Hi all.
I wanted to show you all an interesting idea that our gaming group developed during the last 6 months. What we managed to achieve is a radical reduction in dimensions of the standard Warhammer 40.000 into a much, much smaller version, using the easily available miniatures for Epic Armageddon.
When we first though about it we were quite surprised not to find anyone else on internet who already managed to get it properly functioning. There was only a single discussion on Tau Online silent from years now.
In the last months we then embarked on this simple project of our own on testing the actual feasibility of the idea. To our surprise it turned out to be absolutely efficient, easy to achieve, and fun.
It actually proved to be so good that we wanted to share the discovery with other Warhammer 40k players in the hope that other people will pick up the idea and enjoy the game.
With no further ado, here goes the link to the website, which hold pretty much every information and material about Pocket Warhammer 40K:
The game is still being improved by adding more and more models to our collection, material to the website, pictures, tutorials and so on; therefore, any comment is much welcome!
I remember one poster on another forum had a pocket version of Space Hulk. He used Epic Terminators and Genestealers and magnetized the bases. He used fridge magnet strips that were printed or painted, and set it up on his fridge.
That's totally awesome!
I guess we can add pictures of a Warhammer game on the fridge... That would be the second fridge featured. XD
By the way, since the website still needs, badly needs, nice pictures, anyone willing to join development and show his works is free to submit pictures fitting with Pocket Warhammer, tutorials and so on. There should be no problems in adding them.
This looks really interesting. Having a scaled-down version of 40K would be amazing, but there could be issues with moving the tiny miniatures around with precision.
you know this could be perfect for me. I collected warhammer for years and sort of just fell out of it cause of wife, kids etc. I just cant justify the time or money to invest into painting so many models, especially when im sort of OCD about painting. This could be a great and cheaper way to get into playing more. Only problem I could see is finding enough people to play with. But it would be awesome to try! thanks for this post, something to look into!
NimbleJack3 wrote:This looks really interesting. Having a scaled-down version of 40K would be amazing, but there could be issues with moving the tiny miniatures around with precision.
Well, we tried it. As we mention in the website, everyone can face a bit of difficulty in moving infantry for the first one or two games. Luckily is only a matter of experience, so after the said couple of games, no one should have problems with the small size. It also depends on the level of precision that one wishes to achieve. Vehicles give no problem at all, not even in the beginning.
Gorgarak wrote:you know this could be perfect for me. I collected warhammer for years and sort of just fell out of it cause of wife, kids etc. I just cant justify the time or money to invest into painting so many models, especially when im sort of OCD about painting. This could be a great and cheaper way to get into playing more. Only problem I could see is finding enough people to play with. But it would be awesome to try! thanks for this post, something to look into!
I'm happy to hear it! The game was actually tested and optimized exactly towards these needs. Finding people is more difficult, if you expect them to have their own army, but it should be pointed out that Pocket W40K is so cheap and easily made that one single person can hold and own multiple armies for various factions.
In a big army we were asked to prepare tabletop ready the amount of models was pretty much as follows:
3 land raider, 6 land speeder, 10 rhinos, 16 bikes, more than 100 SM etc etc. Clearly the numbers are excessive for a single army, but they allow for great variability, as well as building two armies of SM. When it come to play with others, you simply share the miniatures.
In short, you just need to invite people to play warhammer, and they just need to bring their list, and beer.
This is true.
Elite armies are much confortable to use in battle, for the low number of models. On the other hands, Horde armies are beautiful at this scale (in my opinion), and to resolve the problem, you can use a magnetic base to move all the models like a single unit.
I can assure you that this works!
Well this got me back on my own project for pocket 40k from a few years ago that I was considering enough to pick up some models. And then a few years after that I grabbed a bunch of Epic Armageddon stuff.
And not this got me to go back and take a look at my Epic stuff and see if I could put together at least 3-4 2k armies and god help me I found:
2 NIBIG Leman Russ Tank Companies 2 NIBIG Company Boxes 1 NIB Space Marine Company 2 NIB Ork Warbands
And a ton of vehicles for orks, IG, and SM's.....Guess I'm gonna be putting a few armies together. I'll try and get some painted up and put up some photos. This is a good side project since I don't have any time to paint real armies right now due to real life. Might even pick up a Chaos box or two to help use up my extra SM vehicles. It does make me wish I had grabbed a few Tyranid Swarm boxes when they've come up from time to time. This'll also be great for quick playtesting for new builds before I commit to new models
Oh, and if you can find it the unofficial supplement "Epic: Raiders" has some great conversion ideas for Necrons & DE.
Hulksmasher, we're happy to liste that you like the idea!
