"6mm infantry walkers / "battle armours" / small mechs" Topic

I've been gathering various 6mm infantry walkers and "small mechs" for Dirtside lately. Now it's beginning to turn into an obsession of it's own and I'd like to see what further models are left out there for me to get. My attention is primarily drawn right now to the various Battle Armours in the Battletech range, and I was wondering if anyone could give me some idea of what sizes these models are:

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I'm hopeful about the latter two in particular as their pricing seems to suggest they're a little bigger. Basically I'm looking for anything big enough to look like more than just a bulky suit of armour, like the GZG infantry walkers (I don't have any of these at hand right now, but they stand about twice as tall as a 6mm infantryman). I'm also interested in the size of the Heavy Gear Fleet Scale (supposedly 1/350) Northern, Southern and Earth gears:

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Finally, could someone identify these ones for me? I suspect they're GZG Tortoise infantry walkers but I can't be sure:

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Oh, and I will of course take any other suggestions for infantry walkers in the right sizes as well. They don't need to look humanoid, necessarily. I already have most of the GZG ones as well as some old Epic dreadnoughts (the Chaos Dreads make excellent hard sci-fi mechs once you file the sneering faces away). The Adler scout walkers and DRM small Andrayadas walkers I'm not very interested in.

One more thing: I don't suppose there's any rulesets for this exact thing I'm doing? One can't really design all that many different infantry walkers in Dirtside.

Perhaps I need to convert the HG rules to 6mm…

Your "unidentifieds" could also be one of the purported squadron markers for the newest HG scale out of DP9. I thought the landships had actually, er, shipped, but retail exposure for DP9 is rather poor at the moment…

The IWM battle armor figures are about 10mm tall. They fit well with low tech 6mm infantry. My impression is that the DP9 are a bit larger. I have some of the IWM but have only looked at the DP9 in my FLGS.

Farstar: I don't know… the unidentifieds don't really look all that Heavy Gear-ish to me. We are talking about the final picture I linked to, right?

Allen57: Would that be all Battle Armors? I'm wondering because the Fenrir and Kanazuchi ones are being sold far fewer to a pack, which makes it sound like they're a bit bigger than the rest.

Yah. I just checked the DP9 site for pics of their squadron markers (under "HG Tactical", and scroll down a bit until the 1/3500 landships show up; the squadrons are below the landships). VERY similar, but distinct in style. Your pic looks very VOTOMS (Snapping Turtles, in fact), which is one of the primary inspirations for Heavy Gear. That's why I made that connection.

Haven't seen VOTOMS but now that I've done an image search on it, right you are, they're Snapping Turtles for sure. Which really makes me suspect it's the GZG Tortoises even more, as that certainly wouldn't be the first time GZG borrows ideas from anime. Plus, they're called Tortoises :)

Now I'm curious if the other GZG walkers are based on anime designs as well. None of them rang a bell when I got them but then I haven't seen much old-school mecha.

That last group of walkers is definitely GZG…cant recall the exact unit name. There are several types.

Yeah, those are GZG Hounddog walkers, I believe.

Here's some more walkers I've just discovered:

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Roll Again. many thanks for that! Did not know about Kremlin's 6mm range . . Rather nice grav tanks…

Those arn't the hound dogs, theyre either fat boys or Tortoises('eses). I have misfiled my GZG PDF Catalouge it seems.

I'm quite tempted by the GZG Infantry Walkers. I was thinking of using them with the Oddzial Ozmy 1/600th stuff as full size mecha. I could use the GZG Battlesuite infantry as Infantry Walkers (true Infantry would probably just be moddled as defensive positions).

This could tie into Full Thrust games for a true planetary assault on a large scale without a huge amount of time invested or treasure expended.

OK, I'm a thread hijacker, I admit it….

The Kanazuchi are considerably bigger than the other CBT battle armour, they're bigger than Epic dreadnoughts. Haven't looked at the other sort, quadrapedal power armour is just too weird for me.

