Painting 6mm Napoleonics: fast, but how fast? A test

[Leftblank]

Paintblog.

Everybody says that 6mm is easy and quick to paint. I thought so, but I wanted to test it. I'm an experienced 15mm speedpainter and I painted and based two 15mm musketeer armies in about 47 hours, about 12-13 minutes per miniature including basing. I wanted a comparison.


So yesterday evening I painted a French 3-base regiment. (Read more)
http://amsterdam6shooters.nl/node/712

[6milPhil]

Excellent stuff, those worked well. Always delighted to see more 6mm on here. 

Btw have a quick look at this post: http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=46055.0

[AndrewBeasley]

Neat result - like Phil says nice to see the smaller scales here.

As for your blog 'Warning: don't zoom in, it looks blobby from nearby :-) I was shocked myself. Couldn't sleep.' - do not worry as my 28mm went that way a few years ago 

[SteveBurt]

I reckon it takes about 10 minutes per figure for a detailed 28mm figure (e.g Napoleonics), half that for simple figures (e.g Bronze Age infantry).
I've no idea what those guys who take an hour per figure are doing in all that time!

[6milPhil]

I reckon it takes about 10 minutes per figure for a detailed 28mm figure (e.g Napoleonics), half that for simple figures (e.g Bronze Age infantry).

 

I sense a video challenge young fella!

[Vermis]

28mm figures are toy soldiers. Good for skirmishes only. I want a toy ARMY.

I like the cut of your jib.

I reckon it takes about 10 minutes per figure for a detailed 28mm figure (e.g Napoleonics), half that for simple figures (e.g Bronze Age infantry).

Painting with rollers doesn't count.

[SteveBurt]

In one of Phil Barker's old books (it might have been the 'purple primer') he gives a rule of thumb of 1 minute per colour per figure for 25mm figures. I find that's about right (some detail takes longer, some things like spearshafts or hats are much quicker)
I don't use shading and highlighting; that's what inks are for! A quick wash with the correct coloured ink (or two inks depending on what colour combinations are on the figure), and that's all the shading/highlighting needed.
If you want to paint an army, rather than individual figures, you have to take shortcuts.
The results look absolutely fine on the table (and not bad close up)
Just to prove I'm not making this up, here's some recently painted figures; a unit of cataphracts.
12x28mm mounted figures, total painting time about 2 hours (clean up, assembly, and basing took about another hour or so); mounted always take longer as there's more assembly and the horses to paint as well.

[SteveBurt]

Hmm. Not sure what happened to the picture.
Let's try again!

[Vermis]

I don't use shading and highlighting; that's what inks are for! A quick wash with the correct coloured ink (or two inks depending on what colour combinations are on the figure), and that's all the shading/highlighting needed.

I'll admit I'm fond of washes, shades and inks meself, though I think they work better with the details of smaller-scale miniatures, making detail stand out and providing more contrast. I've seen some fantastic Warmaster orcs done with a green basecoat, spot colours and army painter black shade. It'd be the only extra step that I might apply to Leftblank's excellent work.
I still think 28mm works better with a little more effort, though that's not to say I'd nag people to do more (bad jokes about paint rollers aside!); just a reason why I'd personally spend more than ten minutes. That's fine, because as per my last post, I'm not likely to paint many huge 28mm armies in the future! I've met gamers who rush through even 54mm figures with a few messy brushstrokes, and get grumpy that others in the group (like yours truly) aren't following their lead. So while I can imagine it doesn't feel good or fair to be held to a painstaking, time-consuming standard, I can say it doesn't feel great when the situation's reversed, either!

Your own 28mms look much better than theirs, though.

Hmm. Not sure what happened to the picture.

I'd hazard you've just discovered something about the imgur app that I just discovered about the flickr app: the brave new world of image-sharing soshul meedja apps doesn't have room for ye olde bulletin boards and embedded images! You need to go to the site through your browser to get the image tag link.

[SteveBurt]

Thanks.
The thing is, if you are painting up an army (there's about 150 figures in that Parthian army, for instance):
a) there isn't time to shade every figure
b) nobody looks at individuals anyway once the army is on table

I do take more care with figures for skirmish gaming (like Wild West or Pirates) where you only need a couple of dozen figures in total.

This is even more true of ACW or Napoleonics, where there might be 500+ figures in an army.
When I started out painting figures (back in the 60s; is it really that long ago), it took me forever to finish anything, and the end result wasn't great. I find block paint + washes gets me nice results in about 1/4 the time of more laborious methods.
It took years of practice to get this fast!

I'm reminded of a quote from the Duke of Wellington:
"Sorry this letter is so long, but I didn't have time to write a short one"

[6milPhil]

The thing for me now is just how quickly can you paint 6mm?

[SteveBurt]

Dunno - I don't have any figures smaller than 20mm.
I keep thinking it would be fun to try 6mm particularly for big Napoleonic, ACW or WW2 battles.
So far I've managed to resist; perhaps when I've emptied the unpainted lead drawer (something which is drawing every closer), I'll try another scale.

[6mmfan]

Those look nice

When I was painting my 6mm Napoleonics I could knock out a batch of 48 in two evening ( maybe 4 hours), but i was being pedantic. But i agree that because you can finish figures off quickly, it feels like you are making progress. The only time I didnt was when I was painting 8 x 24 figures units in one go! 

Here's an example



You can see the rest of the Dutch Belgians here

http://6mm.wargaming.info/page86.shtml

Cheers
Kieran

[Leftblank]

I'll admit I'm fond of washes, shades and inks meself, though I think they work better with the details of smaller-scale miniatures, making detail stand out and providing more contrast. I've seen some fantastic Warmaster orcs done with a green basecoat, spot colours and army painter black shade. It'd be the only extra step that I might apply to Leftblank's excellent work.

I tried Army Painter Quickshade last year on an an unit, but it dulled the colours. Had to re-higlight, which on this scale is the same as repainting.
But again, I'm just mediocre, I've seen stunning pics of 6mm paintjobs on the web.

[6milPhil]

Dunno - I don't have any figures smaller than 20mm.
I keep thinking it would be fun to try 6mm particularly for big Napoleonic, ACW or WW2 battles.
So far I've managed to resist; perhaps when I've emptied the unpainted lead drawer (something which is drawing every closer), I'll try another scale.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.