If you have photos, comments or other thinks to say about pocket, you can see the new section on Dakkadakka
We have created a new topic for the news, because this topic was a topic of presentation of the project. If anyone wants to become part of Pocket Warhammer 40k, this is our mail
pocketw40k@gmail.com
We know epic armageddon and we know the Epic:Raiders supplement. Fantastic. Our friend Levian works at DE, and he sculpt DE models like the last edition, you can see here
Definitely keeping an eye on this. Looks really cool (though as someone who really enjoys the painting aspect, I'd probably only use this as a way to get people into 40k in general).
That is a great idea, especially the ability for it to be a bit more pick up and play.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
NimbleJack3 wrote: This looks really interesting. Having a scaled-down version of 40K would be amazing, but there could be issues with moving the tiny miniatures around with precision.
Yeah this is probably the only reason i am not buying the minis for the game right now. That and i am broke, but mostly the first reason.
Brand new updates for today, always about Necron and their dreadful vehicles. Today it's the turn for an extremely quick and simple tutorial to create a 6mm Doomsday ark:
Phototoxin wrote: IIRC in a really old WD they had a guy who made 'travel' 40k using epic minis with pins in the base and putting them on a board made of polystyrene.
Yep. They were playing it while waiting in line at Games Day 2000, I watched them for a while.
I've been working on something similar for a few months. My method has been to mount epic minis on standard bases and change the measurements to cm instead of inches. Works fine so far. Cool to see other people have similar things going on.
Remember!!!! If you have some photos about rescaled warhammer 40k, please send us!!!!!!!!!!!
We'll insert your photos in the Gallery section of our website
I'm ultra short of time these days, but i'll see if i can take some half-decent pics on my phone and upload them. So far i have a few eldar and ultramarine things done, with a few world-eaters things w.i.p.
The work on Necron minature continues, and this week a tutorial for the heavy support Doom Scythe is ready, together with the new shopping list for the Necron army.
Here are the links:
I just saw this and intend to pull out my original epic to do this with mk1 land raiders and such to use as pocket version 30k as well with titans etc and appoc games. I love the idea as I doubt i will ever play Epic again and the models laying around can be useful for travel games, and other things you have mentioned .
This week it's time for something a bit more unusual. There are no updates concerning the game, but a member of anoter WH40K forum has agreed in sharing pictures of his miniatures on the website. You can look at the pictures at the following page:
This week we can finally show the creation of the new member of the group, Anthea. For this week she decided to make the tutorial for the Screamers of Tzeentch.
You can find and use it at the following link:
We have piled up quite a lot of 6mm miniatures so far, and it's time for a new gallery section. Black Templars are the topic of this week, as well as the soldiers in first outdoor battle:
This week end we've the new photos in the Space Wolves section of our website! Enjoy the quality of the models, and the quality of the conversion (especially the bikes!).
ENJOY!!!!
We had a break in the production of nice miniatures for our Gallery, and spent some time in a very simple and fundamental tutorial for Necron players.
It's not much, but it's essentially because we're working on a few side projects for Pocket that will, hopefully, come out before Christmas.
Anyway, this tutorial explains how to make a Destroyer Lord out of a 6mm miniature .
Hi all.
I wanted to show you all an interesting idea that our gaming group developed during the last 6 months. What we managed to achieve is a radical reduction in dimensions of the standard Warhammer 40.000 into a much, much smaller version, using the easily available miniatures for Epic Armageddon.
When we first though about it we were quite surprised not to find anyone else on internet who already managed to get it properly functioning. There was only a single discussion on Tau Online silent from years now.
In the last months we then embarked on this simple project of our own on testing the actual feasibility of the idea. To our surprise it turned out to be absolutely efficient, easy to achieve, and fun.
It actually proved to be so good that we wanted to share the discovery with other Warhammer 40k players in the hope that other people will pick up the idea and enjoy the game.
With no further ado, here goes the link to the website, which hold pretty much every information and material about Pocket Warhammer 40K:
The game is still being improved by adding more and more models to our collection, material to the website, pictures, tutorials and so on; therefore, any comment is much welcome!
I absolutely love this idea!
Not sure which army to play yet, but leaning towards Tau or Orks. I really want an excuse to make mini sized terrain
While the game looks great, I hope that you have consulted with an attorney. I would be very very very careful about the use of Games Workshop logos, phrases, races, and miniatures. Though I see that you have a legal disclaimer on your web page (where you admit that you are using GW IP without permission), that will likely not protect you against an injunction for trademark infringement. Further, GW could go beyond an injunction request and demand recovery of any profits that you made while associating your product with 40k, and any attorney's fees that they incurred during the proceeding.
