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If this is already a thread, please direct me to it.

Anyway, its been a long time since I had a 40k collection, and I'm a cheapo. Also, I love 15mm.

So I broke down today and ordered a set from Amazon.

I think I can justify the vehicles being undersized, by building up hills under them. If not, there are all kinds of robot/dreadnaught suit things out there https://www.lowes.com/pd/Cobra-50-Pack-Assorted-Length-and-Assorted-Diameter-Standard-Drywall-Anchor-Screws-Included/3382152

and similar stuff (the light brown and gray one stands just about 25mm tall, so a nice three meter high machine).

long with these, maybe a dozen or so characters from Hordes of the Future. https://www.alternative-armies.com/collections/15mm-laserburn-and-asgard-ranges

What do you think? At 15 cents US for the basic figures, I think it'll work.

Let us know if it works out for you.

I certainly will, but a little discussion would be nice ;-)

Well, I think the Risk pieces look rather poor & I know thier selection is extremely limited.
As for using drywall screws & other stuff as units....

You should just make tokens.
Or invest in either actual Epic models or 3d prints of them.

ccs wrote:
Well, I think the Risk pieces look rather poor & I know thier selection is extremely limited.
As for using drywall screws & other stuff as units....

You should just make tokens.
Or invest in either actual Epic models or 3d prints of them.

Oh ye of little faith.

You might be surprised how good those dry wall screws look with a decent paintjob and a few modifications. What happened to the days when wargamers were imaginative? :-(

Making robots and dreadnaughts out of masonry screws? Let's grab a beer, my friend

 Skinflint Games wrote:
Making robots and dreadnaughts out of masonry screws? Let's grab a beer, my friend

I'm buying.

Maybe its a generational thing. I'm 187 years old, and I can remember back when you consarned whipper snappers had respect for your elders, and chicken tasted better, and...

But seriously, I do remember when a lot of the fun of wargaming was making something out of nothing. There's still great fun to be had in that kind of modeling.

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:

 Skinflint Games wrote:
Making robots and dreadnaughts out of masonry screws? Let's grab a beer, my friend

I'm buying.

Maybe its a generational thing. I'm 187 years old, and I can remember back when you consarned whipper snappers had respect for your elders, and chicken tasted better, and...

But seriously, I do remember when a lot of the fun of wargaming was making something out of nothing. There's still great fun to be had in that kind of modeling.

I hear you, I'm the guy who made an Epic Squat Colossus out of an asthma inhaler ;-)

https://skinflintgames.wordpress.com/2022/12/14/diy-epic-squat-colossus-the-asthmatics-revenge/

Have you checked out the 40k in 15mm Facebook group?

3d printing is all the rage for playing 40k in smaller scales. If I can get one, I'm planning on printing some 15mm marines for a Horus Heresy project.

Someone on another forum was discussing this recently. First off, I think 15mm 40k is a great idea. As for Risk, some of the risk pieces look suitable, others not so much. The infantry look just fine to me, but the vehicles are laughably small, such that they might work well for proper Epic.

As for Alternative Armies I bought a few laserburn figs in 15mm back in the day and some of the 15mm and some were ok and some were pretty rough so it's a mixed bag. The 15mm Ion Age figs however were quite nice IIRC and there's alot of space-marine-ey guys in that range.

The toy-bashing aspect of 15mm is also very apealing. There are also alot of hot-wheels that might work for Ork vehicles. Toys m113's will get you all the rhinos you could want. Again, I would not use the undersized Risk vehicles as one of the glories of smaller scale sci-fi is getting to have lots of properly sized vehicles on the table without things feeling cramped on a standard sized table. All this to say you can do 40k in 15mm on on a small budget with lots of creativity without resorting to undersized vehicles.

I really think 3d printing is worth considering also. There are printers that will do 15mm prints at a small fraction of the cost of 28mm.
I would also perhaps look at 15mm 40k as a way to sample some of the great 15mm minis that are out there. Rebel Minis and Khurasan are two companies with various possibly suitable figs you might enjoy.

Now that I see it is on sale at Amazon for $35, I think I may pick it up just to add to my board game collection.

