Blinds for the September War Campaign

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Following on from yesterday's launch of The September War, my new scenario pack for IABSM covering the German invasion of Poland 1939, I've now added a set of Blinds for the campaign, downloadable free from the Poland 1939 page of the IABSM section of this website. Or click on the image to the right to get there!

There are four Blinds available: the Polish ones shown to the right, Soviet Blinds, and two sets of German Blinds: one using the historically accurate plain white cross; the other, my preferred version, using a more late war version.

I just pop a few sheets of stiff paper into the printer, print them out, then cut them out, and away you go. You can laminate them if you like, but I usually don't bother these days.

Objective Markers

And whilst we're on he topic of useful things, check out my new Polish objective markers:

These are resin disks 2-3 inches across that you can buy from Army Group North. They don't appear in the AGN webstore at the moment, but if you e-mail them on info@agnminiatures.com, Andrew will sort. They are $10 for three markers and paint up very easily.

A recommended buy, especially as many of the the September War scenario pack scenarios have two-four objectives in them.

The September War Publishes Today!

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The German invasion of Poland on 1st September 1939 precipitated the greatest conflict the world has ever known, ending the lives of some 60 million people across the globe.

Written by Robert Avery and Alexander Kawczynski, The September War is a collection of thirty-three scenarios for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum covering the German invasion of Poland 1939. It is priced at £9.50.

Divided into eight mini-campaigns, the pack begins with the battles at the border, then covers the fight for the Polish corridor, the Polish Thermopylae at Narew, the Siege of Warsaw, the climactic battles at Bzura and Tomaszow Lubelski, and the actions of the 10th Motorised Cavalry “Black” Brigade and the Independent Operational Group Polesie. There are attacks, counter-attacks, encounter battles, desperate defences…there’s even an armoured train or two.

No need for any preparation: each scenario contains a brief background history, maps, a full game briefing, and a full briefing for each player. Simply print out the pages you need, make up the deck from the list of cards required, unpack your figures and dice, set up the table and away you go!

Click here or on the picture of the front cover to buy The September War scenario pack for IABSM.

To see a list of scenarios, click here.

To see a sample scenario briefing, click here.

The September War: #01 Chojnice...Twice

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Barring major disasters, The September War, my new scenario pack for IABSM containing 33 scenarios from the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, should be published tomorrow, Wednesday 15th March 2017.

The September War  is largely based on Alexander Kawczynski's supplement for another rule system, but with the scenarios fully adapted for IABSM. As usual with my packs, each scenario generally consists of six pages: two for the Umpire and two for each player. Once you add the background and support material, The September War comes in at 240 pages long and will cost £9.50.  

To wet your collective whistles, here is an AAR from the playtest of scenario #01: Chojnice. Will the Poles manage to blow the vital railway bridge in time? Or will the Germans manage to capture the bridge and defuse the explosives, then send their armoured train in to wreak havoc on the Polish border defences? Click on the picture below to find out more...

Polish Cavalry Conversions

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To celebrate the publication of my The September War scenario pack for IABSM*, I am declaring this week to be Polish week on Vis Lardica. All the posts through to Friday will be Polish in nature.

To start us off, here a bit of painting that I finished this weekend: a squad of Polish cavalry and a Big Man.

All the above are actually converted Battlefront Cossacks i.e. I've taken spare Cossack figures and given them new heads using Peter Pig Polish cavalry heads.

This was remarkably easy to do: snip off the old head, use a pin drill to create a hole in the decapitated torso, then pop the new head in. Takes about five minutes a time and gives you a nicely varied set of cavalry and reduces the lead mountain as I was never going to use those Cossacks.

Tomorrow's post features an AAR from the play-testing of The September War.

*The September War publishes on Wednesday  15th March 2017. It contains thirty-three scenarios from the German invasion of Poland, 1st September to 6th October 1939, and will be priced at £9.50. It is largely based on the first half of Alexander Kawczynski's Poland in Flames scenario pack for FOW, but totally adapted for IABSM.

Revised Army Lists for Poland 1939 Now Available

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Again in preparation for the publication of my IABSM scenario book for the invasion of Poland, The September War, due on the 15th of the month (that's next Wednesday, so get your pennies ready!), I have re-vamped the army lists for both the Poles and the Germans.

These are available as FOC pdfs from the Poland 1939 page in the IABSM section of this site, or you can click on the images below.

Polish Armoured Cars

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I'm just getting the figures ready for the next playtest of one of the scenarios in my forthcoming Poland 1939 scenario pack (barring major disaster, should be due for publication next week).

Here are three wz.34 Polish armoured cars from Battlefront. Nice little models, and you get all three, i.e. a complete patrol, in one pack.

The wz.34 was apparently the main armoured car used by the Poles during the September campaign, although some wz.29 armoured cars fought around Modlin. Crew of two, with either a 37mm gun (platoon commanders only) or a 7.92mm MMG.

