Vanguard Miniatures 3mm Gothic Science Fiction Line: Introduction

Although today I am scornful of Games Workshop and even more so of the company’s fanbois, the plain truth is that GW is responsable for making me a serious miniatures wargamer.

I began collecting and playing with little toy soldiers when I was six and my grandfather bought my uncle and I a couple of boxes of Airfix Napoleonic figures. I collected Airfix and (later) Atlantic 20mm plastic soldiers throughout my childhood. As I moved into adolescence, I began to play simple wargames with these using Brigadier Young’s “Charge!” rules. (In spite of being an American, then, my entry into the hobby was, ironically, very typically British. Perhaps this is why I sympathize more with the British side of the hobby today. But that’s another post.)

By the time I was ten, I had begun collecting small numbers of lead figures, most particularly 28mm fantasy and 6mm science fiction. I only seriously began to look at miniatures gaming, however, when I was finishing up college in the late 1980s.

My first attempt to build “serious” armies was using Games Workshop (Citadel, at the time, really) hard plastic Space Marines: the original “Beakies”. I got sucked into it by Karl Heistermann and Doug Shuler (pre-Wizards of the Coast career), who worked at my FLGS and had developed a simple and fun set of rules to move the boxes of marines they had ordered. (This was pre-Warhammer 40K, actually.)

Enter Adeptus Titanicus

Two years later, Games Workshop launched what was to become their entry game for their 6mm Warhammer 40k line: Adeptus Titanicus.

I can’t recall ever being so excited over a wargame release.

The game seemed to me to be pure genius: a 6mm science fiction game with a unique “look” (gothic science fiction wasn’t a thing back then) and accessible rules, which allowed me to put hordes of figures on the table? It could have been custom-designed for my likes. I bought AT and its follow-up game, Space Marine, as soon as they were launched and I haunted Pegasus Games in Madison Wisconsin, looking for new releases for the system.

I quickly painted Dark Angel, White Scar and Eldar armies. Looking back on all this, I am amazed at how affordable the hobby was back then! I had three Phantom titans in my Eldar force, even though I was a starving university student working for minimum wage. Space Marine/Adeptus Titanicus was my first completed wargame project, where I painted multiple armies and terrain and used them to set up a convention game. And, as I recollect, the game was a hell of a lot of fun.

In 1990, I emigrated to Brazil, but I still followed Space Marine at a distance. Unfortunately, there was no way to get GW products in Brazil, at the time, except through pirates — and didn’t do 6mm. I thus migrated to other manufactures, scales, and periods (DBA figuring large in my scheme of things back in those days). Shortly after the turn of the centutry, pressed for space and money (and with freight prices to Brazil being what they are), I moved decisively into 3mm for all of my periods and have been happily painting and modeling in picoscale ever since.

As GW’s prices skyrocketed and they became the company we all love to hate through market manipulation and relentless production of skub, I turned my back on them. I began to feel nothing but pity and scorn towards the people who were willing to shell out thousands of pounds to play in the increasingly overpriced “Games Workshop hobby”. Furthermore, the aesthetic GW began promoting for the Warhammer 40K universe turned me off. Originally, it was a very “Heavy Metal/2000AD” kind of look: sci-fi, unique, kind of ornate, but still “clean” looking. As the 1990s advanced,however, it became increasingly baroque and cartoonish.

The moment Space Marine “jumped the shark” for me was when Gee Dubs started producing ork vehicles that were essentially 16th century cannon on wheels with little medieval towers atop. They just looked ridiculous to me. The “no gurls allowed” aspect of the Warhammer 40k universe also got worse and worse. The background started out as a sort of tongue-in-cheek heavy metal riff: sexist, sure, but silly sexist. “Spinal Tap”, not Proud Boys. As the years went by, it became more and more of a grimdark heavy metal wet dream universe: the kind of wet dream, more over a particularly spotty and socially inept adolescent boy with a nazi fetish would have. To me, Warhammer 40k just became stupid and disgusting.

I never lost that feeling of enchantment I had with the original Epic series of games, however. Those were cute and silly and just plain fun.

