The everything miniatures wargaming thread

[The Brain]

Unfortunately GWM don't have late war French, but I have ordered late war British to have a second army. AFAIK there are no really great French late WW1 minis in 28mm.

This discussion has some links to options as well as one that compares the various options that exist. Might be of interest. Also, amazing new work! Your minis are one of the reasons I still come back here on occasion.
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=456648

Thanks!

It would be great if one of the modern quality manufacturers did a late war French line. Should happen some day.

[The Brain]

Finished a basic German army. I have some more stuff I can add to it if/when I want, but now I at least have a reasonable force. Simple paint jobs, but I'm very pleased with the army, and it was quick and fun to paint.

Command Group (if anyone wonders why there's little color on the officer caps, feldgrau covers were used at the front)
Infantry platoon w/ gasmasks (or company, depending on the force scale)
Infantry platoon w/o gasmasks
Stormtrooper squad (or platoon)
Grenade Launcher
Heavy Machine Gun
Sniper
Mortar
Flamethrower team














I haven't decided yet what to do next. I have a British army that I can paint, also from Great War Miniatures. However, Wargames Atlantic are about to release a plastic box of late WW1 French which will probably be good, and they should be very size compatible with GWM minis, so I might wait for that and then do a French army (probably with some Brigade Games minis for special stuff). I could also do some WW1 terrain while waiting for the French (or as a break before I do the British army), I got a bunch of ready to use stuff but also stuff that needs painting etc.

[The Brain]

Oh, and I also got appropriate headgear for French and German players. I don't have a British helmet. Yet.

[The Brain]

I decided to do some terrain. I have painted a LOT of WW1 terrain, now I definitely have enough for an 8'x4' table. What's in the pic are just examples, I have a LOT more craters, hills, mud, barbed wire, trenches, bunkers, blasted trees and what not. The trench section bottom right is a Ziterdes piece, I have enough different various pieces to build an intricate trench system. This is obviously terrain for a classic moonscape WW1 battle, which many were during major offensives where the artillery had obliterated any sense of normalcy. For war of movement or surprise attacks normal grass terrain and trees of course are fine, and I already have those.

The ruined house is from 4Ground. I really like 4Ground, they make great prepainted laser cut MDF buildings. They look good, engineering is great, and they're fun and quick to assemble. They really make great use of the material. And the price is nice.



Painting terrain is fun, it's quick and you don't have to be precise to get good results. For the earth tone I used craft store acrylics, they are cheaper and come in bigger containers, and they are better suited to painting large surfaces.

I have pre-ordered some plastic French from Wargames Atlantic, and ordered some specialist French figures from Brigade Models and others.

And also I got a helmet for the British player! It's a MkII WW2 era helmet that has been reconfigured as a MkI WW1 era helmet (the French and German ones are 100% modern replicas).



It's interesting to compare the three different helmets. The French feels kind of flimsy, but it looks pretty cool and of course appeared early which was important when every month counted. The British one isn't very sexy, and there's no protection on the sides which makes you feel kind of vulnerable. The German one feels nice, and I think one WW1 veteran writes about the sense of safety it provided. Of course the German one is the most modern looking, so in that sense the basic design has stood the test of time.

[Sophie Scholl]

Digging the terrain and helmets. That building looks great! I might need to scope out their line if I ever do more in person rp again using minis.

[The Brain]

I got inspired by assembling the ruined buildings, so I decided to build my Dark Age 4Ground buildings I've had for some years. Great fun. The houses have interior details and lift-off roofs. Doors can be opened and closed. The biggest house has two floor. The thatch is fur styled with diluted PVA glue.

There was a problem with one of the small houses though, the one with the, er... thing on the roof. It came with some wrong parts so it has no interior detail and the roof can be forced on or off but not lifted on or off. So the exterior is fine (the most important thing), but I won't put figures in it.

[PDH]

Brain, I haven't said this enough - this is great stuff and very much like seeing and reading about your work.  Hat's off to you.

[The Brain]

Brain, I haven't said this enough - this is great stuff and very much like seeing and reading about your work.  Hat's off to you.

Thank you!

It's always nice when I've finished something to take pics and post them here. A sense of accomplishment.

[The Brain]

Sweet! I found another Dark Age house in my stash. It's a bigger version of the house with the thing, but this one has all the correct parts so will have detailed interior and lift-off roof. Nice.

[Jacob]

I have some Sarissa buildings with teddy fur for thatch, but they look a bit naff. The fur is too long (so I'm going to trim it), and I haven't "styled" it. Can you tell me a bit about the "styling with diluted PVA glue" process, because I'm a bit worried about fucking it up.

Also, Dark Ages... love it. What systems and minis are you likely to use the buildings with?

[The Brain]

I have some Sarissa buildings with teddy fur for thatch, but they look a bit naff. The fur is too long (so I'm going to trim it), and I haven't "styled" it. Can you tell me a bit about the "styling with diluted PVA glue" process, because I'm a bit worried about fucking it up.

Also, Dark Ages... love it. What systems and minis are you likely to use the buildings with?