Not sure which army to play yet, but leaning towards Tau or Orks. I really want an excuse to make mini sized terrain
I’m happy that you like the idea!
If you want to give it a try, I would suggest you to start with Orks, since you can find pretty much all the miniatures in no time. Tau are discontinued, and when they are on sale, their prices are far beyond the acceptable.
While the game looks great, I hope that you have consulted with an attorney. I would be very very very careful about the use of Games Workshop logos, phrases, races, and miniatures. Though I see that you have a legal disclaimer on your web page (where you admit that you are using GW IP without permission), that will likely not protect you against an injunction for trademark infringement. Further, GW could go beyond an injunction request and demand recovery of any profits that you made while associating your product with 40k, and any attorney's fees that they incurred during the proceeding.
I'm just sayin', be careful.
You bring up a topic that we have thoroughly considered when we started the whole idea, and there are many things to say about it, so I’ll try to keep it short.
First, it is important to make clear a few points:
We are not selling a product, and, to be exact, this is not a product in itself. What we’re doing is merely show an idea of ours to the widest public possible, especially considering the very positive feedbacks that we’re receiving continuously. Money are intentionally left out of the idea, meaning that we don’t earn anything from this, and we finance the whole thing out of our wallets (yes, we buy the miniatures, the chips with magnets, and that’s it).
We have chosen as medium for this “communication” a website, but a blog would have been equally effective. We inform people of what we’re doing, and we show that it can be done.
Not that all of this is clear, we can go on. As you have correctly noted, we do have a disclaimer, but this disclaimer is not intended to defend us against any injunction. In case of troubles with GW, we expect things to go as usual: they present us an injunction, telling us that we’re using their logos, phrases, etc (so far the only thing that may trigger such an event, to our knowledge), and they either ask us to remove them, or simply to shut down the website. If we have any criticism to their request, this would start a proceeding, otherwise, we simply comply with their requests.
Note, however, that what we’re doing is not opposing GW in any way. We’re actually very supportive towards it, and we never encourage to act in any way that would possible harm it.
It is, after all, the company that gave birth and fostered the whole Warhammer universe, and this idea of our is a tribute to it all.
Not sure which army to play yet, but leaning towards Tau or Orks. I really want an excuse to make mini sized terrain
I’m happy that you like the idea!
If you want to give it a try, I would suggest you to start with Orks, since you can find pretty much all the miniatures in no time. Tau are discontinued, and when they are on sale, their prices are far beyond the acceptable.
While the game looks great, I hope that you have consulted with an attorney. I would be very very very careful about the use of Games Workshop logos, phrases, races, and miniatures. Though I see that you have a legal disclaimer on your web page (where you admit that you are using GW IP without permission), that will likely not protect you against an injunction for trademark infringement. Further, GW could go beyond an injunction request and demand recovery of any profits that you made while associating your product with 40k, and any attorney's fees that they incurred during the proceeding.
I'm just sayin', be careful.
You bring up a topic that we have thoroughly considered when we started the whole idea, and there are many things to say about it, so I’ll try to keep it short.
First, it is important to make clear a few points:
We are not selling a product, and, to be exact, this is not a product in itself. What we’re doing is merely show an idea of ours to the widest public possible, especially considering the very positive feedbacks that we’re receiving continuously. Money are intentionally left out of the idea, meaning that we don’t earn anything from this, and we finance the whole thing out of our wallets (yes, we buy the miniatures, the chips with magnets, and that’s it).
We have chosen as medium for this “communication” a website, but a blog would have been equally effective. We inform people of what we’re doing, and we show that it can be done.
Not that all of this is clear, we can go on. As you have correctly noted, we do have a disclaimer, but this disclaimer is not intended to defend us against any injunction. In case of troubles with GW, we expect things to go as usual: they present us an injunction, telling us that we’re using their logos, phrases, etc (so far the only thing that may trigger such an event, to our knowledge), and they either ask us to remove them, or simply to shut down the website. If we have any criticism to their request, this would start a proceeding, otherwise, we simply comply with their requests.
Note, however, that what we’re doing is not opposing GW in any way. We’re actually very supportive towards it, and we never encourage to act in any way that would possible harm it.
It is, after all, the company that gave birth and fostered the whole Warhammer universe, and this idea of our is a tribute to it all.
Glad you have thought it over. I'm a second-year law student (though I work in the criminal law field, not IP law) so these things naturally catch my eye. I would hate to see a creative project like this get shut down for preventable legal reasons.
Love the 6mm Necron miniatures.
