Military Modeling - Does Anyone Do It?

[PanzerJaeger]

Not sure if this is the right forum but..

I got into military modeling a few years ago and have found it extremely rewarding. When I say military modeling I mean buying a kit of plastic parts that you have to construct and paint. Its a great hobby for someone whose interested in military stuff but has a busy schedule. You can build parts of a particular kit and leave to do something else. There is a huge subculture with magazines, websites and all.

It can be very detailed and some people even take it to extremes.. ie, painting areas that will never be seen and shaving down tiny plastic parts that are a quarter of a quarter of a centimeter off scale - but thats fun for them!

Anyway, ive done ships and planes, but I mostly do German ww2 armor and accessories in 1/35 scale. I was wondering if anyone else did any kind of modeling?

Here are some pictures of models done by people with more skill than ill ever have.

And some people build environments for their kits.. which is a hobby in itself.

[TheSilverKnight]

I collect 18th century wargaming figures, I still need to paint a lot of them tho...

[JAG]

I do not do military modelling, but I do wargaming with figures and often at conventions and shows there is a lot of the military modelling guys down there, because there is clear cross over between the two hobbies.

A lot of skill is required and a lot of time and patience, for the last two it really doesn't appeal to me, plus I fail to see what benefit you really get out of it. Never the less a good model does look good.

[Papewaio]

Games Workshop minatures (Citadel minis), Warhammer, 40k, Necromunda and of course Blood Bowl.

So I have painted everything from Wererats to Cheerleaders (with 1mm high heart tatoos on the cheek) to Terminators to Swooping Hawks.

Nothing from the real world though.

[Gregoshi]

I did battleships a long time ago in my teenage years. In fact, I had a model of the Tirpitz that looked much like the second picture. Alas, they didn't survive after a few moves to new homes.

[edyzmedieval]

Well,

when I was a little kid, I used to modell cars... From Bburago....

Now, I don't doit any more.... But this topic sparked my interest again... Osprey books are a good help..... German WWII units are my main focus now(tanks especially).....

[Sigurd]

I used to do modeling when I was a kid. Mainly military airplanes in 1:72 scale. I remember using a heated needle to make bullet holes in the fuselage and sandpapering the wheel surface to get the “used look”…

[PseRamesses]

I´ve been doing it since I was a kid. Just ships though, mostly from the 16th and 17th century. I´m currently building "Le Soleil Royal", french one from 1669. Well over 6.000 pieces and standing well over a meter tall and the same in lenght it´s a monumental task. The "rigging?" (all the ropes that holds the sails) are over 400m long on this model. Don´t ask me though how long I´ve been working on her, he he!

[PanzerJaeger]

Yea it is an aquired taste, but very fun if you get into it.

Ive found an airbrush is essential for most vehicles and planes to get a smooth paint design. Its almost impossible to do German armor without one.

[Templar Knight]

I do wargaming and some modelling, mainly ECW, Napoleonics and the Wars of Bismarck.

[Franconicus]

I did some modelling, mostly WW2 planes. I had a problem once my room and the ceiling was filled.
I was working with a guy who really did brilliant things. He was fan of Japanese WW2 planes. Once he saw a picture of a plane that was retrieved by a ship 50 years after it had been shot. It was only the skeleton left. He managed to rebuilt the scenarion with boat and plane. He sold pictures of it to a newspaper. His next project was to built a complete assembly line of a Japanese plane plant.

[English assassin]

Aha, well, PJ, to revert to a thread in a different place, if you are a modeller then I can understand why you are interested in german armour fair enough.

Like the posters above I did a bit when I was younger, but I can't say I've had the time for a long time. The painting on that knocked out T34 is absolutely superb BTW, I've seen real armour waiting in breakers yards and it looks exactly like that. (well, not blown up, obviously, but the peeling paint job and rust looks exactly like that)

[Duke Malcolm]

I've got a few WW2 and modern models. My favourites are the ships -- I have HMS Hood, HMS Nelson, HMS Ark Royal (WW2), HMS Ark Royal (modern), HMS Fearless (modern, recently de-commissioned), HMS Newcastle (modern) USS Enterprise (modern), and USS Tarawa (modern). While I am all too happy to do the modelling, I never seem to get around to finish painting them. HMS Fearless has only it's main deck painted, HMS Ark Royal (WW2) has only the hull painted, and the rest have little bits done. Except my brother has painted USS Tarawa, HMS Ark Royal (modern), and HMS Newcastle.

I have been eyeing a large model of HMS Victory in the shop for the past year or so, and I might treat myself one day...

[Meneldil]

I have a few WWII German and Soviet tanks, aswell as some french and british characters, and I must be one of the few french Warhammer Historical Battles players (I've got a Macedonian and a Norman army, and I'm willing to start a Babylonian or Egyptian one).

[Steppe Merc]

It's interesting to me, but I'm not skilled or patient enough to do it, nor do I have the amount of money to invest in a decent sized army.
That's what RTW is for, I suppose...

[Marcellus]

I used to do lots of 1:72 models of WW2 aeroplanes, and a couple of ships, but I don't do that so much any more. I also collect Warhammer 40,000.

