Miniatures

[spinwardpirate]

I miss the 15mm miniatures thread so I'm going to revive it.
15s, 25s, 28s, name your poison!
Myself, I'm mostly a fan of 25/28, which I consider to be the compatible, for the sole reason that I believe I can do any Traveller setting with the miniatures available on the market today (the market including ebay).

That being said, I love 15s for their usefulness in terms of vehicles, inexpensiveness, and the fact that whenever I see a 15 I get CT warm-fuzzies.

 

[-Daniel-]

I am in the 15mm camp for two main reasons.

1: I own hundreds of figres already painted and based in 15mm. From more then 200 of the old GW 15mm trveller stuff to platoons of various other manufacturers. I also have bought or traded for non-scifi that could be used. I have lots of vehicles and deck plans.

2: The cost in both money and time to switch to 25/28 at this point makes it very difficult to think of anything other then 15mm.

Now having said that, I have nothing against the 25/28 folks or their scale. I happen to think some of the 28mm stuff out there looks wonderful.

Daniel

 

[Infojunky]

I am a total 15mm boy my self.

That being said, when I switched there was a larger selection of alien figures in 15mm than there was in 25/28mm at the time. It was most converted fantasy from GW, though That has changed somewhat in the past few years with MegaMinis and other small producers coming out with their own lines.

The only figures I really think is missing from my 15mm collection are Hivers.

And I gonna try my hand at some this weekend.

What figures do y'all think should exist but doesn't?

 

[zozotroll]

I have several thousand 25/28 figs and vehicles, both historicl, fantasy and sci-fi.

I have several thousand painted 20mm, almost all Napolenic era historicals.

I have several hundred historical 15mm all split between WWII and Napoleonic historicals.

So I suppose I shouold be a fan of 25mm as I already have a lot of that. But my experience in all the scales has led me to consider 125mm the best for any game that involves lots of shooting needs to be in 15mm.

I love my 28mm wolfhound mech, but it looks stupid to start a fight almost close enough to apply a sticky bomb on the first turn. Tanks cause a lot of the same feeling. If I ever get rich and can aford a game room the size of a tennis court, then I certainly shall use 25mm. And invite everybody here over for a game.

 

[Infojunky]

I love my 28mm wolfhound mech, but it looks stupid to start a fight almost close enough to apply a sticky bomb on the first turn. Tanks cause a lot of the same feeling. If I ever get rich and can aford a game room the size of a tennis court, then I certainly shall use 25mm. And invite everybody here over for a game.

Heh, I know this one well....

I love vehicles, I love to have the room to let my little guys run, shoot etc...

Smaller is the only way. Significant terrain can fit on a 60mm base.

In the middle of mocking up a 15mm sized ships boat out of foamcore.

 

[zozotroll]

Have you oversized your terain? I do this sometimes, because real scared people can pack in a lot more than minis can. Try doing a loaded elevater some time.

I have a very vivid image of my SAW gunner, a grenadeir, and myself with an AT-4 all piled into a single slit trench. And we all fit. Very hard to model that on the table in any scale.

 

[Infojunky]

Have you oversized your terain? I do this sometimes, because real scared people can pack in a lot more than minis can. Try doing a loaded elevater some time.

I have a very vivid image of my SAW gunner, a grenadeir, and myself with an AT-4 all piled into a single slit trench. And we all fit. Very hard to model that on the table in any scale.

I have, waaayyy.... Back when I was in the Navy one of our favorite games was Twilight:2000 and every so often a player would state something outrageous, and well we made the player gear-up and try it.....

No, I don't build oversized terrain, this stems more from aesthetic sense than play, the facts of the figures doesn't always match what the characters exactly are doing. :roll:

 

[AKAramis]

My preference is 1/72 (20mm), followed closely by 15mm.

I dislike 25mm due to the lack of standardization in the scale. 28mm started off as just overscale 25mm. I've seen 25mm human figs that ranged in scale from about 22mm to about 30mm... foot-to-crown measure, BTW.

I also prefer the flexible plastics as used by Zvezda and Ceasar for their 1/72d scale minis.

I tend to run games with limited meleé happening. Often, either bows or guns are in use. I can use matching ground and figure scales for this on 15mm, but not on 25mm.

Heck, I used to run WFB using my SFB counters (1/2" counters) instead of minis, as part of my WFRP campaigns.

