The everything miniatures wargaming thread

[The Brain]

12 y/o SS fanbois aren't the sharpest tools in the box.

[Syt]

Apparently this is what prompted it. Guy with the name "Austrian Painter" shows up to a WH40K event in Spain, wearing nazi symbols:

https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/games-workshop-fights-back-against-fascist-hate-symbols-in-the-warhammer-40k-community/

[The Brain]

1 Nazi nutjob in 800 players is a pretty good ratio, at least. Though it seems the organizers were sympathetic.

[Syt]

1 *overt* nutjob.

[The Brain]

A man's bedroom is his palace.

[The Brain]

Since I now have 4 warbands that cover most major players in the British Isles I thought I'd do some other stuff that may be useful.

I built a Viking house from 4Ground. The other houses I have are fairly generic, but it's nice to also have a house that says "Viking". It came with a table and some benches (not all benches shown). I've also built some fences from 4Ground.



I've also done some animals. They can serve as warband members, dangers, loot, or simply randomly moving obstacles. The bears are from Reaper, the wolves are WizKids, the boar and pigs are Foundry, the goat and sheep are from Warlord's Farmyard Animals box, and the dogs are from Wargames Atlantic's Dark Age Irish box. Some animals are fairly easy to find models for, a goat is pretty much a goat in any era. Pigs however are a different matter. You can't put a modern pig in a Dark Age setting, it will look weird. I was glad I found the Foundry pigs, since I've always liked medieval pigs and the way they are depicted in medieval art. I didn't use the cows from the Warlord box, I wasn't sure they'd look Dark Age enough. I have seen some Dark Age cow models, but I wasn't a big fan of the sculpting. So cows might be added later, but not right now.

[grumbler]

I don't think the melee between the wolves and the sheep in the last panel will be very fair. 

[The Brain]

Tabletop gaming isn't fair. It is red in tooth and claw.

[The Brain]

I did some more terrain stuff. Since camps can be a likely setting for a battle I painted some Saxon Tents from Renedra (only one shown, there's four on a sprue). I also did some runestones from Fenris (I did check the gift shop at the Swedish History Museum, but their runestones were too big for 28mm). I have this idea that I want some terrain pieces that "place" the battlefield. For instance if there is a runestone the battle takes place in the Viking homelands. These runestone I just based as they came from the supplier. When runestones were new they were painted in strong colors, but 1) if I did that it would likely look like ass, and 2) the stones show wear so are not completely new anyway.



I wanted some kind of Roman ruin, to "place" the battlefield in the old Roman Empire, for instance England. I settled on the Ruined Temple fron Reaper (which is essentially a fantasy piece but still). Unusually for a terrain piece in this scale it's in soft plastic. I'm very pleased with how it came out, I improvised a very simple recipe for dirty/worn limestone/marble, and it looks pretty good from a distance IMHO. The statue can be placed on the podium, but mostly it will likely be left off. The statue has a pre-Classical look, so I'd only use it for battlefields in old Greek or Phoenician areas. One type of terrain piece that would be cool is a ruined Roman villa, but the ones available are more suitable for Arthurian gaming than Viking (the ruins are relatively "fresh").

[The Brain]

Vikings need ships. I got some from Barrage Miniatures. I ordered the small boat and ship with mast. The ship was supposed to come with a steering oar. There was no oar, but I got a third vessel, the biggest ship, which I don't think is available in the store, as a freebie. Cool.

I'm not gonna add details, like sails etc, to them. It would mean too much work and it would make them less practical as gaming pieces. The hulls look really nice I think, and that's enough. The paintjob is very simple, Vallejo German Cam. Med. Brown, a wash of GW Agrax Earthshade, and a drybrush of the Vallejo color.

[Jacob]

Loving it

... the ruined temple, is that from Reaper Miniatures? I can seem to find any terrain on their site. Or is it a different Reaper that makes the piece?

[The Brain]

It's that Reaper. Their Bones Plastic range.

https://www.reapermini.com/search/Ruined%20Temple

[The Brain]

Ships need water. I made some water tiles from plasticard. This way I can have just a small corner of water (just one of the triangular ones) or a bit more (as shown), and if I need I can easily make more tiles and expand it further. Also in the pic is the small boat, and the jetty is a piece from the Norse Boarden Walk Ways set from 4Ground. Obviously the water tiles also work for 6mm, which is nice. The water has a layer of Gloss Varnish.

[Jacob]

So nice!

[The Brain]

I built a Norman Tower, from Sarissa Precision. Unlike 4Ground buildings it comes unpainted, but I will probably leave it unpainted for now. The general color is fine, and the laser cut details give some character. Painting it would be a lot of work for somewhat limited gain. Maybe I'll paint it in the future, but for now it will do as a simple utilitarian Norman keep of a kind erected all over England during the Conquest. These weren't built for the ages.

The levels aren't glued together, you can lift them off and have minis inside. It looks a bit odd to have the roof access stair just above the entrance where you'd presumably want fighting men dropping stuff on people, but that's the way it's designed. I chose to photograph it as it's designed, but you can easily rotate the upper level and roof to improve the placement of the stairs, but then of course the internal stairs lower in the tower don't align.

Overall, a quick simple build with a good result. Cool.