Hail Caesar in 15mm

[Fitz]

I haven't done any medieval wargaming in many, many years, but I came upon a bunch of 15mm stuff I started painting and basing ages ago, and it got me thinking I should revisit it.

It was some figures from the now defunct Tabletop Games, manufactured right here in New Zealand. Now the moulds have been taken up by someone (in Auckland, I think) trading as Battleline Miniatures, so I can fill out some of the gaps, hopefully, without having to wait six months for anything to arrive from overseas.

I've mounted them on 30x30mm bases (or 30x15, or15x15 to fit into that 30x30 square), and I've designed a bunch of movement trays in Blender for 3d printing. That should make pushing them around the table a bit easier than it would be dealing with individual bases.

I originally started basing them on 3mm MDF, but cutting those MDF squares down into smaller units was kind of a pain in the bum. Then I realised (duh!) that my 3d printer could take care of that for me too.

[Fitz]

Of course, I'll be needing some medieval terrain as well. I've been looking about for some rural medieval buildings that aren't castles, with very limited success. So I've decided to try making some.

This is a very small peasant hut, called a "grübenhaus" in German, but built in very similar fashion all over Europe, and indeed, the world. It was basically a wattle-and-daub thatched tent, and to give the occupants some head-room, it was built over a dugout pit, usually about two or three feet deep — hence the name.

Although this one is very small, and would probably be the hovel of a villein or serf, the same principle was used for considerably larger houses, especially where the soil was dry enough to dig into without oozing damp.

This one is my second test print with a bit of thatch texture added. It's also been printed at a lower resolution than the first, to speed things up a bit — 0.2mm layers, which looks a bit rough up close, but at tabletop distances it's not very noticeable.

As I suspected, my 0.4mm nozzle hasn't been able to fully render the texture in the model, but it's perceptibly more textured than the first try, and I think it will probably be good enough for my purpose.

This one is a larger variant on the same theme, about twice the size of the little hovel in every dimension.

They would have been very dark and stuffy inside, as the only light would come from the open door and the smoke holes at the top of each gable. The peak of the roof would have been high enough to allow for a mezzanine floor for sleeping. This sort of thing would have been a very common rural family home throughout Europe during the Dark Ages and early Medieval period, up until vertical framed buildings became the norm.

[Fitz]

I've got the first print of the larger dwelling printed and painted, and here it is.

[Fitz]

For those people with access to 3d printers, the STL for the larger cruck house is at https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/cruck-house/, and the smaller grubenhaus is at https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/medieval-peasant-dwelling/

[fred]

Good stuff. Movement trays are a good thing for HC, we used to play with Warmaster based 40x20mm armies so movment trays were important.

I see you have a variety of widths of units - its been a while - but I thought in HC most units were on the same frontage, with just small units, being smaller.

[blacksoilbill]

Some lovely painting there!

[OB]

Yes, I like those foot spear men.

[racm32]

Are the files for the movement trays available?

[Fitz]

Yes, the movement trays are at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4408697, and the bases are at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4408691

[Charlie_]

I see you have a variety of widths of units - its been a while - but I thought in HC most units were on the same frontage, with just small units, being smaller.

I don't think it really matters. In fact the HC rulebook is full of diagrams showing examples of how to line up units with varying widths for combats etc....
Probably a good idea to have a 'standard' unit width as a starting point, but if you have some which are a bit wider or narrower, it doesn't matter. The situations where there might be some sort of advantage or disadvantage the rules give these non-standard unit widths are really few and only really could ever be realised and manipulated by over-competitive win-at-all-costs players, who likely aren't using the HC rules in the first place!

[Fitz]

I've been experimenting with modeling thatch in Blender with an alpha brush, and put together this 15mm Iron Age round-house, as used by the ancient Celts — it's a bit early for my period, but they were still being used occasionally in the early medieval era.

The thatch is a bit too pronounced for my taste, but I don't think it looks too terrible. More practice is needed, obviously.

[EDIT] -- This model, and another more detailed version, are now available at https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/iron-age-round-house/

[Frostie]

I play Hail Caesar in 15mm it’s a great scale to play it in, big battles are great

[mellis1644]

Yeah we have done 15mm Hail Caesar which works well. Love the figures as well.