"My 15mm Twilight 2000 Project has Officially Begun" Topic

I started my TW2000 Project this past weekend. I have about 20 QRF vehicles and began cleaning up the first HMMWV today.

Friday, I got in part of an order of Peter Pig figures and extra heads for conversions. I began painting 25-30 figs this weekend. Camo schemes have been decided on for the Poles and Soviets using camopedia.org. The US troops will be in what I can paint for Woodland camo. Camo definitely takes longer to paint! :)

Today, I went and bought a pin vise and began converting some PP AK-47 Bareheaded Militia to hatted and helmeted heads instead. Using the pin vise wasn't easy. I didn't have a collet that would allow me to use the small bits with my variable speed Dremel, but I ordered some optional colletts this evening online.

I did manage to convert 4 figures to helmets, 4 to Russian Pilotka side caps, and 2 to British Commando stocking caps. These all should go well with the 6 remaining bare heads of the militia/marauder type forces inhabiting the TW2000 world. The holes I drilled still seemed too small in diameter even with the largest bit. Other's have said that the PP metal is hard to work with and they were right.

I used two-part epoxy to affix the heads, and once they are completely dry they should be okay. BTW, what is the easiest two-part epoxy to use for small projects like this? I waste quite a bit with the type I have due to the duel-plunger mechanism, so any suggestions would be welcome.

Doing the conversions and building vehicles is completely new to me so any advice in those areas would be greatly appreciated, too.

As for background info, I have most of the hardcopy books and modules, as well as the CDs with everything from Far Future. I downloaded the free version of Chain Reaction and these rules seem like a possibility for the small size actions, but they don't really address heavier weapons such as vehicles, artillery, and/or mortars. I figure maybe some of Two Hour Wargames games take these extra steps, so I plan to research it a little and maybe I will use some of their other rules, too.

Any comments are appreciated! :)

Russ

If you like Chain Reaction then you need FNG. It will give you the rules for artillery to bulk out the game for you. It's interesting that FNG is missing its vehicle rules. I wonder if THW has got around to them in the new, final version of CR 3.0?

Star Army does have some nice vehicle rules thought that could be ported in.

So when is the blog coming! We want to see progress photos! :-) Looking forward to hearing your progress. I wasted many hours having a blast playing Twilight 2000 back in the day.

Tgunner,

I didn't see anything about vehicles in CR 3.0. There aren't a lot of vehicles in TW2000, and I would imagine someone could come up with their own rules and charts pretty easy using CR as a guide. Thanks for letting me know about FNG. I will check it out.

Russ

CPBelt,

I know, I know! I will take some pics and post them as soon as I can. I really like the Russian WWII Helmets on the AK-47 Militia. They will mix well as lesser equipped regular troops or marauders, or just militia who happened to pick up a helmet somewhere. The Russian pilotka caps look good, too. If I can find colletts to make the drilling easier, i will do a lot of other conversions. Until then, not as many as I planned.

Russ

link

link

link

If you're still looking for rules peruse these.

I remember that Twilight 2000 had a module that included a striped down version of TW2000 for larger battles.

I loved Twilight 2000 in the mid-1980s, I think we ended up playing it more than any other RPG. Some of my 6mm modern purchases have been with an eye towards some TW2000 scenarios, although as far as I know nobody makes the projected M1A2 with the small (auto-loaded) turret, or the right T-90. Also not sure if the Sergeant York is out there in 6mm.

@Inari – it was the original Warsaw module that had those rules, and I think Pirates of the Vistula added some stats or something to it. Both should be up on RPGNow.

Chris

I read and re-read the history and starting scenario background materials for TW2000 so many times.

Can't wait to see pics!

I loved TW2k as well.

There was a set of rules called The Last Battle that was played with cardboard chits, rather large ones in fact. And could be easily converted to 15 or 20 mm miniatures.

link

With my twilight 2000 CDs, Last Battle is included. I printed it out a few days ago. I'll have to read through the rules soon.

I got some new colletts and bits for my Dremel and it makes a HUGE difference in the ease of drilling holes to use Peter Pigs seperate heads for conversions. I was able to drill holes that the spigot for the head fit all the way down inside the figure. In the future I will probably shorten the spigot by half and do these even quicker.

A couple of tips are in order. I found (as some others have mentioned) starting off with a smaller bit and then going to the biiger bit works well for the two-speed Dremel. I went slow on the 5000 rpm setting, instead of going full bore at 10,000 rpm.

I also found that once I twisted off each head I needed to flatten a spot where it came off so the drill bit had a level spot to bite into. I use a small file for this part of the job.

So far I have converted 15 figures, 10 with the pin vise and five tonight with the Dremel. The ones done with the pin vise rely a bit too much on the two-part epoxy, but they look pretty good, nevertheless.

Russ

BTW, the drill bit size I am using is 3/64" for the main conversion hole. This provides a very tight fit for the spigot going in. What size is everyone else using? To me, 1/16" seems too big for these 15mm figs, but I haven't tried it.

Russ

There is a Sgt. York in 1/285th scale.

link