My first regiments for Morale Napoleon

A brief interlude from the MOTH games: I have been putting together some figures in preparation to play Morale Napoleon. These are the results:

All the figures are from Walkerloo Print-Fantry. The ones on the left are from the "Les Grognards: Old Guard Grenadiers" set, while the ones on the right are from the "Coldstream Guards" set. All of them were printed at 30% scale, resulting in figures that are 15mm tall (from foot to eye level), then placed in sets of 4 on 60mm x 20mm bases -- the standard for infantry battalions in Morale Napoleon.

I still have to try a few battles in MapTool to get a better feel of how many more stands I will need to play the game.

Starfighters for MapTool

Here is another token pack for MapTool. This time there are four starfighter styles, in three color schemes.

A compressed file containing the tokens and the Inkscape file with the original vector drawings can be downloaded by clicking here. The files are shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Soldiers for MapTool

I have created a simple pack of top-down tokens of sci-fi soldiers in light armor, suitable for colonial forces or scout squads. These include soldiers with rifles, a heavy repeating laser and sergeants with submachine guns, all in four skin tones. Here is the preview:

The compressed file with all tokens and the Inkscape file used to build them can be obtained clicking here. The files are shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Lots of tiny paper miniatures!

Here we go into 2016, wishing a happy year for all the visitors of this blog!

I picked up a number of miniature games during the holidays and I intend to post some battle reports and reviews soon. For now, here are some pictures of the miniatures I built to play Alien Squad Leader (at a reduced scale), Five Core Company Command and possibly other games.

Two full companies with three platoons each and a swarm of alien slashers.

Some top-down tokens for sci-fi games

I have created some top-down tokens for sci-fi miniature games. They were made using basing conventions for Alien Squad Leader (thus 50mm square bases for infantry, 50mm x 100mm bases for the AFVs) but should be usable with other games.

Preview of the tokens: for now, just infantry and AFVs

A 300-dpi file in PDF format, with tokens in red and blue, can be downloaded from this link. This file is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, e.g. you can share and remix but please give credit when doing so.

A couple of painted miniatures

Finishing my miniature painting reports from last weekend, I painted my first two figures from Fields of Gore, a skirmish miniatures game made in Brazil. Here is the finished work. The guy on the left is "Kharlazan, the Magnificent" and the other one is a demon called "Yrktu".

I would dare say these reach "tabletop quality".

After taking these pictures I added some flock to the bases, but the result was not really great.

It is fun to think that I delayed painting these for quite a while. In the end, the result was somewhat messy, but more than enough to play (and some wounds and scabs on Yrktu ended up looking good.)

A bunch of other paper minis in 6mm scale

Today I went back to the project of using reduced Armor Grid miniatures, printed at 40% of their original size, as 6mm forces in games such as Strike Legion and 5150 Battalion Commander (previously I built some at 50% scale but 40% makes infantry size correct.)

I used the uncolored versions as I now have access only to a monochrome laser printer. I am still unsure if I will print them in colored paper or try to color them by hand.

Instead of assembling the infantry stands in a cross formation (which is mounted on an hexagonal base in Armor Grid), I simply folded each troop piece and glued them to a 1.5" x 0.5" base. For a command stand, I would use the original formation.

The light mechs were surprisingly easy to build, as I would only cut an approximate contour, while at the original scale I would spend a long time making every little cut precisely.

So this is it, any comments are welcome. I have some plans to run a short sci-fi campaign with some of these miniatures...

Adapting paper miniatures for plastic bases

Recently I saw a post (on a Facebook group about board game customization) about making custom Zombicide miniatures. Essentially, the idea is to add a regular sheet of paper in between the front and back of the miniature before cutting. It is a good idea to lightly brush each piece with a glue stick to prevent them from sliding while cutting. This produces a template in the exact shape of the cut mini, which can be glued to a piece of thick cardboard. After cutting it (and peeling off the template) you get three pieces: front, back and the cardboard filler.