Lastly, if you want to really take advantage of 15mm and play huge battles, I'd suggest dropping 40k rules in favor of the more streamlined (and free) Grimdark Future. Will give you a much more fast moving battle, especially when dealing with large armies.

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:

ccs wrote:
Well, I think the Risk pieces look rather poor & I know thier selection is extremely limited.
As for using drywall screws & other stuff as units....

You should just make tokens.
Or invest in either actual Epic models or 3d prints of them.

Oh ye of little faith.

You might be surprised how good those dry wall screws look with a decent paintjob and a few modifications. What happened to the days when wargamers were imaginative? :-(

3D Printers happened to them and it made imagination even easier.

 Skinflint Games wrote:

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:

 Skinflint Games wrote:
Making robots and dreadnaughts out of masonry screws? Let's grab a beer, my friend

I'm buying.

Maybe its a generational thing. I'm 187 years old, and I can remember back when you consarned whipper snappers had respect for your elders, and chicken tasted better, and...

But seriously, I do remember when a lot of the fun of wargaming was making something out of nothing. There's still great fun to be had in that kind of modeling.

I hear you, I'm the guy who made an Epic Squat Colossus out of an asthma inhaler ;-)

https://skinflintgames.wordpress.com/2022/12/14/diy-epic-squat-colossus-the-asthmatics-revenge/

SOUNDS GREAT!

Got any photos?

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:

 Skinflint Games wrote:

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:

 Skinflint Games wrote:
Making robots and dreadnaughts out of masonry screws? Let's grab a beer, my friend

I'm buying.

Maybe its a generational thing. I'm 187 years old, and I can remember back when you consarned whipper snappers had respect for your elders, and chicken tasted better, and...

But seriously, I do remember when a lot of the fun of wargaming was making something out of nothing. There's still great fun to be had in that kind of modeling.

I hear you, I'm the guy who made an Epic Squat Colossus out of an asthma inhaler ;-)

https://skinflintgames.wordpress.com/2022/12/14/diy-epic-squat-colossus-the-asthmatics-revenge/

SOUNDS GREAT!

Got any photos?

Ask & ye shall receive:

 Skinflint Games wrote:

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:

 Skinflint Games wrote:

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:

 Skinflint Games wrote:
Making robots and dreadnaughts out of masonry screws? Let's grab a beer, my friend

I'm buying.

Maybe its a generational thing. I'm 187 years old, and I can remember back when you consarned whipper snappers had respect for your elders, and chicken tasted better, and...

But seriously, I do remember when a lot of the fun of wargaming was making something out of nothing. There's still great fun to be had in that kind of modeling.

I hear you, I'm the guy who made an Epic Squat Colossus out of an asthma inhaler ;-)

https://skinflintgames.wordpress.com/2022/12/14/diy-epic-squat-colossus-the-asthmatics-revenge/

SOUNDS GREAT!

Got any photos?

Ask & ye shall receive:

Now THAT is what I'm talking about! All the gaming power you need for the price of something that was going to be thrown away! Excellent stuff!

Thanks mate, that's the idea - austerity is the mother of invention ;-)

A lot of people play HUGE battles of w40k with printed armies, like 20k+ per side sometimes even more. With a tactical squad being the size of a 1cmx0,5cm square and stuff like a thunder hawks being 5cm long.

People do the same with fantasy. Last summer people got crazy about recasting small scale WFB.

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:

 Skinflint Games wrote:
Making robots and dreadnaughts out of masonry screws? Let's grab a beer, my friend

I'm buying.

Maybe its a generational thing. I'm 187 years old, and I can remember back when you consarned whipper snappers had respect for your elders, and chicken tasted better, and...

But seriously, I do remember when a lot of the fun of wargaming was making something out of nothing. There's still great fun to be had in that kind of modeling.

I hear you. I'm old school too. The biggest turn-offs in miniature gaming for me are a) scale creep, action-figure sized miniatures ... kind of defeats the point of a "miniature", right? ... and b) 3D printed or store-bought PRE-COLOURED miniatures (and, unfortunately, they're only going to get better and better at it).

