More infantry and terrain.

Added two more infantry bases, a French Legere base and a British line base with skirmishing 95th Rifles. Currently painting a Highland battalion (tartans should be fun in 6mm!) plus a 3 mounted figure command base. The Baccus castings are brilliant, Picton wears his top hat and his 'brolly' is well defined too.

I also did a bit more work on some terrain items. A few fields and I decided my nice wood bases were too small so combined them into a larger wood base as you can see, better I think. Having been looking around for something suitable to make 6mm roads from I chanced upon a plastic folder being thrown out by one of my daughters. Most materials were just too thick for 6mm scale but the plastic looked ideal. I did a test piece by covering in PVA and adding my scatter mix of fine grit and 'earth foundation flock' both from Gale Force scenics. Once dry the plastic remains flexible but does not warp! I then edged it with static grass, just very lightly. I've made up about 10 feet of this so far, really simple and fast. The pieces can be cut to any size with scissors. I will finish them with Vermin brown patches, highlighted with a white drybrush plus the odd clump of grass along the middle here and there. Should look nice once finished I hope.

Once I have 6 bases per side I will have a run through of a couple of sets of rules, firstly Paul Lennistons set that some may remember me trialing on my old blog. I remain a fan of them and want to see how they can adapt to 6mm. I like the Polemos set too, but I can't see how to get round the 'tempo bidding' phase when playing solo? To simply randomise it would remove much of the command and control element where a player makes a judgement on how many temp points to 'bid' retaining enough to be able to issue his orders. I'll have a run through anyway and see how it goes.

Took loads of pics, it's hard in this scale to get crisp pics. My 30watt CFL 'daylight blue' painting lamp was used to light these shots, with the flash turned off. Apologies if it seems like overkill!

Cuirassiers, and terrain construction started.

First French cavalry base, again 18 figures. Pink facings to give them a 'lift'. There's enough figures in each Baccus cavalry bag to produce 2 units with a few leftover. Next French cavalry unit will be a chassuer a cheval regiment.

4 infantry bases planned for the coming week, followed by the first artillery and a couple of command stands. Another advantage of 6mm is that I can produce artillery batteries with teams, way beyond my means in 28mm! Been thinking about the artillery bases and I hope to get 4 guns on the French bases, each with a 4 horse team behind it and 4 crew per gun, all on a 60 x 60 base. Maybe just 3 on the British bases to represent the 6 gun battery size.

Also been working on a couple of 'wood' bases as you can see, still a bit if finishing off to do yet. There will also be a couple of freestanding trees placed in the centre of each, which can be removed when its occupied by troops. Each base will take a 60x60 troop base inside it. Roads and fields will follow, then I plan to make 2 or 3 village/town bases using Time cast peninsular buildings, which are excellent little models.

British Heavy Dragoons.

18 figures seem to look quite nicely balanced on a base I think. I painted the men in one session and the horses later the same day. Again touches of brighter highlights here and there seem to lift them.

18 French cuirassiers undercoated and ready next. After that it will be 2 more French line battalions followed by a British line battalion with 95th rifles skirmishers and a highland battalion, which should be fun in 6mm! That's the plan for the week ahead.

I'll be re decorating the planned wargame room soon and the table size will be reduced to a more comfortable 3.5 feet wide x 5foot long, ideal for 6mm games. I plan to frame the table with raised edges. I'll pin the Citadel battlemat down tight, improve the surface colour with shades of brown etc and use the offcuts to cover my hills to match. I'm working on trying to keep the cat out of the room, as she insists on creeping in there when I forget to shut the door and I just know she would happily sleep on top of my fragile figures!

I have to say I feel that I may have finally found what I've been searching for in this hobby, the ability to produce units quickly but to a reasonably nice standard has go me hooked on 6mm. It's more affordable and very satisfying, with the vision of dozens of regiments of cavalry on the tabletop a real possibility.

Cuirassiers to follow!

More 6mm pics!

French battalion number 2 completed. Very pleased with the result. Again brighter dabs of colour really bring these tiny figures out, I highlighted the officers horse far more than I would say a 28mm horse for example, but it seems to work.

Made up a couple of tree bases, very enjoyable in his scale. They are just clump foilage glued to cut down cocktail sticks, bases treated and the foilage given a quick highlight. The bases are infact old pennies! I have piles of them, Victorian and Edwardian, they are bigger and thinner than current 2p coins so are ideal for a group of 3 trees.

British Heavy dragoons undercoated and ready for paint, again I reckon a 1.5 hour session will finish them. I think I'll go for 2 ranks of 8 troopers with the officer in front with his trumpeter, but I'll play a round to find the best composition.

