New 2mm Buildings from Irregular - Painted examples

 

Thought I’d show some progress on the new 2mm Ancient buildings from Irregular Miniatures - mainly to prove that I’m still working on things when time allows….. don’t know where November went…. And now it’s already the New Year ! …. Sigh…… Anyway, Compliments of the Season to All, and let’s crack on with some photos….

I’d had an itch to mount a pair of Irregular’s temples onto a piece of area terrain - an Acropolis on a mountain sort of thing, that at a pinch could also be used as an island for naval games / galley warfare, so with an off-cut of blue foam and a a few adhesive bushes/Brigade Models trees, I whipped up the following:

Hopefully it gives off a suitably Homeric vibe, something for Titans to have a Clash over….. or at least something a bit different for Strength and Honour armies to attack….

Moving on, a variety of the Irregular buildings with a more Roman flavour - as yet unbased - I’m still thinking about whether to mix these with the ones I produced earlier from Brigade Models, or to have them on their own - I’ve thrown in a large funerary monument from the latter company at the same time:

All of them painted up nicely with a straightforward colour scheme - on close inspection, the more ‘organic’ sculpting from Irregular meant there was the odd bulge or skewed angle in the casting here and there, and some mould  lines, but nothing to really get in the way or see the overall appearance suffer too much - I’m still very satisfied by how much they look the part.

Finally, I had a go at a more Carthaginian piece by working on Brigade Model’s Quasr Bshir fort:

It’s mounted on a 60x60mm base that still needs some finishing off - I envisage it as a sort of caravanserai built around a water cistern - hence the vegetation in the centre - I also had a go at some ‘Mother Goddess’ iconography to give it a more Carthaginian look.

Anyway, plenty of plans for the coming year, in a variety of scales, so onwards and upwards into 2023 !

New 2mm Buildings from Irregular Miniatures: Review/Comparison

 

I thought I’d do a short review of some of the recently released 2mm buildings from Irregular Miniatures, and see how they compare to another manufacturer, particularly with regard to those in my Strength and Honour project.

Now Irregular have had scenics and terrain to go alongside their 2mm figures for many, many years, but they were mostly very much in the ‘area’ category, with multiple buildings to a base rather than necessarily being scaled to go individually with the figures at around 1/900th, and it is only more recently that they have been working on stand-alone architecture.

I’ve discussed using the output of various manufacturers with 2mm troops before, 

http://steelonsand.blogspot.com/2009/03/2mm-buildings-comparison-irregular-and.html

http://steelonsand.blogspot.com/2013/05/brigade-models-new-buildings-range.html

but wanted to catch up on what I think are some very good new entries from Ian and the gang, sculpted by the brilliant Geoff Addison:

https://en-gb.facebook.com/irregularminiatures/

http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/2mmRanges/GAScenics.htm

Now Geoff and Irregular have of late been absolutely knocking it out of the park in terms of adding new sculpts to the range, particularly some excellent scenic and terrain items, as well as these new offerings, so I was keen to take a look at some examples in the flesh, and offer a few thoughts.

Owning as I do already, an absolute plethora of small buildings, I just went for some representative examples from across the Classical/Arab and Medieval stock, rather than buying the whole real estate !

First up, let’s look at two Medieval Keeps and the Roman Military Watchtower:

In line with all of Mr Addison’s work, these all possess bags of character, and whilst demonstrating their ‘hand-sculpted’ pedigree, are clean and nicely proportioned - not ‘scale’ architectural models as such, but truly evocative and charming pierces that would bring interest to any table….

The wooden keep with moat is particularly fun, and usefully, the tower is a separate piece, so the moated mound could be used in a variety of ways:

Next up, the Classical Temples, Bath House and Military Command Building:

Lots of detail on all of these, and again, absolutely oozing character whilst giving a good representation of the originals - the Apse on the Bath House is spot-on !

The only funny thing, that I realised after taking these photos, is that the authentically characteristic arched doorways on the Command Building do look rather like the iconic sign of a somewhat anachronistic fast food chain - I promise to paint my arches a golden yellow !

As can be seen in the photo at the head of the post, and in the following, these more formal buildings are accompanied by a variety of smaller but just as useful utilitarian ones, including granaries, stables, barracks, and a great court-yarded Villa:

Once more, lots of potential there - all would be useful in a number of ways - similarly, the Shrine and Arab Tombs are really neat items - any self-respecting small scale world needs its own Via Appia lined with just such monuments and memorials !

