Making Super Cheap 6mm Infantry

 Hi!

Just enough time to post a quick update before I head off down south for a week!

Vosk House Troops

I've had a lot of queries on how I make my own 6mm scale infantry so have decided to post up a bit of a tutorial on the process.

Materials

Materials

To make my 6mm scale infantry, I use EVA foam, ideally a sheet of 2.5mm thick available from Hobbycraft for about £1.25 and will make loads of infantry. The second sheet I use is slightly thinner, approximately 1.5mm which I think I picked up in a pack from The Range for about £5 for a pack of five.

The only other materials I used were plastic sticky backed gems that I got from Hobbycraft for £2.99 but has enough to make literally hundreds of infantry.

The bases are 40mm lollypop sticks, again picked up from Hobbycraft for about £1.25 for 50. 

Other materials are a metal ruler, a sharp hobby knife and a pair of scissors to cut small pieces. I've found that Gorilla Glue is the best for sticking the bits together but any superglue should do the job.

Construction

The first thing to do is to cut long strips of the EVA foam into 5mm strips. For this I use the sharp hobby knife but be aware that EVA foam will blunt a blade quite quickly for some reason!

Rule (Ironically I dislike this metal ruler!)

Next I use scissors to roughly cut little rectangles. You can measure them to keep them uniform in size but I don't really bother as they look ok even if they're not identical! I picked up a pair of sharp thread cutters from a charity shop which is ideal for this sort of thing but you can grab some cheap ones from The Range for under £2.00.

Chop Chop

Next up, glue them to their bases with some superglue followed by some small strips of the thinner EVA foam to represent guns. I've not tried making fantasy or pre-gunpowder figures with this method but will do some experimenting to see how it works out but in theory, it should work just as well!

Tiny obelisks begin to look like actual figures

The final step is to add some extra details. For this I stuck the little gemstones onto the top to give them helmeted heads and a small square of EVA foam on their back to represent backpacks.

Infantry taking shape

Painting

Once I've made a platoon worth of infantry I primed them all in pale grey then started painting proper!

Infantry nearing completion

I tend to paint using bold highlights and let the paint do much of the detail work in this scale as there's no point worrying about making super detailed paintwork as you won't see it on the table! The visors are just painted on as are the infantry's hands on their weapons. The legs are similarly painted on using some small stripes of paint and voila, they're done!

Complete infantry

The last element is to prime the bases with dark brown then add some flock and the figures are done and dusted. Hopefully folks will find this useful and I'll see about making a separate page on the blog for a guide to making them, updated to show different kinds of infantry figures once I've made them!

I'm about to pack to head down south for the week so updates won't be happing until I return so until then, All the best!

Longmyre: Blackpowder

 Something a little different this morning!

I've been footling around with EVA foam to make some units with the vague intention of playing some Rebels and Patriots.

Longmyre Infantry

I'd been kind of wondering what to do with my Longmyre setting as it had kind of stalled out so I had a bit of a think about a fun mini project to get the creative juices flowing and ended up with a Black Powder one with Longmyre having to defend it's borders from the notorious robber Baron Vosk of Voskovia (Vosk is the villain in everything!).

Infantry Detail

The infantry are made from three strips of EVA foam glued together and scored on the top and then just painted to look like tiny men. It's kind of blocky but does the job and I'm rather pleased with how they turned out. 

Skirmishers

These figures predate my other 6mm stuff as they got made earlier this year and its taken until now to actually get them photographed. They were the inspiration for my later projects and I must admit that I haven't done anything more with them for a while now and really need to make them some cavalry and artillery to complete the force and then make some of Vosks own regiments to fight them!

Tally Ho!

I'll need to get some more stuff built as I do have a stand of test pieces that I'd made for cavalry but it's a lot more convoluted to make than the infantry so I suspect that further experimentation will need to be done to get the look and feel of cavalry without spending an absolute age making them!

Hopefully I'll have some Orks to show next but until then, All the best!

Imperial Reinforcements

 Hi!

I've been steadily working away on my scratch built 6mm Imperial project for Farpoint and have finished a new infantry platoon, this time for the 50th ''Forgotten'' Frontier Foot:

Like my von Dorn house troops, they're made from a two strips of EVA foam, one forming the body, the second their weapon. This time round I added a small plastic rhinestone to the top as I wasn't 100% happy with how my von Dorn infantry had turned out so decided to experiment a bit.

The little rhinestone gives the figure a head and I really like how the resulting figures turned out.

50th "Forgotten" Frontier Foot Infantry Platoon

The 50th "Forgotten" Frontier Foot is one of the Imperial Guard regiments deployed in the Farpoint sector. Due to the rampant corruption and neglect of the previous Governor, much of their gear and indeed new recruits were siphoned off to Baron Vosk's personal forces leaving them a shadow of their former glory. 

