Sunday 27 March 2016

Thirty Years War – 2mm Imperial formations


Following on from my last post, I thought I’d set out how I’ve been getting on with painting the 2mm battalions, batteries and squadrons for the Thirty Years War.

Searching around on the internet, I found a number of very useful guides to painting 2mm figures. Quite a lot of these focused on dry-brushing or washing the figure blocks. I’ve tried something a little different, which is more of a selective “impression” of how the massed troop formations would have looked. 

Taking as my guide the paintings (of Pieter Snayers and Sebastian Vrancx, mentioned last time), I have tried to et he impression of a lot of troops, keeping the contrasts – between black shade and highlight – very pronounced.



I kept with a solid black undercoat for all of the figure blocks, touching up the undercoat where my frost/ snow groundwork had strayed onto the figures. It’s almost impossible to dry-brush the groundwork in this scale precisely, so I found some degree of going over the figures with a second, selective undercoat after the groundwork was painted in snow/frosty tones to be essential.

I added a few 2mm scaled flags to some of the pike blocks. This was mainly a bit of an experiment, and to just vary up the pike blocks a little. I cut the flags from the thin foil of a wine bottle – a reasonably decent Rioja, for that Spanish/Imperial feel, if you’re curious! 




After cutting the flags, I glued each of them with epoxy resin to the back of the pike blocks. Probably a little unrealistic, as I think the flags were often, for the Imperials, carried in the centre of the pike block, but they add a bit of depth and colour when painted. You don’t need much glue – just enough to fix the flag on. If you choose foil, you can bend the flag to fit or fold with tweezers later.


For painting I chose a neutral palette. I’ll post the paints in a “2mm Painting Table” in the Resources side-bar of this blog shortly, but generally what I was looking for was a contrasting set of grey, brown and deep red. I added the occasional lighter ochre for cavalry buff-coats, and some deeper dark grey occasionally for the odd pikeman. Again, I was trying to replicate the Snayers and Vrancx paintings, and trying to get a feel for the look of a massed army. I tried to paint a face on most of the figures with a tiny drop of medium flesh, and added a grey or brown hat (or hair) covering on the infantry. For the cavalry, I’ve added a dab of dark gunmetal for a helmet (the more authentic blackened armour I want to save for the Imperial cuirassier regiments).



The 2mm infantry blocks are a little fiddly to even see the heads on all the figures to paint the face and hat on, but look nice once done. By contrast, the cavalry are lovely (if tiny) figures. Painting the horses, and then the riders, was the way I tackled the dense blocks of Imperial pistoleers.

The last stage was to add the silver for the pike points, and then a fine brush to try and approximate some details for the Imperial standards, I struggled to do anything more than a Hapsburg crossed wood staves, stripes or an Imperial eagle on yellow. Any thought of an elaborate Virgin Mary of the Catholic League is going to be just impossible in this scale. Stick to 28mm for that kind of thing!

A thin coat of varnish on the top, and you’re done. Each block takes about 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how far one wants to detail the figures and their flags. One of the nice things about the scale is having a feel of assembling a force without trying too hard. Oh, and storage. Storage is pretty easy as well …


Next time, I’ll be tackling the Imperial cavalry, some cuirassier regiments and Croats. After that, I’ll be doing the artillery, the Swedes, and then some terrain for a re-fight of the battle of Lützen, 1632 in early June. 

Thanks very much to everyone who has comments or been intrigued so far! I hope you can join me as I blog the run up to the game; I’ll be blogging more on the rules and a mini-campaign as the big day approaches.



38 comments:

  1. Well they are damned impressive indeed, interesting to see how you tackled them look forward to the next stage.

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    1. Thanks Phil! They've been fun to do - very different to 28mm figures.

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  2. Impressive work, from your text it seems that painting 2mm is even more difficult than 28mm
    I wonder if you have any sight left...

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    1. ...I wonder about his eyesight too!

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    2. By the way, excellent choice of (spanish) wine!! XD

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    3. Thanks Benito! A very interesting comment (relative difficulties of painting), for which many thanks. I don't think the 2mm blocks are harder to paint than 28mm, they just need a different approach. It's more about creating a colour contrast, making the colours "pop" because you don't have the advantage of height or space with the figure block in which you can draw the eye in.

      I should have added that the details on the 2mm figure blocks were painted with a magnifying glass. I'll blog about the magnifying glass in due course, as it's a useful piece of kit. Although you need a steady hand and a fine brush, adding the detail is not as tricky as it might seem. And using the magnifying glass reduces the eye strain (as does the daylight bulb which is part of the magnifying lamp).

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    4. The Rioja was excellent as well :)

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  3. This is a nifty "little" project! If at a loss for rules, I can imagine replacing boardgame pieces with these little gems and carrying on as before. Your results remind me very much of old woodcuts and illustrations of the TYW battles.

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    1. Thanks so much Jonathan. I've heard of replacing the counters for various games and replacing with 2mm blocks. I am sure that would work really well.

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  4. An excellent start to this project. They look very effective :)

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  5. They do look rather nice, and very tempting too!

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    1. I've not mentioned it, Ray, but the 2mm blocks are also very reasonably priced. I dare say you could buy a decent sized army for a single Games Workshop squad of Space Marines.

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  6. Very impressive ! Looking forward to ser you Lützen game!!!

