Painting 6mm Napoleonics - a mini tutorial

I'm sure lots of gamers are disheartened by the prospect of painting 6mm figures because of their diminutive size.  Very often you hear the question "How do you manage to paing something that small?"  

I hope this post will address that question and maybe encourage a few people to gather up the will (or should I say courage?) to paint these small but incredibly rewarding models. For this tutorial I chose to paint a few stands of 1809 Austrian Jaegers from H & R. Unfortunately, these must rank as some of the most drab Napoleonic uniforms, being mostly a flat grey but the lack of colour variety makes them a very rapid unit to paint. Compared to some of their flamboyant cavalry colleagues, these poor chaps must have had an extremely hard time with the ladies !

1. Prior to any painting I prefer to organise the figures and plan ahead for the eventual end product. Note the hacksaw blade at bottom and the MDF bases with magnets fixed to their central holes. The bases are from Warbases and come with the central hole ready. 

2. I opt for 3mm holes in my bases and fit 2mm x 3mm magnets which can easily be obtained online from the likes of Amazon or ebay.

3. I use a hacksaw blade which is long enough to fit 90 figures, meaning that I can paint this many figures at one go per 'production run'. Here the figures are stuck onto the blade using PVA glue which allows the figures to be easily removed once ready.

4. The figures are primed using Vallejo Black Primer.  The black primer will give depth to the figures in those areas where it will still show through.

5. I use Vallejo Basalt as the base colour for the Jaegers. Note that gaps are left in certain parts of the figure (e.g. between the left and right legs or between the arms and the chest.

6. A touch of highlight is added to the top of the jaegers' hats, shoulders and knees using Vallejo Blue Grey Pale.

7. Vallejo Pale Green is added for the facing colour and plume. The colour is a bit brighter than the actual uniform's colour but is used on purpose since at such a reduced scale it is easier to discern. Vallejo Sunny Skin Tone is used for face and hands.

8. Vallejo Flat Earth is used for the muskets and backpacks.

9. Finally Vallejo Sky Grey is used for the bedrolls.  Note also the facing colour on the turnbacks

10. The figures are removed from the hacksaw with a craft knife and glued to their bases, fifteen to a base.

11. Sand (collected from a nearby beach) is glued to the bases using PVA glue.

12. Once the PVA glue has set, the bases are given a coat of black primer. In order not to brush away the sand, the paint is slightly diluted and is dabbled rather than brushed over the bases.

13. Finally the bases are drybrushed in Vallejo lime and highlighted by a touch of Foundry Yellow 2B. Here the finished unit is shown with its command stand and is now ready for the table. Note the fresh 'production line' in the background !

I find this method quite fast and enables a fair amount of detail to be included in the figures. At batches of ninety figures every time, it's quite easy to build up quite a number of models and complete your armies in no time at all.  Again, one of the beautiful advantages of 6mm.