Tiny Troop Reinforcements - Men-at-Arms

 Hi!

So April has been a very busy period with work and all manner of Real Life shenanigans putting the spanner into the works when it comes to the hobby but I've managed to end the month with my Tiny Troop Men-at-Arms for my slowly developing Dragon/Lion Rampant King Arthur project.

Doughty Men-At-Arms

I've tried to give them a certain amount of individuality while still looking part of a unified unit and am rather pleased with how they turned out, especially the kettle helms and halberds!

As per usual, they're made from Sculpey heads and bodies and details are all EVA foam and a little bit of wire for the hafts of the Halberds. At some point, I feel I will need to bulk them out a bit with command models and banners but that's a job for another day, especially as Lion and Dragon Rampant only require 12 figures per unit.

The Assembled Retinue

I'm in need of adding another unit of halberds as well as lots of other exciting stuff such as archers, three headed giants, mysterious knights who say NI! and a large wooden rabbit but as things stand, I'm really pleased with progress on the tiny guys and am surprised by just how much character they're developing.

After this army is finished, I think I'll need to make some sort of themed opposition but am not currently sure what that's going to look like. I do have a unit of Goblins so could easily begin expanding that until I've got a full 24 point army and then can begin duking it out with a game or two!

It's not all been fantasy here either as I've just finished constructing my first Imperial Guard squad for some classic Rogue Trader/2nd edition 40k goodies too and will post pictures of them on my next update but for now, All the best!

Tiny Troops- Monty Python and the Holy Grail Edition

 Hi!

I've been working away at expanding my unit of Crusaders into an entire army and for a bit of fun I decided to make some leaders for the warband and settled on none other than Arthur, King of the Britons along with his loyal retainers!

Camelot!

At present, I've got Arthur, Bedevere, Galahad, Lancelot, Robin and Bors to give me a six man unit for Lion or Dragon Rampant but plan on making their squires to make a 'mounted' option.

Royal Retinue

I've also been working on a unit of twelve men at arms to give me some numbers and will post pictures of them when I'm finished but I'm really pleased with the tiny knights as I hope they're relatively easy to identify with their tiny hand painted heraldry.

I must admit that this project is a little bit silly but it's developing a bit of a life of its own as I now need a three headed giant, a black knight and his component pieces, the Knights Who Say Ni, Tim the Enchanter, wedding guests, some obnoxious Frenchmen and a giant wooden rabbit...

I suspect that this project is going to take quite a while to complete but has been such fun, I can't help but keep working on it!

In other news, I've also begun work on making a platoon of Imperial Guard so I can tick off another hobby obsession as I eventually plan on making Tiny Troop versions of every force for 2nd edition 40k and wanted to start with recreating my old Imperial Guard army from back in the day but more on that next time.

In the meantime, All the best!

Junker Update and Tiny Troops How to Guide

 Hi!

I've finished my Junkers for the time being and am busily working on and have completed my Exo Armour squad:

Junker Exo Armour Squad

Built from engineering rigs and armed with Grape Guns and Cestus fists, Exo Armour squads are the brutal close combat specialists that the Junker legions deploy into the thickest of combats.

Junker Exo Armour Detail

I'm really pleased with how they turned out and they've painted up really nicely too with just enough of the original vibe to be recognisable as the unit types they're supposed to be!

Junkers of the XVII legion

Here's what they looked like without a coat of paint:

Exo Armour Unpainted

As they only stand about 15mm tall, there's no need to go full on adding lots of little fiddly details, just the basic shapes. Compare the early 3d sprites for computer games compared to now!

Also the coat of paint makes a massive difference as its easy to paint in panel lines, small bits and bobs such as armour plates, etc that bring the models to life. They're going to be viewed at arms length after all so there's quite a few little cheats that can be done during painting .

So without further ado, here's the tutorial!

Supplies you'll need:

Some Sculpey or Fimo clay.

A sheet of EVA foam.

Superglue, Scissors and a knife.

The first step is to make the bodies and heads.

Roll out a block of sculpey and with a sharp knife, cut it into small cubes which will form the main body of all the infantry I make. For the heads, it possible to use beads but I tend to just roll out some sculpey or Fimo into small balls as I prefer not to have to fill the holes that beads tend to have in them.

