with no cuirass to paint! One odd thing: the Hoplites come in mixed packs of kneeling, thrusting and standing i.e. you can’t buy 48 of the same pose. Maybe I could have rung up and seen whether I could have had some custom homogeneous packs run up for me, but I thought I’d give the mixed unit a go.

Hmmm…not sure.

Good points: easy and quick to paint up, nicely animated, shield transfers from Little Big Man Studios are superb.

Bad points: I prefer my Hoplite blocks to have all the same pose, and somehow the kilts made me paint everything in prime colours instead of varying the crests and kilt colours more. At least my daughter likes my “rainbow Hoplites”!

Feel free to let me know what you think. I still need another couple of Hoplite blocks, and the Museum Miniatures ‘nearly nude’ range does make it easy to do…

An Afternoon of "To The Strongest"

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Second weekend of the year and I’ve managed to get in an afternoon of “To The Strongest”.

Bevan and I managed two games. The first was a grinding clash between two quite similar armies: I played the Akkadians, Bevan took an Athenian Hoplite force. Each side had a core of a number of deep blocks of close-formed infantry (Spearmen for the Akkadians, slightly superior Hoplites for the Athenians); but the Akkadians had their veteran four-onager heavy chariots plus Royal Bodyguard axe- and bowmen versus a mix of low quality cavalry and lights for the Greeks.

As mentioned, the game was a truly grinding clash. The Akkadian chariots, out on their right wing, threatened to curl around the Athenian left flank, but began the game seemingly unable to move. This meant that the Greeks could come forward and join a general line-against-line engagement that slowly started to bow the Akkadian battle line backwards.

But somehow the Akkadians held on. The Royal Bodyguard axemen did stirring work, the line began to straighten slightly, and then the heavy chariots finally got going and smashed in from the right. In the end, this was a colossal victory for the Akkadians, who didn’t lose a single unit and managed to capture the Greek camp. Here are some pictures:

For the second game, I took the Ancient Britons, with Bevan playing the Sassanid Persians.

The Brits had a huge chunk of (somewhat unwieldy) warriors in the centre of the field, and large numbers of light chariots/cavalry and infantry on each wing…so many lights, in fact, that (much to Bevan’s surprise) his all-horse Sassanids were matched in terms of scouting points.

Looking at the set up, I was confident of victory: there was no way his incredibly small force was going to beat the Ancient British steamroller!

Unfortunately, Bevan and the Persians begged to differ, and what followed was the dissection of my army with surgical precision. First my lights were stripped away unit by unit as I struggled to get my warriors moving, and then enough of those warriors that did move were beaten for me to lose (given that I’d lost a lot of coins through my lights). It was a superb demonstration of how to use a horse archer and cataphract based army.

Fortunately I did manage to kill at least one of his units, so technically the afternoon as a whole was to my advantage, but the way my Brits were annihilated didn’t make it feel so!

Here are some more pictures:

Last Painting of 2019

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Here’s the last painting of 2019: a couple of things I haven’t had time to photograph until now.

First up is another unit of “Swedish” horse for my English Civil War army:

These are 15mm Peter Pig figures painted with GW Contrast paints. I do like the Peter Pig figures - they have a lot of character and paint up nicely - but I do wish you didn’t have to spend so much time getting the horse stands to actually stand up.

And here’s a close up:

And finally here are a couple of figures that I painted up literally to hit the 2,000 point mark! They are two Onslaught Beserker figures from Nuclear Shrimp Games’ Brute range. Although the range is technically 15mm, the idea is that they are huge mutants, so the figures themselves are a good size 28mm.

Two More For The Challenge

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Two more of the regulars to the Painting Challenge are back for another year!

First up, we have John Haines, just starting his fourth year of entries. He opens the batting with a nice selection of Samurai figures:

Next we have veteran Challenge-r Andrew Helliwell with the first of his entries for his sixth year of submissions:

Andrew pops in some more ACW figures in 15mm and this rather nice MDF ruined factory from Warbases.

Book Review: "Sand & Steel: A New History of D-Day"

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One of my favourite Christmas presents was Peter Caddick-Adams’ new book Sand & Steel: A New History of D-Day.

As the title suggests, the book covers everything Overlord from the background to the invasion, the training and preparation for the day, and then the action on the day itself and after.

I very much enjoyed PCA’s previous book about the Bulge (Snow & Steel) and am pleased to say that this work is as good if not better. It’s very, very detailed, and a well-balanced mix of military history fact and personal accounts: one often complementing the other.

