Sunday 14 October 2018

The Siren Call...

Morning folks!

It's been a while since I updated the blog but with lots of Real Life goings on, I've not really had much chance to do anything hobby related for ages.

My return to 15mm sci-fi gaming has really reinvigorated my hobby interest and I've rather enjoyed putting together lots of random terrain and painting some small chaps to fight over it but it has got me to wondering about doing something similar for the fantasy side of things...


Now I've tried 15mm fantasy before with my Slann warband and Dwarf Troops that I put together a couple of years ago but sadly both got sold off when I moved house as I had lost interest in the projects.

 Slann!

I've been thinking of putting together some smallish forces with vague hopes of playing some fantasy gubbins, be it an edition of Warhammer or Dragon Rampant but have been putting off any decision as I am just not sure what exact scale to go for.

Dwarves

While 15mm is a fantastic scale to work with, I have seen some amazing stuff done in 10mm, 6mm and even 2mm scale that has me wondering if I can scratch the fantasy itch in a more micro scale sort of way on a similarly micro budget.

I must admit that I am rather conflicted by what to do as on the one hand, I'd love to collect a force in classic 28mm scale but know that is just not going to happen. The next option of 15mm is sorely tempting as figures cost an average of 40p each and have enough detail to be characterful without taking an age to paint and still have enough personality to make for an interesting painting project.

10mm seems to be getting a lot of fantasy gamers interest too with Minihammer being quite popular:

Minihammer Bretonnians (image by Lord Gnarkill over on the Ninth Age forum)

There's a lot to be said for putting together a decent sized force and being able to play a couple of thousand points of Warhammer on a 2'x3' surface and I've seen some cracking armies too but outwith human armies, the available ranges are a bit spotty.

Moving down to 6mm, I actually have a decent Horned Folk force put together for my take on Leviathan:
Horned Folk

Sadly there's not too much choice in the UK for 6mm fantasy at the moment. Irregular produces a large range but I must admit that I have struggled with painting them and the Microworld range, while lovely is a US import that makes it rather too expensive for the purposes of what I am going for.

The final scale I have been looking at is the teeny tiny 2mm:

Tiny 2mm armies (pic from Steel on Sand)

At this tiny scale, individual figures are pretty indistinct but one can get the impression of huge armies duking it. At this scale, as with 6mm, things are going to be more suited to the likes of Warmaster than Warhammer but it might be an interesting project to attempt if I'm feeling a bit mental.

It's all a bit perplexing and I seem to be rather stuck on just what to try, if anything as the urge to try is becoming ever more difficult to resist!

Maybe I just need to experiment a bit as I do have some 15mm, 10mm and 6mm fantasy gubbins kicking about my bits box at the moment so I think I will just need to sit down and try painting a few test figures and see how things go...

In the meantime, I hope to get some more sci-fi goodies added in the next couple of days so watch this space!

All the best!

7 comments:

  1. Personally speaking, 28 I’ll keep only for Infinity because it’s the main game I’m playing currently. 15mm for the rest because I don’t want to do any armies and I want to be able to play games with my girlfriend and friends (affordability of scenery is a big plus too)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 15mm is a good scale to work with and you can have a decent warband style skirmish without breaking the bank or indeed taking up a massive amount of space!

      Delete
  2. Give in and go 10mm. there is a large group playing warmaster.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tempting!

      Sadly Warmaster requires a bit more space than I have access to for a gaming table at the moment which is why I've been humming and hahing about Warhammer or a similar "mass battle" game for a while.

      The minihammer movement has been fascinating to watch though as there's some really nice armies getting put together on assorted blogs and forums!

      Delete
  3. I see your point but I take the opposite view: instead of smaller scale I want to play with less models. I like the idea of each miniature being a character and of converting each one. So I'm drawn to games like Frostgrave and Necromunda, where each model is a unit in itself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed! I love 28mm figures but I just seem to have very little fun painting them these days while I can quite happily paint 2-3 15mm chaps in a sitting.

      Maybe I need to have another peek at my Somewhere on the Border warbands which I sculpt myself...

      Delete
  4. Lovely stuff. I like especially the dwarves!

    ReplyDelete