I was aiming for running this session last weekend, but with Strep and Flu B in the family two weeks in a row, I just didn’t have the energy to do it. The day came though, and I set a game up for the third Field Exercise of Forgotten Ruin. It took me an entire week though to write it down and post it.
This one has the entire Squad (both Fire Teams AND the Squad Leader), but no Platoon officers, so pretty much the regular team that I’ll be taking with me during the campaign.
The enemy force is just two Orc Mobs (Warriors + Archers) of Five orcs each, which sounds easier than last battle, especially considering how I’ll have double the firepower with me this time.
However, the objective is not to eliminate the enemy, but have a troop of mine go to the center of the battlefield and spend an action there. This sounds way more dangerous than sitting in the safety of long range. I can, of course game the game and sit back and let the orcs come to me, but where would the fun be in that!?
Distance conversions Since the game is focused for a 3×3 table, and I’m going with 15mm miniatures on a 2×2 table (with the new 15mm base size, yay!), I’ll do a subtle conversion to gain a bit more room to play, but without being too fiddly to use. I’ll double the values, but measure in centimeters instead of inches, so a Speed of 5″, would convert to 10 cm.
Champions: 1,2 No Champions
The two Fire teams met, and Sergeant First Class Nielsen arrived and took command from Master Sergeant Frank Lee. “Squad is yours Nielsen, I have to get back to Platoon HQ. Tangos are 2 klicks NNE, they seem to be guarding a tower. You are to investigate and eliminate any opposition.” Lee gave the orders and left, M16 strapped on his shoulder. A short while later the 9 soldiers arrived at the point of interest. Two mobs of orcs were visible in the distance, archers sitting behind cover in some ruins. A tower in the middle of the battlefield. Nielsen gathered the squad. “Fire Team 1 take the West Side, Fire Team 2 take the East side, you’ll provide cover against the enemy. I’ll rush in to investigate and dash back to you.”
Pvt. Mays shoots his M70 at the orc archers in cover: 6+1: Great hit: 1+1/1+1: No Damage Pvt. Gibson shoots his M60 at the orc archers in cover: 3,3,4,4: Miss Sgt. Mayer shoots his M16 at the orc archers in cover: 2: Miss
Enemy Phase
The Orc archers suffer from War rage, and they move out of cover The Orc warriors move in a flanking motion from the other side
Slow Phase
SFC Nielsen dashes to the objective tower Pvt Huff shoots his M16 at the Orc archers out of cover: 4: Hit: 2: No Damage Fire team 1 moves to the rock formation
Round 1
Fire Team 2 opens a volley of fire at the orc archers in the ruined gatehouse, however the orcs are in cover, and most of the shots miss, except one aimed shot by Pvt. Mays’ sharpshooter rifle, which grazes an orc, without wounding it. Furious that they’re being shot at, the orc archers jump down from the gatehouse and out of cover, screaming war cries at the soldiers. The other group of orcs, stay in cover and proceed in a flanking movement from the west. With the enemy busy, SFC Nielsen runs in a straight line towards the tower. Pvt. Huff takes an extra shot at the orc archers, but misses, while Fire Team 1 moves in ready position waiting for the enemy to come to them, and keeping overwatch of the open ground at the west side of the tower.
Pvt. Gibson shoots his M60 at the orc archers out of cover:6,2,2,1: Great Hit: 4,1: One orc archer is down Pvt. Mays shoots his M70 at the orc archers out of cover: 4+1: Hit: 1+1: No Damage Cpl. Mayer shoots his M16 at the orc archers out of cover: 5: Hit: 6: Orc archer down Pvt. Huff shoots hiss M16 at the orc archers out of cover: 5: Hit: 1: No Damage SFC Nielsen moves into the tower: Interact: 5+1/4: Success Sgt. Welch Delays Pfc. Shaffer Delays Orc Archers Morale: 2,4: Orc Archers Stay
Enemy Phase
Orc Archers shoot at SFC Nielsen (in cover): 1,5,3: Miss Orc Warriors War rage forwards SFC Nielsen
Slow Phase
PFC Shaffer shoots his M60 at the Orc Warriors: 1,2,3,4: Hit: 6: Orc Warrior is down Sgt Welch shoots his M16 at the Orc Warriors: 5: Hit: 5: Orc Warrior is down Pvt Murphy shoots his M16 at the Orc Warriors: 5: Hit: 4: Orc Warrior is down Pvt. Franks shoots his M16 at the Orc Warriors: 3: Miss Orc Warriors Morale: 2,4,6: Orcs Warriors Stay
Round 2
Fire team 2 keeps shooting at the enemy, who are now carelessly out of cover. Two orc archers are down. SFC Nielsen enters the ruined tower. As he scouts around he sees weird markings of a ritualistic nature. He notes some of them down in his notepad, before noticing the orc archers through the rubble at the dilapidated north wall, aiming at shooting at him. The arrows all strike at the masonry, Nielsen is safe for a few moments, but he knows he has to get out of there. The Orc group from the west, enraged at their enemy in the tower, rush towards him, hoping to get there soon, but they’re now out of cover. Fire team 1 blasts at them with all their guns, killing three of them.
