"6mm wargames on a pinboard" Topic
18 Posts
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normsmith | 28 Jan 2014 11:59 p.m. PST |
I am starting a new project that will marry up the 6mm scale with a playing area the size of a standard pinboard. The project will take several months, but may be of interest to those looking for a compact set-up. LINK link |
Temporary like Achilles | 29 Jan 2014 12:04 a.m. PST |
Good idea. Will look forward to seeing how you go on this. Cheers, Aaron |
arthur1815 | 29 Jan 2014 3:49 a.m. PST |
I, too, will follow your project with great interest as I have little space for a wargame 'table' and need a portable surface that is easy to store away. Have you checked out Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame rules on his Wargaming Miscellany blog? If not, do have a look. Good luck with your project! |
Bob the Temple Builder | 29 Jan 2014 3:52 a.m. PST |
An interesting project that I intend to follow with interest. |
Tony58 | 29 Jan 2014 3:54 a.m. PST |
Good luck with your project. Have a look at Tabletopgamer on youtube, plenty of ideas: YouTube link |
Martin Rapier | 29 Jan 2014 4:35 a.m. PST |
Good luck Norm, I am a fan of small games. |
pigasuspig | 29 Jan 2014 8:12 a.m. PST |
I love small games and can't wait to hear more! |
Skipper | 29 Jan 2014 8:47 a.m. PST |
Your Hexon II terrain looks great. Its the pre-flocked by the look of it. I'm about to expand upon my Hexon terrain once I get my taxes back. I really like the sound of your plan. Good luck with it and I am looking forward to seeing the results. |
Martin Rapier | 29 Jan 2014 9:12 a.m. PST |
I use Hexon a lot, one of the best wargaming purchases I ever made. Also good for small games. |
hindsTMP | 29 Jan 2014 9:15 p.m. PST |
Interesting. In case you're interested, here's my oft-posted 80s-era 1-foot-square DBA board, with Ross-Heroics 6mm ancients (Maurikian Byzantines versus Sassanid Persians). Not too small to play with, and easily transportable in a custom-made carrying case. The figures were stored in the same case, with each army in its own 6-inch-square cardboard "sandwitch", under the game board.
MH |
normsmith | 29 Jan 2014 11:00 p.m. PST |
Thanks all for comments, enjoyed the video link. I bought quite a bit of the clump foliage at the outset, believing that I would probably be doing 2mm and I wanted to replicate the wood pieces that Irregular Miniatures do. The 1 foot square looks great. I once did 18 inch x 18 inch in 2mm at 6 inch to the mile and did Quatre Bras 1815 and once you got playing, the board actually felt quite roomy. |
onmilitarymatters | 30 Jan 2014 10:17 a.m. PST |
Since you are painting up Napoleonics for a small area, consider a fast-playing ruleset called Snappy Nappy -- aimed at fighting big battles in small areas. Inf/Cav unit = 2 stands. Typical player can start with five or six infantry units (10 or 12 stands), two cavalry units (4 stands) and an artillery unit or two (1 or 2 stands) in about a 2 foot by 2 foot gaming area. Larger games are possible (including multiple tables) -- Battle of Raab at Historicon was fought on a 2.5 foot by 5-foot table by six players. You can find info about it here on TMP and elsewhere around the web, there's a great Yahoo group that's been going for years, and you can read designer notes and so forth at onmilitarymatters.com (full disclosure, OMM publishes SN), look left and click on On Military Matters Rules and scroll down to the SN (fifth) entry and click on "Reviews, Table of Contents and Feedback" link. Any questions, drop a line or call OMM. |
normsmith | 30 Jan 2014 11:50 a.m. PST |
That sounds really interesting, thank you. |
arthur1815 | 30 Jan 2014 1:40 p.m. PST |
Snappy Nappy would certainly be my choice of commercially published rules. It also has the merit – IMHO – of being a reasonably priced card cover booklet with no colour photos of other fluff. |
Elenderil | 04 Feb 2014 3:07 p.m. PST |
Norm Try undercoating in white and then using a thin wash of Windsor and Newton's nut brown ink. It means one less layer of paint and has the same effect of pre-shading that your current techniques has but takes less time. |
hindsTMP | 05 Feb 2014 2:02 p.m. PST |