You know what they say: "What's the difference between lawyer and a catfish? One is a bottom dwelling scum sucker, and the other one is a fish."
Glad you have thought it over. I'm a second-year law student (though I work in the criminal law field, not IP law) so these things naturally catch my eye. I would hate to see a creative project like this get shut down for preventable legal reasons.
Love the 6mm Necron miniatures.
You know what they say: "What's the difference between lawyer and a catfish? One is a bottom dwelling scum sucker, and the other one is a fish."
It is very rewarding to see that people are interested to the project, and actually care for it.
I do really appreciate your concern. If anything else come to your mind, and you have any ideas on how to improve the actual situation (legal or otherwise), don't hesitate to tell us! We also have an e-mail for more private discussion if you wish.
ENOZONE wrote:Well now it looks like I can finally have the 1 Million strong army I've always wanted...
I also inform you that during this week we're planning some major changes to the website, and old links may stop working. The link to the hompage will remain the same anyway.
New aspect of the website, hope you'll enjoy this too!!
You can find all the relevant news, and a log of all the changes at the bottom of the home page.
On the news for this week. This time we have decided to embark on a bit of shameless propaganda, and to answer to the most common questions as well with our first video on Pocket! Have a look and spread the word!
We have added another tutorial this week, filling another gap for the Necron list! It is the turn of the Catacomb Command Barge / Annihilation Barge.
Only very few Necron models are missing to complete the whole range of miniatures, but the models available right now are more than enough for the most typical armies.
For the full list of the miniatures available for Necron players, this is the page:
For this week we have enough material for two announcements!
The first announcement is about three new Blood Angels pictures in their Gallery section, featuring a Predator, a Razorback, and a very detailed Tactical Squad.
The second is about a very useful article on 6mm bases, how to make them, and what is the right size for each miniature.
If you guys want, I can make some designs for most anything for 3D printing. (CAD Designer - I use Solidworks, so can make whatever.)
If anyone wants something custom done for whatever, I generally just ask you just add something to what you're 3D printing and sending it to me for the work.
This is a fantastic idea, I would definitely use both versions of full scale and pocket; but the pocket would be great for playing at home where I don't have the room for a full size game.
lord_bobbington wrote: This is a fantastic idea, I would definitely use both versions of full scale and pocket; but the pocket would be great for playing at home where I don't have the room for a full size game.
Thanks for the compliments!
Actually we do exactly this: we use Pocket for playing at home, and the normal 28mm WH40K in the clubs and associations
After nearly one month of celebrations, holidays, partying, gaming and intense post-celebration work, we're finally back with some nice "6mm pictures".
The holiday period was the time of a big twist in our Warhammer 40K campaign! The Ork forces have been annihilated, and the Necron now threten the planet of Landair! more pictures in the Campaign section of our website:
For this weekend we bring to you probably the most amazing 6mm tutorial in our site that you've ever seen! A full Dark Eldar Raider made of plasticard. Check it out!
I'll be playtesting this game with a few of my friends, and a budget of about £40 each for armies (If you're gonna bring a warlord titan, I'm gonna spam predators, and you'll have nothing to stop me).
I'll see if I can get a battle report on this one, thanks for the idea!
Selym wrote: This is a great site, and an excellent idea
I'll be playtesting this game with a few of my friends, and a budget of about £40 each for armies (If you're gonna bring a warlord titan, I'm gonna spam predators, and you'll have nothing to stop me).
I'll see if I can get a battle report on this one, thanks for the idea!
Thank you for your compliments!
Keep informed us if you realize your 6mm 40k, and please send us your photos so we can open a section on our website to show it on the web
Reading above, since I still have my epic starter set, I intend on painting up and building the models and making an "oh the go" version of warhammer. 40K as well. there is a plethora of 6mm based models to be used as proxies.
all from some inspiration of a folded up carry on version of a blood bowl board that I saw on the Dakka galleries. awesome stuff!
Reading above, since I still have my epic starter set, I intend on painting up and building the models and making an "oh the go" version of warhammer. 40K as well. there is a plethora of 6mm based models to be used as proxies.
If you want to do you own version of Pocket Warhammer, please don't forget to send us photos of your work!!! We'll upload it on our website in the Gamer's Gallery, like Pekel:
I need to try this. For too long have I been forced to play Magic at lunch with my friends. Now I'll be able to bring all my Warhammer stuff to school!
xSPYXEx wrote:I need to try this. For too long have I been forced to play Magic at lunch with my friends. Now I'll be able to bring all my Warhammer stuff to school!
I know what you're talking about, and I can only agree with you!
