Since I didn't want to clutter up K Peterson's awesome Blood Bowl Orcs thread (go look if you haven't http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?36286-Painting-Blood-Bowl ), here is my thread on painting my 6mm miniatures. Currently, all from Microworld Games.
Following KP's suggestion, I looked for basing materials more in line with 6mm sizes. Woodland Scenics makes "fine turf" in 5-6 different colors more model railroaders. This is more "fluff-like" than "sand-like" in the three version I tried on these models (Green Grass, Yellow Grass, and Earth). It really fits the models better, but works/feels very differently from the larger base material.
I'm also going to look at getting a camera with a better macro lens and maybe better focusing.
This first bunch are two orcs and a "fallen".
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This second bunch is a centaur and two more orcs.
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I'm still getting use to how the new basing material works. I think I need to do a very thin glue wash after attaching the base material, since the spray seal I use blew up a lot of the turf, redepositing it on the model. (The more sand-like material didn't have as much of a problem with this.)
I'm also working more with the ink washes, trying to find the balance between too thin and too heavy.
Any useful suggestions or feedback welcome! Thanks. :)
I like 'em! What a cool range of 6mm. I like their beastmen and fauns.
Do you typically base solitary figures, or do you have any groups or 'squads' on a single base?
Quote from: K Peterson;954613I like 'em! What a cool range of 6mm. I like their beastmen and fauns.
Do you typically base solitary figures, or do you have any groups or 'squads' on a single base?
Thanks! I really like Microworld Games' sculptors.
Since I use them for RPGs, I base a single figure per base. Once I get some rats or spiders, I'll see how big those are.
I plan to include boulders, shrubs, and maybe trees or something with other figures in the future.
I'm impressed. Wish I had the money and time to invest. Are any prepainted minis well done? I realize they will never be as good as done by hand but for lazy fucks like myself what would be the best option?
Quote from: Voros;954818I'm impressed. Wish I had the money and time to invest. Are any prepainted minis well done? I realize they will never be as good as done by hand but for lazy fucks like myself what would be the best option?
What scale 6mm, 25mm, or ... ? Also, some of the pre-painted are painted by hand. Are you in the US, the UK, or somewhere else? Reaper, D&D, and a bunch of others offer 25mm/28mm scale.
Ebay for used, painted figures that you like might be a reasonably good place to start too.
BTW, I have 7 minis almost ready. One I did some minor modifications to. Also, the glue wash on the basing material seemed to help a lot. I'm going to try using a flatbed scanner for the "picture".
The scanner seems to work reasonably well. I think the speckles on the image are noise rather than dust. I'm tempted to build a little framework to hold the minis for pictures. You can see how I taped them to a folded notecard for scanning.
I like how the basing came out a lot. The glue wash worked really well.
On the left is a dog knight (based on the Vargr from Traveller). I cut extra spikes off a knight from Microworld Games and added a tail made of twisted wire. On the right is a calico feline from PFC C-in-C.
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On the left is a dwarf. On the right is a robot from PFC C-in-C painted so it can be used as an insectoid (until I get my insects from Onslaught).
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Another Felinoid from PDC C-in-C (painted as an Aslan from Traveller) and another view of the dog knight. The tail doesn't look so squared off in person.
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These are both from Microworld Games. My wife's sister is playing a werewolf and really likes huskies. (One husky eye is brown and the other blue.)
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Probably 25mm and I'm in North America. I don't use Ebay anymore, got burned too many times.
Quote from: Voros;955011Probably 25mm and I'm in North America. I don't use Ebay anymore, got burned too many times.
This might be a good thing to ask about separately, to get input from actual buyers. I just know what I've found while researching, and all the prices seem high to me, since I'm paying so much less for unpainted 6mm.
I've had good luck on Ebay with railroad pocket watches, but I limited myself to whatever the top tier sellers were, in the US or Canada, that took credit cards.
25mm looks to run $4-10 per painted figure. D&D Attack Wing looks like good deals, especially if you need things like a small horde of orcs.
EM4 in the UK has really nice stuff. They have a US distributor who is usually sold out. http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/FANTACY.html
Pathfinder Singles look like decent deals. http://paizo.com/pathfinderbattles/singles They have other lines too.
Reaper's Legendary Encounter line looks nice too. https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Legendary%20Encounters
I'm not sure about how often stuff is in-stock.
I decided my goblins are purple. My wife decided they should wear yellow and white, and have silver armor and weapons. There are 11 minis. The back row is the same in both pictures.