So, how do these latest releases compare to those available from the other major manufacturer, namely Brigade Models in the UK ? - now I’ve gone via Scratch-built, Monopoly Houses, Rod Langton 1/1200th, Mighty Empires plastics to even 3mm from Peter Pig over the years, but the go-to has to be Brigade’s ranges in terms of the broadest variety of interesting individual buildings, and so I’ve put the two together in the following shots:

I think that you’ll immediately note that Irregular’s are larger, more on the chunky side of things, but not necessarily out of scale with Brigades’ - 

The level of detail is obviously different, but not overwhelmingly so, and the apparent ‘bulkiness’ is easily put down to differing types of design or construction:

Of course, Irregular’s are on their own integral bases, but these are relatively thin and innocuous, certainly not overly large or intrusive.

I think the most striking difference apart from this, is the perhaps ‘organic’ look they have, in comparison with the almost ‘clinical’ lines of those from Brigade - the latter are definitely more architecturally exact, whilst the former are a bit more expressionistic - I think based in multiples, Brigades buildings definitely look the part, but perhaps a single structure would be well represented by these new characterful ones from Irregular….

I’m definitely looking forward to painting them up, and will not hesitate to use them alongside their competitors, and in any event, am pleased to welcome their commercial release as additions to the Lead Pile, and very much feel as with so many things that are Hobby-related: “The More the Merrier !”……

2mm Strength and Honour: Urbs Romana

 

Having initially sworn off putting too much effort into the ancillary pieces for the 2mm Ancients project, I ended up going down the rabbit hole of producing a Roman fortification that could represent a ‘camp’ in Strength and Honour - to be fair to myself (!) I didn’t go the whole hog in making giant scratch-built marching forts or sections of Hadrians Wall, but rather went for a generic looking set of walls and towers, leaving an internal space that would accommodate a quartet of the 60mm by 60mm urban tiles that I made earlier.

I thought that by enabling swapping out the tiles, the walls could do double duty in posing as the fortifications of Carthage, Locus Castorum, or even the walls of Troy, depending on what I put inside.

I really liked the look of the parts from the Brigade Models’ Modular Castles range that were used by Mike Headden in his own 2mm project, detailed in the forum thread here (scroll down):

https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/forums/topic/ithoriels-strength-honour-diy/

So, digging around in the Lead Pile, I dug out some likely contenders, and, good news, also re-discovered my long-lost Roman Triumphal Arch, also from Brigade.

I had a scrap piece of laminated wood to use as a base, which measured around 160mm by 140mm, so pencilled out the ground plan of the walls and towers etc, leaving the central area big enough for the urban tiles - just about managed to squeeze them on, allowing for a bit of a moat and some ground out front.

The Brigade Models castle pieces are in resin, and come out of the pack pretty clean, so a quick blast of stone coloured paint and some red earth tone detailing over a mid brown undercoat meant the job was straightforward, although not necessarily quick - lining in around all the windows to try and stay neat had me going cross-eyed !

I did struggle somewhat in lining up the various wall sections, in that although individually well cast and straight, they are relatively short, so have a tendency to wander when modelling in a long line, and there is a bit of a gap between parts that seems obvious in these close-up photos. I think more skilled modellers or others less cack-handed could easily rectify this, or even smooth and fill any spaces, but to be honest at this scale, and tabletop viewing distances, they do the job for me !

The moat around the castle was formed merely by gluing on a strip of darker basing sand to the outer part, and splashing on some dark wash - I wasn’t going to go to the trouble of actually ‘digging’ it out ! - again, viewed from a distance, doesn’t look too bad.

The Triumphal Arch is free-floating, given that it straddles across two tiles, and enables me to use it in other settings - the terracotta coloured ‘roof’ is a bit odd, perhaps, but somehow it just looked naked when done wholly in marble white - there are a couple of bronzed panels on one side, too - no doubt detailing the Emperor’s victories - although you’d need a microscope to read them off at this scale !

I also went ahead and stole some additional buildings from Brigade Models Spanish and Arab village sets, just to add some variety to the other architecture, and make the tiles look a bit more ‘populated’

Brigade, of course, do their own Roman castle/mile fort wall set, but I followed Mike Headden’s lead in using the modular parts as they are more visually impressive, and hopefully not too anachronistic - the rounded bastion like towers on the gate sections look pretty Roman to my eye….

