Mounted Scouts

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Here's a first for me: some mounted scouts for my WW2 Germans.

These are to join my 1939 Germans as they invade Poland as part of the play-testing of my forthcoming Poland in Flames scenario pack. I'm currently on #25 out of #55, so powering ahead!

The figures are from Peter Pig, and I had forgotten what a pleasure Mr Pig's minis are to paint, even if you are only a mediocre painter such as myself.

The great thing is that the figures are so detailed and have so many packs and saddlebags, that even if you just block paint everything and then pop a wash on, then they come up brilliantly.

These are the two 8-man squads I need as infantry mounted scouts. Almost tempted to get some more now just for the craic!

IABSM AAR: The Biggest Bloomin' Convoy by Mike Whitaker

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Another great battle report from Mike Whitaker: this time featuring, as the title suggests, the biggest bloomin' convoy ever!

I'm a huge fan of tail (no sniggering at the back there), so to see such a huge collection of transport on the table at the same time warms the cockles of my heart!

Click on the picture to see the whole thing and, as I said in my last post, you can visit Mike's Trouble at T'Mill blog by clicking here.

Keep those battle reports coming in, by the way: plenty of room on the site for more!

IABSM AAR: Bashnya or Bust #4C: Holm (The Llardiff Game)

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This report is from the game played on October 15th 2016 at the first ever TFL Llardiff Games Day that took place at Firestorm Games in Cardiff.

The idea of this games day was that gamers not necessarily familiar with TFL products could come and have a go at a variety of different games, getting a taste of Lard and then hopefully coming back for more.

I was tasked with showcasing I Ain't Been Shot, Mum!, and told that I should prepare for a series of different players dipping in and out throughout the day, with my efforts focused on setting up and umpiring one game in the morning and one game in the afternoon.

Hmmm, I thought, multiple players dipping in and out: my favourite - not! No matter: Lard calls and I answer...so I decided to bring to Cardiff one of the larger (if not the largest) games from my Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack: scenario #4C, Holm.

This is a late war game where a battalion of Soviet infantry (and remember IABSM is a company-sized game!) supported by just a few tanks tries to overrun a German force defending a small village on the Kaunas front. 

Click on the picture to see all the action.

Ferdinands from Zvezda

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Just about the last of the half-term painting, and the last of the mass of Zvezda vehicles I bought myself for my birthday in August: a couple of Ferdinand tank destroyers.

Reading up about these, I was surprised to learn that they are named after Ferdinand Porsche, the designer and how very KV of the Germans, and how early they went into service: summer 1943, making them mid- rather than late-war monsters. It's the modified version of the Ferdinand, the Elefant, that's more of a later war beast.

There were only 91 of them ever modified from the Tiger I hull, so it seems appropriate to only field two of them, and to only pay a few quid for each model...as I can't see them being used very often.

Nice models, easy to put together, easy to paint. Go Zvezda!

More Poles!

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More of the half-term painting to display.

This time it's a four-gun Polish MMG platoon for my force for the 1939 September War.

These are actually a mix of Forged in Battle and Battlefront figures. I happened to have acquired a pack of each, so chose the figures I liked best from both. For example, the FiB MMGs come separately as nice chunky individual weapons, which I like, whereas the Battlefront one come with the tripod and shooter as one piece and the gun barrel as another. The Battlefront faces, however, being more detailed, paint up better, and some of the FiB foot are in very strange poses. A mixture of the best of both is definitely the right solution.

Incidentally, I've painted four MMGs rather than three required for an infantry HMG platoon only so that they can, if necessary, proxy for a typical four-gun cavalry HMG platoon, despite the lack of cavalry Adrienne helmets. I might get around to painting a separate cavalry HMG platoon, but I've already got to find tchanka figures and, if you look closely, the leader in the top right corner of each base is actually wearing an Adrienne cavalry helmet. Hopefully no-one will notice!

Quick German Armoured Cars

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In addition to trying to get my Poles up to strength, I'm also bulking out some of the forces needed to oppose them.

Here are a couple of quick German armoured cars (pun most definitely intended): two SdKfz 222s.

These are Zvezda models, so plastic and snap together. They go together very easily, paint up well, and are half the cost of a resin or metal model.

Now I've already got two lovely Battlefront 222s which have seen quite a bit of usage on the tabletop, so these two new models will let me field (should I ever need to: having eight armoured cars scooting around the tabletop might be a bit much...but then there's always a recce troop scenario to plan for!) the 222 element of an entire light armoured car platoon.

Anyway, nice models: well done Zvezda.

Some More Poles Painted

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With the half-term hols upon us, I've taken the chance to finish a few figures that have been sitting on the painting table for far too long.

First up are a few additions to my early war Polish army:  the HQ mortars and a selection of Big Men.

I'm trying to concentrate on the Poles at the moment, as I need to have enough of them done to start playtesting the scenarios in my forthcoming September War scenario pack. That's a collusion between Anatoli and I, and should, when finished, contain 55 separate Poland 1939 scenarios for I Ain't Been Shot, Mum. Scenarios 1-19 are written already, so just need to playtest them and get some photography done at the same time (which is why I can't use proxies).

Finally, I also got around to painting the Warbases 15mm Pegasus Bridge bunker. Nice little model: it's my paint job that's uninspiring! And the pic is a bit blurred too!

Llardiff Tomorrow

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A quick reminder that tomorrow is Llardiff: a TooFatLardies games day taking place at Firestorm Games in Cardiff.

