MINI WARGAMING: New 6mm Sci-fi Terrain by L-4 (1 April 2007)

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An Overview of Ralph's fantastic Nieuw Friesland 6mm sci-fi scenery!

Hi Everyone,

Still working on battle report (...or two ...or three) in between the fun stuff and I just received an E-mail the other day ago from my old friend Ralph AKA Legion-4 AKA L-4. Ralph is a retired US Army trooper who lives in Youngstown, Ohio, USA. Ralph and I have known each other for ages and he does much for the 6mm sci-fi community, BUT... he is best known for his prodigious miniatures work and conversions.

Area 95, a former piece of Star Wars watch packaging, now a feature of Nieuw Friesland!

His latest creations are entitled Nieuw Friesland, inspired by the Hammers Slammers novels by David Drake. He has taken a number of commercially produced scenery pieces and combined them with some scratch-built and readily found items to create some really neat scenery for miniatures game usage. Take a gander and enjoy!

A view of some well-painted New Hope Design structures in Nieuw Friesland.

Ralph writes this about his creations:

Nieuw Friesland is from Hammer's Slammers!

Many of the pieces came from lines that GEO-Hex carried. Some are resin and some hydrostone.

Guard Post 1-0, with the UN flag, I might add, like our GPs flew on the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the Republic of Korea (ROK)! It is an OOP F/W Bunker on top of a plastic cylinder with bitz added.

And Area 95, is a Star Wars piece, it opened up and there was a S/Wars watch inside. I gave the watch to my buddie's kid. And then bitz'd it out, covering the hinges, etc., with plastic strips, etc.

My War Room is just a spare bed room with gaming table, shelves, etc. ...I'm rapidly running out of space! But I'm 50 so I have to complete all my 6mm Sci-fi...

Next up - 6mm Lizardmen (Kraytonians) Temple and ruins!

You can meet Ralph, myself, and other members of the 6mm sci-fi miniatures gaming community in a number of on-line spots including at the EpiComms AKA Tactical Command Forums (Link on the right sidebar) or at the Yahoo 6mm Sci-fi Discussion Group (Link also on the right sidebar).

6mm sci-fi structures by New Hope Design (NHD) in Niew Friesland.

Some more NHD buildings in Nieuw Friesland.

Guard Post 1-0, a bunker / observation point in Nieuw Friesland.
(Scratch-built piece with a FW bunker on top.)

City statue of "Frazetta, the Deathdealer" in Nieuw Friesland.
(Building on left by NHD, center buildings by LMS, and the statue is a 28mm fantasy mini.)

For those of you interested in purchasing some of these terrain pieces, many of them are still available:

New Hope Design (NHD) in the UK
(web site temporarily down)
E-mail: Newhope design@hotmail.com
- This line was sold in the USA by GEO-Hex as "The Drum" while it was better known in the UK as Mayhem Miniatures. This UK company was later sold to Kennington Miniatures, which was, in turn, sold to New Hope Design. All of the sci-fi line are still being manufactured and sold in the UK.

GEO-Hex AKA Monday Knight Productions (MKP) in the USA
http://mondayknight.com/
- While GEO-Hex went out of business a number of years ago, most of their stock and lines are now carried by Monday Knight Productions, run by one of the nicest gentlemen in the business. I highly recommend their product and they STILL carry the same line of resin 6mm Battletech buildings that GEO-Hex did way back when!

Forgeworld (FW) in the UK
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/
- Forgeworld is very well known throughout the business and still carry a line of 6mm sci-fi miniatures and terrain for their Epic-Armageddon game (I worked and that game and am credited in the rulebook!). Some of their pieces including the bunkers that Ralph used are now, unfortunately out-of-print (OOP).

Little Minis Shops (LMS) in the USA
OUT OF BUSINESS
- LMS disappeared a number of years ago, which is a distinct pity since their hydrostone buildings were a lot of fun and painted up quite well. The gentleman who ran LMS in the American Northwest disappeared from distributors and retailers a number of years ago. They are unfortunately OOP.

And if you're interested in the 6mm lizardmen that Ralph mentioned as forthcoming, please check out the link for Dark Realm Miniatures (Link on right sidebar), a company run by a mutual friend of Ralph and I.

Have a great Monday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.

You can check out all of Ralph's photos here:

http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f248/Legion4/