I'd like a 7mm (about 1/200) scale, as well, for playing out armor battles, etc. Also, 7mm fits nicely on 1/4"=1.5m deckplans.

The reduced mass and volume for 15mm makes it ideal for me when running RPG's. I like 10mm for wargaming, which is why I wrote a set of 10mm rules... but for RPG use, 15 is as small as I'd go. (10's tend to be cartoony OR lacking in detail.)

My overall preference for mini size for traveller, however, would be as follows (most desireable to least):
15mm, 20mm, 7mm, 10mm, 52mm, 25/28/30mm, just about anything else.

 

[Infojunky]

I'd like a 7mm (about 1/200) scale, as well, for playing out armor battles, etc. Also, 7mm fits nicely on 1/4"=1.5m deckplans.

How about 6mm? A common size generally encompassing 1:285 & 1:300 scales.

Heck, I have a project for this on the back burner, it is a skirmish set where all the figures are based on rare-earth magnets. I still ponder it every time I pack up to travel to a game. Though recognition comes down to color as the figures at a distance become little spots.

 

[Sturn]

I prefer "true" 25mm. I have lots of the old Star Wars and Traveller figures in this scale. They are easier to paint, and look much better then my 15mm minis (such as my T2000 collection).

Also, I have a large 1" squared board I use for various role-playing games. There are many game boards that use the 1" scale. I sometimes use large graph paper that has squares of 1" scale that I can draw on with colored pencils before a game session to use as play mats, especially for places my players will probably visit again (a ship, base, etc). If I used 15mm, then these easily obtainable huge sheets of graph paper would seem too large. 1" squares seem way to large for 15mm minis. When I used 15mms long ago, I used playmats that were about 1/2" squared.

Vehicles are larger in this scale, but I would guess that most of us don't have a large collection of 15mm scale vehicles anyone. I have a few 15mm and 25mm scale vehicles, but I normally end up making 'top-down' graphics and mounting them on foam or poster-board to use during play. So, scale doesn't matter, I can make what I want.

I don't make 3D battlefields with modeled terrain like some may who have the time and money or play tabletop miniature wargames. I completely understand if this is what you want, the 25mm scale would be way too large and thus expensive. I would go with 6mm scale if that is what I wanted to do. But for role-playing, which is centered on characters, not armies or vehicles, I like the 25mm for reasons listed above.

 

[Infojunky]

I prefer "true" 25mm. I have lots of the old Star Wars and Traveller figures in this scale. They are easier to paint, and look much better then my 15mm minis

Cool, though I find my situation reversed, I find 15mm figs much easier to paint than a lot of 25/28mm ones, generally it is in the details, 15mm figures generally have less. But, that is me.

Also, I have a large 1" squared board I use for various role-playing games. There are many game boards that use the 1" scale. I sometimes use large graph paper that has squares of 1" scale that I can draw on with colored pencils before a game session to use as play mats, especially for places my players will probably visit again (a ship, base, etc).

I have 3 of Chessex's MegaMats (approx. 3x4 ft) one tan with 1" squares, 2 clear with hexes, one with 1" the other with 16mm. They have seen a lot of use over the years. With the 1" mats I tended to use my vast collection of Cardboard heros which when coupled with the 1" to 2 meters ground scale that is Hero and TNE they worked, 1" to 5' or 1.5 meters not so well outside of that fantasy game, and not at all in Gurps in a SF setting as 1" to the yard. With all that with a ground scale of 1 cm to 1 meter my 15mm aren't really that far off of my original 1" to 2 meters.

But, you get the idea of how I got to my current size, that and a scout boat doesn't fill as much of the board.

If I used 15mm, then these easily obtainable huge sheets of graph paper would seem too large. 1" squares seem way to large for 15mm minis. When I used 15mms long ago, I used playmats that were about 1/2" squared.

I have a metric butt-load of 10 square to the inch sheets that are 18x24 inches in size, so with the clear hex mats I can draw layouts out also, though I tend to use a combination of Sharpies and Prismacolor markers.

I also have dabbled in Geomorphs based on 3" squares (works generally out to 5 15mm squares across, these are mounted on foamcore for durability (and as a base for modeling up when I get around to it ( can you see the thread here I like building models)).

