Hi there

So, after 20 odd years away from the hobby I've taken the plunge with Baccus Napoleonics. Lovely figures. This is my first attempt at a painted unit. All in all I'm pretty pleased with them, although I've learned some things along the way which should help me improve in future. I'd like to do better on basing for example. These were done using a black undercoat. Previously for larger figures I've always used white. Does anyone use white for 6mm? Would doing so help the colours to pop out more? All advice welcomed.

I've decided not to go with battalion basing, as I'll probably use more tactical rules. It's just what floats my boat. However, I'm using 30x15 bases, so could combine them for Polemos if I wanted. These are the 28th Foot, at 1:10 ratio, so 5 bases of 12.

Oh and sorry about the weird yellowy lighting!

cheers

Mike

Generally with 6mm I use white undercoat, mostly block paint (although I use a highlight for faces) then a wash to get some shading. 

I don't use white myself but people I know woukd give it a burnt umber wash to pick out details. I would normally use grey with a black wash again to pick out details unless I am doing a lot of cavalry then I use a brown primer to save time

Hello Mike!

Welcome back to the hobby and of course to the wonders of Baccus6mm!

There are six steps to gettings your colours to stand out as much as possible. First always undercoat with white its the only way to make your whites well white and of course every other colour will be brighter as well. Your dark colours simply won't be as dark as well.

Next wherever possible use a lighter shade but be careful not to go very far from your actual colour, ie just a tone difference towards brighter. It's not very easy to do and generally with uniforms you want to stay as true to the colour as possible. Collars and cuffs, etc. is where you can at times find a brighter colour. Your trying to maximize contrast wherever you can.

Third is when your finished use a low shine protective covering. This fuses the colours together, makes them slighly darker, stronger looking and allows the light to bounce off of them better from a distance. In North America you can buy FolkArt Artists' Varnish Matte. Its not a true matte, its low sheen polyurethane. Over time the sheen dulls a bit, but never yellows. Horses look really good.

Fourth is space your figures out a bit (the rows) and keep the actual rows straight and tight. From a distance the uniform poses of Baccus figures allows the common colours to jump out a little more. Giving room between your rows also allows more light in, more colour out.

Last use brighter colours for your ground cover colour. Paint the figures bases leaf green and use a similar brighter grass (a flat green with some brown mixed in). If using stones try to keep them light grey. You want to use complimentary but realistic looking colours. Again your trying to obtain a contrast that will help make the figures colours pop. Try to avoid too many dark colours, ie dark drab brown. Some people like dark basing and it can look fabulous, but it doesn't do as much for the figures.

As a final note your narrow bases might work well for your rules, but they don't help the look of the figures. 6mm figures simply look too dark when crammed together on small bases. Look at the photo of your column. The larger bases or standard Polemos base 60x30 allows you to space the figures out a little more and add a little more contrasting terrain. This makes the figures look brighter.

Hope you can use some of this.

Best regards,

Glenn

Thanks folks. I think I'll try the white undercoat next time along with some of the other things suggested here and elsewhere. I hadn't thought about a varnish bringing the colours together for example. I'm going to stick with the narrow bases and figure density though, as this is part of the look I want. Tight masses of troops just feel right for me, even if it does result in the look being a bit darker.