[Doodler's 15mm] 5 Leagues from the Borderlands campaign turn 3 (20 June)

[Idle Doodler]

I've spent the last year getting to grips with sci fi 15mm, and now I've got a fantasy itch to scratch. Space is tight, and it's tricky to get out the 28mm stuff every time I want to try 5 Leagues from the Borderlands. With the sci fi stuff able to share a drawer with the board games, it's high time to try and do the same with fantasy.

Completely starting from scratch here, though, so first things first: a board.



Double-sided for storage purposes. A 40x30cm picture frame filled out with cardboard, and then a layer of cut up biscuit tins on either side to which magnetised minis and terrain might cling. Filler, sand and flock on one side, scrap piece of wallpaper found in a charity shop on the other. A few visible edges of biscuit tin beneath the texture mean I'll probably look to do another one later, but this will do for now.

Made some trees out of garden wire, milliput and scouring pads, but had to stop at five to ensure we could still scrub our dishes. A bit cartoony, but happily I've found that 15mm tends to lean that way anyhow. Magnets attached to the bottom to counter enthusiastic hand movements.



Also needed some good old corner ruins. Had some scrap bits of foam core to hand, though unfortunately the glue holding the paper to the foam is just too powerful for me to make use of its easily-textured reputation, so I covered them with grated cork. Going for a bit of an Eynsford Castle look. These too are all magnetised to offset how light each piece is.



Again, might be something to update further down the line, but it's good enough for scrapping around for the time being.

[WitchQueenofAngmar]

Looking like a good start! 15mm is a very good scale to play with these days.

[Hobgoblin]

Fantastic! The trees and ruins look great - and that's a very clever design for the baseboard.

[CookAndrewB]

Those trees look darn good. Nice work on those.

[Warren Abox]

Those trees look great - like a proper fantasy forest.  If you don't mix and match, they'll convey exactly what they are supposed to convey.  Building in 15mm is definitely more of an exercise in impressionism rather than realism.  If you lean into that aesthetic, you can make some really tight looking boards.  Any chance of a picture of the whole battleboard assembled so we can see how it all ties together?

Have you decided on which figures you're going to throw down on it?

[blacksoilbill]

Nice work. Those trees in particular are clever and effective.

[fred]

Cool start. I always like the use of magnets!

[Idle Doodler]

Cheers, all. Always a little daunting starting from scratch after being used to years' worth of accumulated stuff to use in games, so handy to get the wheels in motion with the basics. And since painting terrain is not my favourite part of the hobby, it's nice that the scouring pads work as they are.

Those trees look great - like a proper fantasy forest.  If you don't mix and match, they'll convey exactly what they are supposed to convey.  Building in 15mm is definitely more of an exercise in impressionism rather than realism.  If you lean into that aesthetic, you can make some really tight looking boards.  Any chance of a picture of the whole battleboard assembled so we can see how it all ties together?

Have you decided on which figures you're going to throw down on it?

I came to appreciate this when embarking upon a sci fi collection - it was nice not to have to worry about decorating everything with rivets! - and just have to remind myself every so often after seeing all those exquisite dioramas internet folks are able to produce with larger scales! Suits my aesthetic preferences too; give me Asterix, Tin Tin and Calvin & Hobbes over photorealism any day.

Here's an unfortunately yellowed-by-lamplight view of things as they stand so far:



Need to get a few more trees done, I think, but there are enough ruins that I probably won't need to put them all out each game.

I picked up an ebay lot of Alternative Armies celts, and rounded them out with some zombies and heroes from the same. A collection of raider-like humans and undead will cover a fair number of the possible enemies in 5 Leagues, and I've a few unpainted Caesar Miniatures ratmen, lizardmen and goblins which, being 1:72, shouldn't be too oversized, though I may need some larger washers.

Here are the minis so far:



I enjoy basing about as much as painting terrain, so wanted to get it out the way quickly. Not going to go too intricate at this scale - just a sand/filler mix to hide the flat bits.

Quite happy that the magnets mean I've yet to lose a mini under a sofa!

[Hummster]

Terrain boards do look good. Alternative Armies do have quite a variety of stuff in 15mm fantasy so it is a good range to dip into.

[Major_Gilbear]

If you're still after more 15mm fantasy miniatures, and would like some suggestions, I can offer up the following for your consideration:

1) Ral Partha. As well as the 15mm fantasy Demonworld packs (which have a very "Warhammer Fantasy" styling), they also do 10-mini little variety packs for most of the factions under the "Blight Haven Warbands", which would likely suit you well I think. (Link)

2) Pendraken. Yes, I know their stuff is officially 10mm, but they have a moderately extensive Ratmen range that's actually about 12-13mm in scale. So, a bit too big for 10mm really, but they are spot-on for 15mm. Leon can cast up any minis in any quantity for you if you email him, and there are more model sculpts than shown on the website. These are the same ones as sold by Kallistra in their range, except that they are all loose models and not mounted on strips like Kallistra's (in fact, I understand that Kallistra ones were licensed from Pendraken). For pictures, have a look at the Kallistra site. (Link)

3) Splintered light Miniatures. All sorts of 15mm fantasy miniatures, so you're bound to find almost anything you're looking for. The Little Corporal supply these figs in the UK. (Link)

4) Magister Militum. They have loads of 15mm fantasy models, and a fair few historicals too (where 11th Century figures would be good for Bretonnia type armies for example). (Link)

5) Copplestone Castings. A limited but beautifully-sculpted range of 15mm fantasy figures. These and his 10mm efforts are absolutely super, and many people (myself included) would love for these ranges to be extended. (Link)

Also, I'm assuming that like your sci-fi adventures thread, you'll be playing these figs all as individual models. However, lots of fantasy games are based on ranked units, and many newer ones don't really deal with individual figures (like Kings of War for example). If you fancy giving these games a go, you can certainly play them at 15mm, but it might be easier and cheaper to do these in 6-10mm instead - and you can still keep the board and scenery you have to play on.