Vehicles are larger in this scale, but I would guess that most of us don't have a large collection of 15mm scale vehicles anyone. I have a few 15mm and 25mm scale vehicles, but I normally end up making 'top-down' graphics and mounting them on foam or poster-board to use during play.

I've done that, GW put out a wonderful set of terrain tiles 15 or so years ago for Judge Dread. I cut all of those out, mounted them on card laminated them and used the hell out of them. That is what got me into modeling layouts thus the chain of madness from above.

Have you ever purchased pre-made ground plans? Or PDFs and printed them out? RpgNow has quite the collection.

 

[-Daniel-]

If anyone wants to see some shots of a part of my collection, here is a link to my Photobucket stash:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n43/dafrca/15mm Sci-Fi/

Daniel

 

[Jame Rowe]

My personal preference is 25mm, because I have a lot of 'em and because that scale makes for good character-scale RPGing.

 

[Sturn]

This link has some pictures of what I have done with mounted graphics and large graph paper (as discussed above). These are 28mm Star Wars figures, but they are close enough to guess what things would look like if using 25mm minis for Traveller.

 

[Infojunky]

This link has some pictures of what I have done with mounted graphics and large graph paper (as discussed above). These are 28mm Star Wars figures, but they are close enough to guess what things would look like if using 25mm minis for Traveller.

Dude that is some cool stuff, it is exactly the kinda of thing I was talking about, I just tend to take things to the next level.

I made oversized copies of Brubaker's from SJGs Traveller line, and laminated them for reuse.

Though some of my more involved paper projects had help, I was a night shift supervisor at Kinko's at the time, so a far number of personnel projects got done after hour on company equipment.

 

[-Daniel-]

This link has some pictures of what I have done with mounted graphics and large graph paper (as discussed above). These are 28mm Star Wars figures, but they are close enough to guess what things would look like if using 25mm minis for Traveller.

Nice Sturn. That looks good.

Thanks for the Link.

Daniel

 

[Infojunky]

So have any of y'all bought pre-printed sheets?

Or Pdf's?

 

[zozotroll]

You are an evil, evil person, whoever posted the link to Ground zero Games. There I was all happy to go 15mm, and then I find that you can get similar stargrunt figures in 15 and 25.

And they have minis of bunny girls with guns in 25mm. Which just happens to be my wifes all time favorite cyber/future charecter. To the point she is getting it tatooed on her chest this summer.

So now, if I get the 15mm grunts, I have to get matching 25mm to go with them, so that out of big battles we can have the bunny along.

The good part is that she is a way better painter than I am, and this should get her into playing Traveller. So maybe you arent totaly evil, but my bank is going to think so.

 

[tdwyer11b]

I normally end up making 'top-down' graphics and mounting them on foam or poster-board to use during play. So, scale doesn't matter, I can make what I want.

I'm currently doing some top-down's as well, however, instead of printing them out, I use them in a virtual tabletop (since all my rpg play is done this way now).

Do you draw your own or do you find stuff that's been already done? I'm using Inkscape at the moment, but still learning the software. Drawing by hand is easy for me, but getting used to drawing/coloring/shading inside software is still rather new for me.

Here's a scout, I'm working on:

 

[Infojunky]

You are an evil, evil person, whoever posted the link to Ground zero Games. There I was all happy to go 15mm, and then I find that you can get similar stargrunt figures in 15 and 25.

Heh.... Well, go to town which ever way. May I point out for the most part Jon's 25mm is a match for the classic Grenadier figures, not the current 28mm+s.

And they have minis of bunny girls with guns in 25mm. Which just happens to be my wifes all time favorite cyber/future charecter. To the point she is getting it tatooed on her chest this summer.

Well, then you will have her ok then... :twisted:
Did you see the Cat-girl space pirates?

If it hadn't been for the Aliens I would have just down shifted to GZG's 25mm, he has a huge line in that scale.

So now, if I get the 15mm grunts, I have to get matching 25mm to go with them, so that out of big battles we can have the bunny along.

The good part is that she is a way better painter than I am, and this should get her into playing Traveller. So maybe you arent totaly evil, but my bank is going to think so.

Cool see you win all around, I may have my own preferences, but when it comes to pimping GZG's figures, I'm there. Even with the exchange rate GZG's is great deal no matter what your scale.

As a side note the New Israeli's troops are a good stand in for the Master Chief from Halo. the 15's are the best, I hooked the boy with them.