6mm (1:300) Epic Scale Dirtside II
Hard to tell what is what at this scale if the vehicles are at true scale, can you really spot the difference between a tracked or a GEV?
A certain well known company got around that problem quite easily by making everyting a little bit bigger – good move!
I have loads of Epic scale WH40k that I will eventually photograph but until then here is the small portion that I seperated off for use with the Dirtside II rules. I had many good games of this with Paul Mitchel but I just could not get used to pulling counters out of a bag instead of rolling a dice. Also, I could never understand why Paul ‘always’ thrashed me at this game, no matter what the scenario or who was supposed to have the upper hand.
6mm (1:300) Epic Scale Star Base
A futuristic settlement, complete with a column of tanks to give an indication of scale.
15mm Buildings for AK 47
These were made primarily for AK47 but they could be used for a number of theatres. All made for 15mm miniatures but again I have not included any miniatures in the photo to give an idea of scale – must remember to do so i the future!
1) This is supposed to represent a mission:
2) This is supposed to represent some kind of factory unit, could easily be anywhere in Europe…
3) This is supposed to represent some sort of service building for a small landing strip. In my mind it is an aircraft control tower with a waiting room attached. It is sort of loosely based on my memories of visiting the landing strip at Carlisle when I was a kid.
15mm Farm Buildings
Any good Napoleonic period battlefied should include at least one farm, so I made two to go with my 15mm Napoleonics.
As with all card buildings I make I should acknowledge Geoff Evans since it was through watching him making various many builings years ago that I learned how to make card buildings that are robust enough for wargaming. I guess I should mention him at some point in every building post, but I won’t, so this acknowledgement will have to be remembered on all of them. I am sure he won’t mind 🙂
The buildings are mounted on regularly shaped bases so that it is easy to delineate the edges of the buildings for firing arcs etc. I guess I should have included a base of 15mm figures in the photo to give a better idea of the scale.
And the second one, the entrance into the yard is via tunnel through the building – just in case you were wondering. Not that it matters for most games as they really on represent a built up area.
WH40k Eldar Grav-tank
Heh heh, this will be a right blast from the past for some.
Remember when they first brought out Epic 40k, it was called Adeptus Titanicus and then later Space Marine. Well if you recall they released models for the Falcon Grav Tank too, but they looked nothing like the current one.
Well when they released statistics for the Falcon for WH40k I just had to have one, but at that time they made no model. So…I scratch built this from cardboard, plastic spoons (yes honestly!) and various other stuff that I found lying around (bits of sprue etc).
6mm (1:300) Medieval
Once upon a time I had this plan of collecting together some sort of game that I could keep in a small box in the car and whip out at a moments notice for a quick game in the pub or wherever.
So it had to be small enough that a playing table could be stashed easily along with the terrain etc…the plan was to use DBA or something similar/made up.
Anyway, it only got as far as getting and painting some miniatures and then the perenial problem with 6mm scale was realised (again) – they are just too damn small.
In the close ups you might just be able to make out that they are arranged from back to front – Spear, X-bow, Archer, Command. They are painted in two different liveries (Green/white or red/yellow) but the knights and peasents in the centre are not affiliated to either side in particular.
More 6mm (1:300) WWII
I found some more micro WWII lurking in the back of my cupboard…
It was only when I found them that I remembered that I once had this idea of using a set of rules for 15mm or larger scale and basing multiple miniatures on the base. I think that I was getting a bit jaded with the complication of 6mm scale rule sets like Firefly. I intended using a set by Peter Pig but the idea fell down when I realised you cant really tell the difference between a LMG base and a normal rifle base at that scale. Also the idea of making realistic looking formations doesn’t work if you have to base LMG seperate to the rest of the platoon…
Of course non of this was insurmountable and no doubt there are hundreds of ways of getting around this but my imagination moved on. You know how it is in this hobby.
Always did fancy converting the board game ‘Panzer Leader’ to a miniatures game…hmmm…
Anyway, in the pic are cossacks (left), German cavalry and assorted German infantry and vehicles. Behind the German cavalry is a base with two 88mm Flak and beside it there is a base of two 120mm Mortars. I think the Kubelwagons in the front were supposed to be a command base.
The bags at the back contain a mix of German armoured cars and other odds + sods. The sharp eyed might spot a KV-1.
15mm DBA
Well who could call themselves a wargamer and not have at least one army based up for DBA?
Later Hoplite Greek
Early Imperial Roman (never did get round to adding the standard bearer to show the command stand, its in the box unpainted).
Ancient Briton (I noticed one of the figures from a warband stand has broken off..)
Starhound
Ship to ship combat in deep space…good fun game even if the miniatures now look very dated.
28mm Ancient Briton/Celt
These are the boys… I really like the idea of having an Ancient British celtic army.
They were a right sod to paint and I ended up limiting the patterning to 1 in 3 or even less just to stop me going insane. There are only so many times you can paint the same cheque pattern anyway. Thankyou very much to whoever invented ‘Army Painter’ since that also made life a whole lot easier. There are over 200 miniatures in this lot and even a low points value game requires most of them to be gotten out of the box. Usually playing against Ron’s Romans its really just an exercise in putting things in and out of boxes though since they do seem to die rather quickly…still its all good fun and I just like the idea of the hoard. The club joke when I start failing morale checks is that they have heard the chip shop is open in Flimby and want to beat the rush…one day though!