It’s also huge: over 230 pages or, in the hardback edition I have, 2½ inches thick! Some military history books of that size would be a nightmare to wade through, but Sand & Steel reads almost like a novel in terms of the way each section draws you into the next. In some places, particularly when dealing with the beach assaults, it is un-put-down-able.

The other problem one can encounter with detailed military histories is the difficulty in identifying how what you are currently reading about fits into the action as a whole: it’s easy to get lost or confused. Again, not a problem here: everything is ordered and laid out very clearly indeed. The beach landings, as above, are dealt with very logically: I actually found that once I’d seen them once, I didn’t have to refer to the maps scattered throughout the book a second time to work out what was going on…very unusual for me and the late war period!

So a “highly recommended” for this book. The price is fairly hefty (ratecard is £35) but you can get it new on Prime at the moment for about £23. Well worth it.

IABSM AAR: Rumble in the Jungle

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Here a nice little after action report from Alex Sotheran, taken from both the IABSM Facebook group and Alex’s Storm of Steel blog.

The game was Alex’s first using I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum!, and involved a solo game set on the Malay peninsular at the time of the Japanese invasion in December 1941. Although knocked together by Alex himself, the scenario resembles #02: Ban Sadao from the Fall of the Lion Gate scenario pack.

Click on the picture below to see how Alex got on:

TFL Painting Challenge: More First Entries

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Chris Kay slams back into the Painting Challenge with a huge first entry for 2020: clearing the stash of 28mm vehicles that have been hanging around on his painting table for some time.

That’s 108 points for six 28mm vehicles:

Sons of the Scorpion!

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Here’s a bit of my painting left over from last year’s scramble to get over the 2,000 points mark for the 2019 Painting Challenge: some 15mm Sons of the Scorpion from Splintered Light Miniatures.

The figures come in three parts: the scorpion body, the scorpion tail, and the human body. They glue together really easily: the tail is provided with a pin that neatly fits into a hole in the back of the scorpion body; and the human body sits in a little cup at the front of the scorpion body. Both bits show that someone has actually thought about how the average model maker is going to build this figure.

The figures are painted for the most part using GW Contrast Paints. One coat of Wyrdwood for the main scorpion body, then one cost of Darkoath Flesh for the human bit. Really very simple indeed and look really good.

The Sons of the Scorpion figures are part of a large collection of fantasy Egyptian figures available from Splintered Light, including: Sons of Anubis (Jackal-headed); Sons of Horus (da Bird!); and the Sons of the Scarab (dung beetle humainoid types). I must confess that do rather fancy a Sons of Anubis army to fight my “normal” Egyptians…a few other projects to finish first though!

TFL Painting Challenge: Another First Entry of the Year

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It’s John Emmett’s turn to make his first contribution to the TFL Painting Challenge 2020, with a rather magnificent 1/48th scale model of a Citroen motor car.

And, not to be outdone by anyone, Travis has already submitted his second entry of the year: dwarven command and the aptly named Gandalf the Field-Grey!

IABSM AAR: On the Northern Shoulder of Kursk, Fight 6: German Assault on the 1st May Collective Farm

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Here’s the final episode from Just Jack’s incredible “On the Northern Shoulder of Kursk” series of battle reports.

Here the Germans launch a last-ditch attempt to take the 1st May Collective Farm is the face of the usual determined Soviet defence.

This is another truly epic report (146 photographs plus plenty of text) so well worth a look. Click on the picture below to see all:

Check out Just Jack’s blog by clicking here.

TFL Painting Challenge 2019 Now Closed...TFL Painting Challenge 2020 Now Open!

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So the 2019 TooFatLardies Painting Challenge is now closed, with thirty-three Lardies participating: about the same as last year.

Those of you who follow the Challenge will know that it is not a competition between the entrants, but a competition where the entrants try and improve on their year-on-year performance, either in terms of quality of painting or points scored. In 2019, we had twenty out of thirty-two, or 62.5%, of people improving their scores, with one new entrant: a most impressive performance by all concerned.

We also now have sixteen people have now participated for all of the six years that the Challenge has run, with four more only missing the first year i.e. completing five years in a row.

I’m quite happy as well, as I managed to hit 2,000 points for the first time ever, scraping over that particular benchmark with some intensive painting over the Christmas break to hit a grand total of 2,004 points.

The good news is, as I mentioned in previous posts, that I will run the Challenge again in 2020, and declare the competition officially open as from…now!

Details are up on the site as usual but, as a quick reminder, send your entries to the usual address (with the photos clearly labelled please and, preferably, with the points totals already worked out) and I’ll open your gallery with your first entry. New or returning participants are welcome.

And what better way to start off the year than with a first entry from regular participant Travis Hiatt. Travis is an accomplished painter whose galleries are always worth a browse. Here’s his first entry of the year: six dwarven archers:

Ladies and gentlemen: pick up your brushes!

