How To Paint And Base 6mm Infantry [Guide]

[LordCommandHook]

   



A brief guide by an amateur to painting and basing very tiny 6mm infantry.

You will need:

• 6mm miniatures
  
• Miniature bases which fit your miniatures (I 3D modeled and 3D printed my own bases, but you can totally buy them at many hobby shops)
  
• Paint brushes, good and bad
  
• Old toothbrush and dish soap
  
• Model paints (model paints specifically are helpful here because they are thinner and have more finely-ground pigments than cheap craft paint)
  
• PVA glue (Elmer's elementary school kid's glue is a type of PVA, any kind of PVA will work, even wood glue)
  
• Superglue
  
• Spray primer
  
• Flocking (the smallest scale fake grass you can get, talk to the model railroad guys)
  
• A modeling file
  
• Small flat edge wire cutters
  
• Water
  
• A pallet and jars to mix paints, glues, and hold water
  
• A way to hold your minis and bases while you work, I use old empty paint jars and blue poster tack as well as bulldog clips (not necessary but helpful)
  

   

Start by cleaning your minis in the sink with an old soft brush and some dish soap. This is very important, it gets off any grease from the factory they use in the manufacturing process. Paint doesn't stick to that, it's a lubricant designed to make the miniatures easier to remove from their mold machinery. It MUST be cleaned off before painting, otherwise your beautiful paint job will just peel off later.

   

Using multiple thin coats of short bursts from a spray can, very thinly cover your minis in primer. Any color works, but here's where you get clever. 6mm minis are agony to paint, so decide a color scheme that's VERY simple. Like two colors. And have one of those colors be your primer! You'll have to get creative on how to hold up your miniatures while spray painting. In my case, their metal connection rod (called a "sprue") is wedged into a cut piece of cardboard and taped on the underside. Don't worry, we're not painting the bottoms.

   

In this case, these guys are supposed to be Clan Hell Horses from Battletech so they've got gray uniforms and red trim. Block in the solid colors now. You can go as detailed as you can imagine, it doesn't have to be this simple.

   

Next, cover all the minis in a layer of black or earthy brown inkwash. Inkwash is a special mini painting product you can buy at a hobby shop, it's not just watered-down paint, it has "surfactant" mixed in which makes it flow easier into the nooks, crannies, and pits of your model while leaving the high folds much lighter. People lovingly call this stuff "Liquid Skill".

[LordCommandHook]

   

Once the inkwash is dry, your minis will look really dark, like the above. You can leave them like this and call them good enough! But I like my guys to have higher contrast and brighter brights, since they're going to be blending into their grass a lot.

   

So I take paint a few notches brighter than my base coat, in this case a light gray and light red, and paint some big spots on their large areas. Avoid putting this bright paint where you want shadows to be, like in the joints or armpits or whatever. In this lazy way, we get 3 levels of tone! The darkest shadows, the middle-tier gray that was left somewhat-bright from the inkwash, and our top-most layer of new bright paint!

   

Time to prepare your bases, both the big "main" bases and also the little discs built-in to your little dudes. Paint the top parts brown, like dirt. Paint a nice contrasting rim color on the big "main" base so the mini stands out on the battlefield to us players, I chose red because of their faction but it can be any color.

   

Once all the painting is done, the time has come to free your little dudes from their sprue prison. Carefully, using flat edge wire cutters, remove each tiny man from the metal rod that connects them all from the factory.

   

I always find that, to get them to properly fit in my homemade 3D printed bases, I need to file the bottoms of their feet discs flat. The flat-edge wire cutters are good but they always leave behind a little nub that gets in the way of proper fitting.

Use water whenever you file indoors to prevent dust! This stuff is usually pewter which contains lead and is bad for your health. Many minis nowadays are lead-free but you NEVER KNOW so just keep the file wet and you don't have to worry about it. Wipe away the metal shavings and dab your minis dry with paper towel afterwards.

[LordCommandHook]

   

On the side, prepare a little pot of glue. The overall goal here is to brush on glue, then sprinkle on fake grass (called "flocking") like little kids making glitter art. The glue should be 50/50 water and PVA, in this case I'm using Elmer's Glue. The water is important because:

• It keeps the glue from drying too fast, giving us precious time to apply it carefully.
  
• Also (this is personal conjecture) I think the watered-down glue soaks into the flocking better and keeps it more permanently. 100% straight PVA glue seems to only stick a single layer of flocking in my experience, but adding water makes a LOT more stick down.
  
• But perhaps most importantly, the additional water makes this glue mix easier to apply with a crappy old brush. That way, we don't accidentally stick grass to our dudes' legs.
  

Important: mix the glue and water really well together with your old brush first. In the picture above, I haven't mixed it yet, to show off the 50/50 mix of water and glue. Before use, it must be thoroughly mixed and homogeneous!

   

With your water-PVA glue mix and a crappy brush on standby, superglue your first mini into place.

   

Carefully brush some water-glue around his feet. We're doing this one mini at a time so it's easier to get between the whole squad's boots and not accidentally get glue on any of their bodies. If we superglued the entire squad at the same time, getting glue in the middle would be a huge pain.

   

Once the first guy has water-glue all around him, add the next guy and continue.

   

And continue!

[LordCommandHook]

   

Work your way around the base until the whole squad is superglued down with water-PVA glue around all their boots.

   

Double check that your water-glue is applied all the way to the rim of the base, you can add more, or brush it outwards a bit to make it all fit. Once you're ready, slowly sprinkle on flocking! Over-do it, just cover them heavily in flocking.

   

Let them dry overnight, then hold them upside down and tap their bottoms so all the loose un-glued flocking falls off. And whamo! You're done! Repeat as many times as you can stand and you've got an army ready!