You and what army?

Here’s a question for you – do you call the force (set, group, collection, whatever) of miniatures that you put down on the table to play an “army”? I was thinking about this and I always say “force” or sometimes, if it’s organized that way “platoon” or “company”. In my mind, “army” means just that, an entire army, like the U.S. Army, British Army, etc., a few thousand troops anywa (if not tens of thousands).

Even when I was playing Epic Space Marine, my forces were usually about battalion sized at most.

Not saying people shouldn’t call their miniature military forces armies, just that when I see like 30 minis on the table, I’ll call it a “platoon” or a “detachment” maybe, but not an “army”. That’s just me (shrug).

GZG 15mm UNSC Light Infantry

I promised to get some pics of my GZG 15mm UNSC Light Infantry up, and here they are. Really pleased with how these came out. I should say that the paint scheme is not my own – I followed a very good tutorial on this blog, which was quite helpful. Normally, I’d do my own paint scheme but I haven’t painted 15’s in forever. I felt the approach might be a little different from what I do with 28’s.

These guys look pretty good I think and I did all 8 over just 2 days. With the colors down and the technique sussed future UNSC troops will go really quickly. Actually it was less a question of brush techniques than it was some minor differences in the order in which they were used compared to my usual style).

Anyway, pics!

Eventually, I’ll have a full platoon of these guys!

The 15mm Bite

OK, I have pretty much painted and played with 28mm minis for 20+ years and except for my time (well spent I might add) with Epic Space Marine (which is 6mm), 28’s were my thing.

Until now. If you’re into sci-fi minis you’re probably aware of the real bonanza of really excellent 15mm sci-fi figs that are available right now. Critical Mass, Khurasan, Rebel Minis, and many others all make great stuff, not to mention Ground Zero Games which has also been doing 15mm for a very long time.

So, looking at all that and seeing what people are doing, I get the urge and finally broke down and bought some GZG UNSC Light Infantry. I got the pack (8 figures) last Thursday and this evening (Sunday) they’re all done. Ah, I love getting them done fast! Eight 28’s would take me a month probably, the way I paint (slow). But the 15s are so easy – primer, drybrush basecoat, wash, touch up, highlight, details, basing, boom, done.

I’ll get some pictures up tomorrow. Sorry, clicking that link won’t help because GZG doesn’t have a pic up for these guys (sure you can see what the other figures in the range look like, just not that particular pack – wtf?) As an aside, while my opinion of these particular minis is very good, my overall opinion of the GZG webstore as a sales tool is not so good. Far too many items without pictures, and many of the minis that do have pictures don’t have very good pictures.

Anyway, with Tomorrow’s War coming soon, I think I’ll be getting into 15’s with both feet from now on!