Forlorn Hopes for the English Civil War

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My ECW armies are based on one figure = twenty men i.e. a foot battalia of about 500 men is represented by 24 figures plus three command figures. That allows me to show the difference between a standard battalia, a pike-heavy battalia, an all-pike battalia, and a commanded shot battalia just by varying the ratio of musketeers to pikemen.

Similarly, a horse regiment of about 200 men is represented by nine figures plus two command figures, with the difference between Swedish, Dutch and Cuirassier formations being shown by the way the figures are placed on the base: one line for Swedish horse, two lines for Dutch horse, with Cuirassiers being a smaller unit altogether.

How then to represent a Forlorn Hope: a much smaller foot unit of around only 150 men?

I have settled on using just eight figures, plus two command figures, which makes one of my big bases look very empty indeed:

For certain Forlorn Hope units, if only for variety, I am going to do a little diorama. Here’s a very simple one involving just mounting the figures behind a couple of sticks:

Looks good!

TFL Painting Challenge: Last of 2019 Entries

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Here are the last of the entries for 2019 TooFatLardies Painting Challenge. Well done to all those of you who have participated over the last year: there are some very impressive scores and beautifully painted miniatures to see in the individual galleries.

Here are the final few entries for 2019:

As usual, clicking on the name of the person above will take you straight through to their gallery, which will open in a new window. Final scores will be updated within the next couple of days.

The competition continues into 2020. Usual rules and destination address applies. New entrants welcome!

Here are today’s pictures:

ECW Horse

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Here’s another unit for my growing English Civil War contingent. Regular readers will know that I am basing each individual unit on a single base with a 12cm frontage: proper elements!

This unit is a regiment of so-called Swedish Horse. Not that they actually hail from the land of IKEA: it’s all to do with their fighting formation and technique.

These are Peter Pig figures in 15mm painted with GW Contrast paints. A single line of nine figures plus two command figures forward.

Three Games of To The Strongest

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Off to friend Bevan’s house for an afternoon of To The Strongest. Playing at 130 points a side (the standard for the World Championships) you can easily get three games into one afternoon session.

My first game was commanding a longbow-heavy English HYW army against an impressively painted Viking army.

The Vikings rushed forward as fast as they could, eager to get into hand-to-hand with my massed archers. I was equally eager to stop them doing so, so with my Knights and Billmen protecting my left flank, I sat back in the centre and sent flight after flight of arrows into the advancing hordes.

This tactic worked quite nicely, so by the time his men actually got up to my battle line, many of his units had already taken one or two hits (three would remove them from the table). That’s when John discovered that my archers were all veterans with extra two-handed cutting weapons: just right for finishing off already-pin-cushioned Viking units! A victory for me.

The next game promised to be very interesting: it was time for a bit of civil war as I used the same army as in game one but now faced another English HYW army.

Our forces were thus very similar, except for the fact that Steve, my opponent, had two longbow and one dismounted knight units in each of his foot brigades rather than the three longbow units that I had. Steve’s army make up was thus actually more historically accurate than mine, with the added difference that his longbowmen were all standard types, giving him a slightly bigger headcount.

I decided to adopt the same basic tactics as last time i.e. my archers would shoot from distance whilst the heavies protected my left flank. Steve adopted a similar deployment, so I thought it was all going to be about who had the best luck with the cards (TTS has playing card based game mechanics).

In the end, however, that’s not how it worked out. In the centre, Steve advanced his melee foot units towards my line, giving me the opportunity to target each one individually with my longbows. This generally resulted in them disappearing from the table, meaning that when the rest of our troops did clash, I only had to win a third of the combats to win the game (the heavies just faced each other, manoeuvring for some kind of positional advantage, throughout). A second victory.

I fancied a change for my final game, so volunteered to take the Vikings, this time facing Peter and his Ancient Britons. This, again, was two quite similar armies, with the only real difference between them being the British light chariots/horse.

And it was indeed the light chariots/horse that made a difference. I made a terrible mistake early on in the game by leaving my right flank floating. This allowed Peter to get a couple of units of light horse in on my flanks, disordering a couple of my Hyrd units. This allowed his warriors to hit them at a distinct advantage, my right flank crumpled, and my opponent neatly rolled me up on the right and in the centre! Another nice tactic that Peter used was to refuse his own right flank, meaning that any units I had there (one third of my army) spent the entire game chasing after contact with the any enemy units. The end result was a fairly catastrophic loss!

So all in all a great afternoon’s gaming. Thanks to Bevan, John, Steve and Peter.