Nice Little Miniatures Wargaming Intro Video

Not by me, by some folks on the west coast:
Miniatures Gaming 101

The Shelving Wars (not actually to do with any wars)

A few weeks ago I completed the overhaul of my miniatures area and office/games storage room, both to reduce clutter and prepare for the day when I have more completed miniatures to store. So 7 new wall shelves went up, plus a new workshop-style standing shelf (those flimsy steel things for garages and the like) and one more respectable looking bookshelf (with classy new antique bookends).

So here's what I got now:
The main painting area's down at the end, under the Fokker Triplane photo. To the upper right are plastic animals and creatures for 28mm VSF, pulp, etc., to their right are a billion GHQ 6mm mini's waiting for some love.

To the left are shelves for works-in-progress, and some materials storage (Fimo clay for example). The paint rack is hopefully self-evident.

This is the most significant outcome - my big cutting board is essentially clear again, no more works-in-progress on top of it. The white shelving unit is mainly a bits box - have lotsa bits.

The office, reduced down to a desk now really, and most of the shelves, as the room becomes a storage unit for stuff waiting its turn, or has been completed. The curtain hides a big ass old window, that no set of shades would cover without engineering or expense. I don't have the patience for the former and too many goodies to buy for the latter, so it's kinda jury-rigged.

Otherwise I've been finishing last month's to-do's on the table - wrapping up the cleaning of miniatures so I can devote 2011 to painting. Alright, so now it'll end up as the 11 months of 2011, but the shelves made me miss my December target!

In the Beginning...

So these first few posts are going to be catching up with where I am, rather than what I'm doing. I've been seriously into mini's since the late summer of 2008, but I'd had mini's since the early 80's (had no patience as a kid to do them) and I'd been haphazardly "planning" to get back into them since the late 1990's. In a burst of enthusiasm in July 2008 I ordered some GHQ WWII mini's, and I've been running ever since.

These first few pictures, however, are going to be of my 2mm projects, which I jumped into later that summer with a project set in an alternative 1860's era I call "Rifles and Regiments". The short version of that background is pretty much every twist in history that could have happened in North America up to that time, did. The result is a very balkanized continent, with a Union, a Confederacy, Texas, Chinese and Spanish colonies, and a messed up Canada. Oh, and the Russians are hanging onto Alaska. My intended rule set for this period is the free "Republic and Empire".

I'll also being doing some historical gaming in this period, using other rules, including "They Couldn't Hit an Elephant" (Too Fat Lardies), "They Don't Like It Up 'Em" (also TFL), and at a skirmish scale with Gaslight (LMW Works) or Sharpe Practice (TFL yet again - just realized I need to fix my list of links).

So onto the pictures...

A close-up of my first regiments, of Chinese colonial troops from what would have been California in the real world.


All of my first week's efforts, from a gaming perspective that gives the "big battle" effect, where 2mm really shines.


Troops approaching the plantation/capitol building/courthouse. The building is made from some wooden blocks bought from Michael's, various doo-dads lying in my bit box (including some bracelet charms), and a bit of sheet styrene for the steps and veranda.


More buildings - a factory, hotel, and well-off residences. For when gaming near the edge of a city. All are also made from wooden craft blocks and doo-dads for the chimneys, sheet styrene for the awning on the hotel. The windows are done with a Sharpie, but I've had a bugger of a time with Dullcote then wrecking the windows. Nothing seems to protect the ink, I've tried long drying times and a coat of Future. So for now I'm trusting my terrain pieces to stay healthy without a sealing coat.


Village pieces, mainly made from Sculpey/Fimo or more braclet charms, with a wooden block used for the slave trading house on the right.


A kraal for colonial or fantasy battles (in the world of Imaro/Dossouye). The huts are Sculpey, the nettle wall is a brass sink scrubber, disassembled and stretched out.

For "northern" terrain I'm just using a straight-up green (Shamrock) paint over sand to create a grassy surface, but for my African-esque terrain, it's a bit more complicated, and I've settled on a yellow paint base (Moon Yellow) followed by a very light green ink wash, followed by dry-brushing Cadmium Yellow on top.

I should at this point mention that my link list includes the two best starting guides for 2mm - Tony Hughes site helped with an identification scheme, basing, and how to "do" grass at this scale, and SteelonSand's blog is the most active for in-progress 2mm goodness.