Teeny Tiny Trojan Wars

It’s a little-known fact that, when I got back into historical wargaming 30 years ago, I kicked off with some armies in 6mm. 

Despite always having loved 28s, 6mm allowed me to create something that looked like an army – on a budget. Irregular Miniatures and Heroics & Ros provided me with a pretty spectacular force of Romans and Ancient Britons which took to the field for many a game using the DBM rules.

After recent tinkering with 15mm Saxons and 12mm Great War, I’d been considering a smaller scale diversion for my ongoing Trojan Wars project. 10mm was a distinct possibility, but the biggest selling point for 6mm was the incredible resin walls available from Leven Miniatures. These would remove me from the insanity of trying to make a wall section in 28mm at a fraction of the cost and hassle!

With some of these ordered, I started laying in samples of 6mm minis. I went back to old favourites Irregular Miniatures for some Minoan spearmen. 6mm guru Daniel Hodgson kindly advised me to have a look at Baccus, who don’t have a specific Trojan Wars range but have several ‘Biblical’ codes that could be pressed into service, so I ordered up some sample units of Hittites and Sea Peoples. Last but not least was the 6mm range from Rapier Miniatures which includes specific Trojan Wars models including chariots and a Trojan Horse!

Here’s the Irregular Miniatures Minoan spear block. I like the fact that these are cast in strips with multiple variants, making them ideal for massed units. 

The downside was that the bases had a lot of flash so required quite a bit of cleaning up to get them to sit flat. The minis are ‘true’ 6mm and therefore a bit smaller than Baccus and Rapier, but none the worse for that. 

Rapier Miniatures are a ‘big’ 6mm (more like 8mm) and full of character. The models are cast singly, which is good for heroes and skirmisher bases, but less so for ranking up big units, for which I prefer figures cast in strips. 

The moment I opened the box from Baccus, I could see why they came so highly recommended. Very neatly cast minis in strips with minimal flash meant that I was able to get them undercoated and ready to paint in short order.

Although the minis were cast in strips of four, I cut a few of these up and added some Rapier Minis for variety. Some minis also made it into separate hero bases or thin strips of spearmen to stand on the walls of Troy.

Baccus Hittite spearmen were subbed as Mycenean warriors with a few extras added from Rapier Miniatures. 

I’ll definitely be getting some more units added to this project in the very near future and it would be good to source some beached ships for the Achaean camp. Anyone know of any good STLs (without oars)?