I've been gathering info on exactly the same thing! Can't decide on using 2mm or 6mm vehicles – 2mm would be more "Battletech" scale, but 6mm has a larger range and would make the mechs less gigantic. I didn't think about the Ironwind Battle Armor before. So far I only have the GZG walkers, but here's what I have in my notes:

GZG
Hound Dog (DSM 139), Tortoise (DSM 141, these are your "mystery" mechs), Fat Boy (GZG 142), Sturmkampfer (DSM 143) mechs. These are 13-14mm from foot to eye, and very nice typical anime style mechs. The Hound Dog also has a support weapon variant pack (DSM 140) with missile packs and Big Boomsticks. These are all 6 for 2.50 GBP. Don't overlook GZG's Future Wars range, which has two chicken-walker style armless mechs, about 15-20mm tall. They are a bit clumsy looking, and only 3 for 2.50GBP.

If there aren't photos of these anywhere, I could snap a shot.

Gladiator Games
Command, Combat, Support, and Assault Walkers, packs of 5 for 2GBP, about 20mm high. Armless bodies with different weapon configurations, perhaps a bit rough.

Adler, Dark Star line
FD4 Hornet Scout Walker, 15mm tall
FD10 Valkyrie Battle Walker, 20mm
VT4 Zukat Scout Walker, 15mm
Armless bipeds again, but nicely done. Price 2 for 2.25GBP.

DP9, Heavy Gear Fleet Scale
Hunters are 15mm tall, 10 for $19.95.
Jagers are 14mm, same price.
Type 6-16 are 17mm, also same price.
These are typical "Anime" style with arms.
Mammoths are 17mm and Nagas 19mm tall, but only 3 for $19.95. These are strider types without arms.

Since I like "mechs with arms" the current best choices are GZG and DP9, and the GZG mechs are less than half the price of the DP9 mechs. However, you have 7-8 different variants with just those. Bits of brass wire (or the DP9 weapon packs) could work wonders for variants.

Rules.

This has been tough for me as well, since for me the idea of going with smaller mechs was to field them in mass and in different roles. I am currently playtesting a mech conversion of MJ12's popular Starmada system ("Wardogs"), which looks very, very good. Lots of design choices, and fast and bloody play. I've already converted all CBT 3025 era mechs and vehicles over for testing. You could easily play a dozen mechs per side, probably two or three dozen.

Also, I made a quick conversion of the "A Sky Full of Ships" starship rules for mechs, hoping to use the same system for space and land combat when the new VBAM campaign guide is released. This is very abstracted, but could easily handle a tablefull of mechs, dozens and dozens.

PS – does anybody know if DP9 is continuing their "Fleet Scale" line with the new Blitz rules coming out?

Fresh batch of Frontline 20mm WWII up on the site. More to arrive in the next week or so. :)

Yay! Got hit by the bug, now I'm finally "one of the guys"! Good thing I hit Ctrl-C:

Those Kremlin walkers look nice – I can't believe I didn't know about that 6mm sci-fi range, it's a gem.

The Gladiator range is the one Baccus will be re-releasing, right?

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I was figuring I'd get some when they're released. With the "satellite dish" removed I hope they won't look too big with my other walkers.

I guess I'm a sucker for collecting every cool-looking walker model I can find, which is why I'll be buying at least the Earth Frames from DP9. Will see about the Northern and Southern gears, maybe later when I feel I'm not spending too much money on this project again.

Right, here's what I've been digging up since yesterday:

Looking for 10mm walkers, I found a small one from Warrior Miniatures.

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I'm not sure if you could reason a 6mm human fitting inside it, but I'm not above having some AI-controlled walkers as well.

Pendraken does a Walker, a Dreadnought Walking Gun Platform and Security Robots in 10mm scale. I've only found a picture of the Walker and decided I won't be using it.

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The Dreadnought Walking Gun Platform, judging by the price, is probably too big. I'm wondering about the Security Robots, namely how many there are in a pack and if they're walkers at all – I fear they might just be the stationary, automated gun platforms from the movie Aliens. Must remember to e-mail Pendraken to ask them.

Germy has some interesting things on the way:

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The ones in the first link would look nice as AI-controlled support walkers if they're the right size. The one at the bottom of the second link is of course quite cartoonish and would probably not pass for human-piloted either, but I'm not giving up on it yet.