Got to love chariots, nearest thing the ancients could get to a motorbike I reckon.
Light horse, yet to find a really useful role for them but I have another 12 of these to paint…sometime.
Nothing to add… 🙂
The skirmishers with slings, and the odd bow just for difference.
This could be my favourite picture that I have uploaded so far. Chieftan + Druid + Army standard bearer and a multitude in the background.
Silent Death
This was an excellent space combat game although it was played on a hex-grid which made life a little awkward. Introduced to this by Paul Mitchel and we played many excellent games. Well remember many a happy afternoon playing this with Stephen Minshaw too.
I did think I had more miniatures than this but perhaps we used ‘proxy ships’ or they were mainly owned by Paul or Stephen.
WWII Micro Armour (6mm/1:300)
Ages and ages since these have been out of their boxes, these are some of the oldest minatures I have as I was very keen on wargaming WWII when I first started on this hobby and back then the micro-armour was about all I could afford. If only we had had e-bay in the mid 1980’s.
They are all based for use with Firefly rules and I dont even know if I remember exactly what there is probably last used against Mike Scott in 1990ish wherever he is now…
Russian – I think this is meant to be the 6th Guards Tank Brigade. Certainly plenty of T34 and I think they are Su-85 at the back and Su-75 at the front, which means this is probably a 1943? army. The three small vehicles are Ba-64 I think. I recall there being more infantry than is shown here, no doubt I will find it in the back of a cupboard somewhere as I continue photographing everything.
British – I think this is meant to be from NW Europe theatre in 1944/45. Looks to be a fair whack of Sherman Firefly in there and Cromwell IV. If you look you can see that some of the infantry were originally on different sized bases, I think this is from when I changed rules to Firefly from Combined Arms.
German – I am fairly certain this was meant to be a Panzergrenadier formation from 1943 (Kursk) era, however the Panthers suggest later so likely that I used to substitute the Stugs for Panther when using them against the British (above). To be honest I really cant remember but there does seem to be an awful lot of them…
Odds+Sods… It seems I also have a box with a mix of Nations represented, looks to be mostly German/British and in a general state of half painted.
20mm Hoplite Greek
These are the counterparts to the 20mm Persian and are based using the same convention of a 120mm unit frontage. It has been difficult to find the correct figures for Greek cavalry as you will see below.
The Hoplites that are not flocced in the picture of the complete army are Spartans from HAT, all the other Hoplites are Italeri figures which were much more detailed, slightly larger and more interesting to paint, in my opinion. There is still some way to go with this lot and I have a good few more units of Hoplite to add and some more Thracians (more on that below). I probably wont add much more in the way of light infantry/cavalry becasue I want to keep the flavour of the amy true to the early period of hoplite warfare although with just a mite of the later stuff to keep it an interesting army to use.
Complete Photo of the entire army as it currently stands:
Hoplites:
Skirmishers with slings / bows, and greek bowmen, notice the missing figure on one of the bases…I need to sort that out!. Also you can see one of the command bases behind the bowmen.
Thracians, I am intending on fielding these as a warband which means 8 figures to a base and 32 figures in the unit. I have just about enough unpainted to do this but the Italeri (these ones) and the HAT figures (yet to paint) are quite different in size so I haven’t quite decided what to do about that yet. So at the moment I’d probably see these as a ‘small’ warband…
Cavalry, the greeks were not known for their cavalry (apart from Thrace) and if you have a keen eye you will correctly spot that the larger unit of medium cavalry (3 to a base) are actually Macedonian Companions – see Alexander at the back? (I know – it shouldn’t be allowed!). The figures were the nearest ones I had to Greek cavalry in appearance so they will have to do at least for the time being.
The others are greek horse archers (which may never get used) and Thracian light cavalry.
28/25mm Alexandrian Macedonian
Ha ha still in the bag!
About 1500pts worth Warhammer Ancients Alexandrian Macedonian army and I haven’t even taken them out of the bags yet. Looking forward to getting them done but using them as the stick to make sure I get other things finnished first. Hopefully it will be a fun army to use once it is done. THe plan is 3 units of Pike, Companion Horse, Light Horse and Peltasts skirmishers.
Update 26th Feb 2012 – these are all painted and based now. Nice to complete something…see the post in ‘Ancients’.
28mm Norman
Got these as samples from a freind (thanks Ron).
Update 26th Feb 2012 – these are completed now, see the post in ‘medieval’, only problem is they were so pleasent to paint I may need to collect an army…a wargamers work is never done!
28mm Ancient British / Celts
You know the problem when you have a fully painted serviceable army that you like playing with…and then you buy something else for it.
Extra light cavalry for my Ancient British/Celtic army. What I really ‘need’ is some fanatics for this army but promised myself I would not get them until these horsemen are painted.
28/25mm Medieval (15th Century)
Well I have gotten as far as putting these on slats for painting.
