Toy Like Spanish Successionish project

[Matty]

So I came across Micron Miniatures' Easy paint 6mm STL files.  I printed the free samples at a variety of sizes as the renders looked like they would be great for toy like horse and musket gaming. 

I settled on 400%, which I guess is 24mm but with very toy like proportions (I love their little noses).  I grabbed the Spanish Succession set.  I have a photon mono 2k printer and went with 30u layer height and 8x anti aliasing.

For a while I've been making goblin green terrain with little idea what it would be for.  The miniatures eventually showed up    My plan is to add rivers, roads, fences, farm houses and the like.  I'm not sure where has vegetation like that, but it was fun to make.  The hills are a variety of sizes with a mix of inch and half inch height.  The board they are on is a 24" demo type board I painted to see if I liked the colour on the table surface.  I plan on watering down some paint and painting a fleece blanket.  Not a super fluffy teddy bear fur one, but just a low pile microfibre one.

I plan on doing block painting with strong black lining.  Goblin green bases.  Maybe a simple flock or just painted bases.  Not sure yet.  I hope I won't find myself highlighting anything, but you never know.

I guess now I need to figure out basing and rules.  I'm leaning towards my usual combination of Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames and The Portable Wargame series by Bob Cordery.  I don't think I want to mark out a grid for this project though.  I'll probably go for round corner square bases as I find I always like to see those.

[peachey_c]

These are fun. I remember seeing them for sale.  Do they print without supports at 24mm?

[Matty]

There are islands but they are the kind that would be automatically subsumed by later layers.  I still supported them though.

It took another print bed for me to figure out the best way to get them off the print bed.  I take a one sided craft razor blade and insert it under the print to break the suction.  If any support remnants are left on the build plate after they just get scraped off with the steel scraper.

I'm contemplating getting one of those magnetic flexible steel build plates as it would be way faster and I might be printing a lot of these.  Or I guess I could angle them and support them raised and on a raft like any other miniature.

[peachey_c]

Looking very nice, they will be impressive ranked up 

[Matty]

So even with my small print bed, I can get quite a few in one go.

I think I might need to actually think about what I am going to do in terms of basing, what figures I need.  I have another print bed of infantry that will be done in 20 minutes.  I guess I need to figure out how many officers, standard bearers, drummers and so on I want to print as well.  And then there's a few different types of grenadiers, some dragoons, cuirassiers. 

[has.been]

They do look cute. I would base them up in units (Regiment/Company?).
The Army would look superb & not take long to move.

[Matty]

I'm currently thinking 12 figures on 100mmx50mm rectangles with round corners.  Cavalry maybe 5 on the same size bases.  Maybe nice and thick 3 or 4mm high.

[Matty]

This is what I'm thinking.  I also have some poses with polearms, pikes, halberds and the like I could put in.  I suppose the two figures on the end could be grenadiers.  Though I think I might instead intentionally be wrong about it and have entire battalions using those sculpts as I like how they look and want more than just two on the end.

I don't really want to go any wider as if I end up doing a grid/hexes for speed of play I won't want them any larger than 4 inches across.

[Matty]

11 battalions printed.  I have 32 grenadiers on the print bed now.  I'll decide whether I want to put a couple in each battalion after I see them in physical form.  There are 4 different grenadier headgear types so I'll have enough for a battalion of each if decide to not put them in the line battalions.  Though i will have to print colour parties for them if I go that route.

[Macrossmartin]

These are great, Matty! They have a real charm, and I can't wait to see how they look painted up.

If I wasn't already doing horse-and-musket era in Lego, I'd be dangerously tempted to follow your lead. 

[Matty]

The Lego idea is a great way to do toy/toy like horse and musket.  And no painting.

I've got a busy time at work right now, so I'm finding time to set up prints before I head out and clean and cure them at the end of the day, but painting commences in 4 days as that work project will be done. 

So i went through a litre of resin. 4 mounted lords, 191 infantry, 35 cavalry, 6 artillery, 24 crew. 

I also printed a test base on my fdm printer.  Then when I went to set up a multiple base print job it clogged and went all wrong.  I really hate FDM printing.  Probably going to have to think about getting rid of the printer.  I'd rather have the desk space the printer is on. 

[Matty]

I need to rethink the basing.  I glued some infantry onto the 100mmx50mm rectangle to test it out and I just did not like how it picked up.  I may end up doing 3 bases per battalion.  Maybe I need to rethink the number of figures per unit and whether I want two flags or one.  Or the bases, while representing larger formations, could be vignettes of the company colour party and nearby soldiers instead of the battalion colour party.

[olicana]

I used to paint 7YW figures for a guy in a group that did 18 men on three bases, and that worked. His argument was that they only ever formed up in column of companies or line, so four bases was excessive (with no real requirement to form square - they could but very, very rarely did - and column of attack was something in the future).

SWS isn't something I know much about but, I'd bet they didn't form up in column of attack or battalion square very much.

I'm not sure three bases of four figures is the right way to go as they would be very narrow at the front and narrow bases are prone to be fiddly and cause more 'figure clash' than wider ones. My minimum frontage has always been 45mm (3 x 28mm figures front, 2 ranks). The client I noted above did 60mm x 60mm (6 figs a stand in two ranks).

Just a thought.

[vodkafan]

How about 4 figures in 3 ranks, 60mm frontage, with two bases per battalion? Two bases is enough to show whether in line or column.

[Matty]

I used to paint 7YW figures for a guy in a group that did 18 men on three bases, and that worked. His argument was that they only ever formed up in column of companies or line, so four bases was excessive (with no real requirement to form square - they could but very, very rarely did - and column of attack was something in the future).

SWS isn't something I know much about but, I'd bet they didn't form up in column of attack or battalion square very much.

The only squares I've ever read about were multi-battalion or multi-brigade squares.  I think the guy was right about not needing to form square or column of attack in 7YW and even earlier than that is the very linear transition from pikes + muskets to just muskets, so I'm good there too.

I'm not sure three bases of four figures is the right way to go as they would be very narrow at the front and narrow bases are prone to be fiddly and cause more 'figure clash' than wider ones. My minimum frontage has always been 45mm (3 x 28mm figures front, 2 ranks). The client I noted above did 60mm x 60mm (6 figs a stand in two ranks).

I can definitely see arranging narrow bases were the figures get all the way to the edge to be annoying.

Another advantage i can see of the three base approach is the ability for the colour party to be either centred or on their right as I think those were the two most common arrangements.  I was just going to put everything centred and gloss over that, but it would be neat to be able to see that on the table.

How about 4 figures in 3 ranks, 60mm frontage, with two bases per battalion? Two bases is enough to show whether in line or column.

I had hoped that a battalion wouldn't get wider than 100mm as I was hoping to use a grid or hexes of that size.  I may have to simply give up on that and go for bigger spaces.  I started planning on doing 12 figure battalions, but now I'm starting to consider 18, 24 or even 36 figure battalions 

If I stick with the 100mm hexes then that does enforce some limitations in terms of figure count.