I was going to progress on the main project this Sunday doing some bespoke terrain mats for Lesnaya (well at least starting them), but felt a little bit tired after spending the evening watching the news about yet another horrendous terror attack this time in London. I work a stone throw from London Bridge and have spent a fair few evenings in Borough Market.  I decided to listen to the latest (two!!) Meeples and Miniatures podcasts (link here and here) and to do some gardening to clear my mind as I did not find myself even close to a creative mood.  My thoughts are with those affected directly and indirectly in the recent terror attacks in Manchester, Kabul and London.   Mats will have to be done later.

A little bit of effort this week

I have wanted to try out the IABSM (I ain’t been Shot Mum) rules for some time and decided (a few weeks ago) to make two forces to try these rules out – some British Paratroopers and some German Grenadiers.  I have seen some nice games in the past using 6mm miniatures (that is more or less the ground scale of the rules) – So I got myself a fair few packs of Brits and Germans from Baccus (here is a link to their WW2 section).

I was initially considering doing some Winter War themed 6mm stuff but had a change of mind as I already have a lot of Winter War stuff in 15mm (see more here showing the nice winter war stuff from Herois and Ros in 6mm) – but perhaps in the future. Heroics have a nice range of Winter geared soldiers and since the Germans and the Finns had the same type of helmet it is easy to make a Finnish force.

Having been encouraged by the recent 6mm skirmish stuff (see more in the individual links: (i) Sharp Practice, (ii) Men who Would be Kings, and the recent (iii) Pikeman’s Lament) I thought I would do the companies for each force in a way that I could play Chain of Command as well using one of the platoons.   I have platoons for the Winter War in 15mm and Germans and British for 1940 Europe,  but not for Normandy.  One of my very good friends live in Normandy and it would make it easy to take the stuff with me on my next trip.

Incidentally, there is a scenario in one of the Lardies Special about the fighting around the Pegasus bridge (it is the Summer Special 2006 – What’s for Afters?, link here).  I also have a 6mm Pegasus bridge that I spent far too much monies on, so I better get some use out of it.  The Paratrooper company could be scaled down to represent a glider company.

Testing with the 8th Army

I quickly painted a platoon of early war 8th Army guys this week (they are 6mm Adler figures that I bought some years back, here is a link to the range) as I found them on the lead mountain.  I based them so I could use them in a chain of command scenario and also to get a feel on how it looked. I have to admit that I am really please with the results and I really like the way the basing turned out.

The bases are 12mm to 20mm washers (see here for how I tend to get them). There is a Lieutenant (Pistol, 15mm), Platoon Sergeant (SMG, 15mm), 2″ mortar team (20mm), Boyes AT rifle team (20mm), 3 Junior Leaders (SMG, 15mm) for each section and 3 sections of two teams; Bren team (3 miniatures, two on a 20mm base and one on 12mm base) and rifle team (6 miniatures, 3 on a 20mm base, 2 on a 15mm base and one on a 12mm base). Note that I have stopped using the 9mm base – as I feel it is too small.

In summary, three sections like this (from left to right), Junior Leader with SMG (one tuft to indicate his leadership ability), 3 man Bren team and 6 man rifle team.

Senior Commander (Platoon Sgt with SMG), Senior Commander (Lt with Pistol) – both with two tufts to indicate their status. In addition a Boyes team and a 2 inch mortar team.

Supports – 2 man sniper team, Medical orderly, 3 man engineering team and 5 man (forgot one in the picture) HMG team.

I think I need to get some Afrikakorps as well, this test got a little bit too inspirational.  I have heard that the GHQ vehicles works very well with Adler.

Anyway I have spray-painted the necessary stuff for the Normandy Stuff and will complete them at some point this Summer.

Dragon’s Rampant in 6mm

I also dug up some 6mm fantasy stuff I have (some bought recently and some a little bit older) as I ordered a copy of Dragon’s Rampant last week – it is the same “engine” as Pikeman’s Lament and the Men who would be Kings.  The Little One has enjoyed these games and asked me for some fantasy – so why not. I am planning on doing Goblins (with miniatures from Baccus, link here, and Microworld Games, link here) and some high powered knights (based on the Dragon order from Perfect six, see link here).

Here are a few picture of the basecoated (grey basecoat with black ink) stuff.

/ That is all for this week, take care of yourself.