Roman Miniatures: 30 mm and 10 mm

These are the hand drawn miniatures I showed last post, now completed and initially in 30 mm.

Both backs and fronts and each miniature is slightly bent to enable affixing to the base and to suggest a little more of a 3D feel.

I'll use these in my D&D games.

However these can be used in another scale, here they are copied to 10 mm and based on 20 by 40 mm bases.

These represent twice as many miniatures as the 30 mm copies, but its these I really drew the figures for. It makes them far more detailed than I could ever have made them draw straight in 10 mm.

I did once draw some in 15mm, but even then the details got lost, so I reverted to 30 mm. Also it allowed me  to create D&D miniatures at the same time.

Here you can see the comparison between the two.

Presently I have a sheet of LOTR style Orcs and goblins on the go, just need cutting and gluing.

 

Creating Flat Miniatures

I start making my flat miniatures by making sketches in a book. These are a combination of ideas from my own head, or ideas from other miniature manufacturers, see the list later. These are all ideas  for my DnD campaign set in Ghastminster which I may be revisiting next year.

Some of my drawings never get past this stage because I lose interest or because I don't like them, but others get to be developed into physical miniatures eventually. 

This is not a quick process and takes me ages to complete. I often get stuck at a point and have to revisit at a later date.

At this stage I  am  not always drawing to scale, although most medium size creatures /monsters are, as I have  a 30 mm template I use to get the proportions right.

Some ideas are huge.

I mostly try to create pages of flats that have many of useful figures, as opposed to just one or two, although that is unavoidable at times. I started trying to draw them at 15 mm scale but I found that I got far more detail at 30 mm and I could use them in a variety of different games.

So after the initial sketches are done, I progress onto organising my drawings onto an A4 sheet of paper.

Here is a sheet I worked on recently to create Roman troops, with their allies that I could use for two separate uses. Primarily these are going to be printed up at 33% and used as 10 mm flats.

However I also use  them as random models at 30 mm for use in roleplay, they'll make some lovely guards or barbarian adversaries. 

After drawing them in pencil, at the right size, I fold the page in two and use a light board to trace the outer image, which I can later fill in with pencil. Then I work over the lot in ink, using Pilot or Uni-ball pens or something similar. Finally I thicken all the outer lines and emphasize some others as I see fit. 

Finally I photocopy the black and white version and colour it. I never colour the original just in case I cock it up or I don't like the colours I chose. Sometimes I use acrylics and paint them, but recently I bought some reasonably nice pens and used them instead, as with these below.

Here we have Legionaries, Spanish infantry, Numidian light infantry and Gallic infantry.

I tend to colour the reverse side at the same time so as not to get myself in a mess.

These can then be colour photocopied, cut, glued to black card and based, ready for use in a game.

Next post I will show some of these in 10 mm based up for Warmaster type games.

Influences include: Games Workshop, Foundry Miniatures, North Star Military Models, D&D Dungeon Masters Book, there will be many more ideas that have seeped into my head but can't recall them all.

Dungeons and Dragons Flats

These are a selection of miniatures I've created for my players I've used in games this last year and a half. There are two separate groups of characters all playing in my city games set in Ghastminster, my homebrew setting.

These are all drawn by me and then coloured, copied, printed and cut, glued and based.

I got my players to create their PCs on Heroforge or sketch them, then they sent me the image and I created the drawing.  

I also draw out the backs using the same method, my players liked how personal it was to have a one off drawing made.

I always mount the design on black card and ink round the edges to get rid of any white paper I may have missed when cutting. However with lights used to illuminate the miniatures the varnish picks up the light and gives a sheen here... what  can you do?

I try to separate as many parts of the miniature out so that they look a bit more 3D and bend the whole mini when I glue it to the base, partly for stability and partly for the 3D aspect mentioned earlier. 

They are all drawn out as 30 mm miniatures with variances for species and this is how I make my 10 mm miniatures as well, will discuss this more in another post.

Elf Army in 3 mm

 

Following on from my last post, bet you never expected another post this month, here are the Elf 3mm models I made to play with while away. Made in exactly the same way as all the previous stands, perhaps slightly better drawn as I was getting into the swing of things by this time.

The points value, for Kings of War, are 2930 pts.

Consisting of:

Tydarion Dragonlord

Archmage x2

Army Standard Bearer

Dragon Breath warmachines x2

Kindred Spears Horde

Kindred Archers Regiment x2

Palace Guard Horde

Stormwind Cavalry Regiment x3

Silverbreeze Cavalry Troop x3

Drakon Riders Horde

I did enjoy making the Archmages, just because at this scale they were essentially silly.

While the drawings are generally better, they began to annoy me and I felt I could do better. Now that I am home and have access to tools etc I started to think and plan.

Next post will be how I changed my approach but in the meantime I've stuck a little taster idea below that I played about with.