SFC Nielsen moves out of the tower back towards the squad Cpl Mayer shoots his M16 at the Orc Archers: 6: Great Hit: Damage: 5,5: Orc Archer is down Sgt Welch shoots his M16 at the Orc Warriors: 3: Miss Pvt Gibson shoots his M60 at the Orc Archers: 5,5,3,2: 2 Hits: 6,2: Orc Archer is down Pfc Shaffer shoots his M60 at the Orc Warriors: 2,3,3,4: Hit: 5: Orc Warrior is down Morale: Orc Archers: 3,3: Orc Archers Stay Morale Orc Warriors: 2: Orc Warrior Stays
Enemy Phase
Orc archer moves forward and shoots SFC Nielsen: 5: Hit: Damage: 1 SFC Nielsen is stunned Orc Warrior is with war rage and dashes towards Nielsen
Slow Phase
Pvt Mays shoots his M70 at the Orc Archer: 4+1: Hit: 6+1: Orc Archer is down Pvt. Murphy shoots his M16 at the Orc Warrior: 5: Hit: 6: Orc Warrior is down
Battle is over.
Round 3
SFC Nielsen is not going to stay and find out if he can defeat the orcs in close combat. He dashes out of the tower back towards the safety of his own men. In the meantime, the Fire teams don’t stop shooting. 2 more orc archers are down, and another orc warrior. Despite their severe losses, the humanoids stick to fight to the end. The last remaining orc archer has a clear shot at the squad leader and takes it, the arrow hitting the Sergeant. From the west another orc closes at him, screaming with rage and brandishing his weapons. They don’t get a chance to hurt the sergeant again though. A careful shot from Private Mays, takes out the archer, and one from Private Murphy takes out the warrior. The day is victorious, without any casualties, but they need to head back and report to HQ what they found.
Summary
As expected, the player side was victorious. I felt like the odds were in our favor right from the start. We were facing against fewer enemies, and we had more men than in the previous exercise. Perhaps if the table was more busy with terrain it could have been a bit different. During the regular campaign, terrain placement is more random from what I’ve read, and not left up to the player as in the exercises. It is my understanding that this (and of course the Aggression rule) will have severe impact to the flow of battle, but I’ll have to play it out and see for myself. The battle ended quickly and I didn’t even have to (or rather forgot because it was going so well) use the Leadership tactics. For the beginning of the campaign in next session, I’ll write down and finalize my own theme of the world, and perhaps spend a Story point to bring in Athen Smarte from my solo RPG sessions.
After 3d printing a couple of scores of miniatures in FDM with my Bambu Labs A1 mini printer, and playing with different settings and trying different painting styles, I decided I had to look into the painting techniques in a more scientific approach, and spending the time to run an experiment might pay off in the long run. So the concept is to print the same miniature, in 15mm, using the same print settings (I went rogue on this part a little down the road), and examine different techniques and if they accenuate or hide layer lines, and how easy or not it is to use with this type of miniatures.
I want to test if there are techniques to “fill” layer lines without losing detail. One technique that has been tested to work and will be used for the entirety of the experiment is the paint. Paint will be used unthinned, but in lean application. The brush won’t be filled with it, just a light coat will be applied each time. However it won’t be diluted as with normal painting, just a tad bit damp brush prior to using the paint.
I want to test if drybrushing accenuates layer lines, if black drybrushing hides them, how washes behave with layer lines and if a varnish prior to washes and/or prior to drybrushing can minimize any undesired results.
As a note for new readers, I’m a long time painter of 15mm minis, with table-ready results. My technique is: Slap-Chop (white drybrush over black primer) followed by Artists (tube) acrylics in a glaze-like fashion (either transparent to semi-opaque paints or diluted opaque paints accordingly) so that the slap-chop works like a highlight-shade. Finish with washes and varnish. Works well for 15mm with nice results without too much effort.
The model I decided to use is the Greek Hero from Brite Minis. I chose this model because it’s not an easy one. It has armor, cloak, scales, flesh, weapons, and a quite dynamic (for support free) pose. Also it’s support free, so I won’t have to deal with supports, which are a hit or miss thing at the moment as I haven’t nailed down the settings for 15mm, and it is not the purpose of this experiment.
The first 6 miniatures of the set were sliced in Bambu Studio. Printed with 0.2mm nozzle, 0.04mm layer height. Low print speeds at 50-150mms. Arachne wall generator. Elegoo PLA Space Gray, extruded with nozzle temperature at 200 Celsius. Down the road I printed a couple more with lower speeds at 25mms and 0.03mm layer height, and surprisingly they looked even better, but print time doubled or more at 2-3 hours. Nr 7 was sliced in Bambu Studio, and Nr 8 was sliced in Orca, which for some reason gave even better results. Could be by chance, and I’ll keep an eye for it in the future.
Since smartphone camera digital photography algorithms tend to distort the images, I wanted to get images as close to the true thing as possible. I 3d printed a Photobox in white PLA, for a proper background, and put back in use my old trusty Sony DSC-TX5 camera. Put it in Macro mode, and adjusted EV to +2 for exposure.