The miniature gaming hobby is going to be unrecognizeable soon - if it even exists. Such a shame to think technology might kill off so much human creativity.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Edit: I would probably collect only old-school minis from eBay and play 5th edition or something. The only problem (similarly to your 15mm idea) is finding opponents. So I thought screw it, I'll just go with the herd and adapt.

Those pre-colored plastic D&D minis are atrocious, but I'd be down for 40k Risk.

 Adeptekon wrote:
Those pre-colored plastic D&D minis are atrocious, but I'd be down for 40k Risk.

[Shrugs] It really depends on what you enjoy.

They're better than the 25mm miniatures I grew up with, no question, however, at roughly 13 cents apiece US, as opposed to $5.50 apiece for these guys

https://www.ebay.com/itm/165506918133?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=165506918133&targetid=1263433204734&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=9053031&poi=&campaignid=14859008593&mkgroupid=130497710760&rlsatarget=pla-1263433204734&abcId=9300678&merchantid=127669506&gclid=Cj0KCQjwpPKiBhDvARIsACn-gzA_GxIqS3-GKy3NeP0zkX81ge7UUZfNrOwtT--W6l0wczHz1SHplHwaAiDHEALw_wcB

Uh... yeah. I'll take them at forty to one.

Fact is, I still enjoy mocking stuff up, just as I did when I was a whippersnapper.

In fact, I used to make a fairly mean hovercraft from the cap of a milk bottle, one of those plastic bubbles that the in a gumball machine came in, and a few other doodads.

And who could forget the 40k space marine stick-deodorant grav tank?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDuU2PQ9xlg

Sigh. Good times.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 The Pig-Faced Orc wrote:

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:

 Skinflint Games wrote:
Making robots and dreadnaughts out of masonry screws? Let's grab a beer, my friend

I'm buying.

Maybe its a generational thing. I'm 187 years old, and I can remember back when you consarned whipper snappers had respect for your elders, and chicken tasted better, and...

But seriously, I do remember when a lot of the fun of wargaming was making something out of nothing. There's still great fun to be had in that kind of modeling.

I hear you. I'm old school too. The biggest turn-offs in miniature gaming for me are a) scale creep, action-figure sized miniatures ... kind of defeats the point of a "miniature", right? ... and b) 3D printed or store-bought PRE-COLOURED miniatures (and, unfortunately, they're only going to get better and better at it).

The miniature gaming hobby is going to be unrecognizeable soon - if it even exists. Such a shame to think technology might kill off so much human creativity.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Edit: I would probably collect only old-school minis from eBay and play 5th edition or something. The only problem (similarly to your 15mm idea) is finding opponents. So I thought screw it, I'll just go with the herd and adapt.

"The only problem (similarly to your 15mm idea) is finding opponents. So I thought screw it, I'll just go with the herd and adapt.["

There is that. In a way, I look longingly back on the days when there were so few people in the hobby that everybody would play whatever you put on the table, just because they were so starved for opponents.

Well, I'll try a quick paintjob on them, and see how the nail grip robots/dreadnaught suits and the gumball machine hovercraft work for support.

All are free to cheer or guffaw as they see fit

 infinite_array wrote:
Have you checked out the 40k in 15mm Facebook group?

3d printing is all the rage for playing 40k in smaller scales. If I can get one, I'm planning on printing some 15mm marines for a Horus Heresy project.

Sounds cool. As to Facebook, I no longer go there.

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:

 infinite_array wrote:
Have you checked out the 40k in 15mm Facebook group?

3d printing is all the rage for playing 40k in smaller scales. If I can get one, I'm planning on printing some 15mm marines for a Horus Heresy project.

Sounds cool. As to Facebook, I no longer go there.

It's a shame really, a lot of spheres and subgroups of 'The Hobby'™ are retreating to walled gardens like Facebook or Discord for all sorts of reason - the public-internet facing frontage of it recedes more and more.

Tsagualsa wrote:
It's a shame really, a lot of spheres and subgroups of 'The Hobby'™ are retreating to walled gardens like Facebook or Discord

Online Gated Communities.

