The Start of Something Small

As avid followers of this humble blog may recall, Phil Broeders was the (perhaps) lucky winner of some painted figures of his choice from my 250,000 hits giveaway. Phil went and chose 6mm Republican Romans, so after a deep breath I girded my loins and ordered some figures from Baccus. This is my first time painting 6mm, and I think the experience will either send me insane or make me hooked onto a new scale. Let's find out which.

So, step one. In my giveaway I offered to paint around 10 figures. The equivalent cost buys quite a few little Baccus figures. Phil will be getting several units of hastati/principes, some triarii, velites and even some generals, one of which will of course represent me on the tables of Phil's future battles. Here they all are, undercoated in white.



First impressions are that these figures are really quite small. This may be a redundant observation, but by god they are small. However, the detail is really quite impressive, and I particularly like the way these figures are quite anatomically correct, and not inflicted with 'big head syndrome'.

I decided to undercoat in white because I wanted to try out washing them with a coat of diluted raw umber. The plan is that this will define the detail for painting, but also essentially shade the tunics for those I intend to leave white. The other alternative is of course a black undercoat, but to my mind this usually leaves the figures looking a bit too cartoony.

Here's how they look after a wash of diluted Windsor & Newton raw umber. New small paint brushes are purchased, so let's get underway...