MINI WARGAMING: "Spaceman Spiff & 10mm Sci-fi Resources!" (12 October 2007)

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TOP: Spaceman Spiff's beautiful 10mm MWDA Marauder mod.

Hi All,

If you know me and are a miniatures gamer, you probably associate my name with the 6mm scale... it's the one I go most crazy over... don't ask my why! I just like little pieces. However, I've never limited myself to just 6mm and about a year or two ago I decided that my hobby project for the year would be to build a Star Wars Battle of Hoth army set... I had wanted to do it in 6mm, but I simply couldn't find the pieces I needed on I kept on searching. And eventually I found all of the pieces I needed ...only in 10mm scale! And that's what got me into 10mm sci-fi!
If you'd like to see some photos of my 10mm Star Wars Battle of Hoth army set, you can find some of them here:
http://6mm-minis.blogspot.com/search/label/10mm%20Sci-fi

And 10mm sci-fi is a very up and coming scale. While 10mm is the stated scale, everything from 8mm to 12mm including 1/144 and N scale RR trains are often included as acceptable variations within the greater "scale creep" realm of 10mm.

And one of my favorite sources of inspiration for 10mm is a gamer named Spaceman Spiff who is not only incredibly productive, constantly posting new photos of his minis, but he's also incredibly creative - modifying model kits, scratch-building pieces, and coming up with some breathtaking models. This post is a salute to him, more or less! Huzzah, Spaceman Spiff!

TOP: A Battletech Slayer aerospace fighter by Spaceman Spiff!

Please check out all of Spaceman Spiff's images here:
http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f12/4370spaceman-spiff/?mediafilter=all

Spaceman Spiff also keeps many images here at Lords Of the Battlefield (LOTB):
http://www.lordsofthebattlefield.com/news/weblog.php

TOP: Spaceman Spiff's scratch-built parts for a 10mm Urbanmech!

TOP: The Urbanmech begins to come together!

I wouldn't be writing a Maksim-Smelchak post if I didn't share a few links either so here are a few of my favorite links that I think of when 10mm sci-fi comes to mind. The first link I wanted to share was one to the Yahoo E-group I created to support 10mm sci-fi gaming and the second is for one of my favorite sci-fi games.

Alien Squadleader (ASQL) is a wonderful sci-fi game, with similarities to DBA, DBM, HOTT, Command Horizon and other games with more streamlined, fast-moving rule sets. The author, Alex Self, is a real mensch and runs his own Yahoo E-group for the game, where the on-line community is very helpful and Alex often personally helps out ASQL newbies ...like myself! While Alex and most of the gamers use 15mm sci-fi themed figures, I've chosen to use 10mm sci-fi figures, partially because another local gamer, Aron Clark, already has several armies made of recycled MWDA figures that are already 10mm scale. Add those to my Hoth set and throw in some of the other armies I have on the project queue and I'm set as a 10mm sci-fi ASQL player! Huzzah! There are also a couple of other local players building ASQL armies plus an established league in San Jose so I might actually get a few games out of this project!

And one the best resources for an interested 10mm sci-fi player is the 10mm Sci-fi Yahoo E-group I put together... it's a growing resource:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/10mm_SFWG/

And one of my favorite sci-fi games is Alien Squadleader (ASQL):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aliensquadleader/

Have a great Friday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

MINI WARGAMING: Gunbird's Excellent 6mm Irregular Autos!

.TOP: Some of Gunbird's excellent 6mm Irregular autos!

Hi All,

I posted a few photos awhile back with some 6mm automobiles from my collection and that of my friend, L-4, which stirred up quite a bit of interest. A short while later, my friend, Robin AKA In Repose, posted some photos of his 6mm autos on his blog (link on right sidebar) and eventually several other folks have as well. One of the latest folks to have posted photos of his 6mm autos is Johan AKA "Gunbird," who has graciously allowed me to re-post his photos here.

However, before I share the rest of his photos, I thought I'd type out a few quick lines about scale and 6mm miniatures.

