Unfortunately for my STALKER/Mordhiem "Forest" project, all 5 boxes of the miniatures arrived at the same time, due to delays (instead of arriving spaced out over a month). Combined with the lack of instructions, this has paralysed me with indecision (I have 5-6 warbands to create, shared from the boxes).
Then, I got a Black Seas started box (the pirate craze continues) and assembled them, but lost momentum when looking at rigging them.
So... I needed to regain momentum, and where better than the scale where I have a 99% completion rate at painting? Tomorrow's War, Gruntz, FAD, Dirtside were where I really expanded away from the sphere of GW, Battletech, Warmachine in the early 2010s and 15mm was the scale I used. There was a wide range of manaufacturers - GZG, Rebel, Khurasan, Blue Moon, and (now defunct) Critical Mass Games.
It also solved another dilemma I had. In my Mortal Tank Engines/WW2 tanks+zombies/Fallout/Mad Max universe of mercenary tank platoons, I wasn't sure how to base my infantry. In a FoW block, or individually like the sci fi above?
Digging through my sci fi collection, I realized the FoW squad-on-1-base just didn't spark joy. The big square bases dwarf the boring drab WW2 minis. 15mm is a scale more focussed on vehicles than infantry, and 15mm WW2 infantry is dull even by 15mm standards. So why was I using WW2 infantry? Exactly.
I've decided to use much cooler and more distinct sci fi infantry alongside my WW2 tanks. It also makes my universe more distinct, not just rebadged WW2. Also means I already have plenty of minis painted ready-to-rock. Still need some 15mm werewolves and zombies, though...
I cunningly bought my daughter a label machine for her birthday which she enjoys using...
I've got quite a lot of sci fi armies. Back before postage cost more than the minis, you could get a platoon of 30-40 infantry and a handful of vehicles (basically a 40K army) for $70-80. At the time, it was cheaper than a single 40K tank.
I shudder to think of what the weight of metal in the boxes above would cost to post in 2026...
Something I dislike in wargames is a very "fixed" universe where all the background is coloured in for you in immense detail. Like 40K, or Battletech, or LoTR. You feel there is a"right" and "wrong" way to paint stuff or build armies. Inspiration is good, but too much fluff can stifle creativity.
For example, this army has mostly GZG troops but the mechs are suits from DUST (28mm!) and the metal chicken walkers from some unknown indie manufacturer.
This not-Soviet army uses GZG infantry and vehicles from Khurasan (not 100% sure of the mech but I bet it's a John Bear Ross sculpt).
I also discovered some unpainted modern 15mm (Peter Pig?) which are now sitting on my bench. I always disliked the scale of Bolt Action (24" range rifles for 28mm just looks 'off') but with 15mm the 24" shooting range looks fine and allows vehicles to fit in better.... I wonder how much a Konflikt 47 rulebook costs...
The FoW bases are huge in comparison to the miniatures. The tiny 15mm figures appear even smaller due to the base size. Maybe round bases like they are used in Legions Imperialis would be better as there would be less empty space on the base. I also have some of them on single bases but for a company of infantry it would not be feasible due to the time it would take to move all of them. Painting them is also a chore, maybe less so if you switch between factions or use more complex camo schemes like pea dot, etc.
ReplyDeleteI never got into 15mm SciFi. The vehicles often looked very dull, and the infantry was just too small (I make an exception for WW2 as I want to field more tanks).
I am also not a fan of “fixed” universes, one of the reasons why I never read any 40k novels. The information in the codex was enough to spark my creativity. Back in the 2nd Edition, the background wasn´t fleshed out as much as today, so there was way more space for creativity in faction and army creation (often made possible by the very flexible Codices). Regarding Battletech, I have read a few novels back in the 90ies but never cared that much for them. It was always more about stompy robots beating the crap out of each other. All of us created our own factions (e.g. clans, who cares about the IS) with our own color scheme for the Mech camouflage. Since both games offer huge universes to play in, I would say that you can still be creative with your factions, stories etc. Just ignore the official plot and play whatever you want.
Yeah I just don't like the FoW bases either. They're not only large, but thicc! I'd probably consider doing mine on thinner plastic of my own, but I already glued down my minis... :-/
DeleteWW2 camo minis don't stand out well either and can be samey and bland. Camo schemes merely make them harder to see vs the base.