In the original post, the resulting miniature was glued to a large coin, but I decided to try this technique to slot the miniature in a plastic base. It worked very well, the mini becomes very sturdy and can be easily removed from the base.

There is some extra work of cutting the thick cardboard, but I think it is worth it, especially for use in RPGs (or board games) with only a few miniatures. I think this could look good with either white or black edges, for 28mm miniatures.

Tall Top-down Tokens

Today I have made another experiment with top-down tokens. It is nothing really new but I wanted to see what kind of result I could get with my monochrome laser printer.

The tokens are glued to a 2mm thick EVA ("foamies") sheet. I print out the tokens and also some templates to cut extra pieces and stack them to varying heights. This way, obstacles that grant cover are 1 layer tall, infantry uses 2 layers, vehicles use 3 layers and buildings are 4 layers tall (in the test building in the picture, there are additional bits glued on top of it.)

The result is not very fancy but the different heights are helpful in understanding what each piece is, and add some "three dimensional feel" to an otherwise flat board. I might make a portable set this way, only using black foam as green is a little distracting (especially on the buildings.)

A zombie horde approaches!

Yesterday I built 60 zombies from various Darkmook survival horror sets. Some may be annoyed by the repeated poses but I think they still do their job well...

Now I have to set up some zombie survival games with these...

My new batch of 15mm post-apocalyptic minis

I have finished my "new generation" of 15mm paper minis (actually, some of them are a bit taller than that...) They took a while to make but I find the results really good:

They were printed at a photo print shop, thus the very bright colors and great details. To paint over white bits on the photo paper, I used a Sakura Identi-Pen. I have tried other similar pens but this is the one I have found to stick really well to that paper.

The bases were cut with a craft paper punch, 11/16" or roughly 17mm. I cut one circle of a texture sheet -- printed at home, as the glue I use does not take well on photo paper -- and one circle of a thin EVA sheet (also known as "foamies") then glued them together.

Also thanks to Sean for making some interesting posts about miniature photography. There is not so much I can do with a point and shoot camera and improvised lighting, but I think these pictures are already better than previous ones taken with the camera flash (or without flash and some fudging in Gimp.)

Warmancers and other figures

Today I finished some figure building during lunch break, including some figures from the Torn Armor set and the eight spellcasters of the Warmancers: Battle Arena set, both published by Grey Matter Games.

Here are the two war golems and one hoplite from Torn Armor. These were the figures used to playtest the game, which is on its last week on Kickstarter. They have mirrored backs but I like the style of the illustrations, and the poses seem to be pretty much the same of the actual 3D miniatures.

Here are the spellcasters from the Battle Arena game. Overall, I think that they have dynamic poses and nice colors -- although they might seem a little washed out in this picture, thanks to my camera. These do have backs but I only realized I did not take a picture when I was posting this, so I might add another image later.

Lastly, here is a "group shot" with all the figures. This time I printed everything at normal scale -- in this case 28mm. I have to admit, no matter how practical it may be for me to play at reduced scales, they look better at this larger size, so sometimes I just have to build some :)

Cyber Hero - Jay's Paper Mini

Today I finished the layout and test printing and assembly of Jay's miniature. I have sent him the source Gimp and Inkscape files should he want to do any kitbashing. Here is a 300dpi image of the miniature in different formats.

And here is a shot of the test build... my printer is acting up a little, printing some black lines and spots where it should not... Note: the mirrored version was due to a mistake while doing the layout in Inkscape. The PNG above has all versions with a left cyber arm.

The PDF version can be downloaded from this thread on the Cardboard Warriors forum.

Cyberpunk figure: final version

Or should I call it "release candidate"? Anyway, my scanner decided to work again, I had been slowly progressing over the week, and tonight I finished the line art for Jay's cyberpunk figure. The next step is to add colors and shading to have it finished...

For now I am thinking of dark brown trenchcoat, black (or dark gray) boots, light gray t-shirt, blue pants and white/yellowish hair, roughly like this:

A few more sketches

Here is the second batch of sketches... this time leaning a little more towards cyberpunk styles:

I tried to mix some different references from 80s cyberpunk games, sci-fi movies and heavy metal bands.

