"Looking for help with 2mm figures" Topic

I discovered this scale not long ago, by talking to a friend, and was intrigued with the possibilities. Hopefully, someone here can help.

I have never actually seen 2mm figs, but IIUC from talking to this friend, they are generally made as single models of solid formations, with, for example, pikemen shoulder to shoulder, or cavalry with horses flank to flank to represent a company. I am interested in trying these out in late medieval, Renaissance or even early 18th century wargaming, but wish to be a little cautious. While this sounds really neat, I am afraid that I could end up buying a lot of lumps of lead that I would never end up using.

Anyway, here is what I hope someone can help me with. I would like to get a hold of three stands of figures set up in the manner I described above. One each of musketeers, pikes and heavy cavalry. If anybody who games in this scale, or maybe a manufacturer, has some extras sitting around, I would be more than happy to compensate him for his time, postage and the figures sent.

This way, I could see what I was buying first and, if I did not like them, would not be out to much money buying something sight unseen.

Thanks in advance.

Oh, sorry to get greedy, but if I could get a single artillery piece as well, that would cap it.

Again, thanks

Grape Ape

Check out Tony Hughes site TTT

link

This is the 2mm gallery page, take a look around.

Ken

Seen it, and it is quite nice. However, among other things, I want to make sure that this is a scale that I CAN DO. The first thing I will do with these three or four bases of figures, if I get them will be to see if I can paint them and make them look nice.

Where are you based GrapeApe ?

Good luck. I suggest tracing your steps and using some sort of sniffing dog to find them. ;)

Just in good fun. Don't hate me. Hate takes a lot of energy. You can use in more productive ways.

GildasFacit "Where are you based GrapeApe ?"

Thanks Gildas. Please email me at gloriousbattle AT yahoo DOT com. I'd rather not give out addresses etc., on a forum.

Again, thanks

Also, what about homemade terrain? I'm sure you guys have been all through these issues, but please be willing to help a noob.

Buildings: Would the houses and hotels from Monopoly work reasonably well? At this scale, I'd just want some verisimilitude, not perfect scaling.

Other than this, what are simple but effective ways to do hills, forest, rivers, etc.

Again, thanks.

I just took a look at Irregular Miniatures' web site (the only manufacturer that makes 2mm figures that comes to mind.) The prices for the 2mm figures don't look that expensive; maybe you could get some samples and see how you like them.

Grape Ape,
I have some of irregular's figures on my site…painted for WSS.

link

Interesting. I was wondering about painting these, and I might as well ask now.

Let's say that I wanted to do something like Napoleonic line infantry. I was thinking that I would paint the entire piece blue, then put a long white stripe across the front, indicating the exposed shirts and trousers, black on top for the shakos and on the back for the back packs, and a very narrow flesh colored stripe just below the shakos for the faces. After this, I would put one or two colors on the flag, just to give an indication of what it was.

I would finish it off with a very dark but very thin wash of black to settle in the creases and bring out detail.

Would this work?

Grape Ape,
yep thats exactly how I do mine. They are very easy to paint, but do look good as mass units. On my website you will also see a small village/town painted up.

link

this was also very easy to paint at this scale.

thanks

craig

GrapeApe

I wasn't asking for your address, just to see if you were in the UK or not and roughly wherabouts. If you are then you can easily order a small number of items directly from Irregular as a sample, Ian doesn't mind small orders. If not then try Silver Eagle in the States, elsewhere I'm not sure.

To be honest, you'd be better off getting a dozen or so blocks. I found when I first painted them (many, many years ago) that the learning curve was pretty steep – the first ones I did were crap but by the third set I was happy with them and had worked out the problems.

My approach to painting is much as you describe – but put the flesh on the face before the hat – it works better that way. Also you can pick out the muskets with a careful dry brush and that really does bring the figures to life.
Also pick out with green or light brown/sandy brown the base. That makes the block visually stand on something – it sounds a small thing but it makes a difference.

The final wash is, to my mind, critical to appearance so be prepared to practice getting that the right strength and keep a damp brush handy to remove excess quickly.

Terrain can be done with Monopoly houses or with Irregular's own terrain.

Both advice and examples are on my site in the Resources section

tinytintroops.co.uk

Tony Hughes

craigscott666

One other question. I see that those are very large bases considering the size of the troops mounted on them, thus you have room to put the national colors and unit desginations at the back.

Is this common? How big are those bases, what are they, and what system are these mounted for?

Again, thanks.

I think you would be best ordering some figures and terrain from Irregular (just say the small woods and a town) – you really do need to see these things in the flesh to see whether they are for you or not.

Basing is important as the way you base can indicate which is the front of the unit (yes it can be hard to tell) and also the way you base can give a quick indication of the unit type i.e. I used to use 3 bases for light archers, with the two flank units slightly held back. This allowed a quick eyeball assessment as to what they were and which way they wer facing.

Useful links :
link
link
this guy uses colour coded bases to keep track of trop type & orientation

whilst this one goes for detailed painting
link