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Author Topic: All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)  (Read 3478 times)

Offline abhorsen950

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All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)
« on: April 08, 2021, 04:15:03 PM »
Good Evening LAF'ers.

I've been a combination of lurker/commenter but not much of a poster for a very long. I've had more bright ideas than I've had hot dinners in regards to wargaming, something we can probably all relate to?

Something that certainly pipped my curiosity around about a year ago was the 2mm scale. For an individual such as myself, budget + space required has always been a massive barrier to my wargaming dreams and the idea of controlling entire hordes of troops was finally affordable for me.

I'm fully aware it's not for all tastes, so feel free to wander on by, but I'm going to give it a shot.

Over the last year roughly I've picked up a few different bits and bobs, Napoleonics from Irregular to start, followed by more Napoleonics from Forward March Studios which involved my delving into the wonderful world of 3D modelling and printing (even took a crack at designing some Spanish Civil War bits and bobs. Followed by some English Civil War and then, last but not least, some cold war Brits and Russians.  Alas, as the best laid plans tend to, real life got in the way, having no opponents (amongst close friends) put me on a bit of a downer and most of the stuff got shelved.

Enough is enough. This blog will hopefully get me to sort myself out, buy the paints I need to get these armies somewhat looking as they should.

My original Napoleonics are based on thin cardboard (old cereal boxes) and painted block colours for armies (not the most pleasing and something I hope to improve over the course of this blog) such as Blue for French and Red for Brits etc, etc.

My English Civil War Armies were based and then undercoated but never progressed on.

With the moderns, I moved to using foamboard and I think this actually looks much better. So will at some stage attempt to rebase all of the armies.

For now, I'll be looking at aiming to complete the moderns and some terrain. Get some games under my belt and keep moving through the existing collection before moving on to newer purchases.

Attached a few images of the entire collection as is and I intend to move forward to the best of my abilities and rectify everything as I go.

Wish me luck, thanks for reading this ridiculously long post and I look forward to having you all along for the ride.

Kind regards,
Steven

Offline jambo1

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Re: All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2021, 04:27:51 PM »
Interested to see where you go with this, I have some WW2 Eastern front stuff, a bit of ECW and some SYW 2mm Irregular stuff sitting in boxes doing nothing, this may give me the impetus to use them. :)

Offline AndrewBeasley

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Re: All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2021, 06:16:21 PM »
Nothing wrong with a basic all over paint job - I've just downsized to resin blocks and find that the paint job matters very little below 6mm :-)


I'll watch your progress with interest and joy.


Have fun.

Offline abhorsen950

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Re: All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2021, 06:47:16 PM »
Interested to see where you go with this, I have some WW2 Eastern front stuff, a bit of ECW and some SYW 2mm Irregular stuff sitting in boxes doing nothing, this may give me the impetus to use them. :)

Welcome aboard Jambo and thanks for the kind words! Can see myself making an absolute pigs ear of the paint jobs, but having fun doing it! Just put in an order for some more basing products, couple paints I'm short of and fine detail brushes.

Offline abhorsen950

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Re: All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2021, 06:48:07 PM »
Nothing wrong with a basic all over paint job - I've just downsized to resin blocks and find that the paint job matters very little below 6mm :-)


I'll watch your progress with interest and joy.


Have fun.

Thanks for the kind words Andrew! Depending on how well it all pans out, all over paint job might be the way forward all told! We shall soon see!

Big fan of wooden blocks! Would love to see yours in action if you've got some pictures!

Offline abhorsen950

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Re: All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)
« Reply #5 on: April 09, 2021, 03:05:31 PM »
Actually have made progress today  :o :o

These blogs might actually do the trick. Most of my current scenery given a once over, starting to get some ideas on basing them together in clusters on foamboard rather than individual Monopoly looking pieces, this will also hide the rather rough paint job they've been given as from a far they don't look too dreadful.

British army have been base coated.

Currently awaiting another type of basing material so I can do a sand/greenery mix and a lighter brown colour for my cold war soviet uniforms as well as a few other bits and bobs.

Cheers,
Steven


Offline mmcv

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Re: All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)
« Reply #6 on: April 09, 2021, 03:28:20 PM »
Very nice start. I've also a stack of 2mm that I love for mass effect but hard to motivate to paint. I've Crimean War British and Russians done, just the French awaiting the brush.