Miniature #1 0.04 mm Layer Height Vallejo Acrylic-Polyurethane Surface Primer Gloss Black Drybrush Army Painter Black Drybrush Army Painter White Basecoat with Amsterdam All Acrylics Standard Wash Army Painter Soft/Strong/Military Shader
Miniature #1
Miniature #2 0.04 mm Layer Height Vallejo Acrylic-Polyurethane Surface Primer Gloss Black Drybrush Army Painter Black Drybrush Army Painter Dungeon Base Drybrush Army Painter Dungeon Highlights Drybrush Army Painter White Basecoat with Amsterdam All Acrylics Standard Wash Army Painter Soft/Strong/Military Shader
Miniature #2
Miniature #3 0.04 mm Layer Height Vallejo Acrylic-Polyurethane Surface Primer Gloss Black Varnish Windsor Newton Matt Varnish Drybrush Army Painter Black Drybrush Army Painter Dungeon Base Drybrush Army Painter Dungeon Highlights Drybrush Army Painter White Basecoat with Amsterdam All Acrylics Standard Wash Army Painter Soft/Strong/Military Shader
Miniature #3
Miniature #4 0.04 mm Layer Height Amsterdam All Acrylics Deco Primer White Drybrush Army Painter Black Drybrush Army Painter White Basecoat with Amsterdam All Acrylics Standard Drybrush/Edge Highlight Army Painter White Wash Army Painter Soft/Strong/Military Shader
Miniature #4
Miniature #5 0.04 mm Layer Height Amsterdam All Acrylics Deco Primer White Drybrush Army Painter Black Drybrush Army Painter Dungeon Base Drybrush Army Painter Dungeon Highlights Drybrush Army Painter White Basecoat with Amsterdam All Acrylics Standard Wash Army Painter Soft/Strong/Military Shader
Miniature #5
Miniature #6 0.04 mm Layer Height Amsterdam All Acrylics Deco Primer White Varnish Windsor Newton Matt Varnish Drybrush Army Painter Black Drybrush Army Painter Dungeon Base Drybrush Army Painter Dungeon Highlights Drybrush Army Painter White Basecoat with Amsterdam All Acrylics Standard Wash Army Painter Soft/Strong/Military Shader
Miniature #6
Miniature #7 0.03 mm Layer Height, 25mms Speed Army Painter Terrain Primer Ruins & Cliffs Basecoat with Amsterdam All Acrylics Standard Wash Army Painter Soft/Strong/Military Shader Drybrush Army Painter White
Miniature #7
Miniature #8 0.03 mm Layer Height, 25mms Speed, Orca Slicer Army Painter Terrain Primer Ruins & Cliffs Basecoat/Shade/Highlight with Amsterdam All Acrylics Standard
Miniature #8
The Colour Schemes used are as follows:
#1-7 Flesh: Naples Yellow Red Deep/Soft Tone Tunic: Titanium White/Soft Tone Cloak: Pyrolle Red/Strong Tone Scale Shirt, Skirt, Sandals: Burnt Sienna/Strong Tone Hair: Yellow Ochre/Soft Tone Sword Blade: Silver/Military Shader Shield, Greaves, Helmet, Sword Pommel & Guard: Bronze/Military Shader Floor: Neutral Grey/Military Shader
After slap-chop, I couldn’t see any substantial difference between the Vallejo Acrylic Polyurethane Black Primer #1-3 and the Amsterdam All Acrylics Deco Primer White #4-6. The rattlecan spray primer by Army Painter worked very well. I’ll consider using it for mass-priming 3d-printed miniatures as it will save me a lot of time in the future. The dark gray vs black nature of the colour also is a nice base coat. As to hiding of layer lines I can’t really compare to the brush on primers since the two minis primed with it were printed with different settings.
Perhaps application was easier for the Vallejo and it dried faster. But there’s no sort of better or worse with regards to layers hiding. I considered them equal for the rest of the test, and used this opportunity to test different things (extra drybrush) on the final stages.
I couldn’t see any difference either between the ones that were varnished prior to slap chop vs the ones that weren’t. Layer lines seem similar. These are #2 vs #3 and #5 vs #6.
On the other hand, gradient grays a la zenithal vs a sharp sketch slap chop seem to make a difference. It’s mostly an illusion, but it does seem to help. Also it helps significantly when painting, as the black & white was much harder to “read” vs the gradient gray. Of course major factor here is the 15mm scale and the FDM imperfections.
Washes tend not to flow easily with FDM, as they get grabbed by layer lines. I could see that on the miniatures varnished before applying wash, there was better flow, without having any major impact on the end result though.
The one I like the most is #8, the one painted without drybrush and washes, just traditional shading and highlights – it’s the first time I attempted this type of painting, but it seems to work well, and layer lines are almost non-existent.
The one I like least is #7 the one painted without slap chop, but with washes and drybrush – second to last of the group. It’s too dark for my tastes, and details are non-existent, while layer lines are visible.
Between the main experiment of the figures #1-6 (different gradient slap chop, varnish steps in between, different primers, extra drybrushing) I can’t tell of any significant difference to the end result. Perhaps #2 & #5 are the best effort-to-result ratio.
