I like the Irregular Miniatures 6mm figures. They may be slightly 'rougher' in appearance at first glance compared to say Baccus, but from past experience I know that once you get a good flat black base coat on them and begin to carefully pick out the details some very nice sculpts begin to emerge. Such was the case in these Crimean War Russian infantry, my first test paints for what might (or might not, you know the score here by now!) become a little side project for myself.
These 6 strips - a 36 figure battalion - took around an hour to paint. I'm pleased with them other than that I did not paint in the red collars on the greatcoat so I might correct that. I filed the bases right down as they are a little thick and chunky and I think they stand well as they are now and that adding another 2mm MDF base would possibly detract from the overall look. The metal bases are textured anyway.
Of course they look much better in real life than blown up on a screen given the tiny scale and I must admit to being rather pleased with them. Next up I'm going to paint 36 British line. It may be because the Crimean range is less popular than some other IM ranges in the scale but the strips are very crisp and cleanly cast. I have quite a selection of types to paint including Highlanders and Lancers etc so that I can get a good feel for the range.
Edit: First battalion of British foot - 36 figures.
The Irregular Miniatures 6mm fo take the brush well due to their raised sculpting. From memory they do blocks of three or 4 ranks (well they did for napoleonics) and that makes the paining a little easier as the middle rank needs less attention if the block is primed in black. I had started collecting these for Quatre Bras armies many years ago.
ReplyDeleteYes, I can see how those 3 rank blocks would work well Norm. I'm going to stick with these Irregulars for a while and see where this goes, certainly would work well for a small space project.
DeleteLovely mate. I still recall what a great job you did with the Baccus 6mm ECW guys.
ReplyDeleteThanks JBM. I still like the scale and really wanted to see if I could still paint them, but after the 2mm's they are like giants!
DeleteNice to see you finally doing the Crimea and a great choice of scale for it!
ReplyDeleteIt's funny just how long I have been interested in the Crimean war but never actually painted any apart from those few plastics about ten years ago that did not really work for me.
DeleteLovely little Russians, nice flag,they look great!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Cheers Iain, it was fun painting the flag!
DeleteYou’ve done a great job here. You certainly know how to bring out the best in these figures. Looking forward to seeing how the British paint up
ReplyDeleteCheers Graham, I knew just how I was going to approach painting them and am pleased with the results. Got a British unit all prepped up for this afternoon, again crisp little sculpts.
DeleteGreat stuff. You've done 'em proud...
ReplyDeleteIrregular's castings often seem to get a "bad press", and while it is true that compared with some other "6mm going on 9mm" ranges a few of their mouldings seem a bit rough and ready, even "blobby" on occasion, their figures are often more varied (and even exciting) in stance than others, and I've always found (as you have shown) that their bods paint-up well ( and easily; the lack of picky detail stops me getting drawn in to painting things I won't see when they're on the table anyway). Also, from personal experience over many years, their service is excellent.
For me they have the added advantage of generally working well with my old H&R figures (again, adding more variety of pose - something I particularly like in irregular forces); something the undoubtedly nice, but much bigger "6mms" don't.
Thanks for commenting Ian. I agree with all you say re the Irregular Miniatures 6mm figures. I think this Crimean Range is one of the best, I do remember buying some ACW's some years back and not liking them for some reason. I'll be adding more photos seen as I have painted quite a lot more since this post and am really enjoying them. Service is excellent, orders back within a few days every time.
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