I started replacing my huge collection of 28mm goblins with 6mm, and have recently ordered several large orders of different armies and terrain to be able to game and paint exclusively in 6mm. We are almost starting from scratch with this project- as I had hit a huge slump in 'the hobby™' and decided to start over fresh with a new scale and though I await the delivery of my new armies, I have made a very slow start since earlier in year, and thought this would give me a push in getting everything ready for working on this project, this coming winter.
You must forgive the shoddy painting, But I wanted to mostly show off the process from start to (hopefully) finish, and share as much stuff as I could, especially as it might be of use to any other 6mm fans. I have spent months collecting together resources for 6mm fantasy and you really have to dig deep on the internet to find the quality stuff.
I had ordered a huge batch of baccus goblins for my army. I ordered a HUGE amount of the wolf riders as I love the minis, and I have far more then I will ever need for any game!
I also ordered several bolt throwers from the various historical ranges. The historical crew will be integrated into my sci fi zombie project, and Ive started on some as slaves for my epic nurgle army, inspired by the storm of Iron novel.
No photos, I'm afraid, as unpainted miniatures didn't photo too well - but if any one wishes to see anything just ask, I'd be happy to photo them as best as I can for you!
The miniatures took way too long arrive but I ordered them in spring, very much in the middle of several big wargaming shows (including salute) so I cant hold the time against them. Once they were dispatched they only took about 3-4 days to arrive. The miniatures are of varying quality. Some have a large amount of mold lines that need cleaning up, where as others are perfectly clean. The downfall of the minis is that the spears are far too weak. The slightest knock will bend them right over. This wont be so much of a problem once they are based up, but for the banner wavers I have begun to replace their poles with paper-clips. Maybe a little too thick, and they have to be drilled in at an angle but they are solid as anything once dry and can be made much taller then they were before. I considered doing it for all staff bearers, but it would take a long old time, so for now I have left them to one side.
The character pack has a nice mixture of different poses and heroes, but unfortunately the shaman’s seem to suffer from jelly leg syndrome- many of them are too weak and snap, and some have cast up at strange angles. But otherwise they are fantastic minis and have some brilliant details. The broken ones are not too be wasted- I had intended to use many of them for the crew for war mammoths anyway, this has just meant that the choice of crew has been made for me. The wolf chariot is one of my favorite miniatures off all time. Though it comes in 5 parts making it very fiddly, this makes it a lot easier to paint. Its a shame that you only get one per pack, but I do believe that they would allow you to email and order them separately. 5 character packs gave me plenty to work with. I fully intend to get more chariots at some point as I'd like to run at least one of them with more then the two wolves they come with.
A word of warning though- They are apparently very large for 6mm, they are taller than the Microworld goblins, but as fantasy creatures this shouldn't cause anyone scale issues!
Goblin wolf rider. He is based on one of the old epic bases, as I wanted to get one finished to see how they looked. Base needs a clean up but I was most pleased with the smaller scale mushroom, its extra glossy in real life and looks really magical!
Another of the characters, along with several of the standard gobbo troops and command. His over sized sword is fantastically funny, but could easily be cut down if the oversize was too silly for you. I love the little gobbo horn blower- but have no idea which colour to paint it!
Another of the little wolf riders- this time with a giant sized statue. One of the few parts of the LOTR films I actually enjoyed was the in the first- where the fellowship travel down the river and see the Argonath, the pillars of kings, as well as the ruins in Amon Hen where
*SPOILERS* Boromir ....is 'Sean beaned' by orc archers*SPOILERS END*So I am hoping to make use of all the old larger scale stuff I still have and recreate some of those imposing looking ruins. I'd like to think that the ancients that made them used to be a whole lot taller then the current denizens of my fantasy world. The miniature is one of the old citadel/MB games battlemaster empire troops. I picked a couple of boxes of random battlemaster stuff for a fiver at a boot sale and don’t have much use for them! But it was too good a bargain to pass up! I am debating to adding more grass growing up the ruin- or even adding some green ivy, as it looks too clean, but I don't want to ruin it by adding more washes to make it dirtier.
Card stock buildings- free downloads from this excellent warmaster site Simply scale the buildings down to 66% (as they are for 10mm scale) and print. These first ones were a little tricky for me as I had never made card stock buildings before so I made a couple of really amateur mistakes- the biggest was to not take a black marker round the edges to hide the white edges of the card! (especially noticeable under the roof!) But I choose not to stick them down to the base, so I will be able to remake them at a later date and fix them in place. The hedge rows are just foliage clumps soaked in PVA, which is why they appear a little shiny in the photos. But a good varnish when the new buildings are in place should take care of that.
WIP of a goblin wolf rider hero, at the edge of the world. The water effects needed drybrushing with Vallejo off white (820) as they did not show up very well, and though it is not a very clear photo I think it has come out rather well in real life- the water looks icy cold and rough. I stopped work on him as I had to practice using different effects for snow, as I intend to cover the hole in the cork where the mini sits, with snow. But so far my snow effects have come out rubbish, and I'd really like to finish this mini as a display piece so I don’t want to rush him and ruin the work I have done.
