New Toys!

VSF Add ons
I just bought some new 15mm VSF stuff from Black Hat Miniatures Martian Empires .  I bought 2 Steam Walkers, 1 Light Tank with Wheels, and some Martian Miniatures.

The walkers and tank were cast in resin with some metal parts.  The resin castings were all flawless!  Some of the best and most detailed resin vehicles that I have ever had!.  The metal parts were mostly good, but I was missing the gatling gun with the tank, and one of the legs on a walker had a slight miscast with the chain.  Still they were very well detailed with very little flash.

I have painted up one of the walkers, and am pretty satisfied with it.  The picture isn't great because I couldn't get the lighting right.  When I get the tank fixed, I will post another picture with a ruler and some figs for comparison.

The miniatures were nice, but not as detailed as some others that I have seen.  They are marketed as 18mm, but they are smaller than most of the 15mm figs that I have.  I will post some comparisons later.

Working on 15mm ACW VSF

I love the idea of Victorian Science Fiction, and the thought of merging that with the American Civil War is awesome, so I have started to work on this project.

I have the game G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. which is a very good, but still simple set of rules, so now I am working on figs.  I already have some ACW soldiers that I am individually basing, so I wanted to add in some more Sci-Fi elements.

This is my first items on the list.  They are the Steam Driven Impervious Suits from Eureka Miniatures.  Eureka Miniatures.  These figs are made for 25mm, but with a little work, they can become walkers for 15mm.

I have taken some 15mm soldiers and cut them down to fit in the "head" area where they can see out to "drive" the walker.  I have a few more walkers that I am working on, and can't wait for my first battle!

More 15mm Comparisons - Splintered Light, Chariot Miniatures, and Legio Heroica

As I continue to look for the perfect figures for my games, I continue to add more figs to my collection.  Today, I am going to show some comparisons of Legio Heroica's crusade range, Splintered Light's Dark Dwarves, and Chariot Miniatures Dwarves.

Splintered Light  http://www.splinteredlightminis.com/

Splintered Light Miniatures has a great range of figures, and is quickly becoming my favorite company for fantasy figs.  I just wish that they could somehow get hold of the old Demonworld figs!    Splintered Light has two range of dwarves, the Dark Dwarves and the Splintered Lands Dwarves.  The Splintered Land dwarves are incredible, and I bought some last year, only to find out that they were HUGE, so in a previous review, I placed some pictures of the dwarves, and David McBride of Splintered Light read my review, and offered to send some samples of the Dark Dwarves.  I was expecting 1 or 2 figs, but he sent me 8 of the little fellows!  The dwarves are well sculpted, and have pretty good details for their size.  Some of the designs are not to my taste for dwarves, but they are all well done.  In this picture are 2 dwarves with a Splintered Light Goblin, a Demonworld Elf, and an Old Glory Byzantine trooper. 


Chariot Miniatures (Magister Militum)  http://www.navigatorminiatures.com/default.asp

The next range that I have is from Chariot Miniatures.  I bought mine from Magister Militum in the UK, and shipping to the US was reasonable and very quick.  I ordered some dwarves and some halflings.  The first thing to look at are the dwarves.  I bought pack "SBB05 Swords, Axes, halberd".  This pack had 3 different dwarves.  One with and axe, one with a sword, and one with a halberd.  The sculpting is fairly good, but I would like to have more variants.  These dwarves are the smallest of all of the dwarves I have, and I may use them as gnomes.

I also bought 2 packs of halflings.  One pack of swords, and one pack of archers.  The Swords had three variants, and the bows had 2 variants.  These are more of a cartoon quality, like the chubby hobbits described in "The Hobbit".  The sculpting was well done, and the figs look pretty nice.

All of my Dwarves!

The figs in the pic are:  Splintered Light - Splintered Lands Dwarf, Blood Axe, Black Raven Foundry, Can't remember who this is - I think it is Irregular or Tin Soldier, Essex, Chariot, Splintered Light - Dark Dwarf, Mighty Armies, Peter Pig, and Tabletop (15mm.co.uk)

Legio Heroica http://www.legio-heroica.com/index-en.html

Legio Heroica is a historical manufacturer that has a pretty good range from the Feudal period and the crusades.   On their site the figs look great, so I had to have some!  I use a lot of Old Glory 15s for my human armies, but the quality can be a little off at times.  Some of their ranges are great, and others are just ok.  I ordered a sample pack of the Legio Heroica Muslim army range because I want to use them for Haradrim in Lord of The Rings.  I got 3 infantry, and archer and 2 mounted figs.  The casting quality is great, and they scale perfectly with my Old Glory figs.  They are almost identical in scale and style.  The horses also are almost a perfect match, however, to my taste, the Old Glory horses are actually a nicer sculpt.  The anatomy of the Legio Heroica is just a little off, and the faces of the horses look odd.

