why you should use the 1/72 (20mm) scale ?

[sgtslag]

I use cheap craft paints. I also seal them using The Dip (Minwax Polyshades Urethane Stain -- Tudor (black) or Royal Walnut (dark & dirty brown). Follow that with a matte clear coat. The paint stays on, even with years of handling in mini's gaming. No need to spend big money on mini's paint, unless you want to (had higher pigment density, so it covers better, with fewer coats, but that's about the only advantage, really).  Cheers!

[Mike H "Chugosh"]

Sweet!
Cheap is awesome.

[farfade]

Oh ! Look at what I've found ! There are some sales on toys in the supermarket !

A dracolich, a giant & a scull temple that fit perfectly with the 1/72 scale - for only 3€ !!!!!!






He is fat enough to make a decent giant :


A quick paint:
 





life against death :

[sgtslag]

Nice!... Gotta keep my eyes open at the local supermarkets! Cheers!

[DMScotty]

Always on the lookout for cool toys, thanks.

[farfade]

new figs of the day

[sgtslag]

I picked up two Toobs of Native American Indians, last year? I just re-discovered them, while cleaning the game room. They look to be a good match for 54mm Cave Men figures I am using for 2nd Ed. AD&D Hill Giants. They are pre-painted, but will benefit tremendously from The Dip. The interesting thing is that they feature females, with one figure in each set having a child clinging to her back. These will work nicely for the G1 Module I will be running, as I only had a single female figure, until last night. One of the male figures in each set is wearing a buffalo robe, which makes him look like a Chieftain -- perfect! Two other male figures have a bow (I can work with that...), and a war club (round ball head, perfect for cracking open Human head-eggs for a brain omelet!).  There are three animals, as well, but I don't think I can use these, due to their sizes:  fox, deer, bear (could be useful as a Cave Bear monster?).

The Toob sets come with an animal skin stretched on a rack, along with a campfire (both will be useful in the Great Hall, both will also benefit from The Dip), and a dugout canoe -- too small for that purpose, but rolled over, it will make a perfect log bench seat.  I will try to post pictures after I have Dip'ed them.  Cheers!

Update:  I've Dip'ed these figures.  Here is the link featuring them -- scroll down the Hill Giants entry (just below the "Introduction" entry) for the update, with photo's.

[Mike H "Chugosh"]

Not sure whether I'm leaning more towards 1/72 or 1/32 right now. The main difference is that I would have to make my scenery MUCH bigger for the 2¼ inch guys. All my doors would need to be around 2½ inches high, so it would mean almost all of the stuff had to be over double to nearly twice and a half to make it look right, though merely double would work. Almost no printable stuff comes in that scale.

My boy says the smaller dudes are better anyway, just because you don't see all the detail you have to paint.

[sgtslag]

I agree with your son: current 28mm figures have more details than I care to paint! Larger figures tend to be worse, if cast in resin, or metal. Still, I would not go below 25-28mm for fantasy. Just a personal preference, YMMV.

I play war games with 54mm/2-1/4" Army Men figures.  I made bombed out buildings, using similar techniques to DM Scotty's stuff, here, many years ago.  Storing the buildings was...  A challenge.  They're all gone now, but I would still like to build more buildings -- I just need to find a way to make them collapse-able, for more efficient storage. For mini's gaming, 3-D is best, for me.  For RPG's, 2.5-D is much better, but the scope of the game is much 'closer in', so it fits better, for that purpose.  With mini's gaming, you often stretch a string across the table, to check Line of Sight (LOS), and if the string hits something, you do not have a clear LOS, and you cannot fire.

I love 1/32 gaming, but it does challenge you in the terrain department.  No question there.  I also found that a 9' x 5' table is actually quite small for that scale!  It forces me to design the table to have more clutter, with shorter LOS's, to avoid long-range sniping from ruling the game.  Cheers!

[Mike H "Chugosh"]

Yeah, I got a hold of a set of hing fat police figures, which for less than ten bucks was not bad, but the 1/32 guys in there are huge compared to the 28mm or the 1/72 (obviously). The main thing I like about the 1/72 or 1/32 toys is the sheer number of guys you can get for the money. I really wish there was a better 28mm option. But then there is, if you extend the field to the various paper miniatures substitutes.

