3mm Mechas and Pico Armor Forum

For those of you who don't know, 3mm figure vendors Pico Armor have revamped their site. They now have a "War College" forum, which is already quite active.

This post is in response to a comment made on that forum that we need O8 to produce some science fiction mechas. While that would be great, it made me realize that a lot of people out there probably don't know that there are already many options for SF mecha-type vehicles. So I decided to drag out some of mine to show what is available and how they paint up!

These were done bit by bit over the last 10 years or so, as I've learned more about how to paint and base 3mm figures. Every one of these groups has about 10-20 mecha: I've just grabbed a handful here to show the variety that's available.

First up, the oldest group, the Red Army.

These guys have two kinds of figures: 5 five Dream Pod 9 Fleet Scale Heavy Gear minis and a 6mm Hound Dog walker from Ground Zero Games "Dirtside" line. I have repainted these twice, each time to make the red more vibrant. You'll notice that one of the DP9 figures has had its missile launcher chopped off to make a recon variant. This was then given to the DP9 figure in the second row to make a missile-heavy support mecha.

Here's the second oldest group, the Tan Army:

These figures are more DP9 and Ground Zero, except this time there's a small recon mech added in from Ground Zero's Full Thrust space combat line. It's tiny, comparaitvely speaking, and in my rules it jumps around a lot and has excellent stealth. These have also been repainted to make the tan stand out more.

The third army I painted (but never completed) are the Blues:

These have even more Ground Zero walkers and two different types of battle armor from Iron Wind Metal's Battletech line. These are perfectly proportioned for 3mm mechs, as you can see, and there are literally dozens you can choose from on Iron Wind's site -- enough to do your own 3mm Battletech, if you so wish.

The next army, chronologically speaking, was the Grey Army, which came in two groups, the first composed of GZG Hound Dogs (not shown here) and the second of these guys:

Those are 15mm Robot Legion Velon Skirmishers, from Blue Moon's Aliens line. They have been suitably modified with railguns and a support missile launcher. Behind them stands a Recce Trooper Drone from DP9's Eden range. At this scale, it's either a Warhound-esque light titan or a superheavy mecha. I find it complements the Velon Skirmishers quite nicely.




This is my newest army: the support battalion for the People's Revolutionary Army on Smade's World. These are also DP 9 figures (fleet scale Terran frames, this time) and they illustrate well my current painting and basing scheme: as bright and clear as I can get!

Finally, here are a selection of command stands. These have regular O8 figures on their bases so you can see how they compare. Note the dark green command stand: that was how I was painting before I realized that one needs to go as bright as possible on these figures:



So there you have it! These are just some of the options open to you if you want 3mm mecha. The Iron Wind battle armor line is particularly diverse. I prefer the DP9 and GZG stuff myself, but that's just my taste.

I do hope that O8 will eventually get around to making more mecha, but as you can see, we are spoilt for choice as is.

And there are so many other figures that can be kitbashed into mecha as well. Here's one from the Risk: Legacy boardgame. It's crappy soft plastic and doesn't hold detail well, but I modified it into a gun-carrying construction mecha for my guerrilha forces:

This should give you an idea of what can be done even with toys and game pieces!

More 3mm NVL Photos

Here are a few more photos of my new 3mm New Vistula Legion troops, trying out my second Smade's World terrain module.

The Light Attack company and Scout company of the First Regiment scope out a crossroads.

A squadron from the 24th Uhlans backs up the Light Attack company.

Drones lead a mounted Light Mechanized Infantry company down the road. The commander watches from the side.

Task force of the 1st Regiment, New Vistula Legion

The last photo gives you a pretty good glimpse of the terrain module.



This is built on a 60x30cm framed artist's canvas with a styrofoam backing board glued in underneath. This particular board is a plains board, with only one small hill in the center, just to the right of the helicopters.

I now have three Smade's World boards done and a fourth coming up. Hopefully, I'll get a tutorial done before too long!

Big Red and Thor

Here are a couple of pictures of the House Möder-Fokker titans, Big Red and Thor.

These are Dream Pod 9 Earth Force Frames, done up as 60-foot-tall mega-walkers for my 1/600 sci-fi Furture War Commander project.

Dream Pod 9 Titans and Heavy Mecha Arrive for Future War Commander

Reinforcements have arrived! From left to right, Frame 25, Flails, Arminger, Drone and Fleet Scale Gear. O8 U.S. Vietnam Infantry and Chieftain tank in front, shown for scale.

As followers of this blog probably know by now, I use Drean Pod 9's Fleet Scale Heavy Gears as 3mm mecha for Future War Commander, with tanks and infantry supplied by O8.

I just bought some of DP9's new regular scale Flails and Drones, as I figured they might make good heavy mechs. The flails are perfect! DP9's fleet scale gears are 15mm or 9 scale meters tall. The flails top that by another meter or two, making them perfect superheavy mecha.
The drones are a bit too big to be mecha and yet too small to be "Titan"-sized units. Still, they are beautiful figures and I'm going to make them small massive vehicles.

Finally, I bought the new Arminger Commando and Frame 25 regular-scale gears for "titan"-sized massive units and they fit the bill PERFECTY! The only changes I needed to make were leaving off the Arminger's rather odd "loincloth" and the Frame's jumpjets (which didn't quite fit in with the projected scale).

I need to say that it's a pure pleasure to work with DP9 stuff: they cost an arm and a leg but there is zero flash and mult-part figures practically snap together. The fits are sometimes so precise that the piece will actually stay in place without glue holding it - not "can game with" in place, mind you, but still...

Anyhow, beautiful stuff, if pricey. Around 20 USD gets you 10 mecha, 8 drones, 13 flails, or 2 Titans. I make one DP9 purchase a year of about 100 USD gradually build up my armies. For those who want to try this, I suggest buying 50 bucks worth of O8 modern tanks, infantry and IFVs, plus one pack of Southern and Northern fleet scale gears. That will give you a Mecha battalion for each side, backed up by a conventional regiment with air support for about 100 USD.

Another shot, showing the DP9 stuff exclusively. Note that the flails have been modified: their vision slots have been filled down and replaced with a sensor globe. Also, the chaingun has been replaced with a bead to represent a short-ranged plasma weapon. One of the flails is also armed with a heavy missile launcher, scavanged from the Arminger's extra pieces.