Mywik wrote:We're already planning to build a board and two forces. Thanks for the idea. Its just too awesome,
Okay, this evening I shall be ordering a space marine battle company and some rhinos, along with some superglue and a fine-detail paintbrush It should arrive by thursday, possibly wednesday. When I get them, I'm gonna get some pictures of putting them together, and of my terrible paintjob.
After that will be playtesting with half of the force against the other half
Great! Remember to use magnets and metallic board, or the game will be unplayable. I would also suggest only a few models for the first playtest (around 500pt).
Don't worry about the paintjob. Simple basecoat, then main color, then dark wash (for the details), then details and highlight. Experiment a bit and you'll soon find you own way. ;-)
Dirinel wrote: Great! Remember to use magnets and metallic board, or the game will be unplayable. I would also suggest only a few models for the first playtest (around 500pt).
Don't worry about the paintjob. Simple basecoat, then main color, then dark wash (for the details), then details and highlight. Experiment a bit and you'll soon find you own way. ;-)
Good points there
With that in mind, to test everything out I'll give both sides the following:
5 man assault squad
5 man devastator squad w/lascannons (you'll see how I do that when I'm done )
10 man tactical w/ rhino
10 man tactical w/ rhino
Dirinel wrote: Great! Remember to use magnets and metallic board, or the game will be unplayable. I would also suggest only a few models for the first playtest (around 500pt).
Don't worry about the paintjob. Simple basecoat, then main color, then dark wash (for the details), then details and highlight. Experiment a bit and you'll soon find you own way. ;-)
Good points there
With that in mind, to test everything out I'll give both sides the following:
5 man assault squad
5 man devastator squad w/lascannons (you'll see how I do that when I'm done )
10 man tactical w/ rhino
10 man tactical w/ rhino
And possibly a captain proxy.
Sounds like a good start! I personally prefer to field Librarians as opposed to Captains, but I guess it alsodepends on personal taste/strategy
Dirinel wrote: Great! Remember to use magnets and metallic board, or the game will be unplayable. I would also suggest only a few models for the first playtest (around 500pt).
Don't worry about the paintjob. Simple basecoat, then main color, then dark wash (for the details), then details and highlight. Experiment a bit and you'll soon find you own way. ;-)
Good points there
With that in mind, to test everything out I'll give both sides the following:
5 man assault squad
5 man devastator squad w/lascannons (you'll see how I do that when I'm done )
10 man tactical w/ rhino
10 man tactical w/ rhino
And possibly a captain proxy.
Sounds like a good start! I personally prefer to field Librarians as opposed to Captains, but I guess it alsodepends on personal taste/strategy
The captain is just the easiest to field with a new way of playing, as it uses the fewest rules That, and I wanted to kill a highly experienced and respected commander
Automatically Appended Next Post: Huh.. I've been doing a few calculations, and I have an idea...
The standard unit in the 28mm Wh40k game is 6". Converting this proportionately to the 6mm scale, the standard unit is 32.004mm, which is rather unwieldy.
I therefore propose making the standard unit 35mm, or 3.5cm to make calculations much simpler.
Giving us the following:
1"= 5.8333mm = 0.58333cm
3" = 17.5mm = 1.75cm [This one is awkward, but it's in rare useage in the game]
6" = 35mm = 3.5cm
12" = 70mm = 7cm
18" = 105mm = 10.5cm
24" = 140 mm = 14cm
36" = 175mm = 17.5cm
48" = 210mm = 21cm
Which I find to be much simpler to use than the rather unwieldy calculation of:
The reasons for this is that measuring in multiples of 5 is much easier on a base ten system (all of our mathematics and metric measurements) than measuring in multiples of 8.
When we started Pocket the problem of the scale was clearly the most important, so we discussed it a lot. I would be insincere if I was to say that we did not consider the use of "artificial" measurements to make everything easier.
I remember one person even came up with the idea of simply assuming that 1" is 1cm, and play using 6mm miniatures.
We discarded it for two reasons, but one being the most important:
the more difference between the scale of the models and the scale of their movements, the larger is the impact of the model size on the gamplay. In the scaling we report on the website, everything keeps the right scale assumed by the rulebook, thus there is no change whatsoever on the gameplay.
But let's take the extreme case of 1cm = 1"
Your SM in a unit will be in choerency if they are within 2cm of at least another SM; this means that you can actually put a Rhino (1.5cm long) between two Space Marine in the same unit, and the unit wtill retain its coherency. A bit weird. If you try you will see that more and more bizarre situations come up, involving range of weapons, radius of templates, cover and so on.