More 15mm Comparisons

One of these days I'll get back to my WWII stuff, but for some reason I have been focused on Fantasy a lot here of late, which is good because it has helped out a lot with my huge backlog!

I have many different manufacturers in my lineup, so I thought that it would be useful to do some more comparison shots.  Splintered Light Miniatures was kind enough to send me some samples of their Dark Dwarves lineup, but I will save that review for another day.  Instead I want to focus on some of their other items.

This is a pic showing some of their ranges that I have.  These are 2 ogres, a bugbear, goblin and kobold.

Goblins

Splintered Light has a nice range of Goblins in their Splintered Lands lineup.  I have 50 or so of the figs, and am very happy with them.  They are very well detailed, and have a nice size to them, but how do they work with other 15mm. 

Scale picture

With Demonworld elf

With a Gladiator and Old Glory Human

Kobolds

The Kobold range is not quite as extensive as the Goblin range, but are still well done.

 This Pic shows the general scale of the fig.  I tried to measure from the feet rather than the base.

The second picture shows the miniature with some humans.  The left is a Gladiator miniature (I think) now produced by Black Hat Miniatures.  The one on the right is an Old Glory Miniature

This third shot is with a Demonworld Elf.






Ogres
The ogres are probably a little on the large size for 15mm gaming, but they look awesome.  This first pic is with the humans again.






The next picture shows it with a Demonworld Giant.

Bugbears

SLM has a pretty good size range of Bugbears.  They are also a little large, but probably not too much.  However, since I haven't personally seen a bugbear recently, I think that they will probably work.  


This pic has the Demonworld elf again.  I forgot to take a picture with the humans.

This final shot is with the Giant again.
















This final shot has a Eureka "Man orc" (Uruk Hai) to show how they fit.

Oh no! Giant mutant dwarves!

There are a lot of 15mm manufacturers for dwarves, and they all vary a lot in size, and in my quest for the perfect dwarf figs, I have bought quite a few, so I wanted to share my experiences with the process. 


Reaper Shadow Corp (Blood Dawn)

 

I first fell in love with the Reaper Shadow Corp dwarves many years ago.  They were exactly what I was looking for.  (These are now Blood Dawn figs).  So I bought some, only to discover that they are way out of scale for dwarves.  I have two photos here.  The one on the left is with a 15mm elf from Demonworld.  The height is ok, but the bulk is pretty bad.  On the right is a 20mm fig, and they seem to match a little better.  I sold the lot of them, but somehow had this one around to take some pics of.

Black Raven Foundry
I next bought some BRF dwarves. They were also very tall.  Most came in at over 20mm tall, which was a little taller than most of my humans which are mostly Old Glory 15s.  Unfortunately I sold the lot of them, and don't have any for pictures.  Then for a while I gave up on 15mm fantasy, because I couldn't find what I wanted.

Peter Pig Miniatures

A couple of years ago I decided to try it again, and bought some Peter Pig miniatures.  I couldn't find very many pics of these so I only bought one pack.  I was pleasantly surprised by what I got.  The figs were fairly well detailed and the height was perfect.  Unfortunately the poses were pretty static.

The picture doesn't do them justice because my painting isn't that great.




Mighty Army Dwarves

Mighty Army is produced and sold by Rebel Miniatures http://www.rebelminis.com/mightyarmies.html.  I bought a single pack of these guys and found that they worked rather well.  The details were modest but not outstanding.  They are slightly taller and broader than my other dwarves, and they fit very well with the others.  I prefer chain armor for my dwarves, and these use plate armor, but not too bad of a problem.  There were only three poses, and they were all posed like they were in formation.

I messed up on this picture, but you can see the scale.

Tabletop Miniatures

Tabletop Miniatures are produced by 15mm.com http://www.15mm.co.uk/TTF_Dwarves.htm.  These figs are a bit of a mixed bag.  It appears that there may have been a couple of different sculpters involved, because a few are very large, but most fit pretty well in scale.  There is a lot of detail, but some of it is a little rough and hard to figure out.  There are a lot of variants.  They are not very uniformed and would make good PC type figs or a disorganized army.   The pic on the leff is one of the larger ones, and on the right is one of the smaller ones.

Essex Miniatures

Essex miniatures makes a decent range of dwarves.  The dwarves are very well detailed, but I don't particularly like the style.  They have some very unusual weapons and armor.  If you are looking for a little more "fanciful" fantasy, then these could be a good choice.

The picture to the right is a very poop shot of one, but you can see the size and the weird spear.



