Warmaster [My adventure into 10mm]

[grubman]

With a desire to play “mass” fantasy battles and a desire to try something I’ve never done before, my search led me to Warmaster.  Ignored by me in my Warhammer Fantasy days, I find these rules scratch the nostalgia itch, offering something that I want to recapture while offering a new approach to that feeling.  Warmaster is comfortable in the places I want it to be, yet new in exciting tactical ways and in scale (both scale of battles and scale of miniatures).

Of course, since Warmaster isn’t the hot game of the day, this is going to be a bit of a journey before I play my first game (perhaps months).  I’ll have to build 2 armies (I’m starting with Orcs&Gobbos and Empire) of a playable size (I’ll start with 1,000 points each), and enough scale terrain to decorate the battlefield.

Since its fun to share any journey, I’ll be using this thread to post pictures and progress.  I welcome any comments on what I post or discussions on Warmaster in general.

Without further ado…

My first 10mm miniatures.  I’m going to be primarily using Kalistra/Pendraken miniatures as the core of most armies, but I’ll be using other mini lines as well. 

I got my first order of miniatures in the mail today and painted up the heroes for the Orc & Goblin army.  As you can see, some of the heroes seem to be larger than 10mm…the huge Black Orc general is almost the size of a 15mm miniature, and the wizard is also bigger. (Of course, the Kalistra/Pendraken fantasy range is closer to 12mm...and the rest of the Kalistra rank and file "Orcs" are actually Pendraken "Goblins", while the Kalistra Orc heroes are Pendraken "orcs"...which explains the size variation...if you managed to follow that).

This small lot of leaders took about an hour if you don’t count dry time.  I was a little worried I wouldn’t be able to paint this scale, but I think they came out acceptable.  They were actually fun, easy, and fast to paint.  Not “Eavy Metal” but definitely table ready.

Orc Wizard

Primed with machine tool grey

Undercoated dark brown

Drubrush light brown

Inked (could probably stop here)

Brybrush higlights

Pick out a few details & Base (sort of goofed up that eye…but trust me, if this wasn’t blown up you wouldn’t see it.  You certainly can’t on the tabletop).

Scale comparison (my converted 28mm 5th edition WFB shaman, Gobbo the Green)

Finished leaders (The wizard was the first one.  After seeing it on the tabletop I decided to pick out fewer details on the rest of the models…you really can’t see it on such small minis)

 

[warlord frod]

Well done! For your first foray into 10mm you have done well. Good choice of colors and just the right amount of detail.

[jambo1]

Taking shape nicely, good job on those little beauties! Looking forward to see how you progress.

[tjgreenway]

Awesome work! I was really hoping you'd post a log of this project after seeing a couple of your recent posts, not disappointed so far  I'm picking up a few painting supplies on Monday and then I'll be off with my own 10mm project, so hopefully I can learn a few things here as well, being my first foray into the scale too - first thing I've learnt is that my Pendraken and Magister Militum figures may not fit too well together, but from memory the only Elves I ordered from PD were the Bolt Throwers and a few heroes, the bulk of my infantry is from MM, so hopefully I won't have too much of an issue 

Looking forward to seeing more!

[Major_Gilbear]

Very nice work so far - I'm really looking forward to seeing these!

I too have some High Elves (well, "good" Elves...) making their way to me as I type, and will be following your thread with interest. 10mm is infectious, heh.

As a tip, and doubly so as you are US-based (and aren't therefore knobbled by outrageous postage costs): Ironwind Metals do some well-scaled and cheap monsters - Griffons, Dragons, Giants, etc., that are well worth considering if you are after something to act as an army centrepiece.

I would also say that the reason your Orc Warboss is so big is that I think he was originally released as an Ogre model! 

[killshot]

Really looking good.  I still have the warmaster rule book and entertain the idea of starting a couple warmaster armies myself.

I'll be watching this thread with interest!

[grubman]

Well done! For your first foray into 10mm you have done well. Good choice of colors and just the right amount of detail.

Taking shape nicely, good job on those little beauties! Looking forward to see how you progress.

Thank you sirs.  I like how they came out and enjoyed painting them, so I can breath a sigh of relief that I didn't waste my money.

I've learnt is that my Pendraken and Magister Militum figures may not fit too well together

I'm waiting for them, but I ordered all my goblins from Magister Militum (really liked the pics on their site).  I figured there might be a chance they won't scale well...but on the other hand, who is to say the size of a goblin?  Of course I ordered a ton of wolf riders and chariots, but I figure if the size difference is huge I can say the Orcs are riding Dire Wolves or Wargs and the Goblins are riding regular wolves, or giant wolves...as if anyone but me is going to notice and I need an excuse 

That's one nice thing about fantasy, many of the races don't have a defined size, so buying, say Dwarves that run small or big isn't going to be a real problem.

As a tip, and doubly so as you are US-based (and aren't therefore knobbled by outrageous postage costs): Ironwind Metals do some well-scaled and cheap monsters - Griffons, Dragons, Giants, etc., that are well worth considering if you are after something to act as an army centrepiece.

I would also say that the reason your Orc Warboss is so big is that I think he was originally released as an Ogre model! 

I'll check them out, I'll be needing such things down the line...although converting mounts might be challenging at this scale, since all the mounts and riders seem to be one piece.

Could be on the Orc...he's pretty huge...but it's appropriate for the Old World that the biggest ugliest nastiest Orc is the boss.

I still have the warmaster rule book

I just picked up a second copy, since it's OOP and something might happen to mine, or I find someone else who wants to play and borrow it, or at least to have another table copy.

Once I invest all this money and time, they'll finally decide to do a second edition that makes everything I did obsolete 

[grubman]

So…wish I had the time, but there probably won’t be a “daily update”, since like most people, I have to work and such.  But today I was off, so had a bit of time to screw around between chopping down a few trees and lawn work (I live on 4 acres, half of that wooded).

I decided to do a bit of terrain for my future 10mm table.  I figured 3 or 4 hills, a wood or two, a village, and maybe a ruin ought to be enough to make the battlefield look interesting without cluttering it too much.

I decided to start with the village.  I’ve built plenty of buildings in the past, so other than scaling things down…way down…I didn’t figure this would be too hard.  Pretty simple to make, and a breeze to paint…but it took just as long to glue all the bits on. 

The best part was I tried an experiment with the roof.  Instead of shingling (I started to do this before I got frustrated at the daunting task) I simply scored the cardboard.  I was surprised at how well it worked.

I figured 10mm = about 5’ and went with 20mm per building story.  As an American, measuring everything in mm and cm was a royal pain, especially the millimeters…so tiny!  Progress shots (with scale picture using a 1/72 Hotwheels car).

Cost…$ZERO











And the whole village…

[Major_Gilbear]

That village turned out great - and the shingles are very effective! I wonder if you could do squiggly lines on the beams to evoke gnarly old timber too? 

[grubman]

I wonder if you could do squiggly lines on the beams to evoke gnarly old timber too? 

Ha ha, they are about 2mm wide...so I don't think I'm going to try.

[Major_Gilbear]

Ha ha, they are about 2mm wide...so I don't think I'm going to try.

  Fair enough then!

[warlord frod]

Once again I have to say well done!  They look great just right for your Orc hoard to loot and burn 

[vodkafan]

Really good work! I have not seen any 10-12mm miniatures that close up before, there is a surprising amount of detail, not the "blobs" of metal I was expecting....I look forward to seeing more.

[tjgreenway]

Beautiful start to the terrain making!

[jambo1]

Great start for you terrain, lovely little village.