In your scaling system you have a smaller degree of the same effect, since all the distances are slightly increased (the effect is more sensible on longer distances)
This was the math talk. Now the gamer's talk:
-as long as it works for your gaming group, do it! There are a large number of things that should be re-scaled to make the game work properly again, but as long as no one really cares about precision, I don't see much of a problem with your calculations.
Oh, and the second reason for the scaling system we chose is that, regardless of the ankwardness of the numbers, no one really cares about it, if you have a pre-made meters and templates like the ones at this webpage!
https://sites.google.com/site/pocketw40k/home/playing/rescale-the-game Not to mention the fact that also the base size of all the infantry miniatures, as well as their height, is choerent with the standard Wharamme 40K system.
PS: I think I should write a bit about this topic on the same page, just to let everyone know about it. Thanks for the idea!
The game is very close to one quarter the scale. that would make the unit conversions very easy. just run everything at 25%
a 6" movement would be an inch and a half. 2" coherency would be half an inch and so on and so on.
you could also use velcro and felt for a gaming area.
if you do choose to go for steel plate, use galvanized steel plate. it takes glue better and is generally found in thinner lighter amounts. its also very easy to shape and cut.
Rimmy wrote: The game is very close to one quarter the scale. that would make the unit conversions very easy. just run everything at 25%
a 6" movement would be an inch and a half. 2" coherency would be half an inch and so on and so on.
I can only repeat what I already said: if you like, you can do it. The game won't be balanced, but you can, if it's fine to you.
you could also use velcro and felt for a gaming area.
In short: no.
It takes a lot more work, and the result is much poorer from many points of view. Plus you can't put your models on buildings (which you can do with magnetic paint, as shown here: https://sites.google.com/site/pocketw40k/home/gamer-s-pictures/pekel ) and the added base height is very much.
Magents are by far easier to use, to fit, and nicer to look at.
if you do choose to go for steel plate, use galvanized steel plate. it takes glue better and is generally found in thinner lighter amounts. its also very easy to shape and cut.
Not really necessary. We're using flat metallic boards we buy at the hardware store for less than 5$ each, nicely framed and perfect size (A3 or A4). Glue and paint stick perfectly, and the magentic adherence is mostly dependent on the strenght of the magnets and the weight of the models, rather than the thickness of paint.
We like to keep things easy for everyone and always working!
Rimmy wrote: The game is very close to one quarter the scale. that would make the unit conversions very easy. just run everything at 25%
a 6" movement would be an inch and a half. 2" coherency would be half an inch and so on and so on.
I can only repeat what I already said: if you like, you can do it. The game won't be balanced, but you can, if it's fine to you. well, like was previously established, warhammer is not a full to scale game to begin with, so its never going to work 100%.
you could also use velcro and felt for a gaming area.
In short: no.
It takes a lot more work, and the result is much poorer from many points of view. Plus you can't put your models on buildings (which you can do with magnetic paint, as shown here: https://sites.google.com/site/pocketw40k/home/gamer-s-pictures/pekel ) and the added base height is very much.
Magents are by far easier to use, to fit, and nicer to look at.
While I appreciate magnets, they are also expensive. you can buy pre made velcro dots that are self adhesive. it IS a possibility.
if you do choose to go for steel plate, use galvanized steel plate. it takes glue better and is generally found in thinner lighter amounts. its also very easy to shape and cut.
Not really necessary. We're using flat metallic boards we buy at the hardware store for less than 5$ each, nicely framed and perfect size (A3 or A4). Glue and paint stick perfectly, and the magentic adherence is mostly dependent on the strenght of the magnets and the weight of the models, rather than the thickness of paint.
We like to keep things easy for everyone and always working!
this isn't a matter of neccesity. depending on the grade, standard not treated steel will develop rust as you paint it or use a water based adhesive. this will cause your paint or glues to start to slide off and chip very quickly. Galvanized plate doesn't corrode anywhere near as fast, and will look better, longer under current modeling techniques.
As I said, I appreciate your efforts greatly, but you're not the only one to ever do this.
Rimmy wrote: this isn't a matter of neccesity. depending on the grade, standard not treated steel will develop rust as you paint it or use a water based adhesive. this will cause your paint or glues to start to slide off and chip very quickly. Galvanized plate doesn't corrode anywhere near as fast, and will look better, longer under current modeling techniques.
On the website we never suggest plain steel as gaming surface, but only whiteboards. There is a dedicated section about the tables: https://sites.google.com/site/pocketw40k/home/tools/the-tables .
Whiteboards are easily available office supplies, they are cheap, and come pre-painted. The "paint" is tipically a PolyEThylene coating (PET), which makes them water-proof; other coatings work just as well anyway. For more information there is even a wikipedia page on whiteboards! Out of experience I'm comfortable saying that paint, glue and sand work just fine. Right now our tables, after more than one year of (ab)use, are still O.K.
