All this posting about early 17th Century armies and how to recreate them on the wargames table got me to thinking. Dangerous I know! As a result I find myself descending the rabbit hole that is 'can I make reasonable representations of those armies in 2mm'. I will admit that the thought had crossed my mind before but I had all those nice Irregular Miniatures 2mm blocks for my BCW armies, so I didn't pursue it. The issue was that after posing the blocks for pictures I wasn't fully happy with the look of things, especially with the pike blocks being made up of smaller blocks of pike with gaps around them. After all these were huge blocks of pikemen not small clumps aggregated together. So off down the rabbit hole I have proceeded.
Much messing around with MS Paint later I have some prototype three rank blocks of musket and pike. I'm debating making the pike blocks deeper so six ranks or more. I'm now looking at various sources to make pikes to stick into place on the pike blocks. Nylon broom bristles are looking favourite so far, I just need to find some that are the right thickness.
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| So far so good (I think) |
What attracts me to this system of creating armies is that I can get more detail onto the figures by printing a wrap around skin than I could paint onto a casting, oh that and the fact that it is cheap. Cheap is good. Plus the actual creation process both drawing the figures and creating the blocks is an exercise in mindfulness.
Watch this space for further developments.
I really like this matey. I’d love to see the finished product with the pikes attached. I share the same aesthetic 2mm frustrations as you.
ReplyDeleteI used the same method for 10mm square dowel armies. I applaud your work with matchsticks!
ReplyDeleteThese are wonderful. I'd never thought of printing the 'painting'. Saves a lot of effort and gives the right look as well.
ReplyDeleteHow will you do horse and guns?