Spiders and rats are from the Dungeon Quest game from Perfect Six and The Miniature Architect.
Goblins are from Microworld Games.
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I'm working on some trolls and dire boars. One thing I tried this time is adding Green Stuff to smooth out the ledge between the mini's integral base and the Litko acrylic disk I use for the larger base. You can see some impressions of the integral bases above, especially in the lower left figure.
Most of the Microworld Games minis have had insignificant amounts of flashing to remove. A couple of the trolls had a bit more--I have some really nice files, but ended up stealing an emery board from my wife for one bit of flash that wasn't huge but was stubborn.
It'd be great to see some size comparisons across the insects, goblins, humanoids, trolls, etc. From the small to the large figures.
Since you're using 6mm for Rpging, have you made or purchased any terrain pieces? Hills, buildings, ruins. It kind of boggles my mind to think of what you could represent at that scale.
Quote from: K Peterson;955517It'd be great to see some size comparisons across the insects, goblins, humanoids, trolls, etc. From the small to the large figures.
I'll borrow a camera and see what I can do. :-)
Quote from: K Peterson;955517Since you're using 6mm for Rpging, have you made or purchased any terrain pieces? Hills, buildings, ruins. It kind of boggles my mind to think of what you could represent at that scale.
I use a Chessex wet erase map with 1" squares (and 1" hexes on the other side.) I like hexes and squares on the map. I base the figures on 0.75" (~19mm) disks. I'll probably buy or build more "scenery" type extras, but don't expect to have many, if any, real terrain or buildings.
Does this help for size comparisons?
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And three more...
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Trolls from Microworld Games. I like how they came out--they are supposed to look unhealthy.
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These are the dinosaurs that come in a little plastic egg--about 10 for 99 cents. I've painted and based them and call them "Death Lizards" for my version of B1 In Search of the Unknown.
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Ouu how cool they look, it's awesome work :)
The last two sets of pictures (wood background and notecard background) were taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS25. I used two approached. In one, I zoomed in to 2x so I could use the flash and not be too close. In the other case, I took pictures with the LED light from my magnifier and used 1x without a zoom.
Quote from: NikalausBig;956216Ouu how cool they look, it's awesome work :)
Thanks. I think I will re-apply the white outline on the edge of the troll bases. :o
Quote from: Tod13;956025And three more...
Those definitely help for size comparisons. Thanks!
I got notice my special order shipped from Onslaught Miniatures, so I should have some of those to paint/review soon.
6mm minis from today.
The pigs on the left are dire boars from Microworld Games.
The centaur is a Microworld Games centaur to which I added a double barrel crossbow blaster.
The snow based mini is from Onslaught and is from the Legion Terran Hybrid Command.
The green one in front is from Onslaught and is a member of the Stygian Phantom Guard.
The far right is a dwarf from Microworld Games. It started with two axes and now has a firing blaster and a robotic arm.
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As a note, so far I have Microworld Games, PFC CinC Solar Empire Marines, Onslaught Miniatures, and some from Perfect 6 (like the spiders and rats) that came with a 6mm dungeon explorer game.
The style of sculpting between Microworld Games, PFC, and Perfect 6 are very similar. Onslaught has a bit different style--it is a little more crisp in delineating parts. I like all four companies. Also, Steve at Microworld and Don at Onslaught, I've actually talked to via email, and they are very nice and accommodating. If you feel the need to talk to people, PFC is not your company. From reading online, they're very reliable about shipping and whatnot, but very slow to get a hold of. Perfect 6 is in the UK--haven't tried talking to them.
I also ordered some of the smaller/cheaper mecha and spaceships from Iron Wind Metals--they have a bunch of online exclusives that match 6mm in power armor or smaller mechs that I bought. They all look nice too. I also got some of the Micro Fighters and smaller spacecraft. Basically, I looked at stuff that ran around a dollar or less each. If I could get 25mm tall mecha like those from Five Star Stories, I'd pay more, but I like the smaller stuff better than the more expensive Battletech and whatnot mechs I see on the market.
I have additional orders coming from Onslaught (mecha and vehicles), Microworld (vehicles), Perfect 6 (animals and scenery), and Ground Zero Games (mecha and vehicles).
No RPG today, since we had a player sick. So more painting.
These are lizard guys from PFC CinC. They're pretty cute and easy to paint.
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These are (left to right) a "not Bobba Fett" from PFC CinC, a hybrid from Onslaught (paint scheme by request), and a "not a Taunton" from PFC CinC.
I need to add two Cs to the pink/purple bug's banner, since my fantasy players often present themselves in a dungeon as "Cave Catering".