Once the bodies and heads have been cooked, its time to start construction! I cut a thin piece of EVA foam into long batons about 4-5mm wide then cut them into small rectangles. I tend to just use scissors for this and aren't too particular about making sure everything is perfectly sized.

Once the heads have been glued on I add a small rectangle of EVA foam to the bottom to represent legs. I only use one but its easy enough to use two pieces one on top of the other to make the figure taller. Next add two small pieces of EVA foam to represent shoulders and voila, the figure is pretty much made. After this its just a case of adding details to give the figure definition.

Once the figure has been built, I glue them onto small buttons which have a slip of paper glued over the buttonholes as it makes basing look a bit better.

Small pieces of foam can then be used to add armour, backpacks, helmets, hats and uncounted other bits and bobs to make them look like a proper little person. Guns, swords, shields and whatnot are also made from EVA foam. I had been concerned about the durability of such little fellows, especially as they're made of foam and a bit of glue but I've dropped them repeatedly and they just seem to bounce!

Androsynths

It's very easy to substitute different shaped objects for heads, such as the Androsynths above with their larger cube heads or the knights I've made which have cylinder heads made from cut up sausages of sculpey.

The most important part of the build process it so get the general look and feel of the original figure and with a bit of experimentation and bodging, they are remarkably effective to represent whatever army you want

So there you are! Tiny troops can be made quick, cheaply and very easily for the fraction of a cost of actual miniatures. They've been a bit of a revelation for me as I've really enjoyed making all the tiny figures and am very happy with how they are turning out and indeed what a boon its been for my hobby!

My next unit is built and ready to prime and while I'm meandering through different projects there's a sense of industry and achievement to working on them all, no matter the subject. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up the momentum over the course of the year and build and paint enough bits and bobs to play all manner of interesting games as the weather improves.

Junkers vs Farpoint Salvage

Hopefully, I'll have another update later this week with the next handful of painted odds and ends but in the meantime, All the best!

Junkers in Star Mogul

 Hi!

So with my freshly finished salvage crews for Star Mogul, I got to thinking about some crossover forces from other settings which would fit in nicely with the wild frontier of Farpoint and have decided to have a bash at making some Junkers.

Junkers from Void 1.1 are a militaristic faction that are a cross between the Harkonnen from Dune and the Roman Empire and their use of convict troops combined with their tendency to salvage gear as well as ruthlessness fits in quite nicely in Star Mogul where I plan on making them one of the regional powers.

Junker battle gear is usually simple to operate such as shotguns and combat shields and swords but they also make use of other short range weaponry such as flame throwers, chainguns and explosive lancers which further lends itself to the industrial aesthetic that I'm going for in the setting.

Coupled with their exo-suits, retrofitted industrial booster rigs with guns and a bit of armour strapped on and their use of buggys and so on, I think I could port them into the setting and games with ease!

Back in 2022, I made a Junker force using my tiny troop method for games of Void 1.1 and rather liked how they turned out for the most part, but they were multi based for larger skirmishes so I'll be going back to the drawing board for the next batch I make.

Junkers vs Colonial Defence troopers and vehicles.

I'll need to have a think about what I'm going to make but I reckon a few convict salvage rats backed up by legionnaires, an enforcer and maybe a couple of exo armored rigs, I'll be ready to go!

Junker Infantry Squads

As folks have said they'd like to see how I make the tiny fellows, I think I'll also post a how to of the project with a step by step guide and will see about making a vehicle for them to ride around in too!

Sadly I'm back at work tomorrow so doubt I'll get much chance to work on them until the weekend but fingers crossed, I'll keep the momentum going and get the core done in a couple of hours cutting and gluing.

In the meantime, All the best!

Star Mogul: Bossman Salvage

 Hi!

I've got the week off work and have spent the last few days building and painting another salvage crew for Star Mogul in the form of Bossman Salvage:

Bossman Salvage

Bossman Salvage is an ex military outfit who appeared on the border some time ago and have made a name for themselves in the salvage industry for brutal efficiency. 

Power Armour

The crew chief and his unit all sport heavy URSA Major class power armour and the Bossman himself also wields a wrecking ball with brutal efficiency.

While the core crew are well armed and equipped, they make use of Salvage Rats, poorly trained and equipped men and women who are desperate to make a living in the rather lawless frontier of the Farpoint sector. These Salvage rats are usually sent forward to recover salvage under fire and guard it until the Bossman's Demo Bot turns up to recover it.