Are you "stuck" using FoW basing? (i.e. that is the only thing you want to play/will have opponents for?). Since I don't care, I kinda can do whatever...
In contrast to WW2, 15mm sci fi infantry are usually very good as they are visually distinct and have more latitude for brighter paint schemes, as well as more prominent/unique weapons and gear and armour.
I do recommend 15mm sci fi, infantry and all - but I agree WW2 infantry suck - only tanks are cool!
My last big 15mm paint session was back in 2021 - a skim of October should show a LOT of colourful sci fi armies:
https://deltavector.blogspot.com/2021/10/
My 15mm tip is always paint much brighter than you would in 28mm. I.e. use the 28mm highlight colour as your 15mm base colour....
-eM
At least, Battlefront at some point introduced recesses for the miniature bases. Older miniatures had to be glued with their base to the group base, which increased the height even more.
DeleteI agree on the camo. It doesn´t help to distinguish the miniature from the base. I was just thinking that painting camo schemes would be more interesting than just painting Feldgrau or Olive Drab.
I am not stuck using FoW basing. I wanted to use the miniatures for Battlegroup, where you ideally have single based miniatures. I am not sure how good this works for games larger than one platoon, which Battlegroup claims to handle (up to batallion….sure). I just thought that I would still have the option playing FoW if I want to at some point in the future. Painting wise, I am following the guides from the Colors of War book from Battlefront. I think that they already considered brightening up the miniature colors.
The 15mm miniatures from your blog look nice, but since I am not that interested in SciFi Vehicles, as they are often rather bland, I would just stick to 28mm because this is from my point of view the best scale for infantry combat and painting. If I would do a lot of SciFi vehicles I would probably go to 6mm scale using Battletech infantry, tanks, mechs and other vehicles.
I reckon anything is better than FoW bases.
Deletehttps://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/704037.page
The painting is very bland, but the base doesn't overpower the mini as much?
-eM
I have put a few 15mm WW2 PSC miniatures on small washers for Chain of Command. For engagements with a single reinforced platoon, this works fine and looks much better than the FoW bases but in the Battlegroup campaign books there are scenarios where you need up to three platoons. I would then have to either move around 100 infantry models, Customizing build Group bases for the single based miniatures or use FoW basing. The last option is the easiest to pull off as I have mostly Battlefront infantry models which are already supplied with the correct bases.
Delete"Something I dislike in wargames is a very "fixed" universe where all the background is coloured in for you in immense detail. Like 40K, or Battletech, or LoTR. You feel there is a"right" and "wrong" way to paint stuff or build armies. Inspiration is good, but too much fluff can stifle creativity"
ReplyDeleteNo wonder you moved from WW2 to sci-fi minis for your game 😂, nothing has more "lore" than WW2! *
It is a great idea to use your painted minis over multiple universes and I am sure the additional werewolves and zombies will come in useful in future sci-fi battles too.
*maybe Napoleonic's 😮
I think that the problem with "fixed" universe are mostly know-it-alls who will nitpick about details of your army that don´t fit into their preconceived narrative about the universe. Other than that, even a "fixed" universe offers a lot of opportunity for creativity. I would argue that even WW2 offers a lot in this regard. You could play fights between regular forces or resistance fighter/partisans vs police forcies. You can play in totally different terrain settings (Western Europa, Eastern Europe, Italy, Northern Africa, East Asia, Pacific), you can use different camouflage patterns on your infantry and tanks (where you are only limited by the colors but not by the pattern of application of these colors), you can use captured vehicles, etc. If that is not enough for you, just switch over to Weird War II.
Delete"No wonder you moved from WW2 to sci-fi minis for your game 😂, nothing has more "lore" than WW2! *"
DeleteTrue! ......But in this case, it's (a) my WW2 infantry are mostly on FoW bases which I dislike and (b) WW2 minis are visually bland, and camo'd in a way that exacerbates the issues with said bases.
...whereas using 15mm WW2 tanks is the whole point of my homebrew game....
I quite like 28mm WW2 infantry. But yes, I have a lot of Weird War II stuff.... .
-eM