Luft ‘42 is a site that offers a wealth of information on aircraft projects that the Germans had in line is World War II had lasted a year or more longer. Fascinating stuff. I’d like to see some of these show up on a wargames table.
I became fascinated with PT Boats when I read a book called “The Mosquito Fleet” back in my grade school days. Then I saw McHail’s Navy, They Were Expendable and In Harm’s Way. I’ve always meant to put together a series of PT boat games set in the Pacific. When I do, I’ll consult the PT Boats of World War II page, which has a wide variety of photos and articles on the Elco boats.
The Grundschule Pretzschendorf site offers a set of 24 paper models of northern European buildings, many half timbered. They’re in N Scale and would be perfect for those new 10mm WWII figures. With a little enlarging, they also could be used for Flames of War in 15mm.
The http://pagesperso-orange.fr site offers a set of very nicely done paper houses modeled after WWII era western European buildings. There’s also a single story Russian farm building. They look very nice and since they are in jpg format, it should be no trouble to resize them to scale.
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.