I might use the character sketch on the top right of the next picture as a starting point for the mini...

Back to paper modeling at last!

Today I finally spared some time to print and build paper models and minis. Here's a small "diorama" using Grey Matter Games' Camel, Slick's Minis modern soldiers and a crate from Finger and Toe Models, built in 15mm scale for my work desk:

A view from the opposite angle. I still have to do something with the foamboard base (maybe paint it black? Cover with tape?) to remove that rough look.

For the minis, I used a double sided tape that has a layer of "foam" in it. It is a technique suggested by Parduz at the Cardboard Warriors forum and I like the results: especially at this reduced scale the thick minis feel a little more "three-dimensional."

I also printed a full-size version of the Camel but I still have to finish building it so for now that's it.

Paper Figures as Game Tokens

As I wrote recently, I have been toying with different types of paper figures for my solo gaming. I came back to this after reading Chris Hahn's text on wargaming and realizing that, if you want to "just play the game" as Ed from Two Hour Wargames puts it, the paper figures are just game tokens.

You might get away with just using flat counters in the case of stand-based units. However, consider what happens when using flat tokens for individual minis. Even in 28mm scale, this means 1" circles or squares where you should fit enough information to represent the unit. For games like Song of Blades and Heroes (SBH) or All Things Zombie, that might be feasible: a flat token with a unit portrait and the few relevant stats, possibly a letter or number to identify similar creatures. Now move down to 15mm gaming. 10-15mm squares with text in it will be hard to read, whereas even a simple paper figure might make it easier to identify.

Now, to be clear, the artistic pursuit of creating paper minis as close to their resin and metal counterparts is very interesting. However, when considering practical factors and the "figure as game token" approach, other alternatives should not be ignored. In the following picture I have placed a few different paper miniature building styles. From left to right we have: two minis cut close to the outlines, and glued to plastic bases; two more cut close to the outlines with octogonal paper bases; three figures in "inverted T" style with textured bases; three in "A-frame" style and two 28mm-scale "inverted T" figures.

There is no discussion that the figures cut close to the outlines look better but in my experience, the others can be built a lot faster, making them ideal, at the very least, for trying new games. Although in that picture all the minis have white backgrounds, light colors could have been used to color-code different armies or unit types, adding information to the game token. Likewise, although these figures have front and back images, one might have symbols or small amounts of text on the back of each figure. Note: I'm not including the "triagonal" format in this discussion because I find it awkward to use in miniature games that require that minis have a defined front facing.

There is another aspect that differentiates paper miniatures meant to be cut close to the outlines from the ones to be used as "inverted T", A-frame etc.: perspective. Normally, the front and back views of the same figure will have different outlines thanks to the effects of perspective (i.e. foreshortening.) A nice example can be seen in this barbarian figure from Arion Games -- just check the hammer he is wielding.

Now, if you want a mini that can be cut along the outlines, you need the front and back to match. The only ways this will happen are:
a) all elements are placed (approximately) at the plane of the image, i.e. nothing jutting out or extending towards the back;
b) your image uses parallel projection, i.e. no distortion due to the distance.

The effect of doing either is that you lose some depth and dynamics from the figure. Comic book authors tend to exaggerate perspective effects because it adds movement to the image. Now, if your paper figures don't have to have matching front and back outlines, there is no such limitation. As a bonus, you can have figures in poses that would be too complicated to cut out otherwise. This also means that publishers who use inverted T, A-frame or triagonal formats and don't exploit different poses and perspective are really missing out on the opportunity.

Although I find A-frames less attractive than inverted Ts, they also have two interesting qualities. First, because the images are placed at angled planes, they are readable even from a steeper angle. Second, they actually enclose a volume, so they don't feel as "flat" as other paper minis. Some people will value these features higher than others, certainly.

To finish this crazy rant, I have two images to illustrate the use of inverted T's and A-frames. First, here's a picture of some insurgents vs. soldiers.