Overall, I’d say that washes and drybrushing accenuate layer lines in 15mm. The best technique is to avoid their use altogether and do shading and highlights using different shades of the same colour paint. If however one was to do a regular slap chop, a black drybrush prior, mitigates it a little bit. A varnish prior to applying washes also allows for the wash to pool into the major recesses instead of the layer lines.
Having set me back a lot, I call my rebasing project done. I’ll most likely discuss the details in another post, because here I want to talk about Forgotten Ruin available for pre-order at this point in time, which nets you with a pdf at the time of purchase, and the hardcopy when it’s printed and shipped. Forgotten Ruin is a skirmish miniatures agnostic game by Ivan Sorensen, based on the first novel in the book series of the same name by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole. I won’t delve a lot into the theme as I haven’t read the books (though I’m intrigued and might do so in the future), but the core concept is “special forces vs fantasy foes”. As usual, the game allows for some leeway in the actual story against the preset world, so instead of US Rangers, one could have other special forces, from earlier to later time period. The enemies are foes from a regular fantasy bestiary. The concept is something similar to what I’ve been fiddling with. My take was similar to the feeling that Spellcross had given me back in the end of the 90s, and which had inspired my A monster’s bounty solo RPG actual play adventure series. Modern firepower vs fantasy! I’m even thinking of adding Athen Smarte as a known personality just for the fun of it and for connecting my games. On the amount of figures on the table, it’s even more than Five Leagues from the Borderlands, ranging in almost half a score for the player side, and the same up to double or triple for the enemies. The rules are from the same 5X concept used in Five Parsecs from Home and Five Leagues from the Borderlands, however they’re tailored to the concept. I won’t go into any details, as I think it will be best left for when I actually play it out. The overall feeling I get from reading through it, is that I like the new concepts in the book.
For this session 0, I’ll go through my setup and also play the demo scenarios (referred to as Excercises in the rulebook). So, rulebook check, terrain (fantasy) check, foes miniatures check (mostly), player squad… As I read through, I realized I don’t have the figures I want for the game. I have several unpainted WW2 miniatures for my WW2 project, especially British Paratroopers from Forged in Battle but I didn’t want to use them, as their WW2 nature means that some figures need to be in doubles to operate (e.g. LMG, PIAT etc), and basically because when I decide to paint them for my WW2 project, I need them to look the same as the rests of my British Paratroopers platoon, and I’m not too fond of painting an entire platoon of miniatures right now. Then I considered my painted sci-fi miniatures, but I decided against also, as I don’t want this concept so much, and also I’m missing any non-standard weaponry for my troops (there’s only a few specialists here and there, and in different uniforms, which I can’t mix and match). Started searching online for some suitable 15mm miniature STLs then, and I stumbled upon a March to Hell Vietnam US Special Forces team. They are perhaps on the far end of what I deem acceptable in terms of chonkiness, but they’d fit perfectly on what I’m looking for. The christmas sale was a contributing factor, and I got them. Checking with the Forgotten Ruins squad armaments setup, I’ve got almost anything needed. Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Squad Automatic Weapons, Grenade Launchers, Anti-Tank Weapons. Perhaps the only thing missing is shotguns and submachineguns, but I can live with proxying these few. But of course I also need to print and paint them. I printed the sampler which went really well, and then started with the Special Forces squad, and I started having failure after failure. Since the models are meant for resin printers, I started having a bad time with supports. A couple models printed with the Lychee-style supports meant for resin printers, survived, and I kept them. Then I printed the rest one by one, trying to hone down into the support settings. What I found out worked best (albeit I had to do reprints often) was using Normal, Snug supports. I don’t base the miniature in the slicer, instead I glue it on the base afterwards. I use an UHU Hard Plastics (aka Allplast in some areas of the world) glue which works really well on PLA. My next problem was the uniform colours, as I went down the rabbit hole of olive drab, brown purple, etc etc. I did some custom mixes, but I think they turned up too dark for 15mm on my sampler figure so I might have to lighten them up a bit.
With the squad painted, here’s the roster following the rulebook.
Platoon Leader – 2Lt. Peter Kobb Platoon Sergeant – Msg. Frank Lee Squad Leader – Sfc. Kirk Nielsen
Fire Team 1
Sgt. Karl Welch
Pfc. Terry Shaffer
Pvt. Martin Murphy
Pvt. Jeffrey Franks
Fire Team 2
Cpl. Tommy Mayer
Pfc. Darin Gibson
Pvt. Barry Mays
Pvt. Dave Huff
Names were generated using a 1960s US male names generator. Using some help from the generators online, I decided to name them the 704 – Special Forces unit
With that out of the way, I decided to run the demo scenarios from the rulebook, listed as Field Exercises. Exercise 1 is a simple fight between Fire Team 1 against two orc warrior mobs. I’ve rolled one Champion for each mob. As I haven’t finished painting my miniatures at the time of the game, the photographs have the Special Forces painted only in B&W (slapchop). Works well enough for the purpose of the Exercise.