And of course, there is a "Gamer's Gallery" for all the people that want to show their work. Pekel, for example, nicely executed the very same idea a few years ago and kindly agreed on sharing his pictures. Being a project "from the gamers, to the gamers" we always appreciate this kind of contribution!
white boards are a good option. I don't typically look for them as a building platform largely because i'm looking in hardware stores. (where galvanized sheets are a plenty)
Its very relative too since I make all of my own terrain and source my own materials.
thats a darn good idea too.
remind me to share with you what we've done as we get everything together!
Being Sunday, it's about time for our weekly update. This week we spent some time to write an article and answer to a recurring question:
"How can I differentiate two infantry models with similar equipment at 6mm scale?"
The article is of particular interest for all the Imperial Guard and Space Marine players out there.
Check it out!
If i were going to play, I would just make some custom ruler sticks for Pocket 40K. Converting game rules from 25mm to 15mm is easy, as you simply use a centimeter tape instead of inches for a (rough) 50% scale, but as Epic is 25% the size, I would just mark some sticks (or some fabric ribbon for flexible tape style measuring) in 1/4 inch segments with a sharpie as if they were inches. Maybe just a number at every ten, even.
Easy peasy. The inch segments of 40K are just increments in an abstract number that is easy to measure in at the end of the day, if a well- known set. As long as you scale them the same, they still measure the same.
AegisGrimm wrote: If i were going to play, I would just make some custom ruler sticks for Pocket 40K. Converting game rules from 25mm to 15mm is easy, as you simply use a centimeter tape instead of inches for a (rough) 50% scale, but as Epic is 25% the size, I would just mark some sticks (or some fabric ribbon for flexible tape style measuring) in 1/4 inch segments with a sharpie as if they were inches. Maybe just a number at every ten, even.
Easy peasy. The inch segments of 40K are just increments in an abstract number that is easy to measure in at the end of the day, if a well- known set. As long as you scale them the same, they still measure the same.
That's more or less what happened in the beginning. We took transparent plastic strips and marked them at intervals of 6mm for the first 6 "inches", then at intervals of 36". That was before we published the printable meters on the site. It's kinda easier just to print it. Saved all those afternoons when we forgot to bring the meters.
This Sunday's weekly update we publish two articles:
The first, quite long and a bit complicated, is meant to explain reasons behind rescaling factors, common mistakes, and how we avoided the latters by using the formers.
The second, much, much easier, is a tutorial on how to produce loads of 6mm round magnetic bases in the blink of an eye!
Wow. That is some dedication to the hobby. I congratulate you for doing all of that instead of just using an Epic Nightwing Interceptor painted in DE color.
I did this with a few friends back in the early 90s so we could play on the bus to games day.
We mounted everything on pins and made the board out of a backgammon board covered in cork floor tile.
We used custom measuring sticks.
Dirinel wrote: Thanks!
We're always looking for people that want to show their miniatures. If you make an army remember to send the pictures.
I've got about 100 marines, a scratch built titan and 6 rhinos in production for chaos now
But me and my friends have come up with a personal convention:
In our area, manets of the type pocket 40k requires are hard to come by, and fething expensive when they do (28mm is actually cheaper than magnetizing a whole army of these guys! ), so we've decided to do something else.
We decided to put our models on the bases provided, and then mark them with a code somewhere on the base. One example is for a chaos marine squad, the code for the first base will be C1, the second will be C2 etc.
The idea is to record our bases on a sheet (Probably MS Excel) to check their equipment, what unit they are, and how many casualties have been taken.
Although this will require a lot of book keeping mid-game, the idea is that we'll be breaking out these bug guns for Apoc games of 40k, whilst using 28mm for smaller games (This would be the scale of book keeping in a normal Apoc game anyways).
Just a thought for anyone who doesn't want to use magnets
EDIT: Also a load of raptors Going to buy some Land Raiders and Predators next
EDIT 2:
Just counted up my 6mm 40k that I have so far...
Hmm... Just done some playtesting..
My method really needs streamlining. And a way to record each individual model.
I'll get back to you on this later.
..Possibly with some images of this army's WIP.
As I said, magnets are a problem in my area, so we're sticking our stuff to the Epic Armageddon bases. While this restricts movement and provides several "WYSIWYG" problems, I've come up with a system for us to identify our models.
Each infantry stand contains five men/marines/orks/eldar. The system for my army is to paint the circle of plastic that they stand on in a certain colour combination.
