"First Attempt at 6mm: Spartan Hoplites!" Topic

Here's my first attempt at painting 6mm miniatures.

It's actually been quite a number of months since I've bought this army of 6mm Ancient Greeks from Baccus ( baccus6mm.com ), but only recently shrugged off my lethargy enough to get two units of them painted and based.

Once I set my mind to it, I was surprised at how easily and quickly I could paint these minuscule soldiers; it only took me a single weekend to complete 96 figures!

Oh, and I am aware that the accepted historical appearance of Spartan hoplites is of them carrying bronze shields with a red "lambda" painted on it… but I thought a red shield with white "lambda" would have better visual appeal, especially at such a small scale.

I've cut out two pieces of 1mm thick plasticard, measuring 60mm x 30mm and overlapped them together to serve as the base; I'm still undecided whether I want to continue using this method for the rest of the army. I've recently bought a bunch of 2mm thick hardboard, so I'll probably experiment and see which I like best.

In any case I'm as yet only a beginning miniature painter, so please try to refrain from demoralizing comments!

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That looks good for 6mm, I tried painting some 6mm stuff years ago, what a total disaster that turn out to be!

I have always thought 6mm seemed too small but these figures look really good. A really nice mass effect. Good luck with the rest of your army.

Thank you for your kind comments.

I don't have any experience with other 6mm manufacturers, but Baccus miniatures paint up really well. The end results tend to look rather striking for models that are smaller than your fingernail!

Very nice beginning! Bright bold colors are the way to go. I think you will find your speed & skill increasing rapidly.
All the best of luck & fun with your 6mm's
Skal,
Sven

I've had some baccus Greeks sitting around for some time now. You've inspired me to give them a go.
Well done!

The painting is good, I am less convinced by the basing.

Static grass works well on larger figures but on these I am less convinced. Baccus sell some very fine flock IIRC which would probably work much better. At 6mm scale even foot long grass is only 1mm.

Also with small scale miniatures you want to make sure that the edges of the bases don't stand out. There seem to be areas where you have not painted the edge of the base and that IMO distracts from an otherwise good job.

Very nice work, especially for a beginner, and of course congratulations are due for choosing the greatest of all wargaming scales. ;-)

As James mentions, though, unless you really want them wading through waist deep grass, though, I'd go with flock instead of static grass. Waist deep grass is not at all unrealistic, but it's not the look for which most people are shooting.

Also, as others have mentioned – for 6mm bright colors and high contrast are the key – you may want to try and up the contrast a bit and generally brighten them up. e.g. for steel use silver, for bronze use gold, for colors use lighter shades than you're initially inclined to. It's all too easy for dark colors on figures that small to dissolve into a visual muddy blob from more than a foot away.

Doug

Great work in my opinion. I like the overall "look" of the 6mm large units. I cannot imagine trying to paint the little mites though. I got tired of 15s and sold them off, now I am doing 28s and am dabbling with 40mm hoplites. BTW, I bet my 40mm hoplites can beat up your 6mm hoplites!

Very nice job. You might want to consider buying thick (you'll need to look around some for this) vinyl floor tile for bases. It cuts readily, is cheap and the sides of most of it are black (the sticky material is black) thus your edge is pre-finished. It is also sticky one side which helps position the figures.

You can see a few bases done this way on my blog as I rebase my AWI guys:

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Baccus is presently the leading manufacturer. Rapier has a few nice models in its Ancients line (I quite like their command figures). Irregular has very useful scenics. H&R are a bit small and thin on details these days.

@jameshammyhamilton: I see that your critical eye has caught out the beginner's mistakes I was trying to hide.
Yes, the "long grass" was something that nags at me too. In fact I've purchased Baccus's flock, and currently waiting for them to arrive (it usually takes 2 weeks for a parcel to ship from U.K to Korea).
As for the basing… I made the mistake of gluing the miniatures to the base before painting them. Now, the gaps between the hoplites are way too small for me to comfortably push my brush in to cover them up. Next time, I'll be sure to at least give the base a brown undercoat before sticking any minis to them!

@elsyrsyn: Yes, I'm planning to use higher contrast on my next batch. For this purpose, I've recently picked up brighter shades of the colors I had intended to use.

@xenophon: That was my original thought too, when I first heard about 6mm. But when I actually started to paint them, I was surprised at how easy it was. The key is to give them an "impressionistic" paint job, so as to give an "impression" of the detail being there, rather than actually painting it.
And while I'm sure your 40mm hoplite can beat my 6mm hoplite 1 on 1… how would he fare against a horde of hundreds?

@Bob in Edmonton: Hmm… that's an interesting suggestion. I'll have to pick up vinyl tiles and give them a try!
I never quite liked the look of Irregular and H&R figures, but I've never heard of Rapier before; Guess I should give them a look.

They look really good. As for the grass problem, just re-base them.

For basing, by the way, I am very fond of steel bases. They're rigid, virtually indestructible, thin (so not grossly visible), and stick to magnets in your miniature box.

Doug

Looks good. I don't think I could do 6mm; the very thought makes my head asplode.

M.