Vanguard Miniatures gives me back my youth

Last July, my webfriend Mathieu posted some photos of a new line of 3mm figures. Now Mat has been attempting for some time to do 3mm Epic Gothic Sci Fi and I’ve been mostly “yeah, whatevs” because his suppliers are all on Shapeways (crap castings at premium prices) and, so far, the castings he’s been getting copied, to me, the worst of GW’s overly roccocco-style of figures.

The new castings Mat had were crisp and clean, however, and followed the aestetic that originally attracted me to gothic sci-fi (loopy enough to be unique and space-opera-ish, but not ridiculous). They were from a company I’d never herd of before: Vanguard Miniatures, out of the U.K.

The more I looked into Vanguard’s press releases, the more I became intrigued. The figures looked to be unbelievably top notch: extremely detailed and well-cast. The more I learned about them, the more that old feeling from thirty years ago began to grow in my breast. Eventually, all I could think, contemplating Vanguard’s new line was “coooooool”.

I orderd a bunch as soon as they came out, but post being what it is to Brasil (still), I had to wait until early June to get my mitts on a bunch.

So how are they?

Absolutely luvverly.

In Part II of this report, we will take a detailed look at what I consider to be the most exciting 3mm release in a decade.

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!

3mm Ogre Miniatures Project Moves Along

I've mostly been concentrating on 2mm and 3mm Napoleonics this year, following the release of Blucher. That doesn't mean I haven't had time to paint up some Ogre Minis, however. Here's an overview of what's been done with the Paneuropeans so far...
 

Here's the better part of a Paneuropean armored battalion near a city. Tanks are all O8 except for a Plasmablast cybertank in the back left.

Here are the Ogre/GEV conventional unit types I have so far:

Going from right to left we have power armor, a light tank (actually a French AMX-90 with plasticard side skirts added on), a heavy tank, a GEV, a GEV-PC, a Missile Tank, a Mobile Howitzer and a Howitzer (kit-bashed from plasticard and the spare cannon barrel that comes with the mobile howitzer).

I still need L-GEVs and Superheavy Tanks.

A close-up of the light tank and the heavy tank. The heavy used to be my "lights", but I decided to change this after hearing Mathieu Moyen was going with British Scorpions as his Lights. The O8 "Aliens Universe" tank is too much like a Combine Heavy to want to use it for anything else. And that's when I realized that I have a bunch of AMX-90s going unused. I cut thin plasticard strips at 2mm x 8mm and glued them over the treads. Sure enough: they look acceptably sci-fi and their size is spot on.




Above , we see a howitzer battery and the command troop of the 1st Polish Lancers. In the back left, you can see a cybertank, made from a Plasmablast 6mm Marhaf Legion model. This is going to be a cybertank destroyer in my Ogre-inspired miniatures rules, Luftpanzer. 

A city, made out of Spartan Games discontinued "base" pieces for their space combat game. Also, some Monopoly City pieces. All gluesd down to a CD base.

 I can't recall if I posted these before. This shows how I converted a Plasmablast tank into an Ogre.

Well, that's it for now! Hopefully this project will be up and running by Christmas!

Building Howitzers for 3mm Ogre

Here are some pictures of how I am using the extra gun barrels from O8´s M92 SPG to build howitzers for my 3mm Ogre set-up.

Here are the supplies and components:



A bit of pasteboard for the base. A thumbtack (pointy bit cut off and reused as a bunker antenna), eight slices of a dead credit card, a couple of plastic bits (which are glued together and filed into the right shape), some plastic tubing (for the bunker) and, of course, the extra gun barrel from the M-92.

This shows you the four howitzers in various stages of construction.



Here they are, all built.



Primed....



And painted.

"Combine" Army for 3mm Ogre -- w/2 Ogres

Here's the beginning of my "Combine" army for Ogre. Right now they are wearing Belgian rondels, because it's a good color mix. I will create some better decals in the future.
 
The army currently consists of two cybertanks (an Ogre Mk III and a Mk IIIb) and a company of 14 heavy tanks. Not shown are the twelve squads of Mobile Infantry that ride the tanks into battle.

 

The ogres are self-aware and, as such, each controls three attack drones.