Finally, I just might get a pack of this CAV infantry (which I presume are in 10mm) and try converting them to small mechs. Some alterations to the heads and a little extra bulk around the torso might do the trick.

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CATenWolde: I don't know about the HG Fleet Scale stuff, but last I checked (admittedly some time ago), DP9 was doing smaller-scale versions of the fighters and exo-armours in Jovian Chronicles.

Whew, long post!

Rhoderic don't forget my Tripod walker:
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And Spider walker:
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They both fit in well with GZG 6mm Infantry walkers.

I also have some Martian walkers in the pipeline (but they may not be the sort of thing your after)
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And finally I currently have four new walkers on my workbench which will work in 2mm or 6mm scales.
E-mail me if you want a sneak peek.

Jeremey
germy.co.uk

Wow, that Baccus Sci Fi stuff is realy inspired in its designs. The lines on those Tanks are very smooth and subtle. I particularly liek those light Grav Armoured Cars and the Blue Tanks as the bottom of the page.

Between this, the newer GZG stuff and the Adler line, the forces of 6mm Sci Fi are looking pretty strong.

Hey catenwold, thats some great info and I gotta say I love your 10mm site too, great work, its helped me out alot planning out purchases and such.

Thanks much!

Lots of great stuff there. i've been pondering going smaller for some time, and just stepped down from 28's to 15's for Sci-fi (though my Vietnam and WW2 are still 20mm), and might go smaller for mech style combat. I've got the old R.Talsorian VOTOMS RPG, and at one point had made it slightly simpler for larger numbers of units to blast away.
I had never seen teh GZG walkers, and as I mentioned above, I like the VOTOMS. Cool. Gotta get some, then write up some rules…

Hi Barmy,

Glad you liked the site – I'm so far behind in updating it that my current samples will probably be collectors items by the time they get on the web. :(

I had a "great moment" thought – what if one of the plastic 1/72 companies made a box of mechs? Imagine 50 mechs in a box for less than $10. USD

Now that'd be nice…
I seem to remember form back in teh 80's that there was a Dougram board game, or some such, that came with a bunch of different mechs. Anyone remember this, or did I just hit my head one too many times today?

About the GZG walkers: how many poses do they come in? I see that they come in packs of 6 of each type, does that mean one pose each? 2? 3?

The
GZG Walkers come in 2 poses.

Jeremey
germy.co.uk

Found the Dougram link:
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The Battle Of Stanrey section shows some pictures of teh walkers. I'm betting that they are much taller than you'd want, even if you could get ahold of them.

@Germy:
Thanks dude, helps a lot.
Hmmm, are they too small to cut up and convert to different poses?

The two poses are "holding right arm with gun up" and either "holding gun down by side" (139 and 141) or "holding gun straight out to side" (gangsta mechs?) (141 and 143). The left hand is attached to the hip, but it's a small attachment and can be easily cut. The metal is strong enough to bend well, and would probably cut well, although I haven't tried.

I've been kicking myself for years for not buying the Dougram game when I saw it. Plug in plastic trees, metal mechs, and several little periscopes for determining LOS through the trees…

I remember seeing it in a hobbyshop called "The Command POst" in San Diego back about the time GWs "Adeptus Titanicus" came out. At teh same price, I opted for the GW game, as well as a copy of Citytech.

Looking back, I too am kicking myself! Though I did play the heck out of BT, I really wish I had bought the Dougram game….

Yeah Tortises, I have a squad of them for 6mm games as well. If you want to arm them with similar weapons they have in the Votom series, that particular votom had a rocket gun, which explains why they were getting trashed in close combat in the Kummen jungles. The rocket pods were meant for long ranges.

Be nice to load them up with other weapons as AT Votoms had some loaded with, but Dirtside rules dosen't make that an easy thing to do.

You ought to check out the CAV line by Reaper Miniatures. Not 100% sure its the right size, but its really small! LOL! You'll have to see if it suits your needs.

They have a rulebook also. The system is decent, but is more luck based than skill in the first edition. Supposedly they're coming out with a revised 2nd editon rulebook soon.