Also some Pike and Shot units to put together at some point....

My method for basing and painting them was to use modelling paste on mdf bases, embed the strips into it (smoothing slightly to blend) then sprinkling fine sand over.

When it driest it gives a nice natural looking undulating grainy surface. Then I primed them (initially black, but later green to save time). Then paint/dry brush over the ground texture, then for the units themselves block in the main colours. Then try and paint something that kind of looks like the right flag (if you squint and use your imagination) on the tiny space for it.

Offline abhorsen950

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Re: All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)
« Reply #7 on: April 11, 2021, 09:44:38 AM »
Very nice start. I've also a stack of 2mm that I love for mass effect but hard to motivate to paint. I've Crimean War British and Russians done, just the French awaiting the brush.

Appreciate the kind words and you coming aboard! Would love to see your Crimean War pieces if you ever get chance.

Little progress report:

I'm basically in a no mans land at the moment of waiting for brushes, certain paints and basing products to arrive.

However, probably the biggest announcement is, I've ordered a large quantity of MDF/Wooden Hexagons to create a wargames board. I'm a big fan of Bob Corderys The Portable Wargame and I intend to build a table out of these hexagons to comply with the ruleset. I've over ordered so that I can have multiple pieces that will be interchangeable and stackable. I'm basically making my own version of the Heroscape terrain. Wish me luck!

Once the fine detail brushes arrive, I can start dabbing away at the British troops eagerly awaiting painting!

Have a nice weekend!
Steven

Offline mmcv

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Re: All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)
« Reply #8 on: April 12, 2021, 09:55:10 AM »
Ooh a board will be interesting.

You can see what I've done so far here with the British in this post https://mmcvhistoryhome.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/projects-update-may-2020/ (near the bottom)

And the Russians

https://mmcvhistoryhome.wordpress.com/2020/07/31/projects-update-july-2020/ (again near the bottom)

Photographing the tiny troops isn't the easiest!

Offline Major_Gilbear

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Re: All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)
« Reply #9 on: April 12, 2021, 11:17:25 AM »
As someone who cut their wargaming teeth on 6mm scale, I am always intrigued by smaller miniature scales in wargaming. :)

I have often felt (for me personally) that much below 5-6mm tall figures is not going to be very miniature-focused (too small for any appreciable detail), and that if such scales are preferred for cost and storage reasons, then I may well go the whole way and make everything as counters/boardgame tokens.

I'm therefore very curious to see how you get on, and look forward to your progress updates.

However, probably the biggest announcement is, I've ordered a large quantity of MDF/Wooden Hexagons to create a wargames board. I'm a big fan of Bob Corderys The Portable Wargame and I intend to build a table out of these hexagons to comply with the ruleset. I've over ordered so that I can have multiple pieces that will be interchangeable and stackable. I'm basically making my own version of the Heroscape terrain.

Interesting! How big/thick are your tiles, out of curiosity?

Also, would foamboard (or foamed PVC) not have been a lighter and cheaper option than MDF? Bit bulkier I suppose, but the thickness would allow you to carve roads and rivers into them if you wanted to.

Finally, how will you store these? Wouldn't any sculpted detail one these get squashed when stored, or will all terrain be modelled on as "flat", and then have loose scatter items for trees, buildings, etc?

Offline Wirelizard

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Re: All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)
« Reply #10 on: April 12, 2021, 04:30:46 PM »
I've been considering 2mm for English Civil War big battles but not jumped in yet, after doing some small scale 1:1200ish scenery for coastline bits for WW2 naval gaming.

Looking forward to following this and seeing how you get on, it might inspire me to actually organize some ECW/TYW pike and shot stuff...

Offline abhorsen950

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Re: All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)
« Reply #11 on: April 13, 2021, 08:33:45 PM »
Ooh a board will be interesting.

You can see what I've done so far here with the British in this post https://mmcvhistoryhome.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/projects-update-may-2020/ (near the bottom)

And the Russians

https://mmcvhistoryhome.wordpress.com/2020/07/31/projects-update-july-2020/ (again near the bottom)

Photographing the tiny troops isn't the easiest!

Really excited about building the board, it's something I've never done before and I think will be super fun once it's done.

