"6mm Gamers DON'T Spend Less Time Painting!" Topic

You were asked – TMP link

6mm Gamers Spend Less Time Painting and more time playing. With 6mm figures/models. True or false?

42% said "false"
16% said "true"

Clearly false, at least as applies to this particular 6mm gamer.

That said, I have seen 6mm gamers bring unpainted figures / vehicles onto the table on more than one occasion. And I have seen gamers bring under-painted (only spray base-coated, so basically small monochromatic blobs) onto the table on many more occasions.

But I have made up for all of these transgressions of untold numbers of gamers by the untold hours I have devoted to my own collection.

In fact I was going through my WW2 armies over this past weekend, to get some photos of the few Adler figures I have in my ready forces. I was impressed, duly impressed, by how much stuff I have managed to paint. I mean, you'd think I would know how much I have painted, as I was there most of the time. But wow, I found units that looked pretty darned good that I had forgotten I had! Companies and even battalions of tanks that have never seen a game board (yet).

And still so many still to be painted… and so many more I crave to buy.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Very False !

And still so many still to be painted… and so many more I crave to buy.

Very True !

Less time per figure, yesss.

So many more figures…..

Agree – painting up 72 6mm cavalry for a cavalry brigade is not much faster then doing 24 in 28mm!

Can't see as it would make much difference at all, less paint of course but if you are doing WSS, SYW, Napoleonics or similar and are detail oriented, or as I like to say 'anal retentive' you probably spend nearly as much time as you would with 15s or 28s.

With a hell of a lot more eye strain!! (smile)

I remember one wise gamer writing that the amount of time one spent painting was roughly proportional to how much one spent on the models in the first place, assuming you were painting them yourself, regardless of what those models actually were.

False…but I'm trying to rectify the imbalance!

But its more believable looking at 100 6mm miniatures then looking at 10 28mm miniatures.

Less time painting per figure, but so many more to paint. I don't have an accurate count, but have thousands of them covering ancients to science fiction future with some exceptions.

Like Mk1, I spend a fair amount of time on my WWII vehicles and figures. Since I don't typically paint in larger scales I cannot say if I spend more time BUT I do a lot of detail work that those working in larger scales do.

In theory it should take less time but the way I paint, I don't think it takes that much less time. I am also painting larger units than most 28mm gamers would. I do paint many of the same details but just at a smaller scale.

You can put just as much effort into 6mm as you can any other scale of course. The results might be less spectacular at first glance, but effort will always show.

I agree with Captain Pete and Covert. I found with well-cast Napoleonic 6mm figures such as much of the Adler lines, painting can be quicker by far, with great results when a certain technique is used: Black undercoat, then drybrush outer and raised detail with titanium white. Wash on colors, finish with a black ink/water/soap/acrylic floor finish mixture. This brings the detail out even from an arm's length away due to color reflection, and the creation of contrast between the high and low parts of the figure and the detail on them. link
url=https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipPOu8Bmmqg8InJpH1OR9X

I'm a 6mm detail freak !!!!

I have to paint up a lot more 6mm figures than 15mm, so i suspect if you include basing the effort involved is similar.

I'm pretty sure I did not spend any less time painting my WW2 US Armored Infantry than an average collector of 15mm, 20mm, or 28mm would have done.

But as noted, I probably build larger units (more stuff to paint) than an average collector of those larger scales.

I think the painting / basing activities expand to fill the available hobby time. It's possible that those who don't want to spend time painting migrate to smaller scales. But for this gamer / collector, at least, that is not the case.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

👍👍 Looks good !!!

I think the painting / basing activities expand to fill the available hobby time.

Very true. Your figures do look good. I am in the process of rebasing my cold war German and Russian 1/285 force mix. A total of 500 bases for each side. That is about 10 times more than any normal person needs for a game. Point made!

Tricky question, but I think 6mm Gamers do spend less time painting! If you are a hobbyist or something in between, I think not because at least in my case I find the microminiatures more enjoyable than, let's say 15mm minis, and I spend more time painting them. I do not base 6mm miniatures unless the miniature is a soldier and I definitely do not base 2 or more soldiers on a base. I want to "respect" the 6mm soldier just like its 28mm counterpart

I have almost completed my French 6mm Napoleonic force mix and my conclusion is the effort is greater than a 15mm Napoleonic French force mix. I am using rules which uses 3 cm square bases and each base contains 12 infantry figures, each of which is individually easier to paint, but as there are 12 to paint, overall its more difficult than a standard 15mm 4cm wide base with 4 infantry figures on it.

I have previously painted up a 6mm ancients force mix and I found it rather easy, but for some reason I simply cannot avoid but paint as much detail as possible on each 6mm Napoleonic figure.