Lots of cool miniatures though, a design system, and a true combined arms game with power armor, mechs, tanks, and aircraft all playing a significant role. Check it out!

Ignore the two large scale figureines first in the catalog. Those were just specialty collectors items.

reapermini.com/gallery/cav

The infantry is really small I meant. The mechs are 2" – 3" tall.

Hi Rhoderic,

6mm Sci-fi E-group:

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10mm Sci-fi E-group:

link

All are welcome to join and the groups are full of nice helpful people.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

darkrealmminiatures.com

Check these out

Yep, the Dark Realm mini's look great. But the mechs are too large to use with all the other 15-20mm mechs, and the android infantry too small. But they would be a great line for support troops etc.

How about there dreadnought type things

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I mimagine them to be the size of a Kanazhuchi battlearmor from iron wind

Hmm … I'll have to fire off an email and find out the size!

I love most of the DRM stuff, but those dreads look too "space fantasy" to me. Maybe it's the 40K dreadnought connotations. What I do like, however, are the old Epic Chaos Dreadnoughts (I'm having a hard time finding another picture, so I'm posting an auction I recently won, showing the regular figures, and a cool conversion that I just found):

auction
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The noses are adorned with angry faces, but as I said earlier, these are easily removed, making for a perfectly "hard sci-fi"-looking walker. The figures are easy enough to acquire on ebay, too.

Then, obviously, there are the Forgeworld Tau Battlesuits. Too bad they cost £10.00 GBP for 8.

forgeworld.co.uk/Epictau.htm

Word back from Dark Realm is that the Verger and Velite are 20mm tall, which with their greater bulk would make them nice Assault class mechs compared to the 15mm mechs.

I thought of another cool model that would make a great quadruped walker:

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It's meant to be steampunk, but I think it could be turned into a hard sci-fi model with ease. I mean to turn the "smoke exhausts" into turrets or missile pods.

The Margaret Mitchell case is interesting. She absolutely refused to write a sequel to "Gone With the Wind", and even put it in her will that none be written. That did not stop her "heirs" from commissioning a hack to write a sequel, from which they also reaped the profits of a hack movie.

Something screwy in that last post ! I didnt type that at all !

Anyway….here are some minis I have been putting together for 2mm combat units

GZG Houndog with custom crav tank. IWM scout drones used as medium tracked and hover vees with a IWM Brutus chassis for scale
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DP9 fleet scale Strider(modded) with GZG mecha and another Houndog

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GZG pieces- 6mm vees with another Houndog and a Sturmer

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GZG Raptor and Talon

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Close up of the DP9 fleet scale Strider(modded)

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Scale comparison with a IWM Wardog for scale in the background

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Great photos – thansk! Those drones work very well as small vehicles.

What is the middle mecha figure here?
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And what are the two models to the right of the Hound Dog here?

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Thanks again,

Christopher

The middle mecha is a GZG mecha from their Full Thrust line
GF-009
Mecha Fighters (pack of 6) tiny Mobile Suit figures for Anime battles!

The two minis to the right is a plastic OOP WH40K epic dreadnought. The blockier one is a DP9 Fleet Sclae Battle Frame

You could try these
link their slightly larger than the GZG hounddog and you get a lot of them.

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Here are the three types.

"The middle mecha is a GZG mecha from their Full Thrust line
GF-009
Mecha Fighters (pack of 6) tiny Mobile Suit figures for Anime battles!"

Actually no, it's not – it IS one of ours, but it's the FT1321A mecha-mode fighter from the FT Japanese fleet (also available as FT1321 in fighter mode). The GF009 is a much earlier sculpt, simpler and smaller. The pack size is the same, 6 minis for 1.00 GBP.

Jon (GZG)

Thanks for the Risk tip, and for clearing up that pack number Jon!

Cheers,

Christopher

I had some old imperial sentinals, and they may be of interest?

Scroll to the bottom it looks like they are still available?

ifelix.co.uk/phoepic3-1.html

Nice models, but 9GBP for 8? Have to look on e-bay I suppose.

Cheers,

Christopher