Recommendations from 2-3mm tall wet transfer decals gratefully accepted.
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These pictures came out really nice.
This is our fantasy party. The last two minis are for the same character (a werewolf).
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This is our sci-fi party.
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Great paint job, Tod13 :)
Quote from: K Peterson;955517Since you're using 6mm for Rpging, have you made or purchased any terrain pieces? Hills, buildings, ruins. It kind of boggles my mind to think of what you could represent at that scale.
I've done my fantasy in 10mm (Pendraken), but for 6mm you can get away with using some great bargain stuff designed to decorate the bottom of fish tanks! :)
Quote from: doomedpc;957679Great paint job, Tod13 :)
I've done my fantasy in 10mm (Pendraken), but for 6mm you can get away with using some great bargain stuff designed to decorate the bottom of fish tanks! :)
Thanks!
Hmmm. When we get cricket treats for our crested gecko, I'll have to look at what they have at the pet store. Thanks!
Quote from: Tod13;957571Recommendations from 2-3mm tall wet transfer decals gratefully accepted.
That'll be an interesting challenge. Most of the decals I've seen in that scale have been WW2. A quick Googling brought up a UK seller that sells a variety of historical/fantasy/scifi decals, Magister Militum (https://www.magistermilitum.com/type/decals-shield-transfers-tank-markings.html#order=name&limit=36&p=1&dir=ASC). Not sure if they have a US distributor, or which US online retailers carry their products. But maybe you could find something close and customize/cut out what you need?
Only other guess I'd have is to see if you can find any decals that could have been produced for GW's Warmaster, when it was out years ago. Not sure if they exist, but that wargame was in 10mm scale.
Quote from: K Peterson;957742That'll be an interesting challenge. Most of the decals I've seen in that scale have been WW2. A quick Googling brought up a UK seller that sells a variety of historical/fantasy/scifi decals, Magister Militum (https://www.magistermilitum.com/type/decals-shield-transfers-tank-markings.html#order=name&limit=36&p=1&dir=ASC). Not sure if they have a US distributor, or which US online retailers carry their products. But maybe you could find something close and customize/cut out what you need?
Only other guess I'd have is to see if you can find any decals that could have been produced for GW's Warmaster, when it was out years ago. Not sure if they exist, but that wargame was in 10mm scale.
I'm probably going to go with something like this that I can get in about 5 different colors if needed.
http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MD&Product_Code=70012&Category_Code=NSCALE
A co-worker game me a suggestion for building a light box, which I think will help a lot with pictures. Until then, here is a "everything in one" picture.
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Some Onslaught Stygian Gargoyles -- I tried mixing up some of the basing on these.
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More 6mm painting.
A selection of Microworld Games undead!
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Some hot pink Microworld Games ogres!
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And Microworld Games owl bears. These are interesting because I did a dry wash, which I don't usually do on 6mm minis.
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And some Iron Wind Metal spaceships!
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Great spaceships. And I really like the undead.
Quote from: K Peterson;959088Great spaceships. And I really like the undead.
The funny thing is the undead and spaceships were easiest to paint. I am considering using black turn with a little bit of snow mixed in to base the starships... Thoughts on that?
Are you going for a starfield pattern on the base? If so, that approach would be interesting to see. Only other approach I'm familiar with is taking a small, stiff-bristled brush, add a little white paint, and then flick the specks of white paint on by rubbing a finger across the bristles. But I haven't tried it, and it would probably be safer to do before mini and base were assembled.
Are those Litko bases on the spaceships? I've ordered from them before, and they've got great options for customization. A few years back, I was painting up some 15mm characters for Traveller, and purchased a bunch of custom magnetized bases.
Quote from: K Peterson;959130Are you going for a starfield pattern on the base? If so, that approach would be interesting to see. Only other approach I'm familiar with is taking a small, stiff-bristled brush, add a little white paint, and then flick the specks of white paint on by rubbing a finger across the bristles. But I haven't tried it, and it would probably be safer to do before mini and base were assembled.
I wanted something with texture, to cover up the green stuff used to reinforce the nail (see below). So, I was just thinking about the black turf with a little bit of "snow" mixed in to be "textured space". :o
For airbrushing space pictures, we used toothbrushes. Put the toothbrush in the paint and run your thumb down the bristles.
Quote from: K Peterson;959130Are those Litko bases on the spaceships? I've ordered from them before, and they've got great options for customization. A few years back, I was painting up some 15mm characters for Traveller, and purchased a bunch of custom magnetized bases.
