2mm earth elemental and glue top fort

I finished off the 2mm earth elemental that I made with a quick paint and drybrush. He has no real head but I painted a round bit of rock as a red eye. Crude though he is I think he has a certain rocky charm. Dipping him in grit and seeing how he came out was quite fun. The grit gives better shapes than I could carve so I will definitely be using that again for some more rocky monsters.

A fortress in boulder strewn scrubland. The fort is the top from some superglue. I tried to make it look abandoned by adding some vines (wire) to the side. The tree was another experiment, it's a dead paintbrush splayed and firmed up with glue. I still have some details to add to this like some arrow slits in the fort and perhaps some dark foliage here and there. The door is 3mm high.

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.

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.