A second article from a talented painter and tabletop fictioneer of Instagram with the handle @golgothaprime who has not only a lovely set up of 15mm science fiction miniatures (which you can see on our BLOG in the first article) and gaming table but also a notion of why 15mm scale is the best. The last article featured miniatures from the 15mm Ion Age Range, the 15mm HOF Science Fiction Range and the SHM 15mm Range . This time its Loud Ninja Games Range from which all the figures in this article are taken (Mutants, Aliens and Road Warriors). Enjoy!
Why is 15mm gaming the best?
As we all know, the choice of miniature scale all comes down to preferences and what you are trying to achieve with your hobby. With that said, I will now tell you why 15mm is the best scale!
1. The miniatures themselves
Neither too big and detailed, nor too small and fiddly, 15mm miniatures strike the perfect balance between size and detail. The minis are beautifully sculpted, it's clear what each miniature is supposed to represent, you can easily see what kind of weapon they have, and still they do not have an abundance of details which will take an eternity to paint. Mounted on 20mm bases, they can be used in skirmish wargames, multibase them and they can be used for bigger battles. There is an enormous width of miniatures available and since a lot of rulesets are miniature agnostic, you can mix and match with different producers. In one of my Five Parsecs from Home crews I have five models from four different ranges (all made supplied through Alternative Armies), looking great standing side by side.
2. The cost
There is something really satisfying with being able to get half a 15mm army for the same cost as a 28mm squad of ten basic infantrymen. Playing crew-on-crew skirmishes or RPGs, you can always add a new adversary or encounter for a couple of quid. This doesn't mean that 15mm in the end is a lot less expensive than larger scales, just that you get a whole lot more!
3. Easy to paint
I thought that miniature painting was for other, more talented people than me. Turns out that 15mm models are a lot easier to paint than I thought! You just need to undercoat, then block in the colours you want. Wash the different areas with appropriate washes, then repaint with the original colours, leaving the wash in the recesses. To finalize I add a couple of highlights with lighter colours and done! Remember that 15mm miniatures look great with bold highlights!
4. Size and storage
A 15mm miniature takes up about 1/8th the space compared with a 28mm miniature. If you have limited space to store your collection, 15mm is for you. You could also use this fact to have several terrain sets, since they take up less space (this is what I have done and you see in my pictures).
5. The terrain
It started with a 2x2' city board for zombie apocalypse games and sci-fi guerilla war. Then I just had to have a badlands board (a brown 2x3' board) for games set in the wilderness. I got some MDF buildings, then realized the wonders you could do by scratch building terrain yourself. The city got buildings, the badlands got a pine forest and a sci-fi container colony. I wanted a jungle, so I built one out of plant-looking soap holders, realized that the soap holders themselves could be turned upside down and with some plasticard and greeblies be turned into a military base. The jungle had to have some ruins, so I built some out of cork board. I was gifted some starport terrain, as well as another container colony (the one that inspired me to build my first one) and I thought that the spaceport ought to have some spaceships, so I built some. Then I thought that I perhaps needed a bigger starship that could be used to play on, and so on and so on. Now I'm thinking about building some new terrain without basing, so that I could get a desert and an ice planet board to game on... And while I have told you about all this, you should know that it all fits in a couple of boxes on top of a bookshelf.
6. The community
I don't think that I ever have encountered such a friendly community as the 15mm one. I think that the community is one of the best things about the scale. My beloved spaceport terrain was gifted to me by the legendary Spacejacker (as he couldn't bring it as he moved abroad). Shortly after, @tmcllghnpaints gifted me his container colony (which he never played with). I know that there is a group of hobbyists in Canada who send care packages with minis to each other. I've gotten to learn hobbyist across the globe who has helped me with my actual work, when we didn't exchange hobby tips. When I built my first spacecraft from scratch, a fellow hobbyist asked for the plans, which I gladly gave him. A while after, he sent me an STL-file and some pictures of his own craft that he printed. 15mm proponent and creator of Five Parsecs from Home, Ivan Sorensen, is always nice and helpful if you reach out to him.
Overall, my experience of the 15mm community is utterly positive. It's a community which lifts its members, where you are often cheered on, where you can get advice when you need, where people are friendly and helpful. Without the community, I wouldn't be where I am today.
...and that's why 15mm wargaming is the best!