[teazia]

Reaper Skelly and some 3 dollar per pack finds:





I need to give the dinos a wash, but they are not too bad!

[DMScotty]

I like those dinos

[lorcano]

Now 1/72nd gaming is my big thing. OK I'm into Zombie stuff, Plastic Zombie (www.lrqan.blogspot.com) and I'm trying to dabble in VCBW wargaming (Plastic VCBW) all 1/72nd plastic. It's cheap enough to get armies and provide easily converted models, it doesn't so much matter if they go wrong as they are a pittance when they do. Caesar company does all sorts of D&D stuff and it's well constructed and detailed. Since discovering DM Scotty, I've tried all sorts of cardboard crafting and I love it (Thank you Scotty). I am well tempted to get into D&D again and for this I will be using plastic 20mm. All sorts, Airfix Robin Hood/Sheriff of Nottingham, Caesar Mayan Infantry are all on my 'to do' pile. I do fancy doing an Australian Aborigine group for a D&D adventure. Any ideas for figures?

[farfade]

A few more pics.
Everything is funnier in 20mm !



My new homemade campfire :



LOTR figures :



Priestess :



Warforged in 20mm for Eberron campains :

[daveb]

Really nice work, farfade. Thanks for posting!

[Sam]

Wow. A lot of pics in this thread. 1:72 looks good when done at this skill level. But, I find them hard to paint with my shakey hands. Love the "Hall of Heros" tile and the effect on the statues. Just got some game board pieces of elves from 'The Game Crafter' site and was planning a similar theme. Well done!

[DnDPaladin]

funny how you say that fantasy minis in 1/72 scales is hard to find then proceed to showing us how many of said fantasy minis you have.
even if convertion was involved, that is still plenty of minis.

as for the gang uniting to kill the one party and continu on their own... thats always the case when the players dont like one thing. they gang up on it to eliminate it the fastest so they can play the game they like. i'd be weary of that type of things... too often have i seen things not matching well together. yes you may try and bring the players together, but in the end 1 group do not want to play the game. cause its not their game. they will play the DM game for sure... but they will do so in order to finish it the quickest they can in order to go back to more fun times with tactical stuff. you may have fun on your part, but its not all players that likes it.

this is also one of the reasons im not stating characters who already exists. like those who want gandalf int heir D&D game. or heck the xmen coming into a fantasy type settings. i think those things would be fun to watch, but not to really play. my players would laugh and then say that was all a dreeam once they'd be back to their previous games.


as for the work, great painting guys.

[randywest]

Hey guys,


since Dark Alliance is producing so much great fantasy stuff, I'm using 1/72 for fantasy wargaming and fantasy RPGs all the time.
For me the 1/72 scale is the best of both worlds: 28mm and 15mm

That's why I'm very happy, that the manufacturer Elhiem (UK) has started a small crowdfunding campaign for some classic fantasy miniatures in 1/72 scale (aka 20mm in wargaming):
www.elhiem.co.uk/ourshop/prod_6988667-VOTE053-Fantasy-RPG-PHASE-1.html

I know the excellent quality and service of Elhiem and I was happy to invest a few pounds into it. Maybe some of you guys are also willing to invest 1-2 pounds and help to realize it!
Just £11 left to get it started

Those are the miniatures, that will be made:

Wizard, pointy hat (Human Male)
Cleric in robes (Elf Female)
Warrior in Armour (Human)
Ranger (Elf)
Thief (halfling)
Barbarian Male human
Evil Wizard in hooded robe
Sorceress
Death Knight
Female Warrior
Lich
Special Figure: Halfling with a Tankard


best regards
randywest

[drl2]

I've been attracted to this idea for a while, in part because I'll be running a Storm King's Thunder campaign and the scale for encounters in places built by giants is going to be tough to fit on my tabletop!

I spent most of July through November 3d printing minis for the 28mm scale, though, so I'm literally invested to the tune of 950+ minis at the larger scale, plus terrain build for 1" grids, etc.

[randywest]

i think 3D printing will push the 1/72 scale, as it will enable a lot of fantasy heroes
(there is a shortage of fantasy heroes in 1/72)