Splintered Light Miniatures

The final one in my collection is some of the Splintered Light Miniatures Splintered Lands dwarves.  I liked these dwarves a lot.  They have a lot of nice details and are well sculpted.  I like the character of them, but unfortunately they are out of scale for 15mm.  They would work very well for 20mm though. They might even work for 25mm if you want very "dwarfish" dwarves.  The picture to the right has the dwarf with a 20mm fig. 






Finally, I am including a picture with all of the dwarves together.  The smaller figs are to the left, and the larger guys are to the right.  Essex first, then Demonworld elf, Peter Pig, 3 Tabletop, 1 Reaper, 2 Splintered Light, and 1 20mm guy.

I am planning on buying some Chariot dwarves because I have heard that they fit well.  I would also like to pick up some of the Grenadier dwarves to see how they fit.  If I get some, I will add them to my post.  Hopefully by then I will get a better camera.

Bloodbath in the wilderness (WHAA)

This is the largest battle that I have yet done with Warrior Heroes Armies and Adventure. This is to test a mid sized battle to see how well the rules handle it.

The scenario is this - Recently there has been a large number of orc raids along the border. So Lord Talin and a force of soldiers are dispatched to the fort at High Pass to help them hunt down the orcs. What he does not know is that the fort has fallen weeks ago, and now the orcs are moving south through the woods in order to attack some of the villages along the frontier. Even as he is marching one force of orcs has spotted them and is moving in to attack.

I will be adding some pictures to this report this weekend.


Turn 1
Humans activate first and move forward unaware of the enemy taking up position in the woods around them. The orcs slowly move forward.














Turn 2
The Orcs continue to take up position as the humans march forward totally unaware of the ambush.

Turn 3
The human riders riding out front notice some movement in the woods to their right. As they look, they catch a glimpse of orcs in the trees. The alarm is sounded and the humans turn to the right to meet the threat.

The orcs (who activated second in this turn) moved forward, and to the human's rear, orc archers emerged from the rear, and their deadly arrows fell one of the knights and 2 archers. At the same time the orc wolf riders emerged from the trees far to the human's right.









Turn 4
The orcs activated first and their archers dropped 2 of the human archers. The orcs to the front of the humans emerged from the trees. In the distance some of the main body of the orcs could be seen clearing the forest, and to many people's horror, the giant could be seen.

When the men activated, the archers took out two more orc archers and 1 of the wolf riders. The three riders charged the orcs who were emerging from the treeline. The assault was so fierce that they killed three orcs, but one of the riders went down by a freak attack.

Turn 5
Both sides rolled very high on their activation (6 for the men and 5 for the orcs). Only the main body of men and orcs activated. The human archers fired and killed another orc. The rest missed. The main body of orcs moved forward.

Turn 6
Another bad roll for the orcs (6) and only the main body moves forward. The men continue to fire at the advancing orcs, but once again only score a single kill. The riders continue to ride down orcs killing another two, and the others, now panicked fall back into the forest.

Turn 7
Again the orcs roll a 6, and only the main body moves. They are getting very close now! The human archers continue to fire, this time with a little more effect. Two orcs are cut down and one wolf rider. The human riders move to intercept the wolf riders, and Lord Talin and his knights move to intercept the oncoming giant.





Turn 8
The orcs roll a 5 for activation, and the humans roll a 1. The orcs move forward again after a few turns of indecision. The heavy orcs and the giant decide to move into contact. The human archers get off a quick shot as they come in, but only 1 orc falls to their arrows. A bloody melee follows, and the human's shields help out as 4 orcs fall and three men. Lord Talin and his knights charge the giant and there is a period of dodging back and forth as neither side can land a telling blow.

Turn 9
The humans go first with a 5, and the orcs follow with a 1. The human archers continue to fire, but once more miss a lot, only killing 1. The bloody melee continues with the humans regrouping their line and dishing out more damage to the orcs. 5 more fell at their feet, but three more men went down, and the men could not afford the losses. Lord Talin kept the giant confused and away from his infantry.

The riders struck into the flank of the wolf riders, but one did a quick and deadly wheel killing the warrior that attacked him, and only one wolf rider fell in the attack.

When the orcs moved they regrouped and continued their attack, and now all of the orcs were moving forward again. However, the human shields continued to give them the edge. In the melee 2 humans fell, but 2 orc warriors also fell. The heavy orcs were growing thin in numbers very quickly! Once more Lord Talin and his knight managed to avoid the giant's heavy attacks.