Salvage Rats

Unlike Farpoint Salvage who make use of a vehicle to transport scrap back to their dropzone, Bossman uses a Demo Bot:

Eddie the Demo Bot

Eddie is a U113 Class warbot built by Kalaxis Tech over a century ago but has been retrofitted by the talented techs of Robo Emporium and seems happy with his role as heavy lifter for the Bossman team. His programming does sometime glitch resulting in him rampaging into opposing salvage teams and pulverising them with his mighty fists but the air of slightly unhinged danger about him doesn't seem to perturb Bossman himself.

 

Base Details

Eddie is made from a selection of wooden beads for his main body and arms, some greenstuff rods for his legs and upper arms, EVA foam, thin card and a couple of sticky gemstones for his feet and hip light.

On a side note, I experimented with basing this time as I wanted him to fit in with the plain brown bases of the rest of the crew but wanted to add a bit of interest to him and with some static grass, card and a bit of sand I hope I gave a look of a long abandoned frontier settlement to the figure.

URSA Major class Power Armour

I'd been scratching my head for a while on how I'd make power armour and eventually settled on these rather bulbous looking figures made from two wooden beads, a couple of stick on gem stones and EVA foam for the armour, arms and legs. I'm really pleased with how they turned out and the grubby, bashed and used finish turned out very satisfactorily. 

The Two Salvage Crews

Now I have two salvage crews built, I'll need to play a game or two to see how I get on with Star Mogul but I'm also needing more suitable scenery and salvage tokens which I aim to make over the next day or two and then I'll be able to actually get a game in!

Speaking of scenery, I made this little water tank thing from a Cava bottle top that I was gifted at work:

Water Tank

I glued it onto a 30mm wooden base to make it bottom heavy and just painted it up to look suitably grubby and worn and rather like how it turned out!

I'm also humming and hahing about making some more salvage crews as its been really enjoyable to construct and paint the little guys and am contemplating bringing in elements from other games such as Junkers from Void 1.1 and even some Orky types as I feel the setting works well with them too.

I've also been slowly painting my way through some tiny Crusader miniatures for a Dragon Rampant themed force which I'll show once I've got more of them done but they're a bit more labour intensive than the salvage crews so it may be a while before I get them completed.

Tiny Troops have been a bit of a revelation for me as I can make them quickly and easily, they don't take long to paint and I've found myself really enjoying working on them so I suspect there will be lots more of them in the coming months, along with scratch built vehicles and bead bots.

I'm also contemplating making some 40k forces using the techniques I've learned on this project but I think I'm going to try and finish my Salvage team obsession first!

In the meantime, All the best!

Star Mogul: Farpoint Salvage

 Hi!

A day later than promised but here's my completed salvage crew for Star Mogul!

Farpoint Salvage

The infantry are made from Sculpey and a bit of EVA foam and mounted on 12mm buttons so are pretty tiny but have enough individual character to be identifiable for skirmish gaming.

The Truck

The truck has a sculpey cab, EVA foam and cardboard body and details, while the wheels are wooden beads. I must admit that I had rather a lot of fun making this tiny truck and weathering the daylights out of it. While in real life the big bubble tires would probably be a bit useless they looked cool!

Infantry

I've made ten tiny troopers for my starting salvage team but re-reading the Star Mogul rules, I suspect that I'll be adding another 4-5 to their numbers after my first game or two. I like how their little baseball caps turned out and was surprised by just how much character I managed to get with just a bit of paint.

The Crew in Action

My next task will be to build a rival salvage company and try out the game and possibly play a mini campaign out! I'll post my progress up here as always and if folks are interested, I can put together a tutorial for how to make the tiny guys as it's very easy and rather fun!

VW inspired Hab Buildings

Finally I've also been making some tiny scenery as I need enough stuff to cover my small table. These Hab buildings are made from some capsule toy boxes that my wife got for her Christmas so I got for nothing! I'm hoping to eventually have enough scenery to represent several different types of world to make things more interesting but we'll see how I get on!

In the meantime, All the best!

Tiny Goblins for Leviathan

 Hi!

As promised, here's the next addition to my Leviathan project in the form of a unit of Goblin archers.

As with my other tiny troops, they're made from small cubes of sculpey and detailed with pieces of EVA foam. While they may not be too detailed, they will do the trick for simple gaming miniatures!