Sgt. Welch put out his cigarette. “Platoon reports that there are some man-like beasts in the area, they’ve attacked our positions and are to be considered hostile. Their armament is ancient, so we should use our firepower to prevent them coming up close.” The fire team nodded. “Let’s do our patrol and head back to base camp. Murphy, take point.” Welch gave his orders. It wasn’t long before Pvt. Murphy signaled enemies in sight.
“Sarge, they seem to have scented us, and are coming this way. Two groups, about 8 enemies in total.” The private reported. “Alright boys, it’s time to show those barbarians who’s boss here. I’m informing platoon that we’re about to engage.”
Distance conversions Since the game is focused for a 3×3 table, and I’m going with 15mm miniatures on a 2×2 table (with the new 15mm base size, yay!), I’ll do a subtle conversion to gain a bit more room to play, but without being too fiddly to use. I’ll double the values, but measure in centimeters instead of inches, so a Speed of 5″, would convert to 10 cm.
Battle Setup
Battle Round 1 Initiative: Sgt. Karl Welch (AR) – 1 Pfc. Terry Shaffer (SAW) – 6 Pvt. Martin Murphy (ARGL) – 2 Pvt. Jeffrey Franks (LAW) – 2
Quick Phase Karl moves 10 cm forward, Shoots AR at Mob #2: 1: Miss Jeffrey, Shoot AR at Mob #1: 2: Miss Martin, Shoot AR at Mob #1: 4: Hit: 6: Orc down
Enemy Phase Both Orc mobs dash closer behind cover
Slow Phase Terry, Shoots SAW at Mob #1: 5,5,5,1: 2 Hits at closest orc, the other is deflected by cover and the last is a miss: 6, 1: Orc down I missed to do a Morale Check per phase... Morale check: 1: Failure: 4: Success: One orc from Mob#1 flees
The orcs hear the sound of gunfire for the first time in their lives. The sergeant fires at the furthest enemies, as he had an open line of fire, but, his shots don’t find the target. Pvt. Franks and Murphy shoot at the humanoids in front of them, bringing one down. This doesn’t seem to deter the rest of crazed enemies who quickly realize their enemy has ranged weapons and take cover behind some large boulders. However this doesn’t stop Pfc. Shaffer from unleashing a hail of bullets from his M60 at the mob, killing another orc. A coward from their ranks breaks and flees. Only the biggest meanest orc from their group remains at the north flank.
Battle Round 1
Battle Round 2 Initiative: Sgt. Karl Welch (AR) – 3 Pfc. Terry Shaffer (SAW) – 1 Pvt. Martin Murphy (ARGL) – 2 Pvt. Jeffrey Franks (LAW) – 2
Quick Phase Fire Team 1 delays.
Enemy Phase Orc Champion 1 rushes to behind cover, Karl snap fires AR: 5: Hit: 1: No damage Jeffrey snap fires AR: 3: Miss Martin snap fires AR: 4: Hit: 2: No damage Orc Mob #2 moves to cover behind the other boulder
Slow Phase Terry shoots SAW at Mob#2: 6,4,4,1: 1 Hit at closest orc: 5: Orc down Morale check: 4: Success
The sarge orders the fire team to hold until they have a clear line of sight. As the big orc jumps from behind the cover of one boulder to the other, all three special forces shoot their assault rifles at him. Two bullets graze him, and he reaches cover behind the other boulder. At the southern flank, the other group approaches Terry, who opens fire with his machinegun, killing another orc.
Battle Round 2
Battle Round 3 Initiative: Sgt. Karl Welch (AR) – 3 Pfc. Terry Shaffer (SAW) – 6 Pvt. Martin Murphy (ARGL) – 1 Pvt. Jeffrey Franks (LAW) – 3
Quick Phase Karl moves to the open and shoots AR to Mob #1 Champion: 5: Hit: Save: 6: Champion Saves Martin moves and shoots Grenade Launcher to Mob #2: 4: Miss: 3: grenade explodes 3″ in front of the boulder
Enemy Phase Orc champion closes in on Karl Mob #2 moves behind cover
Slow Phase Jeffrey shoots AR at Orc Champion #1: 1: Miss: Reroll (Aimed): 5: Hit: Save: 3: No save: Damage: 3: Orc champion #1 is down Terry moves around and opens fire with his M60 at Mob #2: 6,2,2,1: 1 Hit: 2: No damage
The sergeant quickly moves to avoid being caught in melee by his enemy, finds an open line of fire, and fires off a burst to the big mean orc in front of him. The bullets strike true, however the orc seems unharmed as if an unknown force saved him, he closes in on the sergeant, with only a few paces in distance while Pvt. Franks aims and fires at him, the bullet piercing through it’s thick skull, bringing him down. At the other side, Murphy fires off his M79 grenade launcher, but miscalculates, and the grenade explodes in front of the boulder under which the orcs have jumped and taken cover. Under the explosion, they rush forward to another cover, receiving a hail of bullets from Shaffer’s machinegun. They escape unharmed.
Battle Round 3
Battle Round 4 Initiative: Sgt. Karl Welch (AR) – 4 Pfc. Terry Shaffer (SAW) – 1 Pvt. Martin Murphy (ARGL) – 4 Pvt. Jeffrey Franks (LAW) – 5
Quick Phase Terry shoots at Mob 2: 6,4,4,3: 3 Hits: Save: 3: No Save: Damage: 4,6,4: All 3 orcs down.
