Almost the smallest scale available, the detail available at this scale has never seemed that good. On the other hand, if reasonably painted, the figures look good en masse. GHQ has been a dominant force at this scale but primarily for vehicles. Their early figures were crudely sculpted. The replacements were simply blocks of identical figures. I have yet to purchase their current line though they do seem to have improved. With luck, new manufacturing techniques will allow a fuller exploration of figures at this scale.
Heroics and Ros seems about as old and venerable as 6mm gets. They offered reasonable and varied figures for WWII at a time when even GHQ offerings of infantry were weak. They also provided vehicles, artillery, and aircraft in a rich variety so that one could purchase a range of reasonably interesting figures to go with whatever vehicles one had.
The metal tray used above was from an AOL and shows just how many figures can be crammed into a small space, a boon for people who do not want miniatures taking up every bit of storage available. The figures lack detail but are nevertheless distinguishable both for nationality and weaponry. My painting on these was crude and quick. I wanted to get a batch on the table at the time.
These serve well with Deluxe Squad Leader boards since these are standard quarter inch counters. The addition of actual figures does lend something to any game. The figures on top all show a (riderless) supply wagon, one of those details that always improves a game’s appearance.
Currently, these are available through The Last Square though like everything else, they also turn up on E-bay. Infantry often comes in multiple types including regular infantry, heavy weapons infantry, and paratroopers. Not to be overlooked are the very useful artillery crews.
A small but charming group of French soldiers from the War of the Spanish Succession. The figures are a recent acquisition and painting is progressing slowly. The ensign in the middle as yet has no flag but the flag pole is at the ready. The figures are mounted on small plastic bases provided in the Warlord Games ECW figures. Each group is mounted on a stand that in 28mm would hold a single figure.
The figures are by Baccus, a firm specializing in 6mm. They have more detail than other 6mm figures I own and so tend to be a bit more difficult to paint. At this scale, any uniform detail is appreciated. There is enough here to easily distinguish different figure types.
The War of the Spanish Succession is not as well known as later musket era conflicts. France attempted to place a king aligned with France on the throne of Spain and England, the Holy Roman Empire, and their allies fought to stop them. The war is best remembered for the battle of Blenheim and two allied commanders, the Duke of Marlborough and Prinz Eugene of Savoy.
Romans in 6mm. The beauty of the 6mm scale is that it is possible to crowd a huge number of figures into a small space. With such a small size, individual details are swallowed up and one simply sees a mass of figures. This works well with ordered ranks of Romans. It becomes possible to use a smaller table space while crowding each base with masses of figures. Here, there are 20 figures to each base for a total of 80 figures, what you would expect in a century. However, for sanity’s sake, each block represents a cohort, each colored shield group a legion.
This is an old paint job on figures by Heroics Ros. I always mean to get back and do some more but that is the history of figure painting for me. The best approach for figures like this is an almost mechanical application of paint in broad colors with a minimum of detail. Still, with a little more time, errors on the shields could be corrected and some simple design applied. But in some respects too much detail would take away one of the pleasures of this scale that fine detail is imperceptible during gaming. We see the serried ranks of soldiers and little more even if every feature is finely detailed.
Time passes and the Romans have increased in number to just under 300 figures.Now, over 400 figures. It is getting difficult to find more packs of Romans in the boxes still unpainted.Continue reading →
