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Hi!
At CRISIS, I saw the new 3mm range by Magister Militium and was immediately captivated: The figures were tiny but still recognizable and they produce a real mass effect:
But why a new size? When I was home, I contacted Richard Clewer from Magister Militium and asked him a couple of questions about his personal motivation behind the figures. I’ve now published this short interview on my blog:
http://wargamingraft.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/threes-a-crowd-interview-with-richard-clewer/
I’m not quite sure why I’m that fascinated by those figures… I’m pretty much a 15mm man, but have been contemplating 6mm for a while. Now however I’m sure I will get some of the 3mm figures to do my Boudica project. I guess its the impression of large masses of men that does it.
Cheers
ShandyMy blog: http://wargamingraft.wordpress.com
Well, I never could relate to that newfangled not-horsedriven stuff like tanks… I guess that’s why missed the news concerning the Oddzial Osmy stuff
And also, I sometimes still find myself confused by the scale & size conventions of wargaming – sometimes it’s a scale like 1/600, sometimes a size like 3mm…Anyway, has anyone already played ancients games in 3mm? Or would you never go that small?
My blog: http://wargamingraft.wordpress.com
Fascinating! Thanks for the link.
(but for me, as a player, it’s 28mm or death
)Um, although I can accept some 15mm DBA sometimes…
http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
https://www.anargader.net/Anyway, has anyone already played ancients games in 3mm? Or would you never go that small?
I played 6mm Ancients and have played 2mm Napoleonics.
I have been painting 3mm almost literally since the first day they were available. I have extensive WWII, Modern and Sci-Fi collections and I have posted quite a lot about this scale over at my blog, which contains painting, basing and terrain tips. http://leadnobleed.blogspot.com.br/2012/12/what-do-3mm-figures-really-look-like.html
To put it simply, there are plenty of good reasons to game in 3mm, most of which have been touched on above (space, the ability to game big battles, etc.) My favorite, which hasn’t been mentioned yet, is affordability, which makes this scale somewhat of a “bonus” scale to any gamer, in that you can get into it essentially for free.
A pack of 3mm O8 WWII tanks runs 4.50 USD for 15 castings. Ten packs will give you enough troops for a battalion-sized game of Blitzkrieg Commander which can be played on your coffee table and stored in a shoe box. And, unless you are REALLY detail minded, you can get everything painted up in a weekend, with the terrain done on another weekend.
A six company French 1813 infantry battalion with 180 figures (i.e. 1:4 scale) costs five dollars. 3.50 if you go with four base battalions. Compare that to a 32 dollar box of Warlord figures. For the price of one box of warlord’s admittedly maravelous 28mm stuff, you can field a six squadron cavalry regiment, four entire artillery batteries, and a five battalion infantry brigade! And you can paint everything in an afternoon!
One should not think of 3mm as competition for larger figs, but rather as a complimentary scale. It allows one to do cheap, fast projects in periods or areas one normally wouldn’t go into. For example, I have wanted to play Napoleonics ever since I got into wargaming, but the thought of putting together and painting the necessary figs was just too daunting. This is no problem whatsoever in 3mm scale, however! Just during my off time at the World Cup, I was able to paint and field an entire French army. Awhile back, I wanted to do a Venezuelan invasion of Colombia: 50 bucks of O8 figs was enough to set me up.
Finally, of course, this is THE scale for nice looking, easily portable games. Many wags say “Hell, if you go 3mm, you are practically boardgaming”. First of all, that’s not true (see my above link comparing counters to 3mm stands). But secondly, even if it were true, so what? A boardgame can be carried in a backpack, friend, with room left over for a book, an iPad and sixpack. Idem 3mm. Even my deluxe set up consists of a flocked terrain mat wrapped around a pvc pipe and two shoeboxes of terrain and figures. This is a bad thing? Only if you are a hugely wealthy git with an SUV and a dedicated wargames room! A DBA set up can easily be completely stored in a shoebox in 3mm.
Now yes, there are problems with 3mm. One of them is that, to be as spectacular as the larger scales, real thought must be given to terrain. Your battles are going to look somewhat like Osprey maps and not like toy collections. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
The real problem, however, is that you need to develop an entirely new painting and basing technique for these. Painting needs to be MUCH lighter and basing much simpler, with finer grain or even no flocking. You can see my eight years of travails over at the Lead Doesn’t Bleed blog. However, now that many people have developed the techniques you need to use and posted them, you won’t have to go through the troubles I had. You can find a discussion about these tips and techniques here on TWW at: http://www.thewargameswebsite.com/forums/topic/painting-3mm-1600-vehicles-and-figures/
In conclusion, I find 3mm to be a wholly rewarding, cost-effective and lovely scale. There is literally nothing to not like about it, except for the fact that it isn’t 28mm… But that is precisely the point! With regards to 3mm versus 6mm, well, that is perhaps a matter of taste, but again, one typically gets three times the number of 3mm castings for something like half the price, so I would say that, if anything, it is even more cost effective to play in 3mm versus 6mm than 3mm versus 28mm.
Given that you can buy a complete army in 3mm for the price of one Games Wankshop blister pack, I very much urge gamers to try this new scale out! You have literally nothing to lose but the price of one cheap dinner for two!
We get slapped around, but we have a good time!
Thaddeus, that is a magnificent collection you have! And thanks for the link to your blog, very useful.
I agree with all you said. For me, space and money (and time) is also rather limited. This was the reason why I first changed from 28mm to 15mm, which I really came to love. But already, terrain is taking up more space than I really have…
I also like what you said about doing periods one wouldn’t normally do. I’m interested in the Boudica revolt, but not enough to paint up a hundred 15mm romans and even more celtic warriors. 3mm will give me the opportunity to play and explore that period without a huge investment (well, I’ll probably spend all the money I save on books on the period, which will take up even more space, but that’s how it works…
)My blog: http://wargamingraft.wordpress.com
I’d go 3mm, but I probably wouldn’t be able to see the little buggers well enough to get paint on them.
What do they bring to the party that 2mm doesn’t? The group I was in then had a fling with Irregular 2mm back in the 80s. The armies all looked a bit…lumpy on the table.
Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.
I am 47 years old and my vision sucks. It is no harder painting 3mm figs than it is, say, painting belts on 28 mm figs. Like everything in minis, it is a question of tecnique and not one of eagle eye sight and rock steady hands. Paint for effect, not detail. That is the key.
Firstly, congratulations on your age. If I can remember that far back, 47 was a good age to be.
You might find that you are preaching to the converted with regards to some of the people responding to this thread. I find painting small figures very much easier than large figures, so I concur. No experience of 3mm figures but with 6mm I find the basing sometimes more important than the fine details of painting. For instance, I re-based my 6mm Polybian Roman hastati and princeps on 40mm by 20mm bases, with 2 ranks of 4 hastati on the right at the front of the base. On the left I put 2 ranks of 4 princeps to the back of the base. Even people with worse vision than myself can see what they are at more than playing distance.
Not a very good picture, but perhaps you can see what I am getting at?
O8’s 3mm figures are about 200 percent more detailed and recognizeable than Irregular’s 2mm figs.
Somehow, I find that easy to believe.
I like the Irregular Napoleonic Boxed rules, they worked for 6mm and 2mm so should do 3mm just dandy.
THE IRREGULAR MINIATURES RULE BOX 6/2mm Napoleonic
The Brigade line are very good. Here’s a mix of the Irregular Middle Eastern and Brigade models and also the Med Village.
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