I basically followed the instructions that came with the buildings. After gluing the fur in place I left it overnight before doing the styling. Using 50/50 PVA glue/water mix and an old big (model brush big, not paint real houses big) flat brush I started applying the mix, fairly liberally, to the roof, starting at the top and working my way down. While applying it I also shaped the fur top to bottom, to make it reasonably even and get that "flowing downwards" look. I made sure to get the mix at the edges of the fur to avoid any "untreated" hairs hanging out. When done I let it dry overnight. I could also use some scissors to trim the fur but I haven't felt the need here, and I'm happy with a somewhat "rough" look (it's fucking Dark Ages man).

I think it's very hard to fuck up, so my advice is go for it. My original plan was to do one house and then wait and see the results, but after doing the first I felt confident enough to do the rest as well in one go. The mix takes hours to dry so there is plenty of time to fix the look until you're happy with it. Of course the mix is a milky white in color, but that "dries away".

The instructions called for an old toothbrush. Maybe the results would be even better if I had used one, you might get a better "combing" effect (or not), but I didn't have one and I'm happy with the results. When I found the new house though Earlier Me had stashed an old toothbrush with it, so I'll try it on this house. Thanks, Earlier Me!

Here's a pic for comparison, on the right is the new house I found that I haven't styled yet (this might be of interest to other readers, you know what teddy fur looks like).



As for rules and minis... I've ordered some Victrix plastic figures (Vikings, Saxons, and Normans), they've gotten great reviews so I look forward to getting my hands on them. I also already have about 20 painted Foundry Vikings, and the same number of Foundry Normans. However, the Vikings are more "movielike" than I feel like going for now, and the Normans are the old 25mm sculpts that aren't compatible with modern 28mm figures (they are nice figures with character, I suppose they might be Perry sculpts, but too small for this modern era). I also have a box of plastic Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors I can build, they may be good for poorer fighters, and could be fielded both as Saxons and Vikings.

The past days I've looked through relevant rules in my collection. There's SAGA by Tomahawk, Blood Eagle by The Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare, Deus Vult Burn And Loot: Wrath of the Norsemen by Fireforge, Age of Blood by Wargamesjournal, Lords & Servants by Dadi&Piombo, Montjoie! by Two Hour Wargames (not really Dark Age though), and BattleLust by Columbia Games (the tabletop slimmed down version of the Hârnmaster combat system).

I also have the Hârnmaster RPG, and I recently started reading the books. It's a very nice setting, Hârn itself is essentially a low fantasy British Isles equivalent in the 9th-14th centuries, with a focus on 11th-12th century.  I mentally include Hârn in my Dark Age (late Dark Age...) project (I might do some goblins and stuff in addition to the historical stuff).

[Jacob]

Nice! Thank you for the before and after pictures.

And yeah the Victrix minis look just lovely. I've been coveting them for a while. I have about 200 (!) of the Foundry ones and I agree they're a bit... uh.. film-like in many cases. And yeah, I also have a bunch of Normans and they are smaller. The Normans look alright with the Conquest plastic Norman cavalry I have, though.

[The Brain]

Are all the 200 painted?

I can report that a toothbrush is a slightly better tool than a brush (but the difference is minor).

[Jacob]

Are all the 200 painted?

I have 25 painted metal vikings, with a little more than half being Foundry and the remainder old school Citadel. I haven't updated the blog in my link for a while, but most of them are there. You've probably seen them, since I post to this thread too

The proportion of painted to unpainted minis is for me... uhm... quite low.

I can report that a toothbrush is a slightly better tool than a brush (but the difference is minor).

Good tip. I have a few sacrificial toothbrushes available.

[The Brain]

I may have some unpainted minis as well.

I got my first delivery of Victrix stuff. Saxons. They come in a 60-pack, 2 command sprues and 6 warrior sprues. I assembled som minis from the command sprue (or rather 7 out of a total of 12 figures possible with 2 command sprues, there are 6 guys per sprue):



I must say these are excellent figures, the reviews were right. They look awesome and have a lot of character. Detail is crisp, mold lines are faint. You have to pay attention when assembling them, different arms etc go with different bodies, you can't just put guys together randomly. Which is a good thing, this means that the figures have actual poses and not generic slightly unnatural stances. On the command sprue every body has two different options for arms/weapons and heads. On the warrior sprue I think it might be slightly more flexible, but it's still important to check that you pick a correct part for a certain body. There are both round shields and teardrop shields, in the grand tradition of wargaming I will probably let the Saxons have only round shields so they don't look like Normans on the table. The round shields come in several different sizes, which is pretty cool, you can pick freely which size you want for a guy with shield, they are not molded onto the arm. Everyone having the exact same size shield may be great for Roman Legionaries, but hardly for Dark Age warriors.

The cross was originally facing to the monk's right, likely for technical production reasons. Cutting it off and repositioning it to face forward was a very simple and quick procedure though.

I likely won't use all 60 guys, unlike my Wars of the Roses army my Dark Age forces won't be made for mass battle with skirmish as an option, but purely for skirmish gaming. And these figures certainly have enough individual character for skirmish models.

I think that these Victrix figures are at least as good as Perry plastics. This is high praise.