Proxie Models Ruined Building Assembled and Painted

It is nice to have something to post, even when I had hoped to have gotten further with my cleaner bot and although I did cut several strips for my windows, I never got to build one. Perhaps next month I will having something to post on these projects.

View 1, Proxie Models, painted and weathered. They are marketed as 15 to 20mm Ruined Buildings.

View 2, Proxie Model Ruined Building. They were very easy to build and I had fun painting and weathering them. They will make great scenery pieces.

Proxie Models 15-20mm Building Ruins

These polystyrene castings are purported to be compatible with 15-20mm miniatures, but I believe they would work for 25mm miniatures as well.

Proxie Models produces a whole line of products for the war-gamer in sizes from 15mm to 28mm. Proxie Models feature: vehicles, terrain pieces, and bases for your miniatures.

So far I have ordered two of their selections. Both structure ruins are cast in a hard polystyrene plastic and look like they will very easy to assemble.

Ruined brick building; package contains 2 spruces.

Ruined brick corner building; package contains 2 spruces, with second floor section.

The Face of Battle Scenery and Terrain Directory

The Face of Battle Terrain page features a large collection of links to manufactures and suppliers of scenery and terrain pieces in multiple sizes ranging from 15mm to 28mm. Although there a few dead links here, overall this page is a great resource!

15mm Miniatures-With a Scene in Mind

After visiting the Splintered Light Minis site and viewing their selection of 15/18mm Animals and Creatures I have an idea for a scene. The scene would include their 15mm Boars #MISC03 and Dire Wolves #MISC08. Each set includes six miniatures. The boars are casted in three poses, while the wolves are cast in six different poses. The scene would be set-up like this. The base would include some low brush, some small rocks, and a well worn run that the boars use to traverse back and forth rooting for food.

The boars are doing what they always do-rooting for food, when they are scented out by the pack of wolfs. Two boars are left to face off two wolves, while four of the other boars take off in flight being followed closely by the four remaining wolfs. So far it looks like the situation is even up, at least with the two on two, however with the running Boars, it only takes one of the wolves to pounce on one the boars from behind it looks like it may happen at any minute) and then it is time for a pork barbecue. That is, if the wolves will wait until the meat is cooked.

A Comparative Review of 15mm Figures

Although I am considering purchasing a few 15mm miniatures for a diorama I am planning, up to this moment, I haven’t really given this sized miniature too much consideration. 15mm miniatures seem too small to handle. That is not just their physical size, but will be very hard to detail without some type of magnifier. I will let you know what my thoughts on this subject after I give them a try. However, a lot of war-gamers like this size because you can put large armies afield in a small space. Another benefit of 15mm is that they are readily available and they are usually more economical to purchase than miniatures in larger sizes.

David Kuijt’s has written a comparative review of the following 15mm miniature manufacturers: Essex, Irregular, Gladiator, Corvus Belli , Grumpy, AB, Battle Honors, Chariot, Falcon, Old Glory, Pass of the North, Mirliton, and Museum miniatures. All sorts of 15mm miniatures are reviewed and displayed.

There are lots of pictures; however some of the links for these images and some of other resource links are dead. Some prices are mentioned, but prices probably will have changed since author wrote the article back in 1998. However, even with the few dead links I still found the article informative. 

Directory of Dire Wolf Suppliers

Canis dirus or Dire wolves are larger than their grey wolf cousins. They are now extinct, but were most common in North and South America living 10,000 years ago.

Since my first dire wolf perked my interest in these creatures, I have been looking for other dire wolf miniatures and have come across the following offerings:

Cool Mini or Not features several dire wolf, including this ferocious looking creature, not sure whether I will drop, the close to twenty dollars for this mini, but it does proffer many singular features, doesn’t he?

Dire Wolf NM without Card D&D / RPG Minis Dungeons of Dread Miniatures, is an ebay find. This miniature features many dire attributes and the price is not too bad that I will most probably add this one to my collection.

Reader Miniatures offers a small collection of 25mm dire wolfs and a couple of Wargs, more about these creatures at a later date.

Lastly, Splintered Light Miniatures offers a pack of 6 15mm Dire Wolves. This wolfs come in six different poses. I am planning on using these with another set of their miniatures in a small diorama.

15mm WWI Whippet Tank

The model from Blue Moon Manufacturing is my fist 15mm casting. Blue Moon offers several WWI tanks so I am sure I will be ordering another at another point in time.
The tank is a resin casting and comes with a metal spruce that includes six machine gun barrels. The casting contained a little flash that needed to be removed. I used a hobby knife and file to remove the flash and I had to putty a few small irregularities on the front of the tank. It looks like I may have to drill out the openings for the four machine gun barrels with a small drill bit.

I have done some research into this tank and have included these resources below. These sites and images should give me plenty of fodder when it comes time to paint and weather this casting.
The Whippet tank was a British tank that saw action against the Germans in 1918. The tank weighed 15 tons and had a range of 80 miles. It was armed with 3 or 4 7.7mm Hotchkiss machine guns and could travel at a speed of 8 miles per hour.

• World War 1 History: The Medium Mark A Whippet Tank
• Mk A Tank "Whippet"

Ten 15mm miniature ranges nobody makes! (Possibly with good reason)

The author, a 15mm miniature enthusiast lists several whimsical ideas for 15mm minis in his Dec 10th post. I am not a 15mm enthusiast, however, why not! Some of his ideas do sound like they could float. I mean, some of the subjects he mentions are already available in other sizes.

At any rate, the article was fun reading and imagining.

How about you? Do you have ideas for minis

Robot Skull Model

This paper model of a Robot Skull might a great accessory piece for a 15-28mm miniature SCI FI war game. Just download, print out on a color printer, cut-out, and assemble. There is a lot of detail printed on the model and the jaws actually move. It looks like the project could be completed in an hour or two.

Do you know of other paper models that might be used in miniature war-gaming? We would love here of them.

To Complete a Scene-A 15 and 28mm Miniature Mash-up-It's all about Perspective

The author has combined Copplestone’s Castings and Eldritch 15mm Statues (FMT5), and a couple of 28mm Pulp figures. In this case, and as you can see in the image, the two sizes of miniatures work well together. It is all about perspective; some pieces are relative in size and would work well with dissimilar sized pieces. Just watch the pieces you are trying to match up. Two dissimilar sized pieces may work if they are similar or close in size. Like a 25mm and 28mm figure might work. You wouldn't want to match a 1/87 scale and a 1/48 scale figures together, however you could force perspective by using the small scale piece in the background.