As they are so small and stylised, I concentrated on getting typically Goblin features, such as pointy ears and big noses so they are readily recognisable from a distance. I had originally intended to paint them in the mustard yellow that Goblins are depicted as being in the rulebook but settled on a more traditional green as my paint collection is starting to show its age and some of the pots I've had for the best part of a decade are starting to dry out.

In Leviathan, Goblins are a slave race who basically act as cannon fodder for the Orcish horde but they do have quite good ranged combat so I've armed them with shortbows so on the faint chance they don't get shot to pieces by Dwarven artillery, they will be able to snipe back with their puny arrows.

I've also finished a unit of Great Orcs but will post pictures of it when I get the chance to complete work on their bases but I'm looking forward to making some warbeasts to give my forces some real punch and lets face it, they are the real focus of the game. 

I also need to make myself some characters to lead my army so I think I'll be concentrating on building some more of the core army choices that I need for the game as looking at the points allocation chart from Leviathan:

I'm planning on putting together a 1000 point army which I figure is the absolute minimum size force I can get away with as each army has required units and the Orcish horde requires 2 units of Orc infantry and 1 unit of Goblins.

If I make myself some standard bearers and a few unit leaders, I will end up with two units of eight Orcs and a large unit of 12 Goblins or two smaller 6 man units which covers the force requirements. I do need to spend 300 plus points on monsters though which is a lot, but also at this sized force, not that much!

I must admit that one of my pet peeves with Leviathan is the force construction requirements as its almost physically impossible to build an army at less than 1000 points. It does remind me of the old Warhammer Fantasy 3rd edition rules which requires you to have minimum units but it doesn't really fit in with the setting as well as I'd like. For example, I'd really love to include an Orc Necrodon cavalry unit but that doesn't fit in with the force structure, despite it being thematically more in keeping with the Mongol horde feel of the army.

I suspect that I'm going to end up making whatever I want and seeing how things go to be honest but at the very least, the points allocation system does give me a framework of what I need to try and get made first.

Hopefully I will have the next couple of units finished over the course of this week as I'm on holiday and I've enjoyed making the simple sculpts too!

I do want to explore the world of Aeroth more closely so while I'm making these units, I will also be using my cardboard token units that I've had for ages to play a few games to get back into the swing of things and I do want to break out Brutalquest so I can get my Boar Company or Sir Roderick back into the field as well and I've also got some of my SD scale figures that I need to paint up and have a few plans for making some more to boot so no doubt I'm going to be kept busy over the coming week!

In the meantime, All the best!

Tiny Orcs for Leviathan

 Hi!

Its been a while since I've been able to update as its been really busy, not to mention roasting! I have been busy with hobby gubbins for most of the last week though which has been brilliant, especially after the loss of motivation over the last few months.

Tiny Orcs

In my ongoing obsession with Leviathan, I'd decided at making some tiny troop style figures so I can put together an army without spending literally months trying to track down figures, clean and paint them. Coupled with the fact that they cost me pretty much nothing and storage is going to be an awful lot easier than 28mm scale, I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.

They're made from two pieces of plastic rod and some eva foam strips and while they may not be the most detailed of figures I've ever made, they will suit their purpose to eventually allow me to play some games as they look far better than using counters.

As I had them set up I also realised they would be handy for other games like Five Leagues From the Borderlands or even Rangers of Shadowdeep so they are proving doubly handy and I'm now thinking of making a few adventurer miniatures as well to give them some instant opposition.

I've yet to attempt to make any of the larger stuff for them such as Necrosaurs or even Titanosaurs but I shall experiment a bit to see how they come together as I have a rough plan on using similar techniques to what I did for my 2mm Land Ironclads for the Orcish Wartowers which should translate pretty quickly.

I've also been working on some other odds and ends but I'll save them for another post as I don't want to ramble on too much but I seem to have really got my inspiration back and it seems to be by doing a little bit of this and that rather than solely concentrating on a single project but picking up something and working on it for a bit and swapping out for something else before I get bored.

Needless to say its probably going to result in me taking ages to actually finish anything properly but I am having fun with the process and its getting me motivated to keep going!

I'll try and get another post up in the next couple of days with some more completed figures but until then, All the best!

Re-Exploring Old Games: Leviathan

 Hi!