Yup. I got 6mm flight bases from Litko. And then I round out the bottom of the hole with an Xacto knife. I use the gel slow superglue to set the nail, and fill in the top of the hole with green stuff. Maybe next time I'll prep the bases earlier, so I can clean/sand the base so the top is nice and smooth. (The roughness isn't quite so jarring in person.)
I have a light box coming in tomorrow, but here are two sets of minis I finished tonight.
These are smaller (and cheaper) Iron Wind Metal mecha minis. I didn't want to pay $5-10 per mini when I don't like the sculpts, but these smaller ones look nice and are a lot cheaper.
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And these are Hobgoblins from Microworld Games.
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More from today. Tomorrow, I'll do some light tent pictures.
Some Microworld Games gnolls--I tried to bring out their hyena background.
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Microworld Games dwarves--I really, really like how these came out.
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And some bats. The idea to use fishing line (I picked 1mm) came from the helpful folks at Litko, where I get my acrylic bases.
They suggested drilling a small hole in the base--I didn't have the right size drill bit, so I embedded the line in Green Stuff.
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Here are pictures from the light tent.
Microworld Games
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Iron Wind Metals
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Onslaught Minis
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Perfect Six
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PFC CinC
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Jewelry bats and toy dinosaurs.
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From top to bottom: science-fiction RPG party, fantasy RPG party, and sci-fi party's mecha.
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I tried something suggestion on G+ this weekend and did repaints and/or dry brushed after the ink wash. The ink wash darkens the 6mm minis too much, but the repaint/dry brush brings the color back out.
Microworld Orcs
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Microworld Goblins
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Microworld Undead
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Quote from: Tod13;961093I tried something suggestion on G+ this weekend and did repaints and/or dry brushed after the ink wash. The ink wash darkens the 6mm minis too much, but the repaint/dry brush brings the color back out.
That's the approach that I use. Apply another base coat after the ink wash, avoiding any recessed areas, to 'brighten' the mini. Saw it on a 'Warhammer TV' YouTube video.
Quote from: K Peterson;961100That's the approach that I use. Apply another base coat after the ink wash, avoiding any recessed areas, to 'brighten' the mini. Saw it on a 'Warhammer TV' YouTube video.
From my readings, I've found two other approaches.
First, some washes or inks work better for 6mm. Basically, the surface tension has to be less than a typical ink. The Vallejo Color Washes are supposed to be better, so I'm getting those to try. (Even if they don't work, it'll be nice to have more color choices.) The Vellejo Inks are different--supposedly they will also work and mix together well, but you have to thin them more with water.
Second, another suggestion is after doing the primer/base coat paint the figure in a really light version of whatever single color you want it to be. Then apply the wash (that comes out too dark) and detail as needed. The lighter paint shows through better and you don't have to do details twice--although highlights on the single color surface will still have to be redone (as on the goblin's yellow robes above). This might work well for animal minis which can be dry brushed easily.
New 6mm paints. Onslaught and Microworld Games. I also tried a new setting on the camera for pictures. This is using Vallejo color wash, which is a bit lighter than the Reaper inks.
Microworld Wild Elves
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Microworld Vikings
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Microworld Valkyries
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Onslaught Okami drones and operators
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Onslaught Okami Mecha
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I did more reading and figured that maybe increasing the F-stop would help. This increases the depth of field (the range that is "in focus") and helps the camera focus on the 6mm minis. This also requires a bipod, as the shutter is open longer. I tested with a couple sets of minis without the light tent.
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I think I got the picture thing fixed. Some 6mm "red lizards"--I decided to feature these in the sci-fi RPG I'm running. The lizards with the mounts are from Microworld. The lizards with sci-fi guns are from CinC PFC. 6mm paints from Perfect 6 (barriers) and Ground Zero Games (skimmers) and Onslaught (motorcycles). GZG pictures with camera set on f/5.6 ev-2 and taken on 2 second timer with a mini tripod. I like how these come out. (P6 picture done with my brother's camera, but I could not reproduce a decent shot.) It seems like an f-stop around 5 works pretty well.
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Wow! These figures are amazing!
Quote from: romzor;976237Wow! These figures are amazing!
Thanks!
Here is a combination of previously painted Solar Empire Marine figures from PFC CnC, and newly painted GZG flying gunships and (I think GZG) tanks.
Here are two different pictures. I'm still playing with settings on my new full-frame DSLR.
The darker (top) is zoomed in, while the other (bottom) has less zoom and is cropped more.
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