Over the past few years, I’ve noticed that the variety and quality of aquarium decorations has really improved. When purchasing cat food and litter at the local mega pet store, I often stop in the fish section to take a look at their supplies. I’ve bought some very neat Mayan ruins, a few classical Greek structures, as well as Chinese pagodas for my Boxer Rebellion games. Good stuff, and well worth a look.
Terrain Thralls is rapidly becoming one of my favorite sites. Here’s a good tutorial on building a model of a wrecked ship for your 25mm 28mm wargames. It would be particularly nice in a pirate game.
Matakishi’s Tea House has a photo tutorial on making a modular Egyptian tomb from painted balsa blocks. The effect is quite nice and the end result would work very well in ancient, as well as pulp miniatures games.
Miniature Wargaming is part of the "adventure games" hobby, which includes r ole p laying and board games. Wargamers recreate battles on the tabletop with toy soldiers, like a more complicated game of chess. Models range in height from 6mm to 28mm tall, with 15mm and 25mm being the most popular. There also is a growing interest in toy soldiers and military models, such as the 1/32 and 1/35 scale plastic soldiers from Conte, and Marx.
The most popular miniature wargames are fantasy and science fiction based, such as Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and The Lord of the Rings. World War II games such as Flames of War and Axis and Allies are new favorites. Other favorite historical periods include Napoleonics, the American Civil War, and ancients, such as Romans or Greeks. Other gamers enjoy miniature naval wargames, recreating battles like Trafalgar, Jutland and the Coral Sea.
Hobbyists research historical periods and paint their tiny soldiers in accurate uniforms. Others develop "historically realistic" rules sets or build scale battlefield terrain using model railroad techniques.
For pictures, visit the gallery.
Some of the bigger hobby companies are Games Workshop, which produces Warhammer, Wargames Foundry and Old Glory Miniatures. Wizards of the Coast produces several lines of pre-painted miniatures games, such as the Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons miniatures games, and a historical game with pre-painted miniatures: The new Axis and Allies game. Wizkids produces a fantasy collectable miniatures game, such as the Mage Knight and Heroclick fantasy games, the science fiction games MechWarrior and Rocketmen, as well as the quasi-historical Pirates of the Spanish Main.
