An attempt to sprint to the finish....

The rather daft title is in reference to my recent attempt at trying to rack up over close to 500 points in about 30 days to reach my target of 1000 points for the year.

Around the midway point in the year I took stock of where I was in my own personal painting target (post here). Aside from the fact I was clearly demented and due to work thinking about the financial year rather than calendar year, I was about 50% of the way through my target of 1000 points (Using Vis Lardica scoring) and slightly more than that through the time period!

Forward a few months and as we close in on the end of the year I have spent some of my time off on finally sitting down and painting.

As part of the push I've painted:

Sorting out somr 6mm WW2 in the form of Baccus' new Panzer IVs with some complementary Shermans for the Brits. A few more supports for both, AT guns & crews, PIATS, mg34 (light role) and vickers (sustained role). A test game of IABSM is in the offing now.

The three sherman tanks in the top right of the picture above are from Anyscale Models to replace the two diecast ones I have been using in the Chain of Command 29 Let's Go Campaign. I also tried out a technique I saw on The Tactical Painter's blog for adding camouflage netting to vehicles. Rather pleased with the look of them, I feel it makes them look a bit different and less like "out the box" models.

At long last getting round to some of the EXCELLENT models from Oathsworn Miniatures last Kickstarter (I have ended up backing the recent one too, I am a sucker for these models). I love the character of these miniatures, they are so much fun to paint. And that is coming from someone who struggles with painting figures, both in terms of motivation and skill.

And finally I painted up a few commandos and German guards as I intend to try and get a (probably solo) game of Black Ops in at some point over the holidays. This has been inspired by a WSS article on the rules set in WW2, and also re-reading Tiny Hordes report . My usual opponent is AWOL so can't get the next game of our campaign in, which would have been nice over the holidays.

Now a drum-roll please, that gets me up to 943 points. Ah well. Not quite the 1000 mark I was aiming for at the beginning of the year but I have got a lot closer than I thought I would when I was sitting at the 520ish mark less than a month ago!

6mm Germans and some straggling Brits

Well I finally got around to flocking the Germans for my 6mm IABSM project. There were also a few Brits to finish from the last batch, I made up 5 more 2p leader bases to take my total to 10 leaders or Big Men for each side, also a whole heap 2in mortars.

I used dark green and light green static grass, 1mm length from Serious Play on eBay, and a mix of the two for blending.

The completed batch

British troops, Big men on 2p bases, 2in mortars on 1p bases.

Brits to the left, Germans to the right.

German troops, with three LMGs.

Some German Big Men on 2p bases, Panzershreks on 1p bases.

The blending on the German Big men isn't great but I think I improved as I went on and got a better technique worked out. Good enough from arms length though!

German sustained fire MG34/43

I've got some AT guns and random support from both sides that need working on, also with Baccus releasing their Panzer IV I took the plunge and got some Shermans, PzIVs, Universal carriers and Kubelwagons and motorbikes. Bonus got paid in last months pay check so decided to treat myself!

Mid-Year Appraisal

Well as we have passed the 6 month point a few weeks back I thought I would throw something up about my painting.

At the start of the year I wanted to try track how much painting I achieved this year, so I nicked the structure off Vis Lardica website for the TFL painting challenge, by that I mean the scoring and classifications.

I set my self a target of 1000 points for the full year.

                                            Number         Individual Total

                                             painted          score              score

6mm Infantry                          234            0.5           117

25-30mm Infantry                  33               4           132

15mm Vehicles                  16               6             96

15mm Buildings                   4             12             48

25-30mm Buildings                4             36           144

Bigger than 30mm Foot            1                8               8

20mm Foot                           1               2               2

And that gives me a grand total of 547 points at around the halfway mark. Just about on target although I will need to get a bit of a shift on to get up to the 1000 mark before the new year.

6mm part 2

I finally got round to basing and finishing off the first batch of 6mm Brits for my IABSM project. I'm using 30x30 MDF bases for ground troops, 3 bases per section, with light mortars on one penny pieces, and big men on two penny pieces (1p & 2p for simplicity)

I plan on using 1p for other supports, ie MMG/HMG, but will put AT guns etc on 30x30 bases as they should be identifiable by themselves.

I'm not sure about basing vehicles yet - I think it is probably the best course of action for longevity but the appearance bugs me a little.

I followed a simple method for the basing, PVA and sand, burnt umber paint, dry brushed up with lighter brown shades (sienna and umber variants). finished with some 1mm static grass in two shades, from Serious Play on eBay.

