Newbie to the hobby with some questions

[acctingman1969]

Greetings all

I'm an old time ww2 pc gamer who is transitioning to table top miniature gaming. Been wanting to get into the hobby for years and truth be told, I've talked myself out of it for YEARS.

Finding a regular gaming group is hard, and I really enjoy gaming solo. However, I found a local group of really nice guys who game mainly ww2 (my preference) and have welcomed me into their group. This got my juices flowing, so, here I am.

I've picked up Chain of Command and I've read them twice now and eager to get a game going.

This got me going for my own table.

Bought a 4x8 piece of plywood and I'm taking Mark Luther's approach to a gaming board (check out his Flickr page....impressive stuff)

Anyways, I've decided on post D-Day Normandy setting German's vs Brits/Americans, but I'm struggling with what do I need to make a nice table!?

I'm making some bocage now and I'm realizing for a table this size...I have to make A LOT. But, I'm enjoying the hell out of making them. It's so soothing!

After this I'm going to work on trees. I'm going to single base a few but for the most part I'm going to put them on bases AND/OR do the "canopy" approach.

I'd like to make some bocage pieces with wooden fences/gates in them, but not sure how. Does anyone know a way to do these?

As for houses/buildings I'm going the paper route, for now. My finances are somewhat limited and I figure I can build up some nice resin houses as I go along.

Can anyone recommend a nice maker of buildings in the 15mm range that cover western/eastern Europe?

One last question......since I'm totally new to all of this, I was wondering what all you 15mm'ers out there prefer as your "go to" manufacturer for tanks and infantry?

I've decided to go with PSC for my mini's. The value is great and they look pretty nice (also, I have experience working with plastic kits in the past).

So, here I am, a TOTAL noobie asking for any tips/hints/advice on how to construct a nice gaming table.

I admit, I'm a little overwhelmed as to what I need to build and how much. After working on my bocage and trees, I'm not sure what to start next.

Thanks for reading this and I do really appreciate any advice you can offer.

Thank you and good gaming!!

[acctingman1969]

87 views and no advice?

 

[Poiter50]

For 15mm vehicles and figures, PSC & Zvezda (vehicles/aircraft only) although Battlefront are now producing plastic models. I'm a fan of plastic which I used long before resin became the medium for 20mm gaming but since moving to 15mm, it is interesting to see the change back to plastic.

For 15mm buildings, there are a number of producers of MDF ones around which are much cheaper than resin and there are some bespoke producers as well. MDF - Sarissa, 4Ground, Knights of Dice.

[Steve63]

My advice would be paint some toys first.   

[warlord frod]

Sorry I am a GHQ Micro Armour guy but that being said, if I were to move into 15mm WWII I would simply buy the Flames of War models. It would seem that they would have nearly everything you would need. As for the table you have truly jumped in feet first setting you sights on one that size in the European theater. My only advice is to set reasonable goals or you will abandon your project before you can even play. Maybe set a goal of 3x3 or 4x4 playing surface and play while you expand to the larger board.   

[wrgmr1]

Welcome to the Hobby! Glad you joined us!
Agreed PSC are great for vehicles. Old Glory do decent figures for a good price. Battlefront are good as well but pricey. There are lots of YouTubes on painting, or just ask here. I'm a 20mm gamer but here is my photobucket for some pics.
http://s219.photobucket.com/user/tjm3/library/?sort=2&page=1

[Lowtardog]

Welcome mate, where in the world do you live as it willhelp target your ideas with links to manufacturers as mdf is cheap for buildings.

I agree on table, that is one hell of a big project in itself! And a huge table for 15mm. Start small, get yourself a platoon of infantry painted up for each side to start. You only need a couple of tanks for chain of command plus support lists. Then build on that.

It is worth picking up campaign pdf from lardies or a skirmish campaign book to give you an idea on terrain.

The scenario books will help you build projects to a conclusion, game and keep you going

[Gunner Dunbar]

I do 20mm but it's the same principle, I bought green teddy bear fur to use as a gaming mat, then made roads, I used some old carpet, cut to shape, then glued sand paper on the back, then decorated, if I were to do it again I would use cork tiles as my base to build on.
I have bought some model train tracks that were on sale, and will give them some similar treatment.
Then I will start on buildings and scatter terrain.
For fences on the cheap, maybe use matchsticks glued with white glue.
For fields I'm thinking of getting some sand coloured fur and cutting into squares.
A link to my posts on terrain, and a link to a game (buildings were supplied by my mate)
https://gunnerswargamming.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Terrain
https://gunnerswargamming.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/battle-of-cross-roads-first-romanians.html

[NTM]

For 15mm buildings, there are a number of producers of MDF ones around which are much cheaper than resin and there are some bespoke producers as well. MDF - Sarissa, 4Ground, Knights of Dice.