Turn 10
Humans roll 1 and orcs roll 4. The orcs attack first and everyone moves into the fight! The remaining orc archers open fire on the human archers and manage to bring two of them down. Then, the orc infantry sweep in. Two orcs manage to swarm Lord Talin's knight and bring him down, but amazingly the human infantry hold their line killing 3 orcs. The giant, upon seeing the last of Lord Talin's knights fall charge Talin, but Talin is quicker and manages to land a blow on the giant injuring him. Out in the open, the wolf riders wheel around to charge into the human riders, and kill two of them.

When the humans activate, the infantry fall back a little and regroup their lines. The archers open fire on the orc archers and the wolf riders, but only manage to take out one wolf rider. Lord Talin sees a chance to charge the commander of the heavy orc infantry, and rushes him, and in a dazzling melee, he kills the orc.

Turn 11
Humans roll a 1 and orcs a 2. All of the orcs charge again. The giant rushes Lord Talin who tries to dodge the rush, but only gets partially out of the way. He has been injured. The orc heavy infantry tries to regroup while the other orcs rush the humans. Two orcs fall in the attack, and no men. However, the wolf riders rush the exposed archers and kill two of them.

When the humans activate, the soldiers on the right flank move to push back the wolf riders attack. They kill one, and the others fall back. Lord Talin charges the giant once more, and this time manages to kill it. The humans cheer at seeing the giant go down.

Turn 12
Orcs roll 4 and humans roll a 5. The orcs charge, but the heavy orcs are out of commission as the orc leader regroups and takes charge of them himself. The regular orcs are not able to penetrate the human line, and are pushed back, but amazingly only one orc falls. However, on the left Lord Talin and his remaining knight are rushed by some orcs, and the knight falls, but Lord Talin manages to push his attackers back.

When the men activate, they fall back as far as possible. Lord Talin falls back with his troops and holds the far left flank.

Turn 13
Orcs roll 4 and humans roll 1. Now that all of the orcs are in position, they swarm forward. The heavy orcs rush the human's left flank, while the lighter orcs rush the rest of the line. The wolf riders rush the last of the archers who break and run. They are cut down by the persuing wolf riders. In the melee at the line 2 men are brought down, and two orcs fall, but on the far left flank, Lord Talin is swarmed by the majority of the heavy orcs, and can not fend them off. He is cut to pieces, and the men around him on seeing this, break and run. Nearly half of the remaining men are now fleeing for their lives.

When the humans activate, the two remaining captains regroup their force and push back the orcs killing two of them.

Turn 14
Humans activate with 3 and orcs a 1. The humans decide that they have to try to get out of there with whatever they can. They fall back at full speed.

When the orcs activate, the orc general is calling for blood, and the orcs charge managing to engage the humans. It is a bloody fight for the men, and 4 are killed, along with one of the captains. They kill 2 orcs and one of the wolf riders. Their only chance is to get out.




Turn 15
The humans desperately need to get initiative, but the orcs roll a 4 to the humans 2. This is the end of it. The orcs manage to surround the remaining humans. All but one captain are massacred, while only 2 orcs go down. The lone captain knows that he is finished, but will not go down without a fight. He takes one more orc down before they rip him apart.

Results
It was a bad day for the humans. The ones that fled the battlefield are eventually tracked down and killed in the forest. However, one manages to get all the way back to the fort to warn the others about what happened.

As I had the humans moving forward, I made them roll a test to see if they spotted the orcs. I said that they had to have three successes to see them. It was the third turn before they spotted the orcs.

I had planned on using the large battle combat rules for this fight, but the way it happened was that the orcs engaged the men in small groups instead of one massive push. I think that I will have to do an even bigger battle than this to use the large combat rules. That makes me happy because I know that the rules will handle fairly large fights. After I did this, I realized that I didn't really do the combat between Talin and the giant right, or it might have ended even sooner. Still, this was a lot of fun. Next I want to do a larger fight that will focus on a siege of a small castle. There aren't rules for a siege, so I will have to do some house rules.

Building 15mm buildings

I haven't done any posts in a while, so I wanted to add my latest project.

I have been working on some buildings for 15mm wargames. These buildings are supposed to be wattle and daub type construction.

The first houses are under construction. They are made with balsa wood, and basswood strips glued on for the frames. I have been experimenting with different ways to do thatch roofs. This is spackling compound textured with a brush. We will see how it looks when painted.




These next buildings are similar. I found some basswood that was shaped like clapboard siding and thought that it would make acceptable shingles. For one of the houses I am using cork boards as stone foundation. It has a good texture, and I am hoping that it paints up well enough.



This last one is a partially painted building. It is the largest of the bunch and will represent a small inn. The extension is made with balsa and scored to look like wood planks. For some reason I can't get those fine details to show up in this picture. When I get finished I will set up a photo booth and see if I can get a better picture when I use better lighting.


I'm having fun with these and am very pleased with the results so far. I will post more info as they are finished!