Infantry with Copperhead support

von Dorn's arrival has seen the regiment beginning to be reconstituted but it will prove to be a lot of work to root out the corruption within the ranks, get each unit fully equipped and ready to perform their duties. von Dorn has instituted a crash training programme with officers and NCO's from his own house troops to work with the rather ineffectual 50th's command to get them back in order.  

Thus far, I've got a full platoons worth of infantry completed for the force consisting of command squad, six infantry teams and two heavy weapon stands to give them a little more firepower. I do have transports built but haven't had chance to paint them up yet.

My von Dorn force has also been given some reinforcements, adding a command squad and HQ vehicle for the platoon as well as a pair of Sentinels to complete the force for the time being.

von Dorn Command squad with Party Wagon

I've got a plan for making a second platoon of infantry, this time riding either bikes or skimmers which is in keeping with the rapid response theme of the army but will need to footle around with some gubbins to see what I can make...

von Dorn MKIV Sentinel scout walkers

After I've got the 50th Forgotten's transports painted up, I plan on making some rebels and Orky types for my units to fight but haven't settled on anything quite yet as I have several other projects to complete or indeed work on first!

von Dorn rapid response force

I must admit that I'm really pleased with the progress I've been making with my small scale projects and I've got high hopes of being able to play some 6mm scale reinforced platoon level up to company v company games by the end of the year. As its costing me virtually nothing to make them, its also a good budget miniature project too!

Hopefully I'll get some more stuff bashed out soon as I've got several other bits and bobs finished over the last weeks but just haven't had the time to get pictures of them but expect another update in a few days with more goodies to show.

Until then, All the best!

Tanks Aplenty

 Hi!

I've been rather taken with making tiny tanks over the last few days so I thought I'd share some pics!

Copperhead Class Tanks

The Copperhead class tank was created on Farpoint by Vosk Industries having gained the contract for a cheap and reliable tank suited for frontier duty. Unfortunately, due to Baron Vosk's rampant corruption, the project went massively over budget, late and the final result was less than satisfactory to say the least.

Under armoured, with poor speed and manoeuvrability and lacklustre armaments, the Copperhead is better known as the Coprolite by its unwilling crews as it is, quote ''a fossil and a bit shit''. Prone to brewing up when hit, the Copperhead is a very unwelcome addition to frontier garrisons. 

Word has it that von Dorn has personally sent some of his trusted advisors to Vosk Industries to twist arms and get a MK2 that actually lives up to the standards specified and quietly investigate where all the money went.

Copperhead Detail

I really enjoyed making some tracked vehicles and suspect I'll have a few more done over the coming months and ended up getting carried away and made a massive behemoth as well!

Super Heavy Sighted!

Surveillance footage obtained from a drone overpass of Vosk's estates sighted this monstrosity. Dubbed the Annihilator Vosk used much of the money from the Copperhead contract to sink into creating a massive super heavy tank he called the Annihilator.

The vehicle weighs in at well over 150 tonnes and uses all the most modern technologies including a grav propulsion system, composite Adamantium armour and a Plasma cannon so powerful that it can core even the heaviest Imperial vehicle or walker with ease.

The Annihilator Grav Tank

Thus far Vosk has tried to keep the vehicle under wraps but the suspicion is that he plans to use the monster against the forces of von Dorn if he moves against Vosk's estates.

Quite why Vosk decided to paint the thing in such eyewateringly lurid colours is unknown...

Annihilator detail

As with all my vehicles, the tanks are made from a core of EVA foam with thin cardboard, rhinestones and some other bits and bobs and have been great fun to make!

Annihilator detail

Alongside the massive tank, I made some tiny ones too! I envisioned these tiny tanks much like the British Vickers cavalry tanks from WW2. Hopelessly outgunned by the monster but relying on speed and manoeuvrability to keep their two man crews from being blown to atoms, they're handy for frontier forces needing light, fast armoured forces and more suited to colonial actions than facing any serious opposition...

Little and Large

I'm waiting on some more bases from Warbases (excellent company by the way!) so I can get these painted up and ready for action but I thought I'd share some pictures of what the vehicles look like before painting so folks can see some of the construction process.

Vickers class cavalry tanks

Simple shapes and nothing fancy. Its amazing what a coat of paint and some bold highlighting can do for simple sculpts!

I've also got a backwater infantry force awaiting paint but got carried away with all the vehicle manufacturing which will hopefully give me enough to play a game or two once it's finished but until then, All the best!

Von Dorn Rapid Reaction Force

 Hi!

It's been a while since I've posted here but I've been pretty constructive but just not getting chance to post progress here.