However, Terry keeps shooting, and mows down all three orcs. Sergeant Welch contacts platoon, only to receive reports that Fire Team 2 is also engaged in battle.
Battle Round 4
I’m trying out a new approach to photographs depicting the actual play, with arrows and such, I don’t know if I’ll stick with it or not. For more dense battles perhaps an approach of a photo per Phase would be less cluttered, and more clear. I’ll consider it for the next Exercise.
Summary
That was a fun first foray. I don’t expect any significant challenge for the first Exercises, it’s just getting to know the rules and lay of the game. In the meantime I got some more STLs from March to Hell Vietnam to print more figures for the player side, and hopefully I’ll slowly have them painted soon enough to have a proper table. I’m really intrigued by the concept, and will most likely modify it to fit my own theme, but I haven’t decided yet. The nice things with the Exercises is that I can use this extra time to finalize the world and squad to my liking before setting it down in writing. Looking forward to expanding further on the game and trying out the unique rules, enemies and challenges it contains.
With my fantasy miniatures I decided to delve a bit more into the best retexturing approach during rebasing.
Rebased miniature prior to re-texturing. Note how the integral base of the miniature is already flocked with static grass from original basing
aspects under consideration are:
ease of application
speed of application
possibility of error
number of steps
finished look
Left to right: Fine Bird sand (top), Large brown sand (bottom), Green flock, Gray Flock, Brown Flock
from left to right the basing materials used above are as follows:
PVA + large grain sand
Matte Medium + large grain sand
Brown Acrylic Speckle + Static Grass
Matte Medium + large grain sand + fine sand
Matte Medium + large brown flock + fine sand
Matte Medium + thin gray flock + fine sand
Matte Medium + medium green flock + fine sand
the results of this step are:
large gaps in the base, will need second application, perhaps just one step of static grass will be enough. NOT table ready
large gaps in the base, will need second application, perhaps just one step of static grass will be enough. NOT table ready
table ready, however application is not easy as care must be taken to not paint the mini, and also must apply grass directly afterwards which is slow. Table Ready AND Finished
irregularities in the base, easy application, barely acceptable look, will need static grass. Table Ready
though the brown flock looks odd, will look ok with static grass. Table Ready
looks ok, static grass will elevate the look. Table Ready
looks as Finished, static grass will elevate the look. Table Ready
In conclusion, the best results where with green flock + sand, and that’s what I’ll go with for my rebasing, so that I can postpone re-grassing them later in the future, and perhaps have time to do a few actual plays during the holidays.
The steps for Matte Medium + Green Flock + Fine Sand are:
using a brush, generously apply Acrylic Matte Medium inside of the lip of the base
wipe off the outside of the base from any undesired medium
dip the mini in the green flock
shake off the flock
clean the outer part of the base from any stuck material
dip the mini in the sand
shake off sand
clean the outer part of the base from any stuck material
I assume the above should also work with PVA, but I’d wager it would shrink more, be a bit glossy, and more difficult to apply than matte medium.
A nice base for a miniature helps it pop. Throughout my miniatures painting journey, I’ve gone through all steps. Started with just plain green painted bases back in the ’90s, upgraded with glued upon dirt from the backyard. Now, when I started again back in 2019, I began with experiments using cofee grounds, then modelling sand, birdsand and flock. Flock doesn’t look that good for 15mm miniatures compared to static grass.
But wherever I looked upon how to apply static grass, I saw only expensive applicators, or DIY electric versions that I did not feel like risking my own safety to build and use. What made a difference was when I found NOCH’s puffer bottle. This is a simple soft-walled plastic bottle, with a “sieved” opening. The concept is that you shake it well to generate static charge, and then “puff” it out by pressing the soft walls. It was way cheaper, about 10 euros at my local rail modelling store in a bundle with a big bag of static grass, and the respective grass glue.
I loved it. Application was easy, grass stood up, and wasn’t flat, but after using it for a long time, I’ve identified two issues. Firstly, the soft nature of the plastic, gave in, and the “sieve” cover falls out, and doesn’t catch anymore, I had to DIY rubber bands to keep it in place. Secondly, the mess. While for terrain it’s great (I applied static grass to all my hexon pieces using this), for miniatures it’s less than ideal. I have to use large containers and newspapers to gather the grass back, and still need to vacuum all the surrounding area afterwards.
At some time when I was bored, I just used adhesive putty to stick a miniature inside of the top cap of a plain jar filled with static grass, and shook it to avoid cleaning up. It worked, however the grass was a bit flat compared to when I used the puffer bottle.
After thinking it over, once I acquired a 3d printer, I designed a 3d model to incorporate all my ideas together.
Features:
Closed jar concept
Static rods inside the jar for extra charge at static grass housing
Integrated sieve at miniature housing
Option to add a tin foil under miniature housing for extra directional charge
I’ve tested it and it worked fine, and got similar feedback from other users. I’ve used it in the latest big batch of Brite Minis I’ve painted.