Second, here's "Get to the flying thingy before the bugs overrun us!" -- soon to be actually played out using the old BUGS! rule set from Two Hour Wargames...

Each picture was taken at about 50cm away from the table. What I wanted to highlight with them was the readability of the different figures on the tabletop. While these aren't pretty dioramas, it is possible to distinguish the figures and what's going on.

Conclusion

I've spent a considerable amount of time making paper figures and terrain but recently I'm starting to think about them as game tokens, so their practical use takes precedence over visual impact. Some times you want a gorgeous table, other times you just want to play the game. This doesn't mean I'll stop making more elaborate paper figures; it's just a change in priorites.

Those who are about to die

So I jumped the Red Sun Black Moon (RSBM) bandwagon, so to speak... While I frequently read the Two Hour Wargames discussion group, this title (and its older sibling, Red Sand Blue Sky) had been under the radar for me so far. Actually, what sold RSBM to me were these wonderful battle reports from Carmen's Fun Painty Time (more here and here) and every day new, awesome reports are popping up on the discussion group.

Since this game is played in an arena with sector-based movement, there is no need for a large board even if you use 28mm miniatures -- so I printed a bunch of them to use as my arena fighters. In this picture there are humans from Okum Arts, reptilians from One Monk, dwarves and elves from PERMES, the just-released lion men from Reivaj and orcs from Sanity Studios.

Here's the arena I made, drawing on a corkboard self-adhesive tile. Each of the 9 sectors in the middle is 2" wide. Later on I might add some 3D walls around it (maybe in a flat-folding format.)

While reading the rules I created a few fighters (as recommended) and staged some test battles to get the hang of the procedures. In very broad terms, the game's turns involve movement and when you end your movement in the same sector as another figure, you enter the maneuver phase. The maneuver phase models the fighters trying to find an opening in their opponent's defense and get an advantage. It is an opposed roll that may lead to an attack phase. This is similar to Qwik, but with a lot of additional details both in the test modifiers and in the outcomes. The fighters can also have several special abilities (and some negative effects, too,) referred to as signatures, which add to variety. And while you might roll some handfuls of dice at times, the game flows smoothly and welcomes narrative interpretation.

Fight!

Here's a battle report of my first complete fight in the arena. I played Karos, a red sun dwarf against Drush, a black moon orc. Dwarves and orcs have been fighting for ages, in wars, skirmishes and arenas. The corruption of some dwarven clans by the black moon cults has only increased the hatred of those faithful to the Red Sun. I counted both figures as wearing light armor (AC 1.) The dwarf used a large shield and a halberd, while the orc carried a two-handed axe. Both of them had good fighting skills and while the orc was stronger, the dwarf was a little more agile.

Post-apocalyptic playground update

Now that I'm building only 15mm stuff (with the possible exception of Into the Fray,) I decided to organize the post-apoc 20mm models and minis into a separate box to make them easy to find and use. I found a cardboard box that was going to be recycled and covered it with some gray paper. The box is about 8"x8"x4".

 Inside, I've put all the models for my "post-apocalyptic playground", props and 20mm scale figures.

There's enough to moderately fill a 2'x2' board for some small skirmishes... good for playtesting new rule sets or for a quick game.

More 15mm minis and buildings

I've been thinking about picking up Dave Graffam's recently released street map and building a 15mm version of it. However, it would be no good without buildings to put on it. This was the necessary excuse to go back to some papercraft... in this case, I built Dave's longhouse and a couple of Sanity Studios militia in 15mm (i.e. printing 4 pages to a page) to see if the results (considering my ability) would be worth the effort.

Overall, I'm pleased with both the proportions between building and figures and their appearance. The figures could be lighter but for this test I printed everything directly from the PDF viewer, therefore I had no options to adjust the brightness of the images.

These test prints were done in 90gsm paper, causing them to be a little more fragile. However, it also makes building the model or cutting the miniatures a lot more comfortable in this small scale (scoring and folding small flaps in cardstock can be very annoying.)