Ancients were simpler because the number of colours on a figure was about 4 to 8 max, depending on the figure. For a Napoleonic figure you need to paint the base, uniform, white pants, face, hands, backpack, gun body, hat, plume, and bayonet at a minimum. In many cases you need to paint the boots, belts, swords, drums and other insignia as well. The cavalry is even harder, although at least the number of figures is less. I just need to complete my Austrians, but once completed that is where is will probably end for 6mm Napoleonic's for myself.

I like the result, but if you are going down the Napoleonic 6mm path because you feel its easier, I can say that is not the case. I feel 15mm is probably the easiest scale to paint up an army. 25mm is very hard as well, as the painting goes to a different level. I am guessing 3mm may be the easiest scale, but that is only a guess.

For WW2 and Cold War, 6mm is the best scale.

I played a lot of games with 15mm miniatures, so I can´t say I played more with 6mm minis. But you get things accomplished, I can paint for 10 minutes and I can see progress with those tiny ones.
I painted lots of old baccus miniatures from the napoleonic range, now the new sculs have more detail, but are still easy to paint. So I honour them with more effort, but that is not the basic idea for 6mm. You paint them so you can see their nationality, put an enormous flag on top of it and voilà!

6mm minis rule !!!!

I have completed my new 6mm Napoloenic force mix and it was slightly easier to paint and slight cheaper, but the difference was not major. If you go down the 6mm path because you want an easy to paint army which is cheap, you will be disappointed. On the other hand if you are doing it because of the rules you are using or to get that big-battle feel, you will not be surprised. My detailed analysis video link is below.
youtu.be/lfg_gKvpd2k

Almost certainly true in moderns, false in horse & musket and "depends" in medieval and ancients. But the great appeal of the smaller scales is storage, portability and the appearance of the table, not cost in time and money per foot of contact area.

👍👍

I'm headed the same way (downscaling), but now to 2-3mm, largely because I upscaled from 6mm for doing more tactical, skirmish-level gaming these past years.

Choosing to do 6mm, or 2-3mm isn't always about the idea of painting time, but for decisions to do larger-context scenarios.

The one thing the smaller scales enable, can be a gaming intention to provide more maneuver space. Funny, but the beauty of big models can distract from the constriction they often impose on tabletop maneuver…..which in turn, means beautiful games full of lovely painted figures are often firing-range-type reproductions (the element of maneuver to contact has largely been discarded).

I am working on some 3mm figures now using Volley and Bayonet. Instead of 12 15mm figures on a stand, I have 96-100+ figures on the same stand. I am not saving any painting time.

I spend a lot less time per figure/model, but have to paint more figures/models per unit. Even so I a spend less time per unit.

And then I go and spoil it all by building a *lot* more units…. :D

Still false … for me at least. There is a ton of detail on many of those little models and my OCD self is compelled to paint it.

Beautiful ! All I do is 6mm … any bigger scale would be like painting a barn !

Thank you very much, Legion 4. I admit I am very used to painting almost exclusively in this scale as well as some 1/2400 ships.

I have been doing some 28mm D&D figures with my grandkids over the last couple years. It is fun and I enjoy it but my real passion is still for 6mm.

I've just recently left 6mm wargaming and have started my search for larger scale figures to wargame in. This has involved obtaining samples of larger scale miniatures, priming, painting and basing them up. What I have discovered so far, in a short time, is that, obviously, I've required more paint than what I needed with the 6mm miniatures. Painting time also varied, depending on the detail quality of the actual miniatures, which resulted in my being able sometimes to paint 18mm miniatures more easier than 20mm figures! However, in terms of actual painting time, I find I have not spent more or less time painting larger scale miniatures than I did with the 6mm figures. I guess every wargamer, no matter what scale you play in, will have a switch off point and say – 'That's enough painting for now.' And who cares as long as the painter/wargamer is happy.

Short answer IMO, 6mm is closer to range scale for tactical and even operational level battles/games. We see in some games, e.g. 40K, ranges are ridiculously short, compared to the figure
and model sizes, etc. The height of this "paradigm" was when 40K scale Titans came out. Well, you should play those games on a gym floor or your back yard ! 😄😎

Interestingly I've found myself having to do more research, in terms of details and obtaining acceptable colours for 28mm miniatures. Partly because the larger miniatures have more equipment on show but also because I was disappointed to discover that some paints I was happy to use on 6mm miniatures just did not look right on larger miniatures. Just as well I'm not in a rush and don't mind researching that much, except when you get conflicting information such as one source showing one colour for a certain uniform and another source showing another colour! It is the fun of gaming. LOL

Again … excellent work !