Appreciate you sharing those photographs, If I can get anywhere near to that standard I'll be over the moon!


As someone who cut their wargaming teeth on 6mm scale, I am always intrigued by smaller miniature scales in wargaming. :)

I have often felt (for me personally) that much below 5-6mm tall figures is not going to be very miniature-focused (too small for any appreciable detail), and that if such scales are preferred for cost and storage reasons, then I may well go the whole way and make everything as counters/boardgame tokens.

I'm therefore very curious to see how you get on, and look forward to your progress updates.

Interesting! How big/thick are your tiles, out of curiosity?

Also, would foamboard (or foamed PVC) not have been a lighter and cheaper option than MDF? Bit bulkier I suppose, but the thickness would allow you to carve roads and rivers into them if you wanted to.

Finally, how will you store these? Wouldn't any sculpted detail one these get squashed when stored, or will all terrain be modelled on as "flat", and then have loose scatter items for trees, buildings, etc?

I do totally get where you are coming from and to be honest I have no issue with the boardgame type token method. However, there's something about lining up a bucket load of 2mm troops that makes me smirk. I actually feel like the general then!!

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 .

Your suggestion of foam board is actually a good one and one I hadn't thought of so I'm going to write that down! I was hoping to do another one slightly bigger in the future and foamboard might be the way to go as the bigger the hexagon the price does go up.

The wooden ones in question I bought three bags of 60 for £8.60 posted so really not too drastic at all. Storage wise, if I build it as a fixed matt that will store flat. Terrain pieces I will store in a separate box and take out as and when I need. Hopefully I can show you some photographs soon to explain better than my words probably are! It all makes sense in my head  o_o lol



I've been considering 2mm for English Civil War big battles but not jumped in yet, after doing some small scale 1:1200ish scenery for coastline bits for WW2 naval gaming.

Looking forward to following this and seeing how you get on, it might inspire me to actually organize some ECW/TYW pike and shot stuff...

For me, the thought that I can pick up a complete army for £15 (the price of 3 - 4 pints in my neck of the woods) is honestly the main selling point for me. Followed by low cost of terrain and smaller table needed etc etc.

Glad to have you on board and glad to of helped, hopefully I can get some of these ECW troops up and running and get a game going for you to feast your eyes on!



Thanks everyone for all the feedback and enthusiasm. Really is nice to see. Sadly, I'm waiting for paints (don't have very many at all) and the board pieces to arrive so I can get cracking and actually put my money where my mouth is. I hope to have some photographs for you soon!

Cheers everyone,
Steven

Offline abhorsen950

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Re: All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)
« Reply #12 on: April 14, 2021, 05:48:07 PM »
The postman came. We have progress.

Picture 1) - What came in the mail

Picture 2 & 3) - Examples of the layout. I'm thinking roughly a 10x10 hexagon battle map and then have extra tokens I can stack on top to create hills etc. The 3rd photograph also shows my idea for water, paint some tokens blue to leave over the top. However, now umming and ahhing over this as I might use coloured string instead so the water isn't so prominent. Will report back.

Picture 4) - Hexagons getting there first coat of green.

Picture 5) - An idea I have for my built up areas, have them as tokens to represent towns, villages etc.

Picture 6) - Farm sections got a touch of paint, the grey primer is coming through a little too strong so they'll probably need another going over.

Picture 7) - British Army getting their coat of green. Going to attempt to touch up some details tomorrow and get them based.


Thanks for stopping by gang,
Steven

Offline abhorsen950

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Re: All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)
« Reply #13 on: April 15, 2021, 07:27:47 PM »
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.

Luckily, I popped into my local The Works this evening and they had green felt puzzle mats for £7 so I've grabbed one of those instead. To prevent the hexagons from going to waste, I'm going to use them to mount buildings and trees too and to use as hills regardless.

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

Sadly this week has ended up me working a fair amount where I should of had days off so not had much time to sit and finish off my British army.

Offline mmcv

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Re: All Hail the Smallest of Scales! (2mm Wargaming Blog)
« Reply #14 on: April 15, 2021, 09:35:48 PM »
You've been busy though! There is a balance to find with the smaller scales as you can end up getting very small with measurements of you try and miniaturise too much. Hope the felt works out

 

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