All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)

[Major_Gilbear]

In regards to the hexagons, they are 25mm by 30mm roughly (my troops are based on 20 - 25mm square bases so should be fine) and 3mm thick. My initial plan is to do a 8x9 or 10x10 battle matt type deal. Probably gluing them into formation on a sheet of plywood and then my terrain pieces (trees, built up areas, rivers, ponds etc) I'll lay on top in a stack like system.

Board update

Two pictures attached, one with minis to give you an idea and one without. Sadly, although it looks great (in my opinion, it's exactly what I was aiming for). It's just not big enough and is very fiddly.

Yeah, I was going to point out that it'd be a bit small, with each tile being the same as one your smaller bases of troops, but I didn't as I assumed you'd planned that on purpose! 

I hope you don't me sticking my oar in, but as I had similar projects back in my youth, I thought I'd pass on the few modest things I learned from those endeavours:

• Squares or rectangles (which are "double squares" in size/shape), or a mix of both, are much easier to line up than hexagons. If you buy suitable material, you can even make them yourself quite easily.

• If you go with hexagons, you gain in being able to turn the pieces more to increase layout variety, but you lose in terms of getting them to fit a space neatly. I would have them professionally cut (to guarantee they fit tightly together) and consider a stack of "infill" pieces for the edges. The infills can either be singles, or a strip of say 4 linked together, or a mix of both. The infills are useful for modelling "edge of board" terrain on, like sheer cliffs or beaches, etc.

• To stop all the pieces moving during play (which they will, because they are small and therefore relatively lightweight), it helps to anchor them in some manner. Magnetic sheeting could be a solution, but I found that putting some self-adhesive velour on the bottom means they don't slide around if you put them on top of a dropcloth - felt is best for the dropcloth, but velour or anything else that the tiles can "grip" onto works just as well.

• The tiles need to be big enough for at least two of your troop stands to occupy at the same time, and preferably bigger. I don't know if you're doing actual measurements or tile-based measurements (like counting squares in a board game) for your game play, but I would make them big enough that you can accommodate either type of ruleset. Eyeballing your models, I would suggest making the tiles with a diameter of about 100-120mm (or bigger).

• If you go for a modular system, it's better to model terrain into the tiles rather than having it loose (too many moving pieces otherwise, begging for the table to be knocked!). Sure, bulky or delicate things like wooded areas or, big buildings/ruins, or large hills can be separate, but anything like small rises, streams/rivers, roads/paths, rough ground, etc is better cut into or sculpted onto the tile. For storage, cut some bubblewrap into sheets to lay between layers of tiles in a box, or use some old small towels, so they don't get scuffed up. The whole lot for a coffee-table sized battlefield would comfortably fit into a plastic tub about the size of a large shoebox.

• For painting and texture, sand can be a bit rough, and flock gets everywhere. Consider the use of a textured spray paint instead, which you can then overspray with the colours you want and wash/drybrush to finish. Whilst it's not as realistic-looking as flock/sand in final appearance, it's a lot kinder to figures and it pretty quick/easy to do. Just make sure that the tiles are all placed tightly edge-to-edge when you spray the texture on, so you don't get any fouling of the tight fit of the edges. I used to use some made by Plastikote purchased in my local DIY store (Homebase), but Rustoleoum do some too, and these can also be bought from Amazon if you don't have a suitable cheap store nearby. If you're lucky, you can even get the sprays in the colours to suit your battlefield (especially if it's a desert theatre), but they will all still need a quick coat of a complimentary-coloured normal paint underneath first - tester pots of wall paint thinned with a little water are ideal for this.

Anyway, despite noting your purchase of a green puzzle felt mat, I hope you don't give up on the terrain tiles, and that my thoughts above are helpful. If you need any suggestions or ideas for appropriate materials, I'm happy to assist.

I've also picked up a black and brown wash for the final touches to my troops.

Cool! Looking forward to seeing your progress on the models. 

[abhorsen950]

I hope you don't me sticking my oar in, but as I had similar projects back in my youth, I thought I'd pass on the few modest things I learned from those endeavours:

Cool! Looking forward to seeing your progress on the models. 

Thanks for all your tips, yeah I've realised they are a little bit too small. Hence why I bought the felt cloth. But I've made a small board anyway. I committed to my idea and keeps the idea of The Portable Wargame very much alive.  If I was to do it again, I would definitely make the hexagons much, much bigger!



I've finished my British army, quite pleased I managed to dab a blue windscreen onto the command vehicle. I also dabbed in silver some turret barrels, although it doesn't look perfectly accurate it helps for identification of LMG teams and light artillery barrels.

First round of basing done, not too concerned about the gaps for now because I'll do another dotted layer of some green flock to make a shrubland effect on the bases.

Finally got a day off to make some progress! Going to get the Russians basecoated.

Thanks guys,
Steven

[Major_Gilbear]

Glad to see you're making progress - hopefully the recent sunny weather on the weekend has also helped you as well?

Did you stick all the hexagons together into one sheet...? (It looks like you did from the photo, but I can't tell).

Also, do you texture the bases the infantry and guns are attached to at all, to blend them into the base? Or do these disappear when you paint them to match the bases?

[valerio81]

Welcome to the beautiful mini-world of 2mm! We are a small but very active sect... btw I suggest you sign up to the very active fb group for ideas.

I myself do LoA and ancients, and plan to expand into napoleonics. I am a big fan of not basing and of using 2mm to play as close to 1 to 1 scale as possible.

Below, see two examples of how I do mine. My LoA infantry battalions in action and a spanish napoleonic battallion in line (defending the treasury!?). As you can see I only go for the mass effect!

[mmcv]

Impressive, are those based on clear plastic?

[valerio81]

Yes the LoA stuff is simply Irregular minis blocks attached with double sided scotch to clear plastic sheets, cut to size. These sheets are the same used in the print shops for first page of documents, etc, so they cost cents, and you can also print the units' names on the back for identification.
Of course this means you will move blocks by touching the minis directly, but you will not mess the paint job I think!
The napoleonic battallion below is not base at all. I am planning to use General de Brigade, so will field a dozen of those a side

[Warren Abox]

The tiny fire rises!

Your project is coming along just fine. It's a great scale from moderns.  All that lovely space between units, probably one of the better figures to ground scale ratios out there. No 30-yard in scale ranges for you, my friend.

I use 1-in craft squares with rounded corners for my teeny little guys. They cost about a nickel a piece and that one inch they work a treat. Consistent, durable, cheap what's not to like? Just poke around Amazon you'll find them.

So far I've got a pretty good lack of train and five black powder armies. Next on the 2 mm block, three fantasy armies. We'll see if there's a way to use them for games of Chainmail.