[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Here’s the 15mm Wombat, from Ground Zero games, for example:

It looks like it has a bumber car skirt attached to it.

Here’s another offender: the Mao Zehdong from Brigade:

And here are two ways of doing it right. The classic GEV from Ogre:

…and the Hammer’s Slammers combat cars:

Compare that image, in particular, to TNCE’s not-a-Hammer’s combat car:

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

I~ll be sure to keep a sharp eye out for them, then. I like the amount of character you put into your pieces, I just prefer less exagerated sculpting styles. I know that~s probably a contradiction at 6mm, but… [shrugs] Then again, what do I know about these macroscales? 😀

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Here you go:

Basically, more realistic proportions and a more near-modern look.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Mike wrote:

Oooh a challenge! What would the elusive 6mm infantry look like?

Not to denigrate your style, Mike. I know it’s based on 1980s British sci-fi comics and it is very evocative of that. But what I’d like is some infantry in 6mm that looks something like the neo-Poles produced by Oddzial Osmy. If I could get those, I’d snap them up, along with Dark Star’s vehicles and your buildings, and be playing 6mm skirmish in no time.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Thanks, folks!

Old school sci-fi was the vibe I was trying for, specifically this here:

The paint job looks a lot smoother in rela life. My softwear’s autocorrect filter kinda roughed it up, especially around the wheels.

Mr. Average, Javelin says he’s looking to cast some of this stuff. I don’t think his whole line is worthy of the honor, but these here certainly are.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

I think those small flags are company fanions, though, not battalion fanions.

In the rest of the French Army, post 1811, the system worked like this: 1st battalion got the tricolor and each successive battalion got a primarily colored fanion (plus those little gunbarrel fanions, used apparently as company markers, were used by everyone).

In the Guards, the OG regiments were considered to be the 1st battalions for their respective establishments, so apparently the first battalion of the OG regiments carried an eagle and a tricolor. There’s no consensus on whether the SECOND regiment of the OG establishment also carried an eagle and a tricolor. Consensus seems to indicate that they did until after the Russia fiasco, but perhaps not after then. I certainly would have no objection to modeling them that way.

All MG and YG batalions supposedly had fanions, one per battalion.

OK, fair go.

But what I want to know is, what did the SECOND battalions of the OG regiments carry, if anything? Fanions? If so, what color? Tricolors? Nothing…?

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Beautiful stuff, man! Every time I see your set-up. it pushes me that much closer to 6mm sci-fi skirmish. Tho only reason I haven’t succumbed so far is that I don’t like any of the 6mm infantry out there. But I’m getting closer and closer… Planetfall might actually push me into 10mm, using 6mm terrain.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Because the Hapsburgs were just too cool for that sort of candy-ass crap. When your nobility sponsors your armies regiments, you have no need for a guard. Every soldier is, in theory, some noble person’s guard. 🙂

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

The Badger and Caesarion are a blast to paint!  My Mantas, unfortunately, came with some mold line up problems.

But here are some of my Caesarions:

I thought I had some photos of my Badger-supported power infantry company, but I guess not. Time to take some…

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

It’s good stuff you do, HPhD!

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Dude! Mark Severin, Bryce Allen and Henry Hyde like my figs? I’m stoked! 😀

Thanks for the kind commentary, folks.

I’m now working on a Hungarian regiment, which is fun because the blue pants really make them pop! Next up after them is one more German foot regiment and then I get to work on the light brigade.

That will be a real pain because it’ll 12 squadrons of light cavalry, along with two Grenzer battalions and a Jaeger battalion. I’m using ACW Confederate skirmishers for the Jaeger and I hope they turn out acceptable. If Marcin ever makes some Austrian landwher figs, I’ll swap those in.

I figure the Chevauxlegers will be green. I know that’s not precisely historical, but at this scale, I need to be able to distinguish the units at a glance. Given that the Chevauxlegers and the Cuirassiers use the same castings and the heavy cavalry will be white… well, green it is. The Cuirassiers will have dark horses and Chevaulegers browns and bays, just to further the identification.