To remedy this, here's what I've been working on:

von Dorn Rapid Reaction Force

While Inquisitor Fisher is off in pursuit of the Armour of Hathor and Murdoch Foyle, things are hotting up on Farpoint as the new Governor General, Laars von Dorn struggles to bring law and order to the frontier sector, exacerbated by the machinations of his predecessor, Baron Alexandr Vosk.

von Dorn has responded with a show of force and has begun despatching rapid reaction forces made of house troops transported in light armoured vehicles to outlying settlements to try and crush the rapidly spiralling disorder that Vosk has been fermenting.

Stinger class Armoured Car

I've been having so much fun making stuff recently that I decided to have a bash at making some 6mm scale sci-fi and ended up with a slightly understrength Imperial Guard platoon backed up with transports and some light armour.

Bumblebee class APC

The vehicles are made from EVA foam and strips of thin cardboard while the wheels are made from beads. Turrets are made from plastic rhinestones and I'm really pleased with how they've turned out. Yes they're a bit blocky and stylised but on the table, they look absolutely ace, especially emblazoned with the bold yellow and black livery of House von Dorn!

Infantry squad

The Infantry are literally small pieces of EVA foam, glued to some small popsicle sticks with a little piece of EVA foam for guns and a backpack then painted. Again close up, they're pretty simplistic but on the tabletop, they're pretty indistinguishable from other epic scale figures and cost me nothing which is even better!

The Force thus far

I've got a command squad made and will need to add another few APC's and heavy weapons to the mix and have plans for some Sentinels and even a tank squadron to back them up and then I'll be starting on their opposition!

Hopefully I'll be able to get started on some villains for the von Dorns to mix it up with over the coming weeks and I have a similar force in 6mm for black powder nearly finished which I'll be showing soon too but until then, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 109: Battle for Jango's Landing

 Hi!

In a fit of nostalgia I pulled some of my old Epic collection out of my display cabinet and had a quick game using my own rules so without further ado, here's the battle report!

Background

While the Inquisition are probing the sewers beneath Farpoint's capitol Freeport City, Lieutenant Bolivar of the Ultramarines has been dispatched to defend one of the planets outlying settlements from a raiding party of traitor Marines.

Arriving from the north west, his scouts report that there is a force of the Sons of Titan rapidly approaching from the south and east and Bolivar begins issuing orders to his small force. The traitors will not ravage Jango's Landing while a single Ultramarine draws breath!

The Forces

Lieutenant Bolivars force consists of one command stand, two tactical stands, a Centurion battle suit and a land speeder. 

The Sons of Titan are lead by Konnix Darkslade, Champion of Titan. His force consists of one command stand, two tactical squads (one of which has a missile launcher upgrade), two rebel Squat squads and a Rhino APC.

Now these may seem like piddly forces for an Epic scaled game but I'm quite a fan of playing small games in the scale and looking at the two forces, they are about the size of a 2nd edition 40k force just scaled down.

The Setup

The game takes place in the town of Jango's Landing and as such there are a number of buildings scattered about the board which provides heavy cover for those occupying them. I didn't bother coming up with any scenario objectives, with the winner being whoever drove off the other force.

The Ultramarines deploy in the north west whilst the Sons of Titan arrive in the south east of the board. The board itself is 2'x2' and I was keen to see if I could play a game using such meagre space.

The Game

Aware that his force is outnumbered, Bolivar splits his tactical squad into two combat squads allowing for more flexibility and orders his forces forward. Like Epic Armageddon, a unit may activate normally and can then be pushed by passing a command check. If they succeed, they may activate a second time but if they fail, they receive a blast marker.

Turn one saw the Sons of Titan Space Marine squad rushing forward into the towns industrial zone, no doubt in search of supplies to loot. Their commander Konnix is distracted by his comm unit's snarled warning that Imperial troops are approaching his position and fails to activate while the forces Rhino speeds along one flank and the Squats move forward towards the town centre.

The Ultramarines begin to deploy with the two combat squads moving forward towards the town along with the command squad, who like the chaos commander, fails his activation check. The Centurion clanks forward towards the rock spires that overlook the towns northern edge, preparing to bring down heavy fire on whatever traitor he sees. Finally the Ultramarine speeder skims south towards the woods, intent on bringing some hurt to the traitors they detect moving towards the warehouses.

Turn two has activations swap between both sides fairly smoothly with the Ultramarine speeder rapidly closing on the traitors positions whilst both sides begin to consolidate their positions with the Ultramarines moving further into the town and occupying several buildings, preparing to use them as defensive redoubts to pour fire on the traitors when they approach.

 

The traitor Rhino speeds forward into the town, seeking shelter from the Ultramarine Centurions heavy weapons systems and the traitor marines close in on the warehouses chanting songs of battle as they do so.