Really I find MDF to be considerably more expensive than resin especially 4ground even taking in to account they are pre painted. Perhaps it works out differently depending where you are in the world. For games like CoC though they work very well as you can place figures inside whereas most resin ones are solid. I'm considering getting some Airfix buildings which although billed as 1/76 seem to work quite well with 15mm. Ironclad are probably my favourite building manufacturer at the moment but I also have some from Hovels, Timecast and Battlezone to name a few . The last are an old line still available somewhere but can't quite remember who from. Peter Pig have a good range of Normandy buildings but I don't own any.

[dbsubashi]

Peter Pig have always held an appeal to me. They look like they have seen action (or spent time avoiding it.)

As for fencing, just build them with balsa strip, and then glue them to basing for your bocage, then build up around them.

[dbsubashi]

Also, any 28mm buildings can be scaled down about to about 55% for use in 15mm. You may want to adjust this after doing test prints. I do 60% for my sci-fi paper buildings, as I needed the space for bases on balconies and such. You may be able to go smaller. A smaller building takes up less space, and allows you to place more buildings when creating a village.

You may want to look at Dave Graffam Models. You download them and then print out what and how many you want. Most of his stuff is for fantasy/scifi, but many are appropriate your project. There are many producers of paper buildings, including for model railroading, which is an excellent source for kits. Churches, rail stations and such.

[The Dozing Dragon]

My advice would be to buy loads of bits and pieces but ensure you can't field any form of balanced force.....half paint them then change periods and repeat until your house is full.

(Don't see why I should be the only one  )

[Ballardian]

For some very cheap (but quite decent) 15mm HDF scenery; http://ttcombat.com/collections/world-war-scenics
 You get four complete buildings or six ruined ones for less than a tenner (there's also a church & some pillboxes). While they're not the most detailed they are pefectly acceptable & easily improvable by adding textured plasticard/card facades or just a decent paintjob (I plan to get some for my Tanks games).

[Steve63]

My advice would be to buy loads of bits and pieces but ensure you can't field any form of balanced force.....half paint them then change periods and repeat until your house is full.

 

Ain't that the truth

[Norm]

If you are doing CoC, this is skirmish, so you will want to buy your tanks in singles. The most cost effective way of doing this is to to source Zvezda 1/100 plastic.

Flames of war do a starter set called open fire. It is around £50 which is very good value for what you get, providing of course those funds are within your budget anyway, but you might find it cheaper. It includes starter rules for Flames of war, which might interest you, but more importantly, it gives you acces to tanks, soldiers and anti-tank guns (all plastic) at a good price.

There is a new game out called TANKS by gale Force 9. It is cheap, has printed 2D terrain, has 3 plastic tank kits it it and lays in a 3 X 3 and use dead easy rules - it is not a sim, it is a fun game, but it will get you into moving models and working with rules quickly and cheaply. If you don't like it, you still have three 15mm models and some good quality 2D terrain to use with other rules as you start to explore the world of owning lots of rule sets :-)

Agree with the idea of working on a 4 X 4 table or less initially.

Buy a small sheet of foam board from an artists shop and then cut this to make ruined buildings (look at YouTube terrain tutorials).

I know you have asked a LOT of questions on this subject over 2 - 3 years. I really think that you may be looking at this back to front. Instead of worrying about having everything in place for a game, why not just make yourself a load of 2D cardboard kit up, woods, buildings., fences the lot and even miniature / tank bases that conform to your CoC rules and just start to play a game in a small space, say 3 X 3 and see how you get on. If you like it, start replacing some of those card pieces with the real stuff bit by bit.

Looking on the Internet at other folks set-up can be very inspiring, but as you say can also be overwhelming, you need to remember that a lot of what you see has been in collections that have been built up over years, it has not all been done in a small time-frame.

Piers keeps on showing stuff here that makes me want to throw mine in the fire :-)