Wednesday 20 October 2021

2 mill ville

First off - an apology. I’ve become aware that a number of my comments are failing to register on other folks blogs, I’m not sure why this should exactly so my strategy, (since I’m notoriously tech averse) is to wait the bugger out in the hopes that it gives in and fixes itself - like my broken toe did the one time.  

Anywhoo… despite being in the doldrums I thought I’d post a quick update on the 2mm front as a sort of progress report. The old black dogs been hanging around for the last few weeks but despite that I’ve ploughed through half a dozen Cogs, finished the 2mm armies, tinkered with a couple of my own rule sets, play tested Twilight of the Divine Right…mmmm… and set too on the terrain I need.

I’ve a lot of buildings to complete and that’s before I get on to castles and fortifications. I thought this scale’d be easy and quick…lol.

The buildings are from Brigade and are lovely despite my cacky painting.





The rivers are blue masking tape on plastic card, with a heavily pva’d garnish of fringe foliage. I’ve done enough sections to cover twists and turns over a 3ft length which should be enough. The woods and the roads are on the way.

I shall be cutting up a new 3mm thick mousepad game mat (sacrilege) to make contoured hills in the same colour and texture as the base game mat. I hope that’ll look okay. 

28 comments:

  1. This is the making of a proper village. It looks great!

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    1. Thanks Jonathan, I’m really enjoying this scale.

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  2. Great looking buildings. You’ve been really busy. Painting figures and buildings, and writing rules, playtest if. If this is when you’ve been in the doldrums, you put me to shame.

    Would be interested to hear what you think of the Twilight of the Divine Right rules.

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    1. Hi nundanket…I’m not really making that much headway when you consider I’m retired and have little else to do when the weathers crap. Twilight…mmm…where to start. There’s a lot of it I like. A lot. I actually get the concept that the fightings going on automatically, as it were, as you manoeuvre your troops in close proximity to the enemy but It somehow feels less satisfying to be rolling for their movement limiting morale outcome than it does for the results of a combat. The rules aren’t very well explained in some areas (like artillery) and I ended up writing out my own QRS to help nail down some of the main points. Oh and of course the whole shebangs blooming naked…not a hex or a square in sight - which for me takes some getting used to. I’d give it 6 out of 10. I suspect I’ll be using my own army level rules in the end, which isn’t a problem when you are a solo player.

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    2. I was thinking about having a stab at hexing up the Twilight of the Soldier Kings. That's as far as it's got though.

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  3. Maybe not a macho turn of phrase… but…
    They’re so cute…😂
    I have found that little toys take just as long to paint as bigger ones… mainly because I can’t stop myself painting all the little bloody details…

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Ooh you’re not wrong there Aly - especially on the 10 -15mm stuff. Fortunately too much detail painted in on these 2mm bods actually works against you - and as a consequence I’ve dialled it down a lot. With that said I did consider chopping up some of the open order dragoon bases to populate the streets with a few random people…

      I know, I know…too far.

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  4. Do you know, that's just lovely, the village and the river. I do ECW in 6mm and that might just have inspired me to try smaller.
    Looking forward to the next instalment of hills,etc.

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    1. Hi Chris - I had loads of fun with my 6mm ECW boys, though possessing clumsy hands of death, I was a constant sufferer of bendy pike syndrome. Lol. The 2mm lads obviously don’t suffer in that way, and though some would argue why not just play with counters the scenery that goes with them makes up for it to my mind.

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    2. Yes, come to think of it, they do come out of the box looking like they're armed with a bunch of bananas sometimes. Becoming more tempted with the thought of 2mm....

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    3. Chris I tried 2mm about four years ago and made a right hash of the figures. Patience and practise is required - and a magnifying glass. They say you can buy a whole street of houses in some parts up north for a couple of quid - in 2mm you can buy a whole blooming town!

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  5. Now a populous for those wonderful little villages would be an excellent idea. No such thing as ‘too far’ in this wonderful hobby of ours! As always you’re doing an excellent job on these models the set up is going to look awesome that’s for sure. Sorry to hear that the bloody black dog has been hounding you! I think this time of year contributes with dark mornings etc. It’s taken me a few years to work through those bad days. Retirement I thought would be a solution in fact it became another problem to be worked through. Main thing was to keep working with the toys and dismissing the dog. Take care

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    1. Hi Graham, I’ll see what I can do on the villagers front. I’m intrigued enough to give it a go. This time of year is definitely a bad time for depression and anxiety sufferers isn’t it, though I’ve been under the doctor for this nonsense since I was a teenager. Always ahead of the curve, me. Self isolating before it became a government mandated necessity, lol.

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  6. Some great work there and the Brigade buildings are lovely. The stream/river looks great too. I tried 2mm and enjoyed the look but never felt happy with my terrain that went with it. A dedicated games room would have solved this issue, so maybe something to revisit in the future...

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  7. Those are very convincing village/town bases JBM, one of the attractions of the scale. Sounds like you have been quite productive given the old Black Dog is still snapping at your heels. The river is great and I'm looking forward to your woods! Bad time of year for the poor old head, darker evenings, less sun don't help so keeping busy is one way of coping with it.

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    1. Hey Lee, a couple of those houses were formally yours, so thanks for the head start. I think of these housing tiles as part of a town rather than a village and they’re designed to go either side of a main road. Some of the others will have back gardens etc - though I must try not to get too carried away with it all. The woods have been delayed because there’s currently a nationwide shortage of woodland scenics light green. The lady at Wayland Games told me it’s all backed up on a lorry that’s stuck in Folkestone. I think she was joking… if not…Damn you Brexit! Lol.

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  8. Terrain is the star attraction of the 2mm scale and your pieces are lovely. I do like the river sections.

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    1. Thanks Norm, I’ve really enjoyed messing about with it. I’ll be happier when I can get a game or two out of it mind you. Every time I try a new scale I forget there’s all the terrain faff that has to be reinvented. I must suffer from short term memory loss every time Im exposed to something that grabs my fancy. By the way yours is one of the blogs along with Graham’s and Elenderils that I’ve had trouble posting too. Soz.

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  9. Hello there Old Chap,

    Very lovely looking indeed and the Brigade stuff is exquisite. I am also rather taken by those river sections. Good to see and if it keeps the black dog pacified it is doubly valuable. I am very much looking forward to seeing the end result in action....hint, hint!

    All the best,

    DC

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    1. Hi Crooky, the good things about 17th century housing is they can lean to one side, have odd sized windows and generally be all over the place and still look right somehow. I’ll be keen to link up roads rivers towns and woods to see how they look together. The terrain is generic enough to cover most ECW scenarios I think plus in this scale I can do reasonable looking vauban defences. Lots to do…lots to do!

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  10. How good are these? Bloody marvellous! Congrats on such top looking terrain.
    Regards, James

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    1. Thanks James, nice of you to say. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. Painting the 2mm blocks was a bit of a marathon given the number I wanted but the terrain is coming together much faster. Cheers for following the blog by the way!

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  11. Splendid looking buildings, they look tiny and great!
    Best Iain

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    1. Cheers Iain, the smaller the scale the bigger the ruddy battlefield has become - and consequently the more bloody terrain I seem to need.

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  12. Nice work JBM. Those Brigade Miniatures small scale buildings are great and you have painted them up brilliantly. If you ever need to talk when the BD is around you know where to find me.

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  13. "I’ve become aware that a number of my comments are failing to register on other folks blogs"

    Yours always end up in my spam filter. But I regularly check that, so i eventually find them :)

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    1. Where it belongs probably - but good to know you find it eventually KK.

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