3mm Pico Samurai on the paint desk

I was browsing the Pico Armor web site a few weeks ago and came across a new line of figs.  3mm Samurai.  I've always thought I'd get to this period someday but the lure of checking out this line and doing some new research pulled me in.  I found enough information online to figure out what to order.  I'm planning on building 4 initial clans and then adding smaller ones later.  Pico is perfect for this. 

The Sengoku period is fascinating and offers about a hundred years of variety during the "warring states" period.  Multiple personalities and warring clans "daimyo" create a ton of possible scenarios. 

The troop types of this period offer some real interesting possibilities.  The Samurai are still present but the bulk of the fighting falls to large surf armies of Ashigaru armed with spears and arquebus introduced by the Portuguese.   

Pico offer Samurai and Samurai on horseback as well as three types of Ashigaru armed with spear, bow, and arquebus.  They round that out with command packs that have two types of banners included.

There are some good rules out there, but I'm using a slightly modified set of homegrown Pike and Shot rules.

After an introduction to the tactics I opted to base the units as Samurai horse, Samurai on foot, Ashigaru with spear, bow and arquebus on separate stands. I also added a combination stand of bow and arquebus and intend to make some special rules for them.  The tactics involved adding bow sections to keep up the rate of missle fire while the arquebuers were reloading.   I made one General command stand per side and built curtains around three side of the base.  Each clan has a daimyo stand.  I want to include personal combat by the leaders that can determine morale effects on their troops. 


I recommend the Samurai Archive for just about everything including awesome heraldry.  
http://www.samurai-archives.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1638&sid=b9bc94c080aa81cc83855ef65db1a2dc

 

 

 

3mm Pico Modern Armor on the paint desk

This is my second wave of Pico 3mm Moderns.  Adding Marine vehicles and a variety of Soviet equipment in Arab service.   My third wave is going to be lots of  T-55's and T-62's and some of the first American vehicles used by the Israelis.  I've dug into "Sands of War" and "Arab Israeli Wars" and a 500 page RAND Corp. PDF on the Gulf War to try and gather more information on TOEs.  It's really hard to nail down some of the exact formations but there's enough info to put together some generic brigades etc.

More Abrams and some Arab Village pieces.  Pico does a really nice TUSK version.

Camo on the T-72's.  Egyptians maybe?

Marine AAV's

BMP  BTR  BDRM  GAZ  ZSU-23

Variety of Soviet stuff.  120mm mortar crews with trucks in there too. 

Ready for flocking.  A couple M113's on the left.

LAV's

Crazy detail on the M2A2 Bradleys.  

Pico Armor 3mm Moderns ready for deployment

After the holidays I was finishing up some WW2 micro armor and my thoughts turned toward extending into the modern era and doing something new.  We game a lot with a mix of Heroics and Ros and GHQ.  I decided my first step would be creating a Stryker Brigade and I thought maybe my moderns could be 3mm instead of  6mm.  After checking out the Pico selection I ordered a mess of Strykers and support units. When I got them I was blown away.  I haven't been this excited by a miniatures line since I saw my first Old Glory ACW package. 

The detail on these Strykers is like nothing I've ever seen.  Actually, I can't see it any more without magnification, but it was a blast to paint.  The M1's were even more impressive.  They have stowage on them that I don't want to paint yet, but could see popping out in all different types of colored gear everywhere.

The US Infantry actually have night vision goggles attached to their helmets.  Wow.  I've been a big fan of Pico Napoleonics and ACW so this seems like a natural progression for me.  The selection and price point can't be beat.  I also got my first air support and helos which are really neat.  I'm pretty sure I'll be doing Viet Nam in this range soon.

You couldn't ask for a better group than the John's at Pico to work with.  They take care of your order in a polite, timely manner and are always helpful with questions and notices.  I feel like I get personal treatment with them which is rare anymore.  It's especially nice when you want to branch out into a whole new line and period.

I'm starting with scenarios for the 2003 Iraq War and working backwards.  I'm building up a variety of T72's that should get me started for any Arab & Israeli actions too.

Stryker Brigade with Command and support units.  Including a couple Abrams and a Bradley

Stryker ICV Company with Infantry

XO and Sniper Team

Engineers and Weapons Team

Medical 

MGS Mobile Gun System

MBT

Out of focus A10 Warthog and Apache

First Republican Guard units 

6mm ACW Buildings by Leven Miniatures from The Wargaming Company

I was browsing The Wargaming Company's website last weekend after reading something on TMP about them.  They have an extensive Napoleonic wargame scenario series that has painting guides and the whole works.  It's great eye candy but a little more than I need.

I looked through their other products and found these awesome ACW 6mm buildings.  They have a whole series of recognizable battlefield features from Shiloh Church to the Trostle Farm.  Their Naploenic range includes Plancenoit Church and all of the standard Waterloo buidlings.

This is the 6mm version of the McPherson Barn at Gettysburg with a stand of Adler 6mm rebs for scale.  These are beautiful and solid resin sculpts.  You can see every brick and board.  I can't wait to paint these. 

Just incredible.

Dunker Church

You can find these at :
The Wargaming Company

Brew Day

The holiday weekend was a great time to get in a all grain brew in a bag batch of beer.  I'm trying a clone batch of Fuller's ESB.  Also trying a one gallon small batch for the first time.  Everything seemed to go well.  We'll see in a bit if I was successful.  This process was so easy and low maintenance I love it.  I'm looking forward to seeing the results of this batch and planning another.

I'll add more details of the recipe later.

It was a little difficult getting the small quantities of hops measured correctly. I will have to explore some other ideas on this before next time.

The bag was really easy to work with.  None of my fears were realized about it burning on the bottom of the brew kettle or being too hot or difficult to move.  It was really slick to use. 

The boil...

Cooling the old fashioned way.

The final product.

Russian armor next on the paint bench

Skipping ahead to WW2.  I'm priming a whole batch of Heroics and Ros micro armor I got on clearance at The Last Square.  I hope to get this done pretty quickly and in the process decide what 3mm Pico project to start next.  

The Russians Are Here ....

Fresh off the pain desk.  I'll add some shots with terrain later.  These had a weird glow.

Infantry with command all formed up. 

Artillery present

Heavy cavalry Division.  Dragoons in the front, Cuirassiers in the rear.

Light cavalry.  Cossacks on the right.  

Army and Brigade commanders.