Here are the details:

"On October the 15th one of the UK’s most respected gaming companies; Too Fat Lardies will be visiting the South Wales Gaming Center at Firestorm Games to host a series of participation games showcasing some of their most popular rules.

"There will be 5 games on offer with each one being played twice starting around 10.30 am and 2.30 pm, the games on offer are :-

1)      Sharp Practice – covering the black powder era this is a large skirmish game is ideally suited for 15mm to 28mm figures with forces of around 50 figures. There are 2 games on offer that people can play

a.       Viva Ras Begus, Head Lardy Rich Clarke will be hosting his award winning game set in the Horn of Africa in 1840

b.       Martian Practice, Matt and Ralph from the Forest of Dean club will be running their brand new (also award winning) Sharp Practice game set on Mars during Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee

2)      Chain of Command – this highly respected WWII game allows players to take on the role of a platoon commander and is perfect for players with existing WWII armies looking for a new challenge, again we have 2 games on offer

a.       1940 invasion of France, local gamers Geoff and Steve Bond will have a game set in France during the German offensive

b.       1944 North West Europe, Nick Skinner will show you how to play Big Chain of Command with multiple platoons after the break out of Normandy

action from the last market larden games day

3)      I Ain’t Been Shot Mum – the original Lardy game and now in its 3rd edition, this WWII game is company level and perfect for 15mm gamers, Robert Avery will be on hand to guide you through combat in Russia during Operation Bagratian

"Entry to this event is completely free, all you need to do is turn up, speak to one of the Too Fat Lardies crew and we’ll get you playing on a first come first served basis. If you are interested in learning more about the games but don’t want to play a whole game, then just turn up during the day and one of us will take you through the rules and answer any questions you have.

"Finally, this event has been arranged to take place on the Autumn Bring and Buy day at Firestorm games so you might be able to pick up a bargain as well as play some of the best games out there

"Details on how to get to Firestorm games can be found here http://www.firestormgames.co.uk/location-opening-times

"Information of Too Fat Lardies can be found here http://toofatlardies.co.uk/ "

As you will see from the above, I will be there running a couple of games of IABSM, so hope to see you there.

Firestorm Games (Cardiff)
Trade Street
Penarth Road
Cardiff
CF10 5DT
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 2920 227117

IABSM AAR: Moiste Cabbage & a Quick Cognac by Robert Avery

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Here a battle report from a game played a couple of weeks ago featuring a scenario originally written for the TFL 2005 Xmas Special.

It's France 1940. A German probe has discovered an unguarded crossing over the river Moiste. They dig in and call for reinforcements, but the French have spotted them and send in Captain Cognac and his men to re-take the crossing.

Click on the picture, below, to see all:

Zvezda BT-5 Soviet Tanks

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Following on from yesterday's post, here's the other platoon of Soviet tanks from Zvezda: this time five 15mm BT-5 tanks. 

I didn't like these quite as much as the T-26's, but they are still great models.

These kits snap together so well that I didn't even bother with reinforcing glue. The turrets come in one piece, which is a huge improvement on anything that requires you to glue a gun barrel in place (not a lot of surface area on the rear end of a gun barrel!), and means that even after undercoat, wash, finish etc, the turrets were easy to swivel.

 

More Zvezda Models

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Rather than dive back into the Polish cavalry, I thought I'd quickly knock-up another lot of the Zvezda tanks that I bought in August.

I've got two platoons of Soviet tanks to build, so here's the first one: a platoon of five T-26 tanks.

These are typical Zvezda models. They come in five parts and can be snapped together with no effort, although I do tend to pop a teeny tiny drop of Superglue just to be sure they stay together. As you can see, detailing is good, and they respond well to a sprayed undercoat, brown wash and then highlight. 

Looking at these, I think they are supposed to be T-26 obr.33, described as having a "cylindrical turret", which would make the Battlefront T-26's  that I have T-26 obr.38 or 39, described as having a "conical turret". If that is the case, then the slight size difference between the two manufacturers matters even less than normal.

Here are my Battlefront models so that you can make your own minds up:

Zvezda Panzer 38(t)s

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Alongside the Panzer IIs featured in yesterday's post, I also built and painted five Zvezda Panzer 38(t) tanks. Again, these will be used to flesh out larger tank forces for the bigger or tank-only battles in various Poland '39 scenarios.

These were painted in the same way as yesterday's models: sprayed black then heavily dry-brushed in grey, then black ink on top. Unfortunately, both sets of tanks have come out very black rather than any sort of panzer grey colour. Might be something to do with the fact they are plastic not resin, but is more likely the fact that my black ink should have been watered down. Ah well, I'm sure there were tanks that were more black than grey at some stage in 1939/40!

These are again nice looking models, and so quick and easy to bult that there's really no excuse for not having a company, or at least a couple of platoons, of them!

First of the Zvezda Re-Inforcements

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As previously mentioned, as a birthday gift to myself I bought a whole load of Zvezda kits to flesh out my early war tank forces.

For the Germans, this involved buying a platoon of Panzer IIs and a platoon of Panzer 38(t)s in order to allow me to field some of the larger tank forces that appear within my forthcoming Poland in Flames scenario pack for IABSM v3 (the background and ten of the seventy-one scenarios are written so far. Yes, I did say 71 scenarios!).

Here's the first of the two:  five Panzer IICs. Nice models: easy to put together (my nine year old built them) and very cost effective but a little bit smaller than the Battlefront metal-and-resin kits. There's also something a little insubstantial about them compared to the Battlefront model, which proves that you gets what you pays for! Still, very suitable as a not-used-very-often extra platoon.