[econ21]

I collected some Napoleonic minis in my teens, but more recently have been sharing an interest in Warhammer with my son. We've painted a fair number of armies - Dark Elves, High Elves, Brettonians, Chaos, Dark Angels, Feral Orks and a bucket load of Lord of the Rings stuff.

My son loves the big beasties, so I have hours of fun grapplying with Balrogs, dragons, fellbeasts, manticores etc, supergluing my fingers together and lancing my thumb with a pin vice.

I'm half hoping we'll get into historical stuff but am a little hesistant as the painting is incredibly time consuming and frankly almost as interesting as watching the paint dry.

[kaaskop]

I couldn't get enough of it as a kid ,mostly ww2 battleships. But i quit doing that a long time ago.
I've also done bloodbowl mini's but that was a mistake (still play it often though)

[Aurelian]

When I was a kid I used to collect Airfix military miniatures. Mostly figures rather than vehicles. 1/72 scale and the next step up (whatever that might be). They had quite a range of figures... WWI, WWII, Napoleonics, some ancients and medievals. LINK

When I was in college, I started collecting (and occasionally painting) 15mm ancient and medieval armies to use with the DBA/DBM system. I've got a great Later Imperial Roman army, assorted Frankish/Goth/Hunnic types, and a huge collection of medieval Islamic figures. They get dragged along to DBM tournaments a couple of times a year.

[PanzerJaeger]

I cant stand figure painting.. its very difficult for me. When youre good at it though, the results are impressive to say the least.

[Ser Clegane]

When I was a kid I used to collect Airfix military miniatures. Mostly figures rather than vehicles. 1/72 scale and the next step up (whatever that might be). They had quite a range of figures... WWI, WWII, Napoleonics, some ancients and medievals. LINK

Wow - looking at that website almost brought tears to my eyes...

All the pictures of the Airfix miniatures and the boxes really brought back some memories (I think I will have to check if this stuff is still somewhere in my parent's basement).

[JAG]

All these people who play warhammer!

Forget warhammer and get yourself some historical armies to play wargames with, so superior! Napoleonic, ancient and ACW especially, they give great games!

[econ21]

Yeah, I used to have a negative attitude to Warhammer. But actually it "works" as a game, in the sense of having a pretty coherent and easy to play set of rules which make for a fun experience. Fantasy also allows a greater variety of units and tactics than real life.

It reminds me of Pokemon cards. They are so "uncool", they should not work. But actually they are pretty fun games. Helps if you have another preteen to play with though.

What period(s) and rules do you use, JAG? I looked at DBM and it just looked too abstract to me. I like all the little details (weapons, armour, troop quality) and other modifiers you get in MTW for example.

[JAG]

Well I don't play ancient periods as much as others precisely because the rule sets are so poor. DBM sucks, imo, interestingly though warhammer brought out their own ancient rule sets, which gives an OK-ish game, if you like warhammer you will probably really like the rules.

http://www.ancientbattles.com/index.html

The ruleset is called warhammer ancient battles, I believe.

As to Napoleonic period, there are vast quantities of rules, though probably the most played rule sets are -

http://theminiaturespage.com/rules/nap/itgm.html

This is grand manor, pretty much the original and most detailed rule set around.

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare...633/shako.html

This is shako, another rule set used by huge amounts of people, it has some weird parts but is decent.

There are lots more and if you look around on the internet you can find pretty much every type of ruleset. General de Brigade and Napoleons Battles are two other rulesets which I have played a fair bit, not too shabby.

For ACW it just has to be Fire and fury - http://pease1.sr.unh.edu/FnF/

Best set of ACW rules I ever played.



And as the members of the wargames club I go to have pretty much every period under the sun covered, I play everything and anything - cept ECW and seven years war, because they are incredibly boring.

[Steppe Merc]

Guns? Guns are no fun....

[Moros]

I had also given it a go a few years ago, I made 2 tanks, a german one and a soviet one. Then I started to work on an Apache but then I just didn't feel like it anymore, I think i was not patient enough to finish them... :(

[Aurelian]

I cant stand figure painting.. its very difficult for me. When youre good at it though, the results are impressive to say the least. - PanzerJager

Yeah, it can get old real fast. I've contracted out a lot of the painting on my armies. I usually only do small batches of figures at a time. My work is pretty good, but I don't have the time to do 300-400 figures per army.

Well I don't play ancient periods as much as others precisely because the rule sets are so poor. DBM sucks, imo, interestingly though warhammer brought out their own ancient rule sets, which gives an OK-ish game, if you like warhammer you will probably really like the rules. - JAG

I've played a LOT of DBM, and it works well as a tournament game, but it definitely has it's share of "issues".

I'd like to give Warhammer Ancients a try, but it's set up for 25mm figures, and all mine are 15mm. Oh, well.

There is a tournament scene for Warhammer Ancients, and they're usually playing in the same mega-size room with the DBM tournaments... so I've at least gotten to watch a bit.

[PittBull260]

damn PanzerJager, those are pretty nice