First of all, there is no real standard among miniature manufacturers. The 6mm designation, which means that an average man is roughly 6mm in height... tends to be more of a "convention" or "suggestion" than an actual standard. So, some manufacturers tend to make "6mm" figures that actually measure around 5mm, while others make giant fellows that measure closer to 8mm! And then there's body girth, some H&R / Navwar figs look positively child-like and waif'ish, while some larger Scotia figures look like they might have packed in a few extra meals to get their portly girth. And in the end, whether a miniatures gamer likes the figures is primarily a matter of taste.

Personally, I like them all! And I never let a little scale difference bother me.

Too see a graphic example of the differences in scale with 6mm miniatures, please check out this photo by my friend Bob Mackenzie from his excellent gaming site:

From left to right: New H&R (far left), Old H&R, GHQ, CinC, Small Scotia,

...Adler, Large Scotia, Irregular and Main Force (far right).

It's not hard to see the gambit of differences from the smallest 5mm (1/300) figures (the old UK microarmor standard) from H&R / Navwar to the largest 6mm (1/285) (the new US microarmor standard) from GHQ and Mainforce, which are, in reality, much closer to 8mm or about 1/250 to 1/220 (Z-scale RR-size) in size.

To see my friend Bob Mackenzie's great site, please follow this link:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bob_mackenzie/index.html

Having said that, the Irregular 6mm automobiles packs are very large for 6mm minis, and I'd call them a better fit for 8mm or about (1/220) or ("Z" RR scale).

TOP: An Irregular "6mm" car next to a smaller 5mm H&R T-34 WWII Soviet tank.

Here's what Gunbird has to say about the 6mm automobiles that Irregular puts out:

I've taken the liberty to finally (had 'em for two years now) paint up a few and do a short comparison. My end conclusion is, which is probably shared by most of the folks who have also purchased the 6mm Irregular automobiles, is that they are almost useless for 6mm.

They do fit in neatly with Battletech though, or in a 1/200 scale miniatures game. And I really wish one of the big producers of 6mm would get their heads out of their proverbial black holes and produce some properly scaled 6mm cars. I'm aware of the GHQ Technical and the H&R Landrovers, etc., but I want civilian cars. Blast it to oblivion!

Though I know from a purist wargamer's standpoint, cars are just fluff, I want to make my battlefield look a like more real, not a sterilized grass mat environment that looks as if some giant took a big broom and swept off all traces of civilian life bar the houses…

Here's a description of the pack:
For four Pounds Sterling you get a pack of modern 6mm vehicles. Not a shabby deal, if I say so myself, as it has a motorcycle with sidecar, several cars, a van and a truck, and they paint up **nicely**. Anyway, as I'm doing loads of 6mm at the moment, I thought, why not, so painted up a few. None too shabby if I do say/paint them myself, but... are these really 6mm?

It was a bit of a bummer though, to see that they are very big minis for 6mm. And unfortunately, this confirms that there are no useful civilian vehicles on the market (...discounting stuff like Battlecars for which E-bay seems to be the only option) and you would think, that by now, at least one of the 6mm manufacturers would have stepped in to do at least a few generic civilian vehicles? I guess they deem the market for them to be too small.

So, are they bad? Not really, yes, they look a bit shoddy, have big mold lines and flash to get rid of, and the wheels look wonky, but I'm used to that from Irregular. After all, what's in a name? I'll be buying some more of the packs, but to make wrecks (you could have seen that coming a mile away ) to scatter on my Battletech board for after my mechs play soccer with a few cars.

Hope at least one person found this useful, and do take note, all of this is my opinion, that of Johan!

My 2 cents,
Johan AKA "Gunbird,"
Netherlands, Noord-Brabant.

TOP: The "6mm" Irregular auto looks fine next to larger "6mm" Battletech minis!

To see the rest of my 6mm auto collection and that of my friend L-4, please follow this link:
http://6mm-minis.blogspot.com/2007/06/mini-wargaming-mad-maks-6mm-auto.html

You can find Robin AKA In Repose's photos here at his blog:
http://www.rottenlead.com/wordpress/2007/05/15/battlecars-by-gamesworkshop/#comments

To see some other great ideas for 6mm autos, please follow this link to Simon's site, Fort Wargame:
http://warweb.homelinux.net/Models/civvehicles.html

To see a photo of Barry from Timecast's excellent 6mm Irregular autos, please follow this link:
http://www.timecastmodels.co.uk/rail_timecast/6mm_5.jpg

Have a great Thursday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).