You can grab it for free at makerworld. I’ve included some instructions both in description, in pdf and gif format.
Hope it works well for you also. Any feedback if you use it, is appreciated.
Since I’ve been collecting, and painting 15mm miniatures from several vendors over the past few years, I think it’s about time to share my experiences with the products and their availability.
I’m EU based, so when BREXIT hit, followed by the application of customs to all incoming packages irrespective of cost (there used to be a 20 euro limit for VAT & customs free shipments) my sources were limited a lot. I’ll share some details about this also.
Having some Ral Partha miniatures back from the 90s, the name alone hit home. I discovered them back in 2019, and bought my first 15mm miniatures from their Blighthaven packs. They are located in UK. Back then they had really cheap shipping by Royal Mail to EU countries, which tripled now, but includes IOSS. Meaning the shipment won’t be stopped at customs as VAT is pre-paid.
They offer deals several times per year for a few days each.
Their Demonworld sculpts are just a-mazing. Quality is top, pricing is very good, and I just love the dynamic poses and character. Demonworld miniatures are on the larger side of 15mm, and I’d categorize them as 18mm standard. They’re not too chunky nor too slim. You can get almost any standard fantasy trope from their 15mm range, except for halflings as they are not included in Demonworld. Some words about their website with regards to Demonworld. They have Demonworld Classic, Demonworld Universal, Fantasy 15mm Singles and Blighthaven Warbands. These use the same miniatures, but they are put in different packs. There are only a few cases where you might want to get a pack just to get a single mini.
On the sci-fi front they have Critical Mass. Great sculpts as well. In their Mercenaries one could find single miniatures and skirmish packs. This range however is at true 15mm (which would work fine for people invested in this size), with some aliens being larger, and easily used at 18mm.
To close with Ral Partha Europe, they also have an 18mm Victorian Science Fiction range, that I haven’t tried. Also you can find some great miniatures for beasts and monsters from the other ranges in the site.
Another UK based supplier with great miniatures in 15mm. Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Historicals. Their sculpts are really good, and in most of their packs they offer choices to buy single miniatures or even samplers (1 of each pose) which is great for RPGs or Skirmish games.
With regards to shipping at EU, they don’t offer IOSS, but they have a low cost shipping option if you remain at under 20 pounds.
They have long time deals running 2-3 times per year site wide, add a free miniature per order and also some additional deals on specific miniatures or packs.
Their Ion Age 15mm range is on the bigger side, at 18mm. Great variety, and can be used as is or as proxies for other Sci-Fi themes.
The Hordes of Future range covers many sci-fi tropes (martian aliens, cultists, cyberpunk corporate, earth security forces, space elves, terminators, wastelanders and more), and the older sculpts have been remastered. They are on the bigger side at 18mm, but some are even bigger. There are nice pics with scale comparisons to know where you stand at.
The Hordes of Things range is their Fantasy range (no halflings here though either) equivalent to Hordes of Future. Great variety with remastered sculpts. Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Lizard dudes, monsters and more. They are on the bigger side at 18mm.
The Tabletop Fantasy range has both true 15mm and bigger 18mm. I’ve only gotten their bigger ones – MDA – (halflings here yay!) and love them as they’re great for dungeon delvers.
On the sci-fi front I’ve also tried their Loud Ninja games range for some sci-fi lizardmen (awesome sculpts) and some aliens from their SHM range. I think the SHM range is at true 15mm so I haven’t tried them a lot. A special mention here to the remastered Laserburn range, which I haven’t gotten as they are the small true 15mm, but if one goes for this scale size, they shouldn’t be missed.
I haven’t tried their historical ranges. They feel to me like they’re true 15mm, but perhaps someone knows better.
Overall Alternative Armies is a standard waystop for 15mm miniatures gaming.
Another UK based supplier. They don’t offer IOSS, so if you’re ordering from the EU, be prepared to go through customs. They have only a few ranges (barbarians, dwarves, picts, ice tribe) but their sculpts quality and poses and design are top! I really wished they’d do more in this scale. Oh, yeah their scale is at 18mm.
UK, the land of 15mm miniatures, no IOSS here. Vanguard Miniatures offers many Not-Warhammer 40k miniatures in 3mm, 6mm, and 15mm. They’re good for fielding an army, but they don’t split their packs, so the choices for skirmish gaming are limited as you may not want 20 miniatures per pack. Great sculpts though and great quality, and probably the closest you can get to WH40k without resorting to 3d prints. I have only gotten their xenomorph from them, which are at 18mm.
Still at UK, GZG is focused on Science Fiction. Excellent sculpts quality and very good pricing. No IOSS, but their shipping is affordable. They are at 18mm, however there is some scale size variation between their older and newer sculpts, with the newer ones being a tad bit chonkier and bigger. You can field them together without much issue though. GZG has some discount deals where you get vouchers if you spend an amount at orders prior to christmas.
You might have guessed it, Eureka is at UK. I have only gotten some of their 15mm – which are true 15mm, and not their 18mm Fantasy yet (listed as 18mm). Their sculpts quality is great, and are great for skirmish miniatures as you purchase single miniatures, and only a few of them are offered in packs. They offer IOSS and as expected, shipping is a bit higher, but you avoid the hussle of customs.
