Ross Dawe

IMPERIALIST ARMY

Hi Peter.

Here is my writeup for the Baccus 6mm free army giveaway.

Regards,
Ross Dawe.

***
I was lucky enough to receive a free army from Baccus when they advertised on The Miniatures Page website http://theminiaturespage.com/. While the army is free, there is of course a catch: I had to paint it. As I only paint figures I am interested in using in games, the first challenge is motivation. I have over ten thousand painted 15mm figures for ancients wargaming, over two thousand 25mm Napoleonics and a few thousand 25/28mm figures for science fiction and fantasy games. So, why should I even bother considering 6mm if it simply duplicates an army I already have? I also went into this challenge with a low opinion of 6mm figures: where is the detail? Are these just blobs that require a few haphazard brushstrokes to be called finished?

My previous experience with 6mm figures during 25 years of wargaming has involved a few WW1 and Napoleonic games, plus a science fiction campaign. While 6mm in each case was interesting for a few games, it didn't grab me and keep me playing in that scale. It certainly didn't make me want to buy and paint more 6mm armies.

Now, to the figures. They arrived with wonderful timing, just one day before my birthday. The army Baccus generously gave me is a condensed scale DBR Austrian army from the War of the Spanish Succession (WSS), also known as the Marlburian War, which was fought on several European fronts in the early 1700's. That's one point to Baccus: this is a period I have avoided gaming as the uniforms are just too complex to paint large armies in bigger scales. Even the lowly troops look like they are dressed for the opera! The Baccus figures have far more detail than I am used to seeing in 6mm figures, so Baccus scores another point. The sculptor has carefully picked out a few things to accentuate on the figures so they have the right look. For example, on the infantry the cuffs are large, the neckerchief stands out and the strap running diagonally across the back is raised. On the cavalry you can clearly pick out the carbine behind the rider and the pistol holsters in front of the saddle, as well as raised straps to accentuate highlights.

The castings themselves are quite clean, with very little flash. Most of the figures are complete, but a few infantry muskets and cavalry horse legs are misshapen or have gaps in them. Surprisingly, this is tolerable in 6mm when the figures are massed in units. If it was 15mm I would be annoyed: if it was 25mm I would be publicly berating the company for delivering a shoddy product.

Now to work out the units, so I can paint the right number of figures in each uniform. For reference I borrowed a copy of Charles Grant's seminal book "From Pike to Shot: Armies and Battles of Western Europe 1685 - 1720", now sadly out of print. Background reading shows the warfare of the period is units in massed ranks. This means basing the figures in single ranks just won't look right for gaming battles, even though that is the recommended 6mm basing for condensed scale DBR. I decided to use 15mm base sizes, with two ranks of troops per base. Test fitting the figures showed this would work nicely, although some of the the infantry stands had to be cut in half to make a unit of twelve infantry in two rows of six. Fortunately the sculpting is crisp enough that the infantry can be cleanly separated: another point for Baccus. The cavalry is going to be based in two ranks of five figures, so I will have some leftovers to use on generals' bases.

On to painting the figures. I undercoated black, then got confused as to what bits on the infantry were jacket and what wasn't. Some tentative swooshes started bringing out the details, then the figures became surprisingly easy to paint. I followed the painting guide for some specific Austrian regiments provided by Baccus with the army pack. I also appreciated the flags supplied by Baccus: just cut and paste. As I was painting, I was initially thinking that the figures were going to look quite ordinary. Then I did the white lining on top of the tricorn hats. I was amazed at how this step really brought out the depth in the figures. Suddenly they looked right! I did some lining with black around the raised straps and neckerchief, then tidied up the painting. Making sure the white lining on the black tricorns was tidy was important for getting a consistent look. I also followed comments from Charles Grant's book about doing the officers and ensigns in reverse colours, as you can see in the front view in Figure 1 which shows the completed infantry battallions. The side view picture shows the high quality of the flags supplied by Baccus.

Figure 1: five battallions of infantry, front view and side view.

The cavalry took me longer to paint, as my unfamiliarity with the period had me wondering what some of the details were supposed to be. I finished up painting the pistol holsters in the shabraque colours. The riders were done in a fashion similar to the infantry. One thing I found out when painting 6mm is that the scale lets you fudge some things that on 25mm figures you would have to do detail work on. For example, on the lobster helmets of the cuirassiers a swipe with gunmetal paint picked out enough detail. It was also easy to do the horses' manes and tails: these normally take me ages to do the highlighting on larger figures. Figure 2 shows two completed regiments of cuirassiers.

Figure 2: two regiments of cuirassiers.

As I have used a different method of basing than that recommended for the DBR rules, I had some leftovers. The spare mounted standard bearers and musicians will be added to generals' bases. I also wanted to show dragoons on foot firing and with riderless horses behind them, with a rank of mounted dragoons further back. It's an aesthetics thing. Figure 3 shows the entire force painted up, including the leftover figures such as the dragoons that haven't been based yet.

Figure 3: everything painted up.

I found painting the 6mm figures to be quite easy once I had worked out the various parts of the uniforms. The Baccus figures weren't just blobs: they had enough detail in the casting to warrant putting in some effort to get a good result. I rate the Baccus figures of better quality overall than their competitors. One big difference when painting the 6mm figures is that fine detail such as buttons just don't matter. The time it took me to paint the figures was certainly faster than for 15mm or 25mm figures, but this was compensated for by having to paint more figures for each unit.

It was quite enjoyable to paint the figures. Even after half an hour I could see substantial progress on a unit, and this gave me the motivation I needed to continue painting them. The overall look of the units in their massed ranks also looks right for the period. Now that I have painted the figures, I actually want to play wargames set in the WSS.

I mentioned above that I did some background reading on the War of the Spanish Succession and other wars close to the same period. It looks like an interesting period to game, so I have ordered more figures to round my Austrians. Yes, the Baccus figures are good enough for me to pay for more of them. I even managed to find someone else painting up WSS armies, so I will give the 6mm figures the ultimate test over the Christmas holidays: do they look good enough on the games table and with a good set of rules to keep me interested in gaming in this scale. I will send in my followup comments early in the new year.