Polish Mounted Commanders

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Following on from my "Don't Forget the Officers" post, below, here are three mounted commanders for my WW2 Polish cavalry:

These are not actually Polish officers at all, but the remainder of the German mounted command pack from Peter Pig with a head swap into rogatywkas.

You can't see it very well from this angle, but the headgear they are wearing aren't peaked caps but  rogatywkas: from the other side, they have a lovely mortarboard like flat surface that makes them quite distinctive.

The head swaps are, of course, because Peter Pig doesn't do a Polish range (but maybe they should, eh?) and I didn't want to buy an entire company of cavalry from either Battlefront or FiB just to get a few commanders.

Head swapping, btw, is really easy. All you need is a pair of clippers and a pin drill...oh, and some new heads from Peter Pig. Just snip the old head off, drill a hole where you want the neck to be, glue in the new head. It really is that simple.

Here's the two figures together:

Polish Taczankas

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A couple of week's ago, I was complaining that I couldn't find any decent 15mm WW2 taczankas for my nascent Polish army: all that was on offer was the model from True North which was too solid, had four horses, and not enough crew.

Well as I still haven't been able to find any, and need to start play-testing the scenarios from my forthcoming September War scenario book (I've written the scenarios: just formatting it all now), I decided to bite the bullet and see what I could do with the four True North versions that I'd already bought.

So I now have are four pseudo-taczanka that will be fine on the tabletop but won't stand up to close scrutiny!

The base is the too-bulky True North wagon, with its horribly cast crew of two sitting figures, one in a forage cap and one in what I think is supposed to be a French-style helmet. I've cut the shaft (or tongue) right down, and put only three horses in front, evenly lined up as opposed to being driven unicorn.

The sitting gunners are from either the Battlefront or the Forged in Battle Polish MMG set (I forget which); the standing gunner is a spare Battlefront Polish anti-tank gun crew member, kneeling next to the True North (unmanned) MMG.

So I think that they will do for the moment, and can possible be replaced if anyone ever does release a better model. Now on with the play-testing...

Wanted: 15mm Polish Taczankas

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As I get to the end of actually writing the Polish campaign book for IABSM, it's time to start finishing off my Polish army so that proper play-testing can begin.

I've got my infantry (Battlefront), and most of my cavalry (Forged in Battle), and what armour I need is readily available (Battlefront mostly, I think). The only thing I can't find anywhere is a Polish Taczanka i.e. the purpose-built cart to carry an MMG.

Both Battlefront and Peter Pig do Soviet taczankas...but they are very different, much heavier, than the Polish versions. They also have four horses, whereas the Polish version had three horses.

True North, via Old Glory, do a "Polish" taczanka, but having bought four, I can tell you that the cart is all wrong, it has four horses, no-one to fire the machine gun, and the sitting figures are horrible. QRF and Outpost both do Poles, but neither has a taczanka in their listings.

So...help!

Where can I find 15mm models of the Polish taczanka? Is there anyone out there who does one? Here are a few pics to help jog the memory:

More 15mm Poles

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Still working on my 15mm WW2 Poles for the September War, and the Christmas break has allowed me to finally finish the lancers.

I don't know what it is about cavalry, but they seem to take four times as long to finish as infantry. It must be something to do with all the horse furniture!

Anyway, here are twenty lancers from Forged in Battle which, if I say so myself, have turned out quite well.

I've also painted up four two-man anti-tank rifle teams. These are in infantry helmets, but will probably serve as dismounted cavalry as well.

These look okay on the tabletop, but haven't photographed particularly well.

Right, that's it from my painting in 2016. Plenty on the painting table that will just spill over into next year...

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!

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!

IABSM: Polish Gallery Begun

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I've finally painted enough  troops to make it worth while starting a Polish gallery on the site: elements of a Polish Cavalry Regiment.

You can reach the gallery by clicking here.

People sometimes ask me why I bother to photograph all my troops and then organise them into galleries.

The main reason, or at least the one I admit to most frequently, is that it makes it very easy to keep track of all the figures I have. Yes, I have the sheer numbers of each type kept in an Excel spreadsheet, but the galleries allow me to see exactly what I can field by organised historical force, and help identify the gaps that need filling.

Right: back to the painting table. Ten early war Soviet tanks almost finished, and then it's back to the Poles...

 

 

IABSM: First of the Mounted Poles

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I've finally managed to finish my first unit of Polish cavalry: a squadron of Dragoon-types in their Adrienne helmets.

These have taken me an age to do. Not sure why: not too complicated, and just a couple of layers on everything. Probably something to do with the horses making each figure the equivalent of two figures, I suppose.