First 6mm French battalion.

Painted in 2 short sessions, 31 figures, French line infantry battalion. I need to correct the drummers coat colours, but easily done in this scale! I will vary the trouser colours in future units. You can see I added a few covered shakos for contrast. I used a lighter blue on the coats as 6mm definitely benefits from this. I think as I 'get my eye in' in this scale I should be able to improve slightly, but overall and standing back a foot or so I really like the effect. I added a 28mm (Victrix) figure for scale as requested by John. I'm finding it's a different mind set required in 6mm, you have to accept that the impact is in the en mass effect and you're never going to get perfect individual figures. What I love most is how you can easily complete a base in a short time, which means the potential for painting loads of different units becomes a reality.

Another French infantry base next, followed by a British Heavy Dragoon regiment, probably 16 figures on a base in a kind of 'arrowhead' formation which gives a good impression of charging cavalry in this scale.

More Brits.... and plans.

The second base of British line was completed in a single painting session of about 1.5 hrs, including adding the flags (which will get a bit of touching up around the edges), and sticking down and adding the 'earth' base scatter (fine grade grit added to 'foundation dirt flock). The bases are pre cut from Baccus, which again speeds things along.

I'm ready to start my first French 'test' base now. I used a base coat of 'dark flesh' under the British red coats and have been pondering the use of a base coat for the French, but I'm going to try a lighter colour straight over the black undercoat first. One thing I have learned about painting 6mm is that the finished effect is better if using slightly brighter colours on the figures contrasting with darker colours on the bases, at least that's my theory!

Organisation.

I've been reading the Napoleonic Polemos rules, which for those who don't know actually consist of 2 sets aimed at different levels of organisation. Having had a good read through both versions I have decided to work at the 'lower' Divisional level set, but still using the 60x60 bases intended for the 'Corps' level set. It will make no difference to the way the rules play beside keeping in mind that 1 BW = 60cm, while 1BD = 30cm. All measurements are given in Base Widths mainly, with a few in Base Depths (ie, "fall back 1 BD"). So my bases now each represent a single battalion of infantry or a regiment of cavalry. I prefer the look of the square bases. As said before my French battalions will be represented by 24 figures in 3 ranks of 8 to show the deeper formation than the British line. 6 voltiguers will be out in front skirmishing with a mounted officer riding beside the 'column'.

I'm well stocked up with Baccus figures now so 6 weeks solid painting should see 2 full divisions ready to go. The cavalry figures look brilliant. I have looked at the Timecast Spanish buildings range and these are definitely on my near future shopping list.

Back soon with the first French infantry base completed.

First 6mm test base.

Well, I have taken the plunge and gone to the 'Dark side' of 6mm scale! My first order from Baccus arrived within 3 days and while at first glance the figures did indeed look TINY, at closer inspection I was staggered at the amount of crisp detail these figures have. It's been many years since I last saw 6mm figures and it is clear that casting technology has improved over those years. The main thing that pleased me was that the bayonets are all well defined and no broken ones, as bristling bayonets are essential to the look in this scale. So I set about painting up a test base of British line infantry. As I also got a copy of the Polemos rules I decided to go with the 60mm x 60 mm bases as standard for the 'Marechal d'Empire' set, which cold also be used with a few other sets I have in mind (including 'Napoleonic Squares'. After a lot of thought I decided to have just 30 infantry figures plus a mounted officer on each base. This will allow me to build more bases faster, and I hope the photos show it does not look too bad? British infantry will be 2 ranks of 12 figures, plus 6 flank company guys skirmishing in front, with an officer at rear. I may also add a couple of casualty figures to the rear of each base. French line will have the 24 figures formed in 3 ranks of 8 to represent the deeper formation, plus 6 skirmishing figures and the mounted officer.

I used the same brown on the bases as on the bigger figures (vermin brown), then flocked with GW static grass. I left a small area on the rear corner to paint an identification code which will tie in with a chart on the wall containing full unit details. Overall I'm well pleased with the finished result, and I can imagine that 50 such bases will look quite impressive on the table top. I found that I could paint this full base of figures from start to finish in about 1.5 hours, and thats using a fairly controlled picking out style rather than washes or drybrushing. I'll add a colour by colour painting guide to each new unit as I paint them, for future reference so that I can quickly recall the shades used and order of application.

I hope to produce several bases a week, as well as working on terrain bits and pieces, which looks fun in this scale. Heres a few pics of unit number 1.