2mm zombies

I wanted some 2mm zombies for my undead army but my previous experiment with chopping individuals off blocks didn't look that great and seemed a bit fiddly for a unit that I might need a lot of. So I had a fish around in the 2mm spares box to see what I had that I could use. The best candidate was the barbarian infantry from the ancients range.

As you can see I have splodged on a trail of blood and gore behind them. This helps indicate what direction they are facing as well as making them easy to spot on the table.

2mm might not be everyone's cup of tea but for the lazy painter there's something to be said for a scale where you can get five new warbands painted while drinking a cup of the aforementioned.

2mm knights, peasants and the new barbarians

For fantasy and medieval gaming I put together some bases of knights to see how that would look. The cavalry blocks definitely look better from a distance where their silver bodies stand out quite well. This is a block I am definitely going to come back to and repaint at some point but here they are for now.

Here's a little experiment using a different block. This one is from the horse and musket range and is supposed to represent peasants. I chose it because they have no shields and the block is quite small compared to the others. As you can see I made a start on texturing the base to make them easy to identify. An agricultural theme seemed appropriate for these tiny peasants.

I liked how they came out so I went back to my barbarians and tried to make the flesh more visible with some careful lines and dots here and there. I think a couple of minutes work on the flesh and a tiny bit of highlighting was worth doing as they were a bit too dark to see before.

 

When I come to do my Gauls I'm going to be a bit bolder with the colours and try out different coloured hair too. It might look like a mutli-coloured blobfest or it might just work.

2mm Undead - zombie dragon

I painted a few more bits and pieces for my undead army. Here's my second attempt at painting some skeleton warriors and riders. I also did a zombie dragon to go with them.

2mm dwarf army

I wanted a dwarf army in 2mm scale but unfortunately Irregular don't do a dwarf block so I had to improvise. One candidate is the hobbits block as they are noticeably smaller than their lofty 2mm adversaries. I decided against them as they are in rabble formation and look rather weedy. Instead I used the skirmish infantry BG3 from the horse and musket range. These guys are mostly kneeling or otherwise hunkered down making them about the right size.

After painting them silver I painted their faces black and then put a dab of flesh in the middle of the black as their face. The idea being to make them look like they have beards. At 1mm I think that's probably the best I can do!  Please ignore the disturbing naked blob on the front block, that's the first blob of what will hopefully end up looking slightly like a general on a bear. Or a rock if I fudge it up.

Irregular do some nice bombards (RBG30) that might go nicely with these dwarfs. Some converted siege engines (ABG25) might be in order too.

I like the idea of an army of dwarfs supplemented by some elementals so here's my first attempt at a stone elemental. He's on a 1p piece so as you can probably tell he's big in 2mm scale. I made the basic shape out of green stuff and then covered it in glue and dipped it into some basing grit.

I haven't decided whether to finish him off as some kind of rock and mud creation or paint him up as lava.

Talking of lava here's an unintentionally camp (I think) looking fire elemental which I also made from green stuff.

2mm WW1 tanks and a trench piece

Here's a test piece of WW1 scenery I made. It's a 50x50mm MDF base with trenches carved out of some DAS clay. I used the spring from a disposable lighter for the barbed wire. The ditched biplane is by irregular miniatures. I wanted to be sure of the terrain colours before I started painting my armies in earnest.

A base of 2mm Renault FT17 tanks. I gave them the thinnest possible undercoat followed by a brown ink wash because I was scared of losing all the great detail on these tanks. I'm not sure on the final colour scheme but I think you'll agree for 2mm they are quite impressively sculpted miniatures.

These 2mm A7V tanks are crying out for some German crosses on the side, another future project.

And finally, a base of 2mm Schneider tanks. All of these tanks are easily recognisable on the tabletop. They are large enough to paint some unit markings on which I think will be well worth doing at some point.

Test pieces for 2mm undead

Here's some test pieces for my 2mm undead army which I'll be creating by taking ordinary blocks and giving them white skeletal heads. Simple though the effect is I think it looks quite nice, they are certainly easy to distinguish from the living.

Undead cavalry, I painted them black, then added the white bits and finally gave them a wash of vallejo sepia tone to make them look a bit gloomier.

Early imperial Roman infantry repainted as skeletons. I think these will work as the main unit of the undead.

An experimental base of zombies. I used various infantry left over from chopping up blocks and glued them onto the base in a fairly random pattern. I'm not sure if I will make more of these or try to find a block that looks suitably mob-like to represent them.

This necromancer is home made from a tiny blob of green stuff. I need to carve a sliver of plastic for his scythe. The rock pile is made up of failed attempts that got squished.

On the workbench I've got some skeleton archers, chariots, eagles to paint as carrion birds and some ghosts which I've been making from transparent blobs of glue stretched into spooky shapes.

I found some loose order infantry that I think might make nice little vampires as they all have cloaks and a high quality looking banner. I am tempted to add a few tiny coffins to their base and see how that looks.

I try to do a couple of pieces of scenery for each army that I paint so for my undead force I'm going to start with some barrows and a graveyard.

2mm elves vs orcs

I was trying out some rules tonight so I took a couple of pictures of my orcs vs elves game. Here are the forces I used.

Orcs: 7 bases of orcs, 4 bases of trolls, 2 bases of wolf chariots, 2 bases of wolfriders.

Elves: 7 bases of elven archers, 2 bases of treemen, 2 bases of spearmen, 1 base of scouts and 1 base of giant eagles.

The elves were defending some wooded hills. I covered about a fifth of the board with trees and woodland.