Tsagualsa wrote:
It's a shame really, a lot of spheres and subgroups of 'The Hobby'™ are retreating to walled gardens like Facebook or Discord for all sorts of reason - the public-internet facing frontage of it recedes more and more.

Eh, it's a lot easier to police a Discord channel or FB group.

 Gert wrote:

Tsagualsa wrote:
It's a shame really, a lot of spheres and subgroups of 'The Hobby'™ are retreating to walled gardens like Facebook or Discord for all sorts of reason - the public-internet facing frontage of it recedes more and more.

Eh, it's a lot easier to police a Discord channel or FB group.

Oh, i understand the reasons for it perfectly, i just find it sad.

TBF it's usually just a case of asking and you can get into most. But considering how outright hostile people can be on the internet within the wider hobby space, it's needed.

Tsagualsa wrote:

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:

 infinite_array wrote:
Have you checked out the 40k in 15mm Facebook group?

3d printing is all the rage for playing 40k in smaller scales. If I can get one, I'm planning on printing some 15mm marines for a Horus Heresy project.

Sounds cool. As to Facebook, I no longer go there.

It's a shame really, a lot of spheres and subgroups of 'The Hobby'™ are retreating to walled gardens like Facebook or Discord for all sorts of reason - the public-internet facing frontage of it recedes more and more.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Karol wrote:
A lot of people play HUGE battles of w40k with printed armies, like 20k+ per side sometimes even more. With a tactical squad being the size of a 1cmx0,5cm square and stuff like a thunder hawks being 5cm long.

People do the same with fantasy. Last summer people got crazy about recasting small scale WFB.

Maybe I'm old, but I remember 3d printed pieces as being pretty fragile, and often misprinted. Don't get me wrong, go with what works for ya!

I just think RISK (present game for Napoleonics, 40k version for 40k and LOTR version for High Fantasy) is a good way to get masses of troops cheap. Then I can spend a few bucks here https://www.alternative-armies.com/ or here https://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/index.asp and buy half a dozen or so characters and monsters to fill things out.

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:
]

Maybe I'm old, but I remember 3d printed pieces as being pretty fragile, and often misprinted. Don't get me wrong, go with what works for ya!

I just think RISK (present game for Napoleonics, 40k version for 40k and LOTR version for High Fantasy) is a good way to get masses of troops cheap. Then I can spend a few bucks here https://www.alternative-armies.com/ or here https://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/index.asp and buy half a dozen or so characters and monsters to fill things out.

3d Printing is sturdier, and more precise than you remember. And often cheaper. I think some of the pushback you've got is folks pointing out how much the hobby has advanced such that darn good minis are available for surprisingly cheap prices.

The balance you have with Risk games vs gaming miniatures comes down to quality (in which I would include scale fidelity, detail and accuracy), price and selection. If you don't care about detail and variety then yes, you can get the most figures per dollar that way.

However even for a cheapskate game like me, I got into gaming for the figures and I want all 3. So, if I had any interest in Napoleonic or medieval mass combat, I'd probably go with 1/72 (20mm) plastic, 10mm or 6mm in metal. All would be as detailed or better then Risk figures, with more variety and without a significant cost increase. Gaming options are so vast these days that you can game extremely cheaply without sacrificing.

That said, if you are minis minis only as pawns, you have opponents interested in playing with the same, and budget is of primary concern then Risk minis, matchstick men, wood blocks etc are all perfectly valid ways to enjoy wargaming.

 Eilif wrote:

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:
]

Maybe I'm old, but I remember 3d printed pieces as being pretty fragile, and often misprinted. Don't get me wrong, go with what works for ya!

I just think RISK (present game for Napoleonics, 40k version for 40k and LOTR version for High Fantasy) is a good way to get masses of troops cheap. Then I can spend a few bucks here https://www.alternative-armies.com/ or here https://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/index.asp and buy half a dozen or so characters and monsters to fill things out.

3d Printing is sturdier, and more precise than you remember. And often cheaper. I think some of the pushback you've got is folks pointing out how much the hobby has advanced such that darn good minis are available for surprisingly cheap prices.