Anyway enough chatter here are the photos:

Four platoons and Five big men, PVA still wet.

Static grass down and PVA still wet.

One platoon, PVA dried!

Big men and 2in mortars

That's all folks!

A small update....

Ha - what a clever pun! The title I mean. No, not following? oh wait - this is about a new 6mm project I have started. Hence "small" update. Get it?! Hmmm explaining it probably doesn't improve the humour. Ah well nevermind!

So I got enticed by a Lardy Sale a good while back and picked up a set of the I Ain't Been Shot Mum rules (IABSM). Cautious not to just jump in I read up on it and checked out various blogs that touched on IABSM, and came to the conclusion that I wanted to do it in 6mm to match the ground scale, in some part due to regrets over not doing Chain of Command in 15mm (time will tell on that!)

I duly ordered some 6mm Baccus Brits and Germans - and when they arrived I had a bit of a panic that they were TOO SMALL for me to actually paint. I posted as much on twitter and was flooded (well for my usual posts it was flooded, for others perhaps a gentle lapping of replies!) but they gave lots of advice and explanations, all gratefully received.

The process or method I picked to go with was:

- Use a white or light primer, firstly it makes it easier to see but secondly it means the finished colour is lighter which is helpful at this scale/size. Apparently you want a slightly lighter/brighter finish.

Primed in cheap white spray paint

A close up, they are about the height of a fingernail. Well my fingernail anyway.

 - After a white primer (or light) use a wash to bring out the details and help you block paint

After a wash with Vallejo sepia and umber washes. Two shades used to see if the wash shade makes any difference.

They really are beautifully detailed for something so small!

- just paint the main blocks, uniform, helmets, weapon, flesh. Most things will be too small to notice unless there is a high contrast.

That is the uniform (vallejo English Uniform) painted in. Honest guv!

- Wash the final figures with Nut Brown ink

- You're painting a unit not an individual man so it is the general effect you look at rather than the individual paint job

As you can see with that in mind I cautiously primed and washed my first selection, British Infantry, LMGs and 2" mortars, about 10 lollipop sticks worth of troops! and my goodness doesn't it go quickly. I used two different washes just to see if there will be any great difference to the final product, one was a dark brown (Vallejo Umber wash) the other a lighter sepia shade (Vallejo Sepia wash).

It takes no time at all to apply a wash to them, and similarly to block in the uniforms, a few swishes of the brush and your on to the next chap. So far I have spent maybe 30-40min on them and I have 12x LMGs, 12x 2" Mortars and 96x Infantry. I'm hoping to get some time after work at some point or maybe this weekend to finish them off, which shouldn't take too long.

They aren't going to win prizes but I am happy with where they are going so far.

The following blogs and sites were fantastic resources when I was looking into the 6mm idea:

Derek's Blog limited posts on 6mm stuff but does have a bocage tutorial and also very helpful comments on the TFL forum under IABSM.

Mark Luther's stuff stunning 6mm terrain photos on Flikr and one thread on setting up a table.

Vis Lardica - Great for IABSM AARs and loads of IABSM info and advice both here and on TFL forum.

And one of the 6mm Maestros Per at Rollaone

Always on the look out for more 6mm resources so do drop me a comment if you have any corkers! and don't feel shy about showing off your own 6mm wonders!

Deep Fried Lard

Well I have been rather absent in posting anything here of late, and my overriding excuse is working on the house. For the past two months the majority of my time out of work has been spent doing DIY on our house as we finally got our building warrant through. I did manage to sneak in a wee trip over to Musselburgh and Deep Fried Lard, hosted by the Legendary Wee Derek.

It was a fantastic day, and this time I stayed around for the curry which really does make a fine end to the day. Getting to sit around and chat all manner of things, especially wargames, with fellow Lardy Lovers was great fun.

I got to have my first ever shot at Sharp Practice, and a game of CoC in 15mm which was a new experience too. I could go over what games were available and show some dazzling pictures of them but frankly this has been done much better by Jim here and Jeremy has posted fantastic pictures here too. So instead I'll dump some of my pictures here but also give a brief run through of the one of the games I played, and some thoughts on the other! Exciting stuff!

The battlefield perspective from the Garibaldi deployment point

Sharp Practice - Biscotti Wars (Garibaldi)
This was a delightful setup, terrain, figures and configuration of the table! The board itself was setup on a number of packing crates so that the playing surface was raise above the table. This meant there was a lower admin space for off table troops, dice rolls, unit rosters, QRS and biscuits! Those requiring a nibble could express support by selecting garibaldi or bourbon biscuits!