Still at UK, I had gotten my Predators and Xenomorphs from QRF. However they sold off their sci-fi ranges. You can still get some moderns from them. They’re at 18mm, but not chonky. Good sculpts, great prices and shipping (no IOSS).
Another UK vendor. Museum Miniatures offers many options for Historical miniatures. In the past few years they have 3d-designed pewter sculpts, released as ‘Z ranges’. Their older sculpts are closer to 18mm with scale variations, while their newer Z sculpts are smaller. They don’t offer IOSS, but their shipping is affordable. They offer deals a few times per year.
Forged in Battle is in UK. They have historicals, which can easily be used in low Fantasy as well. They are smaller than 18mm, but can be used alongside them. Good quality sculpts and miniatures. They don’t offer IOSS, but their shipping is affordable. They offer deals a few times per year.
UK based, Pendraken focuses on 10mm, however they have a small 15mm range of Fantasy. They are on the bigger side of 15mm, chonkier, at 18mm. Their goblins would be better listed as orcs instead due to size. They don’t offer IOSS, but their shipping is affordable.
UK based, previously known as CP Models, they have many miniatures ranges, and have acquired Crom Anvil’s range. Their 15mm is all over the place. Their mummies fit nicely with my 18mm miniatures, but their Pulp Arabs are closer to 20mm and very chonky. They’re the best 15mm mummies I could find and in 12 different poses. They don’t offer IOSS, but their shipping is affordable.
UK based 3d printing shop. Very good 3d prints in resing. I’ve gotten some of Duncan Shadow’s prints. They are chonky and big 18mm. The cultists can barely fit with my 18mm due to chonkiness, however their Plague Knights will work nicely. Their Knights don’t fit, as they are too big (perhaps some Warhammer AoS influence here). They don’t offer IOSS, but their shipping is affordable, and offer many deals throughout each month.
UK based vendor with pewter miniatures in a lot of ranges. One of the most affordable vendors in the miniatures market. They don’t offer IOSS, with prices like this, that is not an issue. I find that their miniatures paint a lot better than they appear at the website pictures.
Going to the other side of the Atlantic, at USA, Battle Valor Games offers Fantasy and Sci-Fi miniatures in 15mm.
They have very big ranges. Their miniatures are big and chonky. The quality of the sculpts is good, however I find there is variety in the designs of the poses. I really love their dwarves and halflings. They don’t offer IOSS, so every time I bought from them I used a shipping forwarder with Prepaid Duties options instead.
I’m only linking the UK website as I have purchased from them only, but there are USA based shops as well. I really don’t know if there is one valid site and the other are spinoffs or whatever, but I found at least 3 more USA based websites. I’ve gotten the Blue Moon sculpts from them. Their pulp range is at the bigger end of 18mm, while their sci-fi range is at the lower end of 18mm. Good looking sculpts, no IOSS, costly shipping. Unique models that you mostly can’t find elsewhere.
Splintered Light is in USA, focusing on 15mm Fantasy. They are true 15mm, small and thin, and their humans won’t fit nicely with the big 18mm ranges. However Ben Siens sculpts are so full of character and quality. I literally used the web site search function with his name, and got non-humans (gnolls, ratmen, halflings, birdmen etc) for my skirmish packs. No IOSS, I used ship forwarders.
Based in USA. Khurasan has a huge range of 15mm both fantasy, sci-fi and historicals. Nice sculpts and poses, and very active development of new miniatures. They don’t have consistency in pewter quality or the sizes between ranges. I’ve had different pewter mixtures (some white, some tin, some lead) perhaps depending on when the miniatures where cast. They make an attempt to describe the miniatures scale size though, but they range from true (15mm) to heroic (18mm). They list something like IOSS in their website, but I’ve used shipping forwards in the past when I ordered from them.
Other mentions
I need to mention Peter Pig from UK. Their miniatures are smaller, and I’ve only gotten their WW2/SCW miniatures from Minairons, a spanish partner, as they don’t offer IOSS, and they have a very high shipping cost for EU, which makes it prohibiting for me.
Also some vendors I’ve seen but not ordered from are: Mirliton Miniatures in Italy. They have fantasy and historicals. From their pictures I guess they are close to 18mm. Baueda miniatures in Italy. They have historicals. From their pictures I guess they are close to 15mm. Rebel Minis in USA. They have mostly sci-fi and pulp. From what I’ve learned they look like they are close to true 15mm. Onslaught Miniatures in USA. They have mostly sci-fi. I had gotten a couple of packs from them when I had ordered them from Vanguard Miniatures, but they are true 15mm and wouldn’t fit with the rest of my ranges. Magister Millitum in UK. They have a great range of miniatures. Essex Miniatures in UK. They have a great range of miniatures.
Summary
I hope this helps someone who is interested in the 15mm part of the hobby. Being in EU, there are a lot of limitations with respect to availability and the cost of shipping. It used to be easier, but now it looks like it’s getting streamlined again.
Bob are discussing. 
Solo, Pen, Paper and Dice 
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