How to Paint: 6mm British Regulars American War of Independence Baccus 6mm

in this tutorial we take a look at painting Baccus 6mm British Redcoats of the American War of Independence

[@terrycrick3600]

once the wash and highlights go on they come to life! they remind me of those 18th century battle paintings. you are a master at this.5* mate.

[@longlance67]

thank you Terry that is very high praise indeed ! I am very humbled !

[@ColonelRebScaleModels]

Such cool little fellas, for British Redcoats that is...lol...really enjoying your painting series, Shane, keep'em coming...

[@longlance67]

+Colonel Reb's Scale Models thanks my friend ! I'll have some more ACW and Napoleonic subjects up in the coming weeks :)

[@OstrichLongneck]

Nice work, Shayne! The wash really made a big difference. You have lots of great brush-handling tips, too. I learnt a lot from your video. Thanks for posting it :-) - Trevor

[@longlance67]

+Ostrich Longneck thanks Trevor glad you found it useful my friend !

[@brettsimpson1505]

Thank you, Shane. I'm keen to start working on Baccus AWI. My goal is to get enough figures ready to wargame the Battle of Germantown. Wish me luck!

[@longlance67]

best of luck mate, they are a lot of fun to paint up and don't take as long as one may think, just one thing I would recommend is make sure your painting space is very well lit to protect your eye sight :)

[@HamilkarBarkasScaleModelling]

those are indeed very different to paint, thanks for showing me something of the table top gaming side :)

[@longlance67]

+Hamilkar Barkas they are a lot of fun, and their my go to minis when I'm feeling brunt out doing our normal kits, I have to say I do love the look of them while their ranked in formation ;) thanks Michi !

[@RichardFeeney]

I think I would have to borrow someone else's eyes to paint at that scale. Just as you were painting their hands they reminded me of the boys form Southpark waiting for the bus :)

[@longlance67]

+Richard Feeney haahah nice one !

[@WargamesTonight]

Look for a hobby light with a high diopter value. It can make everything clear.

[@philRminiatures]

Splendid technique, obviously much more difficult than 15mm for my poor eyes...Impressive!

[@longlance67]

Thanks very much i would like to try some 15mms in the future :)

[@adrianbenson2521]

I just ordered Et Sans Resultat with the starter kit, all in 10mm, so this should be very helpful, thanks! I've only painted 28mm and some 15mm before.

[@longlance67]

I am currently painted my own 10mm AWI minis at the moment too, and the method works just as well with 10mm as it does with 6mm 10mm are very much like painting 15mm minis so they shouldn't fight you too much

[@jeff2178]

This is AWESOME!!

[@longlance67]

+jeff2178 thanks Jeff !

[@kiermac]

Thank you for the tutorial, could you possibly make a video of how you tackled basing them?

[@longlance67]

cheers! glad you enjoyed it, the basing for these little dudes was pretty straight forward I painted the metal stems of each stand brown before gluing them to the mdf base and then gave it a coat of earth brown, once dry I gave it a layer static grass, seems to work pretty well for the scale

[@ernestshackleton6965]

thanks for showing that to us :-) realy great work and i learn from that too because i just ordered my first 6mm figures an don t know anything about painting them

[@longlance67]

thanks mate, glad you found useful my friend! 6mm is a surprisingly simple and easy scale to paint, just having good lighting would be something I would strongly recommend to protect your eyesight

[@ernestshackleton6965]

yes i try to get the best equipment i can get for my money :-)

[@ernestshackleton6965]

i just painted my first stripe of some roman soldiers ! doesn t look very bad :-)

[@longlance67]

nice work mate !

[@ernestshackleton6965]

Shane Smyth i uploaded a video with romans and french soldiers ;-) they doesn t look so bad for the first time i thinks

[@seanholden7270]

I use Tamiya Smoke X-19 as a wash for this scale and for my 10mm and 15mm figures also and then highlight afterwards. It is slightly glossy I should say, for those who want a total matt finish but the post-wash highlighting restores some of that. I also undercoat in black which better allows some depth of shadow in creases and under arms and at cuffs and you can increase your speed of painting by drybrushing across the whole row of figures with the main base colour - scarlet in this case - or perhaps officers should be in crimson. He has also missed painting the cuffs in the facing colour, which are nicely raised on Baccus models and can be done with a quick dab when you have a black undercoat. The main benefit of painting 6mm is that you can do them very quickly in large numbers. Here only four are painted in 15 minutes. I would expect to do 32 of these same figures to the same standard in an hour (the size of my battalions). I accept that Shane's painting may have slowed for the purpose of the demonstration. It is a delight of the scale how qyickly you can turn out great numbers of troops who have less elaborate uniforms - like khaki clad British or ancient Indians, Romans, Zulus, Mahdists etc

[@garyjd1166]

The muscian's "mitre cap" is actually bearskin fur (not yellow or gold) with a "japanned" metal plate fixed to the front of the cap.