[Idle Doodler]

Thanks, Major, those are very helpful! Do you have a quick overview on how they scale alongside each other? Even within Alternative Armies I'm finding a bit of discrepancy - these celts evidently ate their greens. Or maybe it was the adventurers on a poor diet, since even the walking dead tower over them!

The Splintered Light minis look particularly tempting, and pretty extensive.

Yeah, I'll be sticking with individual bases for these using variously sized washers. My preferred games - 5 Distances from Something, Pulp Alley and Lord of the Rings SBG - are all skirmish-orientated, and I'm an ambling painter at the best of times. I did grab some 6mm fantasy minis from Baccus with a view to playing skirmish games with them, but that ended up being a tad ambitious. Haven't given up on that yet, but for now I'm enjoying painting things I can actually see!

[Major_Gilbear]

No problem, and happy to help!

I forgot to mention that Blue Moon (Old Glory) also have a modest but nice range of "fantasy" models in their Night Horrors range (link). Some nice stuff in there for various themed skirmish games.

For miniature comparisons, I am quite limited myself; I have a small and eclectic selection of figures bought to be "big monsters" at 10mm scale, and as such I'm not sure that a Werewolf compared to a Wight would be terribly helpful unfortunately.    However, here on LAF we are very fortunate to have many enthusiastic and prolific people with extensive 15mm collections that I'm sure will be better placed to help you out with some comparison photos. I did find this website on my searches, which looks to not only have some helpful photos of many different figures, but also a list of many manufacturers and what they offer a 15mm fantasy player - hopefully it's useful to you!

As for the variation in figures, even within a single manufacturer... Well, that's pretty much most miniatures at any scale isn't it?      Jokes aside, I expect this is due to different sculptors working on ranges, as well as elapsed time between sculpts, and the general difficulty of sticking tightly to an exact overall size on very small figures. Some manufacturers are better at consistency than others, and also many figures listed as 15mm are only notionally so and can be up to 18mm in size (lots of Napoleonics fall to the larger/18mm size for example).

And finally, costs. Yeah, anything from outside the UK is quite expensive (especially right now...), and Splintered Light are an American company - hence the prices. However, getting a comprehensive range of figures for any faction can be tricky, especially of you're after more individual variety, so a couple of extra quid on the occasional pack might be worthwhile (for me, with my big fingers, it certainly is compared to trying to convert 15mm models myself!).
Costs and a lack of a UK supplier are also why I didn't mention Khurasan Miniatures - stunning models, prices are okay, then to get them shipped here... Oh dear!    Real shame, as the odd model I have of theirs is just perfect, and I would love to buy more of their stuff.

[Warren Abox]

My skirmish collection mixes Splintered Light, Ral Partha, and Alternative Armies without missing a beat.  The Irregular Miniatures are a little more chunky, and stand out for it, but I chalk that up to variations in form.  Some people are just fatter or taller than others.

[LouieN]

Hello,

Here to help if I can.  if you have specific miniature line questions please ask.  I have collected/bought many of the 15mm lines.  I will place them into 2 broad categories.   

15mm
Splintered Light, Demon World, Essex, Legio Heorica, Old Glory (humans) and Mirliton all blend well together. 

18mm - The Big ones

Battle Valor, Khurasan, and Eureka are closer to 18mm.  The sculpts are great but look like 20mm next to the lines above.  But some lines work.  I blended Khurasan dwarfs with Splintered light and they too look bigger but not bad. 

good luck

[Idle Doodler]

Thanks all - very helpful. Cataloguing these and their accompanying notes in the Bookmarks bar. Scale is less a deal breaker and more a handy filter with which to first approach collecting miniatures, such is the range of options out there. Fantasy beasties are particularly flexible; the Caesar Miniature ratmen certainly don't conform to an idea of such creatures being smaller than their human victims. I'm not ruling out including some 1:72 historical minis as some invading race of giants. So lethal is 5 Leagues from the Borderlands that having the adventurers be dwarfed by pretty much everyone else might be a good reminder to not charge in willy-nilly.

Alas, another filter is the added cost to ordering anything not found in the British Isles. I'll have to start scouting round for a local gamer similarly interested in trying out 15mm to go halvesies with some of these larger packs. I really like the Splintered Light wood elves (especially the fact they've got sensibly-clothed female warriors) but not sure I need quite that many minis, especially with half being duplicates.


First miniatures done, a collection of ne'er do wells to serve as generic human opposition in 5 Leagues. All, I believe, from Alternative Armies, though I think one or two non-celts might have snuck in to join any fun on offer.