Here they are:

I've painted them the same colour scheme as the dismounted cavalry I finished last month. Some might comment that Polish uniforms should be more brown than the moss shade that I have used. Quite right: but if I'd painted them the same brown colour, then I might as well have used my Russians or my French. At least this way I have a distinctly different look, even if it not quite exactly historically accurate.

And after all, maybe the uniforms were brown and have faded under the rigours of war!

The figures are from Forged in Battle. The horses and basic bodies are very nice, but the faces are very small (accurately so!) and therefore quite difficult to paint well. Hate to say it, but the Battlefront cartoon characters paint up better...well, faces, anyway.

These aren't shiny, by the way, but sprayed with Testors Dullcoat to finish.

15mm Poles: Outpost Wargame Services

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Every time you think you have the complete set, you find out that you have missed one!

That is most definitely true of my list of WW2 15mm figure manufacturers: I thought I had them all, but then someone posts about Outpost Wargame Services, who have a range of 15mm Poles, the very army that I'm currently building. 

Hangs head in shame!

Well I have put that right now: Outpost are added to the list, and below you'll find a couple of pics of some of their Poles. Might have to fill in the gaps in my collection with a few of these...once I get the bl*@dy cavalry finished of course!

Click here to go to the Outpost website.

Polish Infantry from Outpost Wargame Services

Polish Cavalry from Outpost Wargame Services

Dismounted Polish Cavalry

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So here they are: the dismounted Polish cavalry of the previous post rescued from their terrible frosting at the hands of a can of GW Purity Seal with a liberal application of olive oil, and then re-sprayed with Army Painter seal:

Now they don't look perfect, being still a little granulated with tiny particles of Purity Seal, but they look a whole lot better than they did before!

What I am also hoping is that they will improve even more with time and a bit of handling i.e. that the granules are worn smooth or continue to be absorbed in some way. They are not a disgrace now, though, and that's the main point.

Battlefront figures, BTW. Quite nice, although the faces were not particularly well defined and were difficult to paint into anything remotely resembling humans. That could be down to coming from an old mold, but is still disappointing. I've gone Forged in Battle for the mounted cavalry, so we'll have to see if they are any better.

Here's another couple of shots. Oh, and they look a bit weird on my custom bases as they don't have any LSW teams, and the bases are designed to take eight singles and a two-man LSW team, not ten singles. Should make playing with them interesting, as that's down one dice on all firing! 

PS the painting challenge scorecard is now updated as well 

Frosting Disaster!

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I have been painting a company of 15mm WW2 dismounted Polish cavalry: 49 figures in all.

It's probably taken me about ten hours of work to finish them: that's prepping the figures, undercoating, top coat, highlight, wash, and basing.

Finished them last night.

Went out to the garage to varnish them. Picked up the bad can of GW Purity Seal that caused me so many problems with my half-tracks (see previous post) that I'd put handy to throw away, but hadn't actually thrown away yet, and promptly frosted the lot of them!

And when I say frosted, I mean frosted:

An absolute disaster! And on my 50th birthday as well! I could have cried!

Now usually when this happens I try spraying with a gloss varnish, and that sorts most of it out. Not this time: just made it slightly worse!

So I googled solutions and was amazed to find people suggesting a thin coat of olive oil might solve the problem.

Olive oil? Are you sure?

So into the kitchen I went, and was immediately confronted with my first dilemma: what sort of olive oil. The wife has got at least three types: ranging from the cheapo, supermarket own-brand in a plastic bottle to the super-squishy, extra-extra-virgin delicatessen variety.

Well, these troops have had quite an investment of my time, so it had to be the top quality oil: nothing but the best for the Polish cavalry!

Rather dubiously, I started painting it on.

Immediate results: figures de-frosted almost as the brush passed over them, leaving them free of frosting and nicely detailed again, with just a hint of roughness caused by particles of varnish.

Extra-ordinary...and now that they are dry, they have a rather pleasing patina to them too.

Glad I used the expensive stuff!

I've now re-varnished using Army Painter seal, and will post a pic tomorrow: it's good to keep you in suspense a little!

Olive oil! Who'd have thought it.

IABSM: 1939 Polish Lists Updated

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I have slightly updated the IABSM v3 lists for the 1939 Polish Army, available by clicking the picture or from the Poland 1939 page under the IABSM heading.

Whilst working on the German lists for the same period, I realised that the IABSM v3 convention is to give medium mortars a crew of five rather than the v1 or v2 crew of three.

Small thing, especially as they will be off-table in most games, but now corrected.

German lists are coming along nicely: should be done by the end of the month. Wish my Polish cavalry painting was doing as well!

IABSM AAR: Polish River Crossing

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Considering the work I'm currently doing on the Panzerspah list for the German army in 1939, it's a somewhat marvellous coincidence that the next battle report from the archive of Mark Luther is set in Poland in 1939 and features a German reconnaissance force attempting a river crossing in the face of Polish resistance.

Click on the image below to see all:

what an incredible table!