Identifying units in 6mm

[Volleyfire!]

This is the first division of a Piedmontese force for Risorgimento, and I am wondering what to do to identify some or all the units without detracting from the overall look. I'm not sure whether to put small labels on bases, as I want to keep track of what is where for morale purposes. I've posted this on TMP and had a few suggestions, some are saying just label the officers for instance, but I want to keep track of battalions and brigades since they all look the same at present. They are based as per Piedmontese OOB, with 4 battalions per regt, 2 regts to a brigade, and 2 foot brigades to a division long with 3 batteries of artillery and a battalion of Bersaglieri. 

[CptJake]

I used small printed identifiers printed out and glued on for my 1:600 moderns.



Something similar could work for your basing.   Maybe color the paper so the white doesn't detract too much if that is an issue.

[Forwardmarchstudio]

You could try using these from my blog- just cut them down a bit and place them behind the units. 

http://1809in3mm.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-universal-roster-system.html

[wkeyser]

Hi I have a large collection of Heroics and Ross Napoleonic I use a two color small lable on one corner and then as I am really anal I put the regiment name.

The lable has two colors the first is for Corps, the second Divison (Red always 1st, Blue always second, Black always third etc) then in the last of the two colors I put a small dot top left 1st battlion, top right 2nd Battalion, bottom left 3rd battalion, bottom right 4th battalion. Then on top I writie in contrasting color the name of the regiment, 1st Leg, 2nd Line,  95th Ri  etc.

It is important in my rules that all units maintain cohesion, you can mix them up but then they suffer in combat ablity due to command problems.

William

[Volleyfire!]

You could try using these from my blog- just cut them down a bit and place them behind the units.  

http://1809in3mm.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-universal-roster-system.html

Very interesting, thank you for the link. It combines the painting base edges a different colour idea with a small marker in the corner with all the info on. I've toyed with putting info on coloured paper and laminating it and glueing it in the corner, i.e. 1/Pisa/29/1 (1st Division,Brigade Pisa,29th Regt,1st Battalion) or painting the rear base edges a different colour, or using a sort of bar code system along the rear base edge with different colours representing different information. For example a white stripe means 1st Division, followed by a red stripe denoting Pisa, another white stripe for 29th Regt and one red stripe for 1st Battalion. 2nd Battalion would be two red stripes and so on. The other regt in Brigade Pisa, the 30th, could have a blue stripe for example, or even be left as the green base edge colour.. This could be on the rear r/h corner of each base edge. You could see at a glance by matching up the colours who is with whom. If an actual track needs to be kept of the regts involved I'll just put a sticker under each base so that when it is removed I can make a note of where it belongs so we can keep a tally on things for morale checks. Alternatively, I could ink the colours onto card and put it on top of the base in the rear corner.
I'm not really sold on the idea of painting the base edges of each brigade a different colour TBH. Someone on TMP suggested just putting the brigade info on each brigadiers base but if it comes to melee and units from different brigades are involved in the same combat it could get confusing.

[Volleyfire!]

Hi I have a large collection of Heroics and Ross Napoleonic I use a two color small lable on one corner and then as I am really anal I put the regiment name.

The lable has two colors the first is for Corps, the second Divison (Red always 1st, Blue always second, Black always third etc) then in the last of the two colors I put a small dot top left 1st battlion, top right 2nd Battalion, bottom left 3rd battalion, bottom right 4th battalion. Then on top I writie in contrasting color the name of the regiment, 1st Leg, 2nd Line,  95th Ri  etc.

It is important in my rules that all units maintain cohesion, you can mix them up but then they suffer in combat ablity due to command problems.

William

Thanks William, I was just typing my post above as you posted yours, and it seems we have similar ideas. I like yours immensely, I think it could be the way to go. Thanks.

[wkeyser]

Hi I will get some photos to show you tonight.
William

[khartoum2]

How about the back line of the base a different colour for each grouping or a piece of scenery that matches each group e.g. a bush in the left corner for one regiment in the right for another a tree placement for another a piece of debris for another etc

Good luck as they look brilliant, don't know how you can paint so small

[Volleyfire!]

How about the back line of the base a different colour for each grouping or a piece of scenery that matches each group e.g. a bush in the left corner for one regiment in the right for another a tree placement for another a piece of debris for another etc

Good luck as they look brilliant, don't know how you can paint so small

Thank you for the compliment. I hadn't painted any 6mm since I was in my early teens when I did some H&R moderns, and my mother thought they were rather too small and threw them in the bin! 
A friend of mine has a large force of Franco Prussian and a couple of games with those got me hooked. I thought I'd do some Austrians so we could do the Austro Prussian War and Risorgimento. I found some Austrians on eBay part painted, but decided to start on the Italian side first. According to Peter Berry at Baccus there's some special formula he coats the figures with and once you've handled the virgin product and got it on your fingers you become addicted and can't stop buying and painting the blessed things!  So I must warn you to keep them at arms length at all times as I found out to my cost. 

 Yes, I had thought of painting the back of bases a different colour, but having seen people do that with FoW stuff I'm not too sold on the idea TBH. Discreet is more my line 
Not wishing to appear rude, but I'm not a fan of 'mobile' scenery that goes around with the figures too much either. In this scale a boulder or bush has to be fairly large to be noticeable on the base and then I feel it spoils the overall effect. If I did put any trees, bushes, what-have-you on anybody's base it would be the C-in-C as his base is the largest square base and has a lot of empty space on it which does look a bit bare, plus he hardly ever moves around the table so wouldn't come under my 'mobile scenery'  heading.
 I used flock instead of static grass because I feel most static grass can be too long for 6mm and if you smother the base in it it can make it look as though the figures are wading through a field of elephant grass.

[Volleyfire!]

Hi I will get some photos to show you tonight.
William

Just wondering if you've come up with any pics William? I'm very interested in what you described and would love to have a look at your handiwork.