Turn three has the action starting to hot up with the Ultramarine speeder making a drive by attack on the traitor marines but their fire only succeeds in placing a blast marker on the Sons of Titan. 

The failed attack is costly as the outraged renegades pour through the gap between the warehouses and rain fire into the loyalist skimmer and despite desperate evasion measures is sent spiralling to the ground in a ball of fire as bolter shells find it's engine. Chanting and bellowing, the traitor marines prepare to move on the main Ultramarine position.

Brother Vexus, the Ultramarine manning the Centurion battle suite spots the renegade tank but is unable to get a fix on it as it thunders behind a nearby building but his sensors do allow his weapons array to lock onto the traitor Squat squad and he proceeds to blaze away with his heavy bolter, shredding one of the stands and sending the traitorous survivors reeling.

Turn four has the traitors Rhino rapidly approaching the loyalist position and this time Brother Vexus can draw a bead on the tank and his heavy bolter fire shreds the machine.

Enraged at the loss of their tank, the Sons of Titan marines storm forward firing on one of the Ultramarine combat squads with their missile launcher causing no casualties but inflicting a blast marker on the stalwart defenders as the missile blasts a large hole in the building they are occupying.

Return fire from the marines is out of range and they hold their position, forcing the chaos marines to advance on them in the next turn.

Meanwhile the traitor Squats finally rally back in the chaos deployment zone and the renegade commander Konnix moves forward as fast as he can to support his renegades who are engaged in a fierce firefight in the town centre.

Turn five begins with the Sons of Titan marines rush into a series of buildings opposite the Imperial positions and open fire on the second combat squad. The ensuing firefight is savage and both sides take blast markers but the combined weight of fire of the Ultramarines as well as some poor rolls by the Chaos troops sees them wiped out.

Approaching the scene of the firefight, the rebel commander Konnix realises that his men have been slain and the Ultramarines are in possession of the town and that no doubt reinforcements are on their way. Cursing the loyalist scum, Konnix gathers up his surviving marines and retreats towards their landing zone, vowing revenge upon the Imperium in general and the Ultramarines in particular.

Conclusion

Well I had quite a bit of fun with that game and things went well for the staunch defenders of the Imperium! I need to rework the command system a bit as the renegade commander spent much of the game failing to activate due to poor rolls so will need to take that into account in future games. 

Konnix should have deployed in the Rhino and stormed forward with his renegade marines as I feel the combined force would have probably been able to overwhelm the Imperial positions but I sent it off by itself to distract the Centurion and stop him blowing away my marines.

I've really enjoyed playing in 6mm again and suspect that I'll be dusting off more figures in the future to play some slightly larger skirmishes and may need to make a stand to represent some of the assorted warbands that I have in 28mm scale as it would be great to have games using different scales to represent small encounters on the battlefield or as part of a larger campaign where the action hots up with a rebel uprising or xenos invasion forcing the different warbands to choose a side!

In other news I'm working on a load more sculpts for my fantasy project and should have some more stuff to show tomorrow but until then, All the best!

Lockdown Day 78

Hi!

Today I've had a bit of a mixed bag of solo gaming and painting as well as some bits and bobs of a sculpting sort.

First up, here's my Goff Nob Mob:

Goff Nobz

I tried to keep the little guys somewhat inspired by the 2nd edition 40k original pics I showed the other day so instead of just having utilitarian black and a smidge of white, I added some bright red with orange highlights which really livens up the figures.

Here's the current mob:

The Mob so far

This will represent a single formation for my warband as it expands but will probably have the nobz put into a separate unit with the Warboss and his ride once I have it finished...

Speaking of which, I was looking at the classic Epic Battlewagon and was uninspired by the little cheesy skull and spikes on the front so have spent a bit of time working on an upgraded one this afternoon:

 Battlewagon wip

I still have a bit of work to do on it as I am going to replace the weedy wheel spikes and add some impressive banner poles on it to give it the real Orky Warboss' personal super cool ride vibe that it deserves.

I'm also starting to pull together lots of odds and ends that I can use to bodge together the retro scenery I want as I am planning on adding funky cacti and all sorts of gubbins and trying to replicate the original scenics seen in the old 2nd edition battle reports on a small scale. Hopefully I'll have the first of it finished in the next few days and will show it when I can!

I also managed to play not one but two quick games of Battletech today using the introductory rules and found it to be rather fun!

Full information can be found HERE over on my Tales From the Inner Sphere blog but having heard about how plodding Battletech was with near wrecked mechs dragging themselves along with their only operational finger, I was pleasantly surprised.

I am also working on a commission at present so I don't have quite as much time on my hands but will try and keep the entertaining posts going every day while the lockdown continues and once I'm back at work, we shall see how things go.

In the meantime, All the best!