"Painting Irregular Miniatures 2mm figures" Topic

I'm experimenting with different techniques on these for ECW use.

Currently I'm undercoating in white then washing with Windsor & Newton peat brown ink. For the infantry blocks I then wash with a thinned coat of the primary colour which allows the ink shading in the recesses to come through. I add a blob of vallejo pale flesh for faces and if I'm feeling really keen a tiny dot of the same for the hand (you can actually see this detail on some castings. Different colour blobs for the hats then varnish.

For cavalry a similar process but I start by painting the space between the horses/bottom part of the horses in a mid green, as I will not be able to touch up the bases later. I then use a similar system to the foot blocks.

This seems to work reasonably well as I'm only painting for effect not detail. However, do any of you have any other ideas that might work that I could try as an alternative.

Please don't comment about not being able to see them, why not use counters etc. I accept the pros and cons of this tiny casting size and I am working on a very specific project with these for which they are perfect. I just want some ideas for other painting systems which might be of use.

What I did was spray them white, then wash in Tamiaya enamel thinned black wash I used this after much trial and error and found it went into the crevices and creases better
I then filled in the white gaps with the colour of choice. After this was dry I then gave them another wash with the black then did a small amount oh highlighting on the larger areas in my case this was shields

I never used W&N inks on them so cant comment apart from the face I use W&N Nut brown on my 6 and 10mm stuff

Hope that helps a little

Do you dilute the N&W ink? I have been using it 50 / 50 with floor polish and it still seems a tad too destructive on whites – but if you undercoat 2mm in white, that covering power of N&W might actually be desirable.

I prime black and then drybrush on the pants, and jackets. Then paint on details like faces, hands, rifles, and backpacks.

Norm

When I use the W&N inks on 6mm I find it is very good at sitting in the crevices I reckon it would do the same job on 2mm undiluted

I tend to give them a final wash as well. If you have used very bright, strong colours then this works better IMHO than a wash at the start. The final wash does need to be well thinned though – I use about 20:1 with Dahler FW acrylic inks.

On my blog I have one article describing my method for painting 2mm blocks

link

and one about painting WW1 (modern) strips

link

you will find other notes looking for other WW1 articles in the Archive

Some great points made above, and it sound like you have your own method down pat – I'm guessing you're painting them on masse, hence the technique with the wash, rather than blocking in the uniform colours.
That is a method I have used, but it can be time consuming, which can be self defeating when playing to the strengths of minis at the smaller end of the scale!
I have been wary of washes at the end of the process, as sometimes a carelessly applied amount can come off as toxic sludge washing out the detail….well, at least when I do it!

Agree with you on the light undercoat – particularly important with figures of this size – the only other thing I would add would be to try and get as much variation into the blocks as possible, again it sounds counter-intuitive when dealing with something that in some ways generically represents large groups, but dotting in a variety of colours for differing headgear, or in the ECW, buff coats here and there can really make a difference visually…..adds in another level of complexity, but I think it is worth it.

SteelonSand

I have always loved your ECW stuff, makes me quite envious

For 6mm I do a final wash to tie everything together. For 2mm it can overwhelm the washes of primary colour. The only exception is where the primary colour is very pale. In that case a final wash of a thinned ink stops them looking too "clean and tidy".