[@longlance67]

nice info thanks for sharing !

[@gozza7199]

Not on those figures it's not. The drummer has a mitre cap with a silver or brass front. Possibly incorrect for the AWI. But that's how they have been modelled.

[@packersfanforlife7903]

I thought that myself however at 6mm you would not tell it wasn't a bearskin tbh so you'd get away with it. In the FIW/SYW they definitely had those bright mitre caps in the facing colours. I'll be paintint my 6mm AWI drummers as bearskins however it comes down to personal preference at the end of the day

[@packersfanforlife7903]

@@gozza7199 good to know, tbh at 6mm scale no one would notice that on the table top. Shame they were not true to the time period however it does appear Baccus's FIW/SYW range and AWI range interlap. I suppose it makes sense giving the cost of modeling and the fact they're 6mm so once on the tabletop the difference is really unnoticeable unless you get a magnifier glass to watch the battle lol

[@daveyboy21]

I’m a bit OCD with painting in details, but I can see at this scale it’s not necessary.....So with that in mind would you be so kind as to explain to me....like I’m a 4 year old....your technique for washing the figures at this scale.. I will be using one of the Vallejo ready made washes. I’ve never used a wash on figures. Superb paint job on these little guys

[@longlance67]

so block in your colors first as you would for any scale, then for washes thin down your wash slightly with either water, wash medium or airbrush thinner(seems to work with most brands) as this will take a little of the intensity out of the wash and overdo the shadows, then highlight most noticeable details and your good to go

[@daveyboy21]

Thanks Shane. I tried it out this afternoon and although I was a little sceptical I found it works a treat for this scale. This is going to speed up my painting no end

[@packersfanforlife7903]

Love the video and some good tips for painting 6mm. It is all personal preference how they are painted but only really the officers had powdered whigs in the War and mainly on the British/Hessian side and the French. The drummers were normally children of those that served in the regiment as to why you always hear the term drummer boy. Most of the drummers were young boys or teenagers or really young adults so they were just bog standard guys in the regiment. Also the drum was always the facing colour of the regiment but like I said it all comes down to personal preference. That is going perhaps to far in depth for the 6mm range as no one cares once they're on the table. It is a shame the drummers aren't modeled with a bearskin aswell however I think the SYW and AWI in Baccus overlap. Suppose it is to cut modeling costs down which makes sense! Some good tips and your figures do come to life once they're completed.

[@johnmackrory8306]

Have you tried the new GW Contrast paints at this scales? Just wondering if they would still work.

[@longlance67]

in theory it should work. though the small size of the figure might make it difficult to control due to its liquid nature so make sure only use small amount of contrast at a time, in all I think its something worth exploring further

[@tamethisbeast]

Do the castings have detail for the regimental facings and cuffs? I'd imagine the facing's on the coats would be too small to get but cuffs might be there?

[@longlance67]

they have basic cuff details but that's about it, as they are too small for much else

[@packersfanforlife7903]

Yeah however I think painting the cuffs would be good enough. I find it tricky on 10mm to even do the jacket facings. Least with 6mm the cuffs pop more. 6mm is more about pop colours than true uniform accuracy. Hell even the jacket facings on 28mm can sometimes be hard to paint at certain angles

[@robertshepherd7628]

6mm is far to small. Now 10mm, that works. GHQ figures are superb.

[@longlance67]

I like both, I've got a big enough collection of Pendraken 10mm AWI and ACW figures they are lovely minis with great sculpts

[@robertshepherd7628]

@@longlance67 I'm afraid I have a tendency to turn 28mm into something of a fetish, the problem is I take too long painting them.

[@longbowscaneasilypenetrate6812]

musicians had reversed colors to the rest of the regiment

[@tamethisbeast]

Except for Guard or other blue faced regiments

[@packersfanforlife7903]

They did but if the Regiment was a Royal one, like the 4th Foot, they would have the same. The only exception to the reverse facing jacket was if the Regiment had red facings. At which point the drummer would have a white jacket with red facings. In the red facing regiments the Sgt's sash would have a white stripe in it as opposed to the facing colour also