My justification for all this is that my games take place in a neighboring dimension. They’re not quite different enough to be “Imaginations”, but it does explain why a Chevauxleger regiment has green uniforms in 1813, for example, or why all the French Fusiliers have blue pom-poms. It’s the easiest way to discourage the button counters, I’ve found (well, that and playing in 3mm in the first place).

When the light brigade is finally done, I’ll have enough for a small but decent game, which I hope to play sometime at the beginning of 2015, just to acclimate myself to the Black Powder rules.

Then I’ll get to work on the Guard brigades for both armies.

 

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

I wish I had known about that Hornby fine flock when I was up in England last month! It looks perfect for 1/600. Does it come in other colors?

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Thanks, Cdr Luddite!

I agree about scenic materials. The finer, the better. In fact, you might want to think about using none at all, too.

Recently, I have decided to go with simplicity in my basing schemes. This has made my figs better, IMHO. At 3mm scale, it is far too easy to distract the eye by using multiple flockings and basing grit. You can see that happening above with that WWII carrier platoon. The Pz IIIs, on the other hand, are just fine, even with not flocking at all.

If you must use tufts or static grass at this scale, use them very sparingly!

 

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

No tricornes as of yet, William, but Marcin promises that they are “coming soon”. I’m looking forward to them, myself.

Another advantage to 3mm is that you can pretty much play all periods cheaply and easily. We now have Napoleonics, ACW, the World Wars, Modern and Ultra-modern, Sci-fi and now even Romans and (soon) Celts!

Musket and Pike and the early black powder period are the only major hold outs, so far.

3mm armies are rather like Pokemon: gotta catch ’em all!

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Sure! Thanks! Figured something like that must’ve happened. Any idea why all those “div” markers are in the post?

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Coming from Mark Severin, that is high praise, indeed! Thank you, sir! 😀

 

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Close-ups!

Now you can see the shakos! The yellow pom-poms are exagerated, but that’s normal at this scale: everything has to be that much brighter and over-the-top to be seen at arm’s length. It is definitely painting for effect in 3mm!

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

What are you going to use for the M-76s? Kit-bashed M-577s? I’d love to see those!

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

I’ve been thinking about this for awhile in conjunction with my Luftpanzer fast-play sci-fi rules.

I really think that, when you get right down to it, there are only two main axises of differentiation for sci-fi weapons: direct/indirect and area/precision.

Direct weapons are those things that shoot in a straight line and thus can be easily blocked by intervening terrain and other obstacles.

Indirect weapons are those which can be fired in a parabola or which can change trajectories.

Precision  weapons hit one target and tend to hit it heavily.

Area weapons hit many targets within an area and tend to do in not so heavily (at least as compared with precision weapons).

One could also rate these as light, medium, heavy and superheavy. I’m rating them on a 1-6 scale.

So, let’s look at some weapons:

Direct precision weapons would be gauss guns, lasers, machine- or chainguns, cannon, etc.

Direct area weapons would be plasma or fusion guns, flame throwers.

Indirect area weapons would be mortars, artillery and all sorts of things that fly and go “boom”. Traveller’s ole meson cannons also fit here.

Indirect precision weapons could be anti-tank guided missiles. It could also be something like the wild laser wands used in Christopher Hinz’s “Paratwa” novels.

This means that if you wanted to do a rules set, you could classify every weapon according to those four categories on a variable strength scale.

 

 

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

You need to give one of them a Madsen light machinegun. We will never be rid of the things here in Brazil…

 

http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/world-firearms/portuguese-contract-madsen-lmg-321854/

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Just beautiful stuff! I’m bummed you drew those sillouhettes, though, because I was hoping that there was a technological end-run around drawing… 🙂

 

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Looks wonderful! How did you get the silhouettes?

With regards to the organization, however, I’d make the company three 4 or 5 tank platoons, plus two command tanks. Not only os this more normal from a TO&E point of view (command vehicles are generally seperate from combat platoons), but you also really need one command unit for every 6-8 combat units in FWC. Also, if you are going 1:1 scale, I think you can designate a unit to be a commander, thus making your command blowers about the same as your regular blowers.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

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