He is is missing a left hand- I don’t know if this is a casting error or if it is just an odd pose-some of the others have a similar issue with their hands- but I will drag out the box of them later on and check this mini in the other character packs and confirm. I really like it though, even with the missing hand- I'd like to think he’s lost his hand against a terrible enemy and at the edge of the world is cursing the gods and swearing his vengeance. The biggest change for the goblins as I move away from 'the hobby™' is the stupidity of the green skins. I'd much think of them as savage, but intelligent creatures, marked for much greater things then GW's 'Orc SMASH!'. The idea behind them is that orcs are scarce in this world, and goblins are far superior in numbers and intelligence, building great goblin city’s in the plains and under the mountains. Whilst the other species in the world are on the brink of their extinction, the goblins are flourishing and are one of the few races that are in the major players in the fight to be the next supreme race of the world.
I apologise for this shot. Everything I tried to get this one into focus failed. But I wanted to share this to a least show the basic look of the goblin chariots. This mini has some great character for such a small piece. The wolves them selves are the same as the riders but with trappings replacing the riders. They are excellent, and being multi-pieced they will be very easier to remove the crew and replace, or add extra parts too them. The only issue I have had with them was that it is very easy to loose the wheels whilst painting as they are tiny! You will need to do some work with the carriage to make it line up with the wolves, and as I have painted it then I will also need to touch any cracks when I do that! It fits beautifully on a warmaster base with a ton of extra room so you can really go to town with the base. I’ll try one finished asap and get a decent shot of one.
Two more from the hero pack. These ones have some nice flat space on the shields for design work- for people that can actually paint! The red looks better in real life, where as the checks look a whole lot worse! But they are both a joy to paint. I will probably add more of the red style to the army, as the goblins from baccus are not wearing very much and so need as much colour added where you can get away with it! He also has a large red hair doo-dadd, though you cant see it it really does give some where else to add more colour. At this scale I think you really need to add some nice bright colours to make heroes stand out.
Picked up these Up from The Range. Fish tank ornaments, about £2.49 each. The four fit together nicely, and other then one that has a slight chunk missing at the base, where (I thought) great value. The are a little over sized for 6mm- more suited to 10mm, but again I thought that they would make excellent over sized ruins, perhaps once inhabited by the over sized ancient race that is now missing from the world.
Scale shot of the ruins. The statue is based on a standard sized DVD. I will base and leave the parts separate so I am able to change the shape and size of the terrain. But I will likely add a stale water stream/pool under the ruins with the sewer gate, and will make that piece slight larger then the others so It could be used stand alone or as the set.
Next up is the base models for some of the Leven Miniatures range. I have never experienced a company so fantastic as this. I placed my first order with them very late at night on Tuesday.
They had sent me a confirmation back with in half an hour and this very morning (Thursday) they arrived! I was so impressed! The minis came so well packed, and the buildings themselves are just utterly fantastic.
They are so detailed that if anything my painting will really let them down!
I ordered a selection of the Viking settlements and watchtowers as well as the selection of Saxon round houses to make up my goblin settlement. I also ordered an English church and wind mill, to give me something different to work on whilst working on so much green!
I wanted to show a selection of the unpainted models so any one that wishes to buy them has some close ups to see. The price is excellent as well -between £1.50 and £3 roughly per building. But the quality is worth every penny! They have even filed down the bases so you don’t even need to do that! They need the usual scrub and clean as per standard resin minis, and two or three of them need some really minor repairs with green stuff (a gap in the church tower, and two of the huts have the smallest of bubbles in the roof.) but these are the first resin minis I have ever purchased , after the horror stories I have heard of finecast and poorly cast forge world stuff, I could never bring myself to take the plunge. But these have put all those thoughts to rest.
They are simply fantastic. The details are insane on them- each and every stone and brick is visible, and the wood is just the right scale! I'm really looking forward to starting my sci fi revamp after seeing these- I cant wait to put a huge order in for the middle east adobes for my space orcs!
The windmill comes in three parts- and the work put in to this design is great. The sails (is that the right word?! I'm not very up to date with my mill knowledge!) comes cast with a plastic centre that holds the whole thing together. Brilliant, and looks like it wont break any time soon (bar attack of kitten or wife!)
Viking settlement comes with one watchtower but I ordered several extra to be able to corner off the settlement, and make a spare one for a scatter piece, out in the wild! I love these, and will be ordering many more, as they look so great for both goblins and for humans!
The English medieval church. Its not really wonky- that's my gaming board with the curling corner! The church is actually dead straight! The extra space looks like it would be great to have a clock is great- but I have no idea how I'm going to make a clock that small! I will be buying some of the larger Gothic style churches for my epic renewal next year! The details on this is great, and looks like I might even be able to pull off an ok paint job with a spray and a wash!
Viking church. This comes with two little pieces of plastic to add to make a cross frame above the door. Tons of detail on this one, even on the behind of the model. I am going to base this one on its own so can make the most of the details of the model.
One of two long houses in the set. This one is one of the two buildings that need a little work, there's a slight hole in the roof, but its minor compared to what I expected from a resin mini!
i tried the baccus 6mm fantasy elves a couple of years ago, but they were giants. Could you take a picture of the gobbos next to some MWG figures, please?