Norm, I just re-read the basing section of your blog. The standard for basing 6mm these days seems to involve thick, wide, almost plinth-like bases, presumably on the theory that 6mm is delicate and should not be touched with the fingers. Such bases can look great individually, but look strange on most gaming tables, to the point where my eye sees blocks and disks instead of humans and horses. As you can see from my image above, I use an alternative approach, which you may want to consider. My thin bases are not intended to be grasped with the fingers, so I can make them unobtrusive. The goal is to make it look like the figure is standing directly on the terrain. Each base is of thin plastic card, painted/flocked to match the game board, and originally with a small, undercut block of plastic at one of the corners. The original idea was that I would pick up the bases with modeling tweezers at these plastic blocks (undercut to keep the tweezers from slipping off). While this worked fine, I eventually found that figures could be grasped (lightly) with the fingers, and moved directly. This works because I keep my fingers clean during games with a piece of damp paper towel, and because of the mounting technique described below. My 6mm figures are painted in strips, but are then clipped off at the feet/ankles with side-cut pliers (keep in mind that the adhesive adds about 6 scale inches to the height). They are individually glued to the plastic card base with 5-minute epoxy by putting a dab of glue on the plastic base and on the feet of the figure, setting them aside for a short time, and then mating them together when tacky. The degree of tackiness must be sufficient to hold the figure upright, but must still allow adhesion. The point in time where both requirements are met is brief, and sets a limit on how many figures one can do for each batch of epoxy. In conjunction with this, I find it useful to bend a sheet of cardboard up along one edge to yield a vertical section of about 3 mm in height. As I dip the feet of each figure in epoxy, I lean them up against this vertical ridge. Then, when the epoxy has solidified a bit, I can grab each figure quickly with the minimum of fumbling. Another optimization is to lightly score, at an angle, the attachment points on the plastic card with the point of a knife, in order to give some mechanical reinforcement to the glue joint. This 6mm basing technique yields a strong and flexible structure, mostly due to the ability of the plastic card to flex if stressed. You can drop such stands to a carpeted floor without damage, and of course pick them up by carefully pinching the based group between the fingers.
Mark |
normsmith | 08 Feb 2014 11:21 p.m. PST |
Dave, thanks for the comment re Winsor & Newton ink. I have both the Niut Brown and the Peat Brown, as I used them in my 'magic dip' with future floor polish on larger figures. Since posting, I have painted French artillery which looked OK, washed them in diluted Soft Tone ink, they looked good while wet, but once dry, the effect was not good, they were very flat and drab and had to be re-touched up. I am at a point of wondering what to do for the best, so will try your suggestion. Mark, I love the precision of your bases and corner 'nub'. I know exactly what you mean by the plinth effect. I am also not keen on heavily grassed basses, so that the legs virtually disappear, making for a strange overall effect with the plinth base. One of the things that i am bothered about is the 'weak ankles' that can effect H&R figures, so handling is an issue. I am guessing your method actually strengthens that part of the figure, though I know that by inclination, I will not have the patience to that, but will probably want to handle the figures during play, so that is something I need to sort out. Also for my WWII stuff, I am inclined towards not basing the vehicles, which does put some pressure on me to base the infantry as thinly as practicable. I am more used to 10mm, in which these issue require less consideration. |
hindsTMP | 09 Feb 2014 10:51 a.m. PST |
Norm, I will not have the patience to that, but will probably want to handle the figures during play, so that is something I need to sort out. One thing which helps me justify the effort involved in this basing technique is that I have always treated 6mm as "half-sized 15mm". Thus, I cut ranges in half, don't increase the number of figures per stand, and can mount individually as one would do with 15mm. Also, I expect them to last forever (the Ros-Heroics Afrika Korps depicted above were based in the 1970s). Mark |
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