It is a mix of medium/light armoured billmen and longbowmen just about enough to finnish off my 15th Century stuff if I ever get around to painting them.
20mm Hoplite Greek
Still in the box…haven’t even been washed yet!
In fairness most of these wont get used as I bought the Alexandrian packs to get the Thracians and the light troops for my Hoplite Greeks, still one day…
20mm Persians
How many miniatures does a man need?? Loads of these left to paint although likely I’ll only paint the ones that are out of the box and the rest will be relegated to being stored for ever. Some of the stuff inthe box is suitable for my Hoplite army too so maybe I’ll get to them eventually.
20mm (1:72) Castle
Built this a while ago to help Bridget with a homework assignment.
It is loosely based around Brougham Castle on the A66 near Penrith. I haven’t goten around to painting it yet as I actually have no use for it at all but being a hoarder I cant bring myself to part with it…Maybe one day I will get a few packs of 20mm plastic knights and work out some kind of siege skirmish game thing.
20mm Plastic Persian
These are currently a work in progress although all I need to do is to flock the bases. They are all based up to use the ‘Hail Ceasar’ rules and I have based all units on a 120mm frontage. They are also near enough to DBA/M basing that with a co-operative opponent could probably use them for that too.
I know it is a bit difficult to see on the photo but there are:
4x scythed chariot + 1 x general in a chariot
2xheavy Cavalry, 1xMedium cavalry, 1 x Light Cavalry, 1 x Horse Archers
3 x SparraBarra, 1 x Applebearers (as a Hoplite type unit), 1 x Persian levy (based as a Warband)
1x medium infantry, 1 x slingers, 1x kardakes (as medium infantry), 2x archers
1 x Skirmishers, 3 x Generals.
I know there is some debate over what the Kardakes were armed with and how they fought etc but I have gone for representing them as Peltasts rather than the other option of putting them as a poor quality Hoplite type formation.
I still have loads of these left to paint but I doubt many more of them will see a brush for a long time yet. I do have another unit of skirmishers and medium cavalry on my painting desk at the moment though so perhaps those last two units at least will make it into the box soon…ish.
I spent this morning getting all the above flocced. I went for a mix of coarse sand (from B&Q) mixed with N-gauge granite ballast and some random clumps of static grass. The plan was to try and make the bases look like barren scrubland, judge for yourself if they do.
Anyway, here are some close-up pics of some of the units:
Left = Applebearers, best thing about these is the mirror polished shields with no devices on them, painting all their pants the same was a chore though. Right = Sparrabarra, the photo washed out a bit… front rank of spear+pavisse, rear ranks archers.
Left= Kardakes, as medium/light infantry (peltasts). Right = skirmishers and a unit of Persian archers. The archers are supposed to be made up from the poorer peoples so I painted them in basic colours without patterns.
Close-up of the skirmishers showing their patterned tunics etc. I guess you could think of these as kardakes in skirmish order…
Right = Heavy cavalry. Left = medium cavalry.
Light Cavalry, horse archers on the left.
Right, that is a flavour of the army now to get to work on their opposition!
WH40k Space Marines
More old mini’s and I have to confess that some of them on this photo have not been quite finished. Notice the unpainted Predator and the ‘black’ riders on the bikes.
These are mostly from the days of the £10 for 30 plastic space marines…I think the Rhino came in a pack of two as well, but I cant be sure.
Anyway if you look closely you should be able to see a ‘tactical’ ‘assault’ and ‘devestator’ squad of marines with a Chaplain, Medic, Inquisitor, Captain and a Tech Marine.
Oh yes and behind them are two of the original Dreadnoughts and a land speeder.
WH40k Eldar
It has been a long while since these have seen the light of the day.
These are predominantly the old Rogue Trader era miniatures when the Eldar were supposed to be gnarly space pirates wearing carapace armour. I am fairly certain I have got at least one of every pose from that miniature range and very nice they are too. I like the newer aspect warriors but the guardians are crap in my opinion compared to the older miniatures. Spot the ‘spirit warrior’ at the top right – the precursor to the wraithguard of the current army lists I guess.
This army shows the painful reality of inflation…clearly when I bought the Fire Dragons they were 5 to a blister pack. When I got the Howling Banshee and Striking Scorpion they were likely being sold 4 to a blister and by the time I got the Swooping Hawks they must have been down to 3 per blister pack. Humpphhh remember when them blister packs were £2.99….
WH40k gets played a lot by the younger members in our club so I am currently tottering on the brink of dusting these down and giving the latest version a whirl, I have already ordered a copy of the new rules but time will tell if the game bites me again..
25mm Stargrunt..?
I got these fairly recently (a couple of years ago) for use with Stargrunt, but they are fairly generic so easily fit in with anything much. The marines are sculpted to look like the marines in the Aliens film and it is fairly easy topick out Vasquez, Drake and Hicks. Although maybe not the photo.
I prefer them in a more urban camo-scheme though so painted them grey with khaki fatigues.
The group on the left is in light armour and are painted grey with white/blue cammoflage patern. Well I liked it.
must remember to flock the bases sometime…
Newt's Wargames Stuff... 