I seem to be getting a bit of a post hobby slump urge to look at old games again which is always exciting, until I realise the possibility of actually creating said project it decidedly marginal at best but this got me to thinking about ways I can actually incorporate the spirit of the old games I love into a more manageable format.

For todays update I'll be looking at Leviathan, possibly the game that has obsessed me the most over the years.

Released in 1995, I picked up this book in Mac's Models on the Royal Mile and was blown away by how awesome it looked. As with all things hobby related it then sat on a bookshelf for 20 years as I left the hobby and sold pretty much everything I had apart from a few old rulebooks that nobody wanted.

Skip forward to 2008 and I found myself at university as a mature student and for some reason I had taken my now old and battered copy of Leviathan with me and sat down to read it one evening. This reignited my obsession and over the next couple of years I set up and ran my Leviathan blog:

I initially attempted to collect and paint whole armies of massive resin monsters and vehicles as well as sourcing infantry as well as speaking to the original creators about any further material they had for Earthpower, the promised but never released supplement but the whole thing was too much to do while trying to study at uni as well as working part time with a long commute to boot so things basically ground to a halt.

Over the next decade I've periodically ventured back into the game, using cardboard counters or my own sculpts to allow me to play the game or at least skirmishes set in the world of Aeroth. 

I found the game was pretty playable using counters but lacked the visual appeal of actual miniatures and despite getting in at least one or two games a year using them, I've never really done much more with classic Leviathan as is.

This brings me to today where I once again find myself wanting to explore Leviathan again but to actually go into the miniature side of things a bit more. 

Before I go any further though I realise that I just cannot face collecting all the miniatures for a mass battle game, especially with all the massive resin warbeasts and engines of destruction that were required for Leviathan (it recommends one use an 8'x4' board which I most certainly do not have!).

Coupled with the fact that while I love the old sculpts, the range is showing its age and it also has an awful lot of stuff missing from even the core rulebook which surely makes any attempt to play the game a futile endeavour.

But then I got to thinking about a two prong approach. Was there a way of putting together an army in a smaller scale that would tick the visuals but also allow me to play a game without spending a fortune or needing a large space and is there a way of capturing the feel of Leviathan in a different game? The answer is kind of. The thing is Leviathan has a lot of unique figures that just don't have anything like them in other scales which is an issue that many of my old game collection has: they are unique for a reason and its getting increasingly difficult, not to mention expensive to get figures that fit the vibe. Similarly the post apocalyptic setting makes for a difficult choice for fantasy gaming.

Before throwing my hands in the air and admitting defeat, I decided to look through my rulebooks for other games systems that I could use to play skirmish games which are driven by an interesting narrative that I could port Leviathan and the world of Aeroth into and came up with the following:

My collection of random rules gave me the options of Rangers of Shadowdeep, Frostgrave and Brutal Quest. You may notice I've gone for primarily small skirmish games as that will allow me to focus on small warbands and a small playing area rather than having to spend a fortune on figures. 

Of these options, I must admit that Brutal Quest is a firm favourite as I've played it a load of times and feel its sandbox nature will lend itself to playing games really well in the grim post Death world of Aeroth. Similarly Rangers of Shadowdeep and Frostgrave allow for both interesting warbands and narrative driven play that I really enjoy so I find myself pondering on having a go. 

I'll need to see what I have in my collection but I figure I could easily start with Brutal Quest level warbands of 4-5 figures and expand the collection so I can play either Frostgrave or Rangers of Shadowdeep without too much stress.

But what about Leviathan? I really want to play the mad mass battle game that it is so I'm looking at putting together some of my Tiny Troops to build a couple of armies and see how I go.

While not super detailed, they do give the feel of a proper miniatures game and are really easy to make so literally anyone can build at least infantry that fits the aesthetics of Aeroth. If this works out, I'll post my progress here as usual and may end up using this approach to allow me to try out other games in my collection that I don't have the time or money to invest in collecting armies for.

With this two prong approach, I've some high hopes of playing out at least a small skirmish or two using Brutal Quest and hopefully a classic Leviathan session and if it goes well, I will use it as an opportunity to build upon any successes I have to keep the hobby mojo going!

Gosh! Looking back at this post makes me realise I've basically jabbered on about what I want to do in yet another project that may or may not take off, but I find laying out an idea and working on it does help get the creative juices flowing. Hopefully I'll have something to show for the weekend but in the meantime, All the best!