"6mm infantry " Topic

Share your tips, please, on how to get the best detail on ww2 6mm infantry.

Thanks

Unless you want to photograph them up close, I'd go for something a lot closer to speed painting instead of detail work. From 2-3 feet, most detail is pretty much lost. Before you spend a bunch of time on detail work, look at some photos of other's 6mm WW2 figures and see what you really notice.

I had to do a bunch of infantry for my 6mm Team Yankee forces. I decided on Main Force Miniatures:
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They come, mostly, prone. You only have to paint 1/2 of the figure, so you are saving 50% of your work right off the bat.
I use colored primer, then detail with artist pencils. I just rub the pencil across, kind of like drybrushing. A little flock and you're done. Maybe one minute per figure.

Black undercoat, heavy dry brush of base colour, pick out weapons, boots, webbing. Paint hands and face (these are really mportant to give some character). Paint hats/helmets.

Job done.

Possibly a very very light dry brush of pale tan, or a wash, but that depends on the figures.

I want to be able to tell which side they are on st s glance. So regardless of historical variations, I want one army all to be one color, and the other to be all another color. Special units or officers get some small modification like an extra bit of color on the shoulder. Don't underestimate what a pain it can be to differentiate them at a distance.

I paint mine by a basecoat color, almost never an undercoat. Then the other colors in the following order, boots, weapons and other equipment, skin, helmet/hat. The final step is "the dunk" in a mixture of paint and pledge with klear floor polish.

When things are going well it comes out like this.

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EDIT – get an optivisor! And the smallest brush you can find.

+1 Dynaman but skip the dip/dunk. Up close you can see the shading it does, at anything over 12", Nope.

The dunk also protects the paint job and even with my eyesight I am able to notice figs without it.

I also paint a shade or two lighter and with the dunk it comes out to the correct color.

The dunk takes just a couple seconds per figure. Dunk, twirl the figure to get rid of the excess, and let it sit to dry (I hot glue all my figures to nails before painting – doing them on the sprue makes it too hard to reach nooks and crannies)

Isn't a dark primer going to kill any detail? Thought a white primer might be best and painting in a shade lighter than uniform colors?

Thanks for all the tips

No! Not a white primer! Prime black and then paint, but always leave the primer showing between items you want to visually separate. As in, between the sleeve and hand, leave a thin line of black primer showing between the green and flesh. Make sure you leave the primer showing between the arm and body, so you can see that the figure is a human with two arms, and not a shapeless blob when it's on the table. Or, as Martin Rapier, drybrush. That too will leave primer showing. It's a poor man's black lining in other words.

I had a friend, a very good painter by the way, paint some 6mm Great Northern War troops, but he used a white coat, and his usual 15mm painting techniques. I've also seen the some done to ACW troops – white primer and everything painted without any black lining.

Both attempts looked quite nice when you had the stand pressed up to your nose. But when they were used on the table, they looked AWFUL. At that distance, your eye cannot distinguish the shape of the figure, and everything was reduced to a muddy mess. (More so the ACW, but unfortunately even the brightly coloured GNW).

For modern troops – or any one in camouflage really – I also make sure the basing flock or paint, or whatever you use is quite different from the uniform, otherwise they all tend to blend together. So, my Cold War West Germans are on brown muddy bases, but the Russians are advancing on green fields.

If your paint is of good quality, it should cover the black primer well enough. I use a mix of GW, Vallejo and P3, and they all seem to cover enough in one coat.

Pete Berry at Baccus has provided quite a nice how to guide.

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I found a dark primer more of a pain then a help. The dunk at the end of my process takes care of shadows and shading as well covering up an spots that might have missed some paint otherwise.

FWIIW, I only ever use white primer for 6mm figures. Here is a close up example of Baccus British WW1 figures in tropical uniform:

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and Ottoman infantry:

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Here are some Irregular Miniature early WW1 British figures:

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and Irregular Miniature WW1 Russians:

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Robert

Just spray painted black and I just don't see how you can see greens/grey with that black undercoat. Wished I used white now :(