Hi Everyone,

I wanted to start a thread of painting and modelling tips for 6mm. I've been painting 6mm for a few months now, and I find it very different from 28mm or even 15mm. I paint, base, and even seal my miniatures differently. For example, I love static grass, but I don't use it for 6mm, I find it too long...

Due to the size of the miniatures and their level of detail, I have to be extremely careful with my priming and sealing to make sure I don't cover up any detail with anything but superthin coats...

Anyone want to share their tips for making the adjustment from larger scales to smaller ones?

Just an FYI about static grass in 6mm: cuticle scissors are your friend

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I just assume it's knee-high grass and all is well.

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hm... Where to start... but thanks for bringing it up. I think we used to have plenty of those tips and tricks on previous incarnations of the boards and I also had some on my old website, but i suppose many of the regulars here have been in the hobby for so long that they forget about these things.

A very very quick and sketchy rundown:

Preparation: Some people like to paint their infantry minaitures while still on the sprue, others like to base them first. Depending on the base type, there are advantages and disadvantages to both, so do what work for you. Personally I prefer to base my minis first.

Undercoat: Always use spray. It gives a great finish and is quick. But use spray with moderation: Quick whifs that are just enough to cover the miniature. Hard to get to recesses can always be covered by brush later and is much preferable to obscured details due to your miniatures being drowned in paint.

Basecoat: Since epic miniatures are so small you rely a lot on techniques like washing and drybrushing. The simplest thing to do is to select a single basecolor for the entire model if at all possible and then add secondary colors and details later on. Again: The thinner layers of paint the better.

Shading: Citadel washes are awsome. Devlan Mud in particular. But I also like do drybrush my way up from a black undercoat which seems to work well on some color schemes.

Highlighting: Drybrushing is by far the quickest and easiest way and produces reasonably good results most of the time.

Detailing: Pich out some select details in bright contrasting colors. You don't need much to achieve a convincing effect.

Weathering: Generally not a good idea for infantry, but vehicles look good that way. Try not to go overboard though: The miniature is small and too much weathering just makes everything look messy. Some dust/mud around tank treads, some soth around a gun muzzle and the occational spot of rust does the trick IMO.

Basing: Well, a lot of different possibilities here. You're right that a lot of stuff looks too big. I use fine beach sand (much finer than that useless coarse stuff GW charges a ridiculous ammount for). After the glue has dried I apply a layer of thinned down Graveyeard earth, which allows some of the color variation of the sand to shine through. A few small patches of static grass looks good as well. You can also use very fine flock or even textured paint or filler to represent a muddy battlefield. But again: thin layers is the key. More than a mm and it looks like your miniature is being swallowed by quicksand...

As a general rule don't try to paint epic minis individually like you would a 28mm miniature. When you drybrush, drybrush all miniatures on the stand at the same time for example. And try to keep things simple. 2-3 basic colors with a few details in contrasting colors work very well in most cases. Because things are small, things easily look cluttered and untidy if you try to paint it like a 28mm miniature. It may be tempting to paint eyes and do 5 layer highlights on Epic scale infantry, but unless you got a steady hand and know what you're doing I personally think it looks much better with a simple straight paint job. It is entirely possible to go nuts and paint Epic miniatures to the same level of detail as 28mm stuff, but if you are still getting the hang of the scale and want to have a decent looking army to game with quickly, the above advice should send you off on a good start.

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Thanks for the great tips guys. How do you guys seal your minis?

So far I've only painted marines, but the drybrushing hasn't been working for me... I've been using washes heavily, and then doing two highlights, which is a bit overkill.... I've never had luck drybrushing for any scale however....

For basing I used GWs textured paints, but that's mainly because I'm basing on round bases and needed something to build the bases up to avoid that ridiculous "hey look I'm standing on a mound" feel...

I was thinking of switching to sanding once my specialized bases arrive.

Thanks for the great tips guys, please keep them coming

Yep, dry brushing and washing gets most of the work done to a good gaming level.

I find a .5mm black pen to be useful.

For basing try grass tufts in the 1–2mm size range, that way it always stands up and is a better size than regular static grass.

What problems have you been having with dry brushing at this scale?

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As I've become a more mature painter (read OLD FART ) I've found I am getting less and less enamored of drybrushing 6mm figures and going more for extreme edge highlights and techniques like that. I find that it really makes the figures pop and actually ends up saving me tons of time trying to blend and highlight all the figures until I'm happy with them.

Anything larger than an Ogryn 9read vehicles and larger robots) gets the traditional treatment though.

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He's a lawyer and a super-villian. That's like having a shark with a bazooka!

-I HAVE NO POINT
-Penal Legion-Fan list
-Help me make Whitescars not suck!

Similar to 28mil, I found that dry brushing doesn't work well with all the flat surfaces on marines...

Also, any good sealing tips? Does everyone here gloss and then Matt? That's what I do currently, with a spray gloss and hand painted Matt. I definitely find I have to be far more careful with the gloss spray on 6mm to ensure I don't cover up detail...

I'm going to try spray matt and drybrush/highlight gloss shortly. I'll let you know how it goes.

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Rogue Trader Expedition 0.4
The Horus Heresy 0.5
Night Lords 0.1
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I DulCoat or Army Painter Antishine spray and then follow up with brush on DulCoat typically (which is kinda the holy grail of matt varnishes).

YMMV as the awesomesauce of DulCoat is tempered by the fact the AFAIK the EU bans a particular formulation so there's "two variations" of the product available in spray and the EU legal one isn't quite as good I hear. Of course the brush on is still great so there's that. The Army Painter really is a good product and a great deal which I'm steadily moving to for spray purposes.

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He's a lawyer and a super-villian. That's like having a shark with a bazooka!

-I HAVE NO POINT
-Penal Legion-Fan list
-Help me make Whitescars not suck!

I've heard a few nightmare stories about spray varnishes. In the wrong atmospheric situations (humidity I think) it can go cloudy. True or not these stories have put me off spray so I paint on Gloss Varnish, possibly a few coats (definitely on metal models), followed by Matt. This clearly takes a while but seems to have worked well so far.

Good points Stu! Spray varnish is like any use of a rattle can. Dry air, comfortable room temperature can, clean tips, and well shook can. I've read somewhere (Dakka Dakka i think) that you can against expectations, cover the cloudy varnish with gloss coat, dry, and reapply to correct cloudiness.

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He's a lawyer and a super-villian. That's like having a shark with a bazooka!

-I HAVE NO POINT
-Penal Legion-Fan list
-Help me make Whitescars not suck!

Worth knowing, although I probably won't risk it unless I have to varnish a LOT of models.

Based on my own experiences the stories have some truth. I used my airbrush on a couple of 15 mm German tanks a while back and small areas went whiteish. I used my airbrush with a mix of Tamiya gloss an matte medium. Got the advice from a guy that does military models. Not the boobed variant. The results were mostly fantastic though! I haven't touched my 15 mm stuf in ages, but I have also heard of the re-glossing tip and shall try it sometime.

Another varnish annoyance was that the powder weathering all but disappeared. Lesson learned: weather AFTER varnishing.

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Nitpicks Knapsack (Scratchbuilding and 3D designing and printing and painting)