Choose your faction! Vote with your mouth!

The terrain it self was all Grand Manner and painted to an incredible finish, laid out on a Tiny Wargames mat, with a one piece crafted road, cut to size and shape out of a larger piece of rubber or pond liner type material.

Jaw dropping Grand Manner Monastery

So pretty!

The scenario itself was beautifully simple and gave a really good game. Both sides deployed on the same short side of the table (opposite corners) and the objective was to get a unit into the large monastery on the far side of the table and hold it for a turn. This gave both forces an interesting dilemma. Do you make a run for the monastery and try to fend off the other force, hoping you move more quickly, or do you engage early to delay the other force and potentially clear the way for your own to move up to the monastery?

The Leaders and forces available to Garibaldi

As mentioned earlier, I had never played Sharp Practice before this, although I do own the rules and have read them! I decided to play the forces of Garibaldi and would try to disrupt the Bourbon forces as they deployed whilst simultaneously trying to sneak a unit up to the monastery. I hoped to utilise my skirmishers to harass the deploying bourbons enough that they would be distracted enough not to go for the monastery at first.

Things pretty much didn't go to plan almost immediately! I deployed my skirmishers and another unit and looked to move the skirmishers forward to some light cover.

They pretty quickly got hit and some shock from the Bourbon troops with their longer ranged rifles. Bad shots and muskets don't do much to impact a well ordered force at a distance! This ended up sucking in another group to try and absorb some of the firepower.

I did follow part of my plan in setting a small group off to the monastery under the command of a Status 1 leader.

The Bourbon hordes poured onto the table and started marching in column towards the monastery. This force would annihilate my small group heading towards the monastery so some preventative action was needed.

I decided (on earlier advice) that to stand any chance I needed to get my chaps into close combat led by Garibaldi to smash up the less physical (but better drilled) Bourbon forces. I gathered up three units of men and tried to advance towards the bourbons, and picked a gap between two buildings to launch towards.

Sadly it was deemed to be a bit constricted and would impact my ability to charge through, this lead to a bottleneck and basically standing in a group in very close range waiting to get smashed up by the bourbons. Which is exactly what happened.

Rather than let Garibaldi get hit in this bogged down and rather fruitless manouver  I moved him towards another formation and worked on getting them into a position to charge a bourbon unit to the rear, if successful I would potentially be able to attack the bourbons in a flank or rear and relieve my beleaguered troops. Sadly the Bourbons were able to reload and faced the charge head on, I also rolled appallingly which really caused more of the problem! and Garibladi was thrown back with a huge casualty rate.

Now this all was going rather badly, however my sneaky little status 1 leader was making decent progress and by throwing a supplementary leader towards the small group meant I could really get them motoring and remove any shock resulting from the double time marching. The heroic if somewhat pathetic actions at the deployment end of the table had managed to hold the Bourbons back long enough to get within spitting distance of the monastery. All I need was a good run of cards and to survive the long range fire of a solitary bourbon unit.

As luck would have it I got to move my troops to the entrance of the monastery and then only had to endure one instance of bourbon fire before being able to move fully inside in the subsequent turn.

At this point we called it a day, without having to hold the monastery for a turn, and also called it a draw. A fair result I think as although I made it to the monastery, the rest of my forces (90%) were in absolute disarray, and had only survived by being forced back under bourbon fire behind a building which resulted in breaking line of sight and therefore no further morale rolls. And Garibaldi himself had been knocked down and had not yet recovered!

This was cracking good fun! So much so that I now need to sort out a few small forces to give Sharp Practice a go with my erstwhile gaming chum!

The other game was an early war Chain of Command scenario - Going with a bang! I played the Germans, trying to secure a route forward against the defending French who were looking to blow up two culverts before I could seize them.

A brilliant game, where I had my head thoroughly kicked in! I really didn't think losing could be enjoyable but it actually was. It was in 15mm which I hadn't played in before and my goodness it is almost a different game at that scale. I loved it. So much so it has thrown me into confusion over what to do with my collection of 28mm models for a number of future chain of command projects! I suspect I will be unable to part with anything yet so will continue in 28mm but will certainly attempt to build up 15mm too. Easier to strore, cheaper to acquire, and the space on the table is simply glorious!

However as I have most of 28mm para force collected, not to mention some plastic russians, variety of brits, some painted DAK and random FJs,  I think I'll persevere in 28mm for now. All I lack just now is time!