I’m yet to do much more with this project, as my butterfly mind has been drawing me in a completely different direction lately, and hence the time lag since my last post - I’ll no doubt keep coming back to it when the mood strikes, so stay tuned…

Next time, though - something completely different !

2mm Strength and Honour: Buildings

 

Bit of a work-in-progress here, as I’m looking to add some 2mm scale built-up areas and other terrain/scenic pieces for the Strength and Honour project.

I’ve been making use of the excellent small scale Roman scenery range from Brigade Models in the UK, which includes a variety of buildings in various styles, ranging from an enormous amphitheatre to domestic architecture via mile forts and sections of Hadrians Wall:

https://www.brigademodels.co.uk/SmallScaleScenery/Roman%20Buildings.html

I know the Strength and Honour rules emphasise the use of camps for the protagonists, so perhaps a marching fort for a Roman Legion, or a wagon laager for a Barbarian Horde, but I’m reserving those for another time, being as I’m still easing myself back into the Hobby, and those will likely be quite large scale undertakings….. I’m also torn as to whether to splash the cash and buy the pre-built ones from Antonine Miniatures, or go for something scratch built….. there’s also the point that my Punic Army needs a home - but maybe the walls of Carthage might be a bit ambitious !

So for now,  thought I’d use the Roman buildings pack from Brigade to do a farm compound and some urban tiles - I had a 120x60mm cavalry base left over, so painting up the bare label strip at the rear as a stretch of road, I used a pin vice drill to pop in some holes for Brigades poplar trees - gotta have Lombardy Poplars lining a Roman road ! - and added some grass tufts in as vegetation or cultivated vine or olive trees:

The poplar trees are in metal, so aren’t as irregular as actual trees, but I think give a good representation of the originals seen from a distance. The Brigade buildings are lovely scale models, with some fine detail, although I did find that the fact that the masters are 3D designed/printed meant that in some areas it was hard to actually bring out what was there - not being an expert in Roman architecture, I also just went with putting what buildings looked right together, rather than faithfully following historical convention - I know the guys at Brigade always meticulously research their models - so apologies if I don’t know my Thermae from my Insula !

For the urban one, rather than doing just one large area, I used a number of 60x60mm bases to give me some variety in how they might be placed, tile-like - four making up a 120x120mm square:

I painted the tiles with just some free-handed contrasting greys as the ground surface, and then grouped the buildings as I saw fit - so maybe we have a Temple area, an administrative one, and then some domestic buildings and a bath complex?

I do feel that the bases definitely need something more - I did add in some more of the poplar trees, but when I can find them in the chaos of my Lead Mountain storage, I want to put in some walls from Brigade, as well as their excellent Triumphal Arch - it occurs to me that in future I could also make use of some of the Arab-style buildings from the Middle Eastern range to add in as further domestic dwellings….

As a final flourish, I placed a 6mm figure of a Roman Legate from Rapier Miniatures’ excellent ranges as a suitably impressive statue - the Emperor demands his due !

These were great fun to do, if a little intensive in working with buildings that small - I went with a spray undercoat of brown and then blocked in over the top with colour - no way I was going to be in-filling windows and doors at this a scale !

The next phase will be thinking about doing some woods  - I have a lot of Irregular Miniatures’ large scenic metal pieces that could be employed, as well as some clump foliage on acrylic basing that I did for my 2mm French and Indian War project - but again, if the mood takes me, I might want to do some bespoke, scratch built ones just for this project, looking at covering much larger areas.

As an aside, I also spent some time adding a couple of additional bases to my Roman force, namely two units of Latin Allies, forming the two supporting wings of a Legion:

These were from Irregular Miniatures’ Hoplite blocks - I figure that hoplite-style troops were in keeping with the Italian allies of the time, so I did some twenty blocks per base in four ranks, giving a bit of contrast with the Roman formations - same basic paint job, wielding the paint pens, and some variation in shield and banner colours to add a bit of visual ‘pop’ - these give me ten infantry bases for the Romans alongside the lighter troops and cavalry to face the Carthaginians.

So, overall, things are humming along - I’ll be adding more details and terrain as and when I can, and if I can eventually dig out my terrain cloths from storage, get some battles underway !

