Getting smaller…

Over the Christmas period my gaming space has been reduced by the necessary movement of furniture to accommodate a fairly large tree in the living room.  So the campaign has continued using game tokens on various boards from the Richard Borg games; “Memoir 44” and “The Great War”.

To enhance my plastic game tokens I invested in some 3mm (1/600) models by Odzial Osmy, supplied by Magister Militum, which I glued to the coloured plastic counters.

However, I have been so impressed by the quality of the models that I have decided to duplicate my GHQ 6mm forces for the Sealion campaign with 3mm models which I can use with the hexagon terrain that I have developed for 2mm scale 1700 period games.

One issue I have found is that British infantry are moulded in both upright and prone positions, but Germans are all prone.  Although even at this scale helmet styles give the game away I am working on using various infantry sets (British, German, Polish and French) to produce both armies in upright and prone positions.  Likewise all artillery will have a towed and deployed option, as supplied by Odzial Osmy.

Naturally at this scale identifying the models can be somewhat tricky, so I have based my models with allowance for a small label at the rear of each base, or alternatively a system of coloured dots or stripes (still to be decided).  My current game is still at a figure:man scale of 1:10 but I want the models to be available for 1:1 scale in future.  All bases are 15mm wide.  Depth is normally 15mm but deeper if needed to accommodate the models and a 5mm ID label.  Bases are cut from nominally 1mm (but nearer 1.5mm) MDF with corners snipped to prevent fraying.

To help with identification of infantry types I have opted for a simple convention:

Rifles are arranged in a single row of 4. (At the 1:10 figure scale I don’t need to worry about automatic wepons in a platoon).

MG teams (tripod mounted) are 3 figures to a base grouped around the MG.

Command groups are 2 or three figures, possible with a light vehicle.

Mortar and AT rifle teams are as moulded.  LMGs may stand in for AT rifles.

Engineers are one in front (with mine detector) and three behind.

Engineers with flamethrowers are two in front and two behind.

And here are the forces for both sides for the German landing at Little Common.  The bases have been given one coat of Basetex green, which will match the gaming area.  I plan to give each base a second coat and then tackle the models.