I have added the drones because, as Henry Cobb has made everyone on SJG's "Ogre" board painfully aware, the addition of LGEVS and Light Tanks into Ogre's follow-on supplements subtly skewed the game against the attacking ogres. This is because the conventional armor units can "mix 'n match" their attack strengths to the Ogre's defense strengths while the ogre can't really respond in kind.

As a buff I let self-aware ogres (i.e. any ogre fighting an opponent that's allowed to draw from the full range of conventional units) to command one attack drone for evey "mark" (3 in the case of Mark IIIs and IIIbs).

Attack drones are essentially light GEVs (you could also experiment with light tanks). They are not affected by "D" results on the combat table, but must stay within five hexes of an ogre at the beginning and end of the movement phase and also at any point that the drones would engage in overrun combat. Moving your ogre first and then your dones helps you keep track of them. If a player screws up and "forgets" to keep his drone within five hexes of his ogre, it immediately goes rogue and is eliminated.

You can see the drones I have made here to accompany my ogres. They are made out of stick-pins, plastic greeblies and wire.

 Here is the Mark IIIb. She is known as "Mama Spank":

Above, you can see Mama together with her Mk III consort, "Nervous George".

The conventional Heavy Tanks are O8 Caesarions.

The ogres are made from the chassis of 6mm Plasmablast Games Phestorm misile crawlers, with added plastic towers and greeblies. The missile launchers themselves are being repurposed into 3mm planetary defense installations.

Light Missile Tank and Sarissa Battle Armor for Ogre Miniatures

Here are two new units for Ogre Miniatures: the Light Missile Tank and Sarissa Battle Armor.

The Light Missile Tank was a stop-gap measure employed by the Paneuropeans during the battle for Spain. The Pansies discovered that their infantry needed heavy missile support just when the main factories at Stuttgart had just cycled away from the elderly Peltast Missile Tank towards the new Ajax design.

The Psiloi was cobbled together using any chassis available (mostly obsolete MBTs and APCs) and a "fire and forget" brilliant missile launcher. BPC applique was bolted on to the vehicle and a rudimentary close-defence system gave the LMSL slightly more protection than a cheap pair of  jammies. Equipped with heavy-duty off-the-shelf civilian grade fusion power packs, the Light Missile Tank also typically sported several charge ports, used to support power armor in the field.

The "Pissies" were extremely cheap to produce, and could be knocked together in a matter of hours using the most basic machine tools and fabricators.  Most M.I. battalions quickly produced their own variants from whatever material they had at hand. My particular battalion has a two-vehicle section attached, but most Paneuropean Mobile Infantry Regiments attempted to field at least one section per company.

The Light Missile Tank moves as a light tank, cannot transport any infantry and has A2, R4, D1 and M2. It's cobbled together nature, however, means that it is eliminated by both "D"  and "X" results, like an archaic armor unit. It costs half an armor unit or 3 points to field. However, given the quantity of self-aiming missiles it packs, it can choose to ripple fire its entire load. This allows it to make three 2/4 attacks in one turn. If it does this, however, the LMSL is eliminated after combat is resolved (the chassis simply can't handle the stress).

I have never been satisfied with the MSL, considering it to be the weakest of the conventional armor units in terms of its cost-effectiveness:  it comes out to 5.67 points using Henry Cobb's calculator, whereas a GEV is 6 and an HVY 6.17. The LMSL is 2.5 points, but it's one-shot multiple attack ability brings it up to a nice round 3.0 points. This is basically a disposable Heavy Weapons unit. It costs one-third the price of a regular HVY WPN, but has less firepower, significantly less mobility, practically no defense capacity (not to mention no infantry weapons). Use it and lose it. It gives infantry positions a very nice anti-GEV capability, however.

The second new unit is O8's Sarissa battle robot. This is quite out-of-canon for the Ogreverse, so I obviously won't be using it in anything like "purist" play.





Heavy battle armor works like regular infantry in terms of combat and defense, but:

1) It can only combine in two point units (not three as normal).
2) It defends at x2 in urban terrain (unlike regular infantry, which get x3).

The Sarissa was built to give Mobile Infantry some dedicated recon and sniping capacity. It has A1, R3, D1, M3 per point, with two combining to give A2, R3, D2, M3. Like all infantry units, it's doubled in overrun and loses one point to "D" results. It costs 4 points or the equivalent of two infantry per unit.