The first stand of one type of infantry will be all green, and will be noted as:
[G][G][G][G][G]
The second stand will have one brown base at the far right (when facing it head on):
[G][G][G][G][Br]
The third will be:
[G][G][G][Br][Br]
Until:
[Br][Br][Br][Br][Br]
Then the cycle will begin again with another colour Let's say red):
[Br][Br][Br][Br][R]
[Br][Br][Br][R][R]
etc.
Vehicles will have other denominations, but as we're intending to use some destroyer weapons, we won't have to worry too much
Now, as for images of the WIP, I'm taking them right now, and will upload soon
"Easter! Let's greet it with some serious firepower! Grey Knights face the mixed Eldar/Dark Eldar menace in the 7th battle of our campaign!
Check it out!
In addition, we also spent some time fixing our old scenery elements, and building new ones, much more cool, using some bits from 28mm miniatures, and some other stuff. The renovation is still in progress, so more elements are coming as soon as we finish them.
https://sites.google.com/site/pocketw40k/home/tools/terrains
Sadly, the Tinkercad service was shut down a few weeks ago, so we had to find a more stable solution.
We decided to use Blender, which is a very famous and free 3D modeling software; it's a bit harder to use than Tinkercad, but far more powerful.
In order to make the change as painless as possible, we also decided to make a very short video tutorial that will give you all the informations you need to know to use Blender effectively, pretty much in the same way as Tinkercad used to work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEYHfy6iH1g
Happy to see that you like the idea!
For the first time we finally have some Imperial Guard miniatures to show! This time credit goes to Mike, who decided to share pictures of his own army.
Tru dat I've got a friend who claims that 6mm is only ever "uninspiring" and "easy to paint" because he cant think past just dumping them all in a pot of paint and calling it a day.
All I've got to say is: "Mother trucking shoulder pads and boltguns!"
Selym wrote: Tru dat I've got a friend who claims that 6mm is only ever "uninspiring" and "easy to paint" because he cant think past just dumping them all in a pot of paint and calling it a day.
All I've got to say is: "Mother trucking shoulder pads and boltguns!"
6mm may be faster to paint, but it's just because there is less surface to paint. All the details should be there if you want to discern the body parts. It's exactly like in 28mm: without at least the basic color shadows and highlights, you'll never see anything.
I hardly think that Levian's Incubi were "dumped in the pot"...
This week there are good news for Space Marine players. A new tutorial is available on the website, to convert the standard 6mm Dreadnought in a melee Death Company Dreadnought.
The first article of May is a bizzarre tutorial for the Space Marine players. This time we decided to make an unusual model, just for the fun. Less than 10 steps to make a 6mm Adeptus Custodes miniature.
We are also planning a three-month long break for the entire summer period starting from early June to early September. This means that there will be three more updates after this week and then we'll remain silent until September 2013.
We will however keep reading mail/comments and we'll still accept submissions. Anything we have before September will be posted during autumn 2013.
This week's article is a very simple tutorial on how to make a quick board to keep track of your Planetary Empires campaign. Because sometimes it's nice to take a break from 6mm and work on something a bit larger.
Our weekly update is a new gallery by Stingray. He gathered two Pocket armies one year before the Pocket 40K website came out.
You can have a look at his pictures here:
This week, we spent some time cleaning/fixing all the work done during this year, and we finally managed to write a handy PDF available for download.
The document contains the entire website, with the exception of a few pages that would have no reason to be in it (Where to buy the models, Campaign, Battles, etc..)
This PDF is actually an improved version of the website, coherent, easier to read and easy to use as reference. I would reccomend anyone new to Pocket to check it out before going through the website.
The announcement of this SUnday is also the last announcement before September. This means that the PDF is the most updated source of information about Pocket Warhammer available, and it will be so for the next three months.
We are aware that some weeks ago Games Workshop discontinued the production of 6mm miniatures. This however doesn't seem to be a major concern to Pocket Warhammer or Epic Armageddon. Several proxies for many models have always been available (Necron, Tau, Imperial Guard), most other models are easily found on Ebay in big bunches (Space Marine, Orks). Also, several more proxies seem to come up every week since GW halted its production.
During the next three months we ourselves will keep an eye on the new directions for the 6mm productions, and we will update the website with links to the new miniature retailers as soon as the new situation is more stable.
Meanwhile, we're still open for submissions of material and opinions alike, and everything we receive before September is going to be published with the first announcements.
Right now, a good start for anyone searching 6mm miniature should refer to eBay (or similar), the Tactical Command Forum, or the miniature retailers linked in our website.
Wishing you a sunny and bloody summer,
The Pocket WH40K Team
