One of my current projects is 6mm Sci Fi.
I started out by looking for a ruleset. I like Gruntz, but it can be a bit of a slugfest and is better adapted, I believe, to a dozen or so units a side. I wanted something for more epic battles. I decided to go for Future War Commander, which I have read, but not yet played.
I've identified a half dozen manufacturers of 6mm Sci Fi that I like the look of. I'm going for "distant sci-fi" rather than "tomorrow's war", so fighting over numerous planets, with hover and anti-grav supplementing wheeled and tracked vehicles. I'm also trying to avoid stuff that basically looks like today's vehicles with an anti-grav drive.
I also wasn't sure if I wanted to paint the infantry, which I always find a chore at this scale, or if I would use markers. What made up my mind was some random reading, that stated that in modern warfare, the SAW is the main weapon of a squad, and maybe the designated marksman, and the other squad members are there to keep it running and safe. I doubt that is true, but I liked the idea for a future war setting, as it also meant I could be happy with a squad of three : one support weapon and its wielder, and two other grunts to keep enemy infantry away.
I made that choice recently, so no infantry in my first order to Ground Zero Games. The figures are lovely, and when I wrote to GZG to thank them, I was surprised to learn the range dates back to the 90's. Admittedly a handful of figures in the catalogue do show their age, but everything I got is absolutely stunning, even by today's standards.
To the left are anti-grav vehicles, and I had the cunning idea of using a sort of magnetic marble that I stole from a kid's game, to give the grav vehicle a hovering look. Need to paint underneath them before sticking them on !
Next to them are some large six wheeled tanks, which are fantastic. In a moment of inspiration, I only stuck on one as intended, the others are actually "backwards", but give the feeling that the entire hull can rotate.
There are three grav APCs that, yes, I forgot to paint the undersides of before gluing them on. Oops. They sit next to two maintenance vehicles that I will play as hovercraft; in FWC2, hover craft travel over land as well, I would imagine they do very well in low-grav environments. There are six bikes, and behind them are six lovely low-slung wheeled vehicles. Three transport VTOLs are making a fly over.
I intend to re-order larger numbers of all of these at a future date.
I painted a British army for Battlegroup Northag, in the 10mm that is the rulebook standard, even though I like 6mm much better. As it turns out I've gone off WWIII anyway (partly because there is no connection to anything else I am doing, partly because many of the vehicle types are being used in bloody wars currently raging, and I am thus uncomfortable using them as game pieces).
So I have repurposed my two 6mm armies as Sci-Fi stuff, without any conversion or repainting required, the only stuff I couldn't use was a handful of T-62s and a couple of trucks.
As for the 10mm stuff, well I tore all the tracks off and made everything into large amphibious vehicles, for sea or river assaults (the amphibious part in FWC2 being anything from our beloved H2O to liquid sulfur). They'll need a repaint of course, but I am really pleased how they turned out. I used legs from a giant scorpion, that I never got round to using, as transport arms, on the ex-FV432s. In my fevered mind, each one can carry a small APC or bike on the sucker-end of the arm. The prong things are leftover musket rests from Back of Beyond Tibetans, some sort of shield protecting the infantry as they get out.
WWIII Naval is one of the (rare !) projects that I started and never did anything with. Seeing unused figures always makes me feel a bit sad, so I am attempting to convert this 1/3000 Russian Helicopter Carrier into an amphibious assault carrier (reversing direction, as I often have with the WWIII 10mm stuff). I'll need to do something to flatten out the bow (well, the stern now).
1/3000 aircraft and helicopters are going to be repurposed into drones, as an infantry upgrade weapon.
Another idea I had was for Shield Drones, as an infantry or vehicle upgrade (basically a Shield Screen of 1, in FWC2 terms). I couldn't find anything to represent them (as they have to be quite small)...and then I came up with the idea of using, well, shields. These are leftovers from 15mm projects, which I shall glue onto a thin rod of something.
As you can see, I am having a lot of fun. Rather than paint two "armies", I was considering that modern forces are frequently made up of vehicles built by many different nations. Hence I have decided that my "army lists" are actually "manufacturer catalogues". Each weapons producer will have its own signature colour, and players can build their army by choosing from any manufacturer they like. Perhaps not the same ones as their opponent, to both reflect a "bloc policy", but mainly to avoid battlefield confusion.
Another issue with colours is that camouflage is relevant to a given biome, and more to the point, a given planet...in a sci-fi universe, you could be fighting over anything. So I have decided that sci-fi battlefields have evolved to a point where visual camouflage is completely useless - nobody uses the MkII Eyeball any more - and hence anything goes. Inspiration for that also came from the beautiful Brigade Models PacFed in their distinct electric blue. I love painting in green and pink, so expect at least one manufacturer to adopt that colour !