The balance you have with Risk games vs gaming miniatures comes down to quality (in which I would include scale fidelity, detail and accuracy), price and selection. If you don't care about detail and variety then yes, you can get the most figures per dollar that way.

However even for a cheapskate game like me, I got into gaming for the figures and I want all 3. So, if I had any interest in Napoleonic or medieval mass combat, I'd probably go with 1/72 (20mm) plastic, 10mm or 6mm in metal. All would be as detailed or better then Risk figures, with more variety and without a significant cost increase. Gaming options are so vast these days that you can game extremely cheaply without sacrificing.

That said, if you are minis minis only as pawns, you have opponents interested in playing with the same, and budget is of primary concern then Risk minis, matchstick men, wood blocks etc are all perfectly valid ways to enjoy wargaming.

By all means my friend, do what works for ya! But to me, there is an additional element as well. I LOVE MAKING SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING. Thus, as this collection (hopefully) grows, you'll see a lot of toys that arise out of pieces of junk to accompany it.

It won't be to everybody's taste, not doubt, but I love doing this kind of thing.

We'll see how well it works this time around.

So.....

I'm working on a project called "HexHammer" that takes my ProHammer rule set and adapts it for use on a Hex Board using the 5mm scale of Epic. This would basically let you build a 40K army using Epic miniatures, for which there is a thriving 3rd party / 3D printing ecosystem. Alternatively, you could even just use blank tokens and draw your forces on the tokens.

The image below shows some of the basic concepts. Each "hex" is planned to be a 3.75" hex (corner to corner dimension). I'm working on designing a set of 120 tiles that can be ordered from a print-on-demand service (e.g. the GameCrafter). Each hex represents a 6" wide area of the board, so an 8 x 12 hex layout is equivalent to a 4' x 6' table.

Each hex is further divided into three sub-areas, each representing 3" of space. The core of the rules is assigning stacking limits to these spaces - which is generally one "base" worth of models in a 3" zone. A base would be, for example, up to 6 infantry-sized models, up to 3 large figurine models (e.g. crisis suits, bikers), 1 large model (e.g. monstrous creature). Small vehicles might take up one base (e.g. land speeders), whereas larger vehicles (e.g. leman russ, land raider) would take up to two. I did some rough calculations on actual model spacing to get a feel for what's possible and makes sense on all of this.

One side of the hex tiles will be open terrain, and the other side will have various terrains (ruins, forest, hedgerows, barricades, swamps, etc.). You'll be able to build out the board manually using the terrain, or also randomly flip over clumps of tiles and see what you get

 Mezmorki wrote:
So.....

I'm working on a project called "HexHammer" that takes my ProHammer rule set and adapts it for use on a Hex Board using the 5mm scale of Epic. This would basically let you build a 40K army using Epic miniatures, for which there is a thriving 3rd party / 3D printing ecosystem. Alternatively, you could even just use blank tokens and draw your forces on the tokens.

The image below shows some of the basic concepts. Each "hex" is planned to be a 3.75" hex (corner to corner dimension). I'm working on designing a set of 120 tiles that can be ordered from a print-on-demand service (e.g. the GameCrafter). Each hex represents a 6" wide area of the board, so an 8 x 12 hex layout is equivalent to a 4' x 6' table.

Each hex is further divided into three sub-areas, each representing 3" of space. The core of the rules is assigning stacking limits to these spaces - which is generally one "base" worth of models in a 3" zone. A base would be, for example, up to 6 infantry-sized models, up to 3 large figurine models (e.g. crisis suits, bikers), 1 large model (e.g. monstrous creature). Small vehicles might take up one base (e.g. land speeders), whereas larger vehicles (e.g. leman russ, land raider) would take up to two. I did some rough calculations on actual model spacing to get a feel for what's possible and makes sense on all of this.

One side of the hex tiles will be open terrain, and the other side will have various terrains (ruins, forest, hedgerows, barricades, swamps, etc.). You'll be able to build out the board manually using the terrain, or also randomly flip over clumps of tiles and see what you get

Forgive my ignorance, but I thought Epic was a lot smaller than that. Like 6mm, maybe?