Brigade Models New Buildings Range: Comparison Photos

Returning after a long absence from Blogging, (Apologies!)  - thought I'd kick off proceedings by taking a look at a recent development in the world of small-scale wargaming, namely the new and expanding range of buildings from Brigade Models.
These new scenic items are ostensibly meant to go alongside their Land Ironclads miniatures, and the company themselves explain that they are designed at 1/1000th scale, but obviously would happily sit alongside 1/1200th Aeronef whilst also being in the right ballpark for Irregular Miniatures' 1/900th or 2mm ranges.

http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/LandIronclads/Terrain.html

Now Brigade have as usual excelled themselves in introducing these new products to the consumer, and have been particularly good at providing clear photographs of the various sets as they have come available, so I do not propose to duplicate their efforts here.
Rather I'm going to put the contents of the two original sets, English Village Houses and English Churches, alongside similarly sized or scaled buildings that I know both I and others have used with small-scale miniatures between 1/3000th via 1/1200th up to 1/900th.

I'm hoping that these photos will help me to decide how I should re-assess my vast collection of tiny buildings to accomodate the new range, and ideally this post will also be of use in deciding where these 'new kids on the block' fit in with what has previously been available.

First impressions of all of the buildings that I have seen so far, is that they are extremely well sculpted in terms of architectural details and proportions, and are of a quality rarely seen before at this end of the wargaming scale; I think that they could easily be used for a variety of purposes, but I will start the comparison by putting them alongside some 3mm buildings that were originally produced by 'Simply Six', but I believe are now available from Pico Armour to be used with the Oddzial Osmy ACW range:

http://www.picoarmor.com/pages/products.php?rc=63

As you can see, these new Brigade buildings are definitely true to their description of being of a smaller order, although of course it would not preclude their use if you wanted to depict 'Built Up Areas' rather than individual buildings for a 3mm set-up.

Next up, the ubiquitous and ever-useful plastic Monopoly buildings, that in various forms have been an economical and easy option in the past when no other alternatives were available; again, you will note the discrepancy in terms of proportions and size, so they would not sit well together on the table-top:

Following on, we have what up until now has been the best option for detailed buildings in the smaller scales, the excellent 1/1200th Napoleonic items from Rod Langton:

http://www.rodlangton.com/index-2.html

I have found that depending on which building you buy, there is some variation in the sizing of these pieces, and in the past that has meant they have fitted comfortably next to a range of models, whether small scale naval or even land based 2mm. I think it is interesting to note that it appears that the Brigade 1/1000th pieces look smaller in proportions alongside the majority of the Langtons - perhaps I need to have a re-think about which minis I currently use these with - although I certainly wouldn't give them up, as they are great items, given their tiny size.

Next, a slight curve-ball in the form of a couple of Navwar's 1/3000th terrain pieces, namely some Wharehouses - these are obviously meant to represent very large constructions, but look correctly much smaller against the new stuff from Bigade:

Moving on, we have some examples of the 2mm houses from Irregular Miniatures, that form part of a slightly different approach to scenic items that has been discernible  in their recently available items, away from the original 'Area' terrain pieces (of which more below) to larger individual pieces:

In theory, these building should come the closest in terms of appearance, and although there are obvious differences in detail, they are in the right area, but to be honest would struggle, I think, if placed alongside what has probably been a quantum leap in quality now provided by Brigade.

The next phase, of course, is to set the new contenders against the original, and for many years, the classic weapon of choice for small scale gaming, Irregular's scenic items:

The difference in approach and 'identity' if you like, is of course obvious, so I think I will be torn in the future as to which type to use in my set -up, perhaps the new Brigade might go with my 2mm forces, whilst the Irregular will be used to populate the world below high flying Aeronef or even 1/600th aircraft?

This is again re-inforced when they are seen with the plastic villages from GW's Mighty Empires:

Hmmm, I suppose I should not be complaining about being spoilt for choice, as it were, but these new items have definitely put the cat amongst the pigeons with regard to my pre-conceived scenic inventories; proof positive seen in the following shots next to 2mm troops:

To conclude this quick ramble through the small scale urban landscape, I would probably say that for me, the quality, proportion and precision of these new items are very much in 'game-changer' territory, and I think I will have to look long and hard at what I have been using in order to better match troops to their surroundings in future; all of the various contenders detailed here have their pros and cons; whether price, availability, ease of painting, or representational qualities as how you decide buildings are to be depicted, but I think as this line expands, they will be hard to beat - great quality, flexible, and reasonably priced.....

Maybe I'll give up on these ruminations, though, and just keep using them all..........

Although not at the same time.........

:-).