Paneuropean Mobile Infantry Battalion

 Here's a reinforced Paneuropean Mobile Infantry Battalion. It has three power armor companies and a support company made up of a Light Missile Tank battery and two Light Tank troops.

Here's the same battalion, but with a Light Tank company attached in reserve as support:




You might notice two new units in the battalion. One is what I call the Light Missile Tank. The other is a Sarissa heavy recon battlesuit. These units will be detailed in an up-coming post!

First Polish Lancer GEVs in 3mm scale

Here's a GEV troop from the famous First Polish Lancers next to a U.S. quarter and a British pound. These are modified O8 Centaurus GEVs. I added a paperclip nub as a forward gun, the back jets (chunks of plastic tubing) and a cabin extension (a piece of plastic beam):

3mm Ogre Miniatures: it begins

While up in Puerto Rico for the 2014 National Women's Studies Conference, I picked up some of O8's new sci-fi figs (tip o' the hat to Gregory Mitchell for bringing them down to the conference!).

My goal here is to paint "black" and "white" armies for Ogre Miniatures - as close to the old classic game and paint schemes as I can come - yet still be able to use these figs, at a pinch, in other sci-fi settings (most particularly my on-going Smade's World campaign). The "Combine" figures are thus white with red trimmings while the "Paneuropeans" are my standard blue-grey. I gave the Combine Polish Roundels and the Paneuros Belgian roundels. Hopefully, I will be able to switch these out with home-made decals at some point in the future.

O8 now has some smashing stuff that can easily stand in for Ogre figures. Having bought a bunch of it, I've now set about kit-bashing to make everything as close to Ogre as possible.

So here's the new O8 Centaurus hovercraft, kit-bashed to look like a GEV...

The casting is a little too long and lightly-armed to be a straight-up Ogre GEV (although it's damned near perfect for the GEV-PC). I bulked it up a bit by adding a cabin extension made out of a chunk of plastic beam. I also gave it a nubbin of paperclip as a bow gun and two snips of plastic dowel for its jet engines. It now looks pretty spot-on, IMHO.

The GEV-PC version has no gun or cabin extension, but a boar-brustle hold bar was mounted running from the cockpit to the back fan and the back fan was raised a bit via a square of plasticard.

The two are now easily identifiable at arm's length.

This is a tank and it's a bit of a heartbreaker for me. As is, it looks just like a Combine Heavy Tank. Almost perfect in that respect except that it's one of the smaller tanks made by O8. The GEV and MSL dwarf it! This is a pity, because I think it's lovely as a Heavy.





Maybe someday O8 will do the other Aliens tank from The Colonial Marine Technical Manual. It has the same general design, but is much more high-tech and, presumably, larger. If they do that, then said vehicle will become my Heavy.  Until then, the Caesarion will have to do, as it's about half again the size of this baby. This vehicle will be relegated to being a Light Tank (I don't like the original Ogre designs for these, anyhow). It's still very nice looking!

Here're the Mobile Howitzer and the Howitzer. The MHWZR is a straigh-up O8 casting. It comes with an alternative barrel, however. I used those and a bit of plasticard, a thumbtack and a bead to scratch-build the HWZR, which I think looks quite nice.




Here is my newest Mark III Ogre build. Its chassis is a Marhaf Legion Phrestorm support tanke from Plasmablast Games. Its superstructure is built from pins and plasticard:

Last but not least, the infantry. I am basing these as four castings on a 12mm x 12mm stand and two castings on a 6x12mm stand. This makes for a "platoon" of six castings on a 20 x 12mm base, with "change" being able to be easily made. I will also base some 10 platoons, per army, on full bases, just to make life easier in smaller scenarios.

And finally, here are some group and comparison shots. You can see the Missile Tank and GEV-PC in these. The Ogre is a tad small, but not too bad: canon Mark IIIs are 58 feet long and mine is slightly over 50. People are accustomed to thinking of Ogres as amazingly huge, but the Mark III is only really about twice as long as an Abrams M1. "Only"...

That last shot shows a company of Light Tanks being chased by the Mk III. This is the only unit I've got painted up for now.More pics next week, though, God willin' an'the creek don' rise!