The turning point. The orcs needed to take this pass to get at the archers but a lone treeman blocked the way. This developed into an interesting battle with warbands charging it, not killing it and then fleeing as their nerve broke. These wolf chariots eventually did the job after it had been weakened by waves of attackers.

Almost the final turn. The elves have the spear command on the ridge and have been joined by the last of the archers (to the right). Their main hope is the convocation of eagles! The orcs have three warbands and some trolls left.

The eagles took out a warband but the trolls proved too tough for them. At the end the elves had been completely slaughtered! Because of this crushing defeat I think I'll set the next battle in deeper elven woodland.

Spiders, hydras and hoplites

Here are some giant spiders from Irregular's 6mm fantasy range that I couldn't resist. They're surrounding some elven archers.

This hydra is also from Irregular's 6mm fantasy range and makes a good giant monster in 2mm.

 Greek hoplites vs the hydra.

Another picture of that mountain pass from the orcs post. Everything is painted using the same four or five colours blended together. I use emulsion tester pots for almost all my scenery.

 Painting 2mm isn't without its frustrations I have to admit. These hoplites were unfortunately one of them for me. This picture shows two blocks put together to give them a bit of bulk. They are holding spears and have shields. I initially tried to paint every helmet, every shield, every spear in the correct colours and pretty much achieved it but when I put the miniature on the table it looked awful. In the end I mostly just drybrushed it and then painted the shields.

2mm WW1

Today marks the 100th anniversary of Britain's entrance into the first world war. You might like to read about the valuable work of the Royal British Legion here: http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/remembrance/ww1-centenary

The first world war is a sombre subject for wargaming given the huge loss of life but it has remained popular with wargamers especially at the smaller end of the scale. This is no doubt due to the large number of miniatures needed to properly simulate even a small part of this enormous conflict. WW1 perhaps had its heyday as a wargaming era back in the days of board wargames with their heaps of counters. You could argue that 2mm miniatures are just fancy 3d counters.

Irregular Miniatures provides a good range of WW1 specific 2mm miniatures, as well  as multi-purpose ones such as machine gunners and mortars. For tanks there's the MKIV, Schneider, Whippet, FT17 and German A7V.

Some MKIV tanks at a staging post. The horse and musket scenery is a bit small for the 20th century miniatures but I think they work as farm outbuildings. The MKIV's themselves are detailed little miniatures that could be given a fascine add-on without too much trouble.

 A biplane flying over a farm. The generic biplane is large enough to paint some insignia on, another future project. This scenery tile was just a try at making different shapes using filler.

Whippet tanks moving through a wooded pass. Off to the green fields beyond? The trees are made from Javis clump foliage. A bag of which will create a great many trees, just pinch bits off and glue it on. They have a nice texture so I recommend a dark colour so you can drybrush it in whatever colour you like. A mix seems to look more realistic.

This is the IK1 infantry section mounted on a 1p piece. I painted the models in a mix of black and dark brown and then gave them a quick drybrush with a mix of white and British uniform brown from Vallejo.

2mm Orcs

Here's some pictures of my 2mm orc army. I really like the variety of units Irregular Miniatures have created for the orcs.

Orc wolf chariots.  Great detail on these little miniatures. I think the wolves could easily be painted up as rats or lizards as well.

 The whole orc force. Why are the trolls on hills? Because they're hill trolls of course!

Orc warband. I think I might paint a few of these up as some kind of elite ancient unit like gladiators or Greek heroes. The loose order also makes them a prime candidate for snipping off and adding to other blocks.

The orc warbands. The top of their standard is quite round so I painted it up as a skull, a dab of bright colour universally applied to blocks really makes them stand out.

Trolls moving through a mountain pass. The scenery is a test piece I made using DAS clay on a 100x100mm base.

 And here's another shot of it. DAS clay is really fun to play around with and cheap too! I found it stuck to the MDF bases without adhesive which was handy.

Orc wolf riders with nice bright standards and shields. I decided to give the orcs a darker base than the elves I've painted.

Still to do..wyvern riders (nazguls), a green dragon, some archers, goblins (hobbit base) and lots more. I might have a crack at making myself some basilisks as well.
 

2mm Elves

Here's some pictures of my 2mm elf army. These figures are by Irregular Miniatures

 

Elven archers (close order bowmen) based on 1p pieces. The bows have a good curve to them making them easily recognisable across the table. A simple drybrush is all you need to pick out details.

Elven scouts. I used the horses and handler from the horse and musket range and some peltasts from the ancient range to make this unique unit. In my rules they are light ambushers with the ability to quickly move into position and pepper the enemy with arrows before mounting up and retreating. Unlike horse archers they have the advantage of being able to make full use of any cover they find. I mention this only because it serves as a good example of how you can take a couple of 2mm blocks and make something different.

The whole Elven force. As you can see by the dice they are pretty tiny but high contrast colours make them easy to see. I used humbrol "matt" varnish on them which was very glossy but definitely gives them good protection. Normally a lick of liquid dullcote will deal with any glossy surface but in this case it took many coats to remove the shine from the varnish. I think I might go back to using wood varnish as that is also very tough and easier to remove the shine from.
 

 Elven warriors. The stand on the right has a commander snipped off a horse archer block.

 Treemen marching across some test terrain I made from DAS clay mounted on 50mm MDF boards. I love the treemen models but I think I might have a go at adding some more foliage at some point.

 A close up of the elf warriors. Remember, you'd have to be pretty much balancing that 1p on your nose to see them this close!