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    1. Michael, thanks so much. I am very excited about Lützen, and more than a little nervous knowing there are a lot of experts in the period like you who will be watching.

      One of the things I would eventually love to think about doing is linking in some different scales (28mm, and maybe 10mm) into the same campaign. I know your "Pikeman's Lament" would come in really useful for that.

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  7. Lovely work Sid, I would not even be tempted to try this scale - 10mm was bad enough :-)
    Cheers
    Stu

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    1. I've done both 10mm and now 2mm, Stu. I can certainly confirm that I have (speaking personally) found the 2mm figures a LOT easier than the 10mm (which are lovely, but are so well sculpted that they make painting them quite hard work).

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  8. I am similarly impressed! Great result with the snowy ground as well - creates an interesting contrast. I have started a 2mm ACW project but it has stalled over rules and basing. I'm going to follow your TYW project with great interest. I agree about 28/15mm being just a different approach to 2mm - neither is harder to pain, both just present their own challenges. Great stuff - looking forward to more.

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    1. Thanks Oswald! The snow-covered and frosty ground was something which i thought would work well with the 2mm figures and blocks. Just as you need to exaggerate the colours of the troops' uniforms to make them "pop", in my view you need a neutral background on which the figures are based. If you don't do this, there's a danger that the figures get "lost" in the colours. A lot of wargaming basing i green/ ochre/ yellow mix of dry-brushing. This looks terrific on larger scale figures, but drowns-out the 2mm colours. So I opted for a winter themed table, as the grey and white of the frost and snow make a very neutral background for the figures.

      I also love the Pieter Snayers painting of the 1641 siege of Presnitz, which features a snow-bound landscape and brightly clothed troops in the foreground and brown/grey clad troops in the distance. This was exactly what I wanted our game to be, and that was where the idea of winter terrain came from.

      To be accurate (an add a wargaming police historicl-distortion disclaimer), Lutzen was not found on a snow-bound field. Snayers' own painting of the battle shows a field of dead grass - very much brown, dead grass. However, as the battle was fought in Central Germany in November - and remembering how cold that wonderful part of the world can get - I didn't think it was too much of a leap to add the snow.

      And I agree about the 28/15mm contrast. Certainly not better, or worse - just different.

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  9. This is the most brilliant 2mm painting I've ever seen. The monochrome frosted ground provides a fantastic canvas. Could anything like this be achieved with a summer setting?

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    1. Thanks Doctor Phalanx! Very kind indeed. I'm sure we can achieve the same with a summer canvas. Sand would work well, but green takes some thought. Maybe I can give that a go when I've done the winter troops and do a compare?

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    2. Sand would certainly be good. I recently completed a couple of 15mm Renaissance colonial armies which have turned out rather dark, and I've just decided that using natural sand on the bases (Plan B) is going to be their salvation...

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    3. I think the trick with a sand base would be trying too keep it fairly light and even. So something like Vallejo Iraqi Sand for the base and a highlight of Vallejo Stone Grey. I think that would look really good if you're going for a North African or Middle Eastern look. Definitely worth a try.

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  10. These are insanely good! The little fleas of colour against the light base just work so well and as for those flags - wow!

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    1. Thanks so much Michael! And thanks for dropping by! I knew you'd like the flags!

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  11. Absolutely incredible work as ever, I think using the strengths of any scale is the way to go and I think you've definitely done that. Love the flags as well. I'd actually suggested the Thirty Years War for our next 2mm pike and shot project buit I don't think we could do it justice like this, fantastic.

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    1. Thanks Kieran! As ever, you're a genius for a fine phrase - and I think "using the strengths of the scale" is just a perfect mantra for what I'm trying to do, and actually for what all of us try to do all the time. After all, no-one is going to play Frostgrave in 2mm.

      Now, if you're going to do the Thirty Years War in 2mm for your next project, I think that would be brilliant. I love your super-campaign work and I can only dream of what you and Ed would come up with!

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  12. Absolutely incredible work as ever, I think using the strengths of any scale is the way to go and I think you've definitely done that. Love the flags as well. I'd actually suggested the Thirty Years War for our next 2mm pike and shot project buit I don't think we could do it justice like this, fantastic.

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    1. A great comment deserves at least two posts, Sir;)

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    2. Haha, I definitely only clicked once, mysterious...

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  13. What an inspiring project - just when I don't need any new ideas distracting me as ever! Is this the game you've got planned for Evesham? Hope so!

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    1. Hi Simon, thanks so much for dropping by. And yes, this is the game I have planned for Evesham in early June. A cold scene for what's usually a scorching day!

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  14. Impressive! I'm sure this'll properly transport that 'big' feel you're after.

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    1. Thanks so much, Nick. Fingers crossed that what is, basically, a leap in the dark, comes off !!!! Otherwise, it might be back to painting 28mm figures very, very quickly for our June game!

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  15. Hmmm Sid, I think you may have hit a cord with me - this is magnificent stuff. (As has been mentioned above, the contrast with the snowy background is wonderfully bleak yet strangely compelling) I believe I may to try this after I'm done with my 3mm Napoleonics for 'Blucher'.

    I suggest discussions over a couple glasses of Rioja are in order. ;)

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    1. Thanks so much Curt! As a small (no pun intended!!), discreet project of a manageable size, the 2mm scale has a lot to recommend it. I'm hoping you'll weaken and join the 2mm bandwagon soon!

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