In the last couple years I really got into playing in the 15-18mm scale. 1 because my living situation didn’t provide me with a good enough sized space for a proper 28mm table, 2 because I did find that painting 10+ miniatures didn’t take me a million hours to paint and even my mediocre paint job looks pretty darn good at an arms length away. And the most important thing is it’s really easy to store everything in a space the size of a shoebox which helps in my small apartment because space is limited.
Gradually worked my way from 28mm to 6mm, but I’m a big fan of massed battles in the historical/rank and file fantasy genres. Really has an incredible mass effect and most of 6mm painting is strategic use of washes and glazes.
Since i got my 3d printer i have been leaning towards 15mm models because i live in a small apartment/condo so more terrain in less space and the models still have great detail if i want to or have time to paint it in
I really like 1/72 scale: there's a lot of historical stuff, ww2, dark age etc... not so much fantasy, but with 3d printing I think the problem is solved... 15mm is also very interesting.
15mm seems like the sweet spot in every regard. I've begun the very fun and not so time consuming passion of taking the 28mm STL models I like and hafting the scale to make them 15mm, they still have plenty of detail, I can still use them as individual models and I can play any 28mm scaled game systems like OPRs or DnD by just hafting the measurements. This is especially noticeable when a 2x2 ft board becomes a 1x1 ft board meaning a kill team game only takes like a 16 inch² base or even use a large picture frame to make a custom gaming board. Personally I'll probably be playing on this scale from now on especially cause of the sheer scale of games I can play like a 1:1 star wars legion boarding action battle or using 1:100th scale airfix kits in my army or for kitbashing.
Alternatively, scaling up the Forest Dragon STLs by 50%, with the bonus that it'll make them even *more* durable instead of less.😆 I've been eager to try some "Pocket Warcry" with this method (thanks @eBay Miniature Rescues) by also basing/measuring at 50%. For something like Warmaster Revolution with its 40x20mm stands I would keep them at 10mm scale though, except perhaps some characters.
I just got into half scaling 28mm as well! Crazy when a 3k point opr army can fit in a Tupperware container lol I can fit all the terrain for two 3x2 tables and two armies in a small Amazon box lol so much better than my heavy tote full of 28mm stuff. 3D printing is such a game changer.
Yeah for my Napoleonic wargaming I went into 6mm. Painting them is much more about the overall impression rather than individual detail. 10mm is a fair cross over, 15 is very popular too
Love the vid, I really love 15mm, it’s just the right scale for detail and speed painting…for me atleast. I have 6mm armies and I found a dark base coat with a dry brush of the colour you want, say dark grey undercoat and a dry brush of green for a tunic, and they are done.
I play at 15mm and 10mm (hi from the facebook group). At small scale I prefer to use contrast over straight blinding white. It makes fantasy very nice and colorful. Then if you are doing scifi you can start adding washes after the contrast to dirty them up if they need it.
I paint my 6mm Baccus figures 100-200 at a time. I spot glue them to popsicle sticks. I try to stick to a 5 colour palette, and use acrylic paints. Then I assemble line them, all the pants first. By the time I get to the end of the figures, the paint is dry, and now I can start the tunics/jackets. The real key here is the basing. Spend the time getting the basing basing right, be reasonable on how much terraining you do to the base. The table you play on matters perhaps more than the figures.
One benefit of the smaller scale is you can print some of the huge models, that you normally would not run, and they basically shrink down to a more manageable size.
For 6mm models, I like to make them bright uni-color such as red or green. Since using small models makes me feel like a general in a war tent planning, I think it works well. Similar to an older game of Risk I had with their bright tokens.
I've painted thousands of 6mm figures and absolutely love them. I've got 1200 6mm ACW figures, and about 2000 Epic 40k figures. I've got about 2,800 Napoleonics, 1,000 Romans and Carthaginians and another 500 ACW on the to do the list.
I tend to prefer 10mm for use with the Fantastic Battles rules set. Fun to paint. Really nice sculpts available. Look great massed on a 40mm square stand. Usable on a small kitchen table. Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm for these smaller scales. Great fun to watch.
Having painted well over a thousand flames of war 15mm minis the simple way is base coat, wash, heavy dry brush with base coat & light dry brush with highlight. It’s certainly a good table top standard & if you wanted you could bring it further.
Playing 40K at 6mm scale, I thoroughly dislike painting the rank and file troops (dodgy eyes also!). I'm gonna try the way you did it and see if I can start to enjoy it. And definitely checking those lights out. Nice 👍
Love all your videos Luke! I was curious what adhesive you use on your grass tufts? I’m trying to get the self adhesive result and PVA is not cutting it
Those tiny orcs look great , i'm still looking for some decent 18mm fantasy minis to build my dungeoncrawler/rpg game like heroquest but more expanded, at 18mm scale it would save a lot of space and would be able to create some very epic enconters...just imagine a group of heros walking down a path in a dense forest or arraving at a small town with a lively marquet..got to take note of that one for a project...lol. As always great video, thanks for keeping us in a good mood.
Stupid question time - how long does your code work for that light? I’m moving house in the new year and would like to order a couple. But i don’t want to move them twice. And so if valid until Feb that would be awesome. Love this channel keep up the awesomeness
I've just finished 6mm WW2 French, British and German Blitzkreig armys to the old Firefly rules, which works out at around nine hundred figures and over one hundred vehicles per army. In 6mm the best way is to undercoat in flat black and just pick out the detail, tanks and artillery base coat, wash with a Vallejo wash and dry brush a lighter colour. Then varnish with matt. Oh yes Luke use a smaller brush, that's a bona fidy secret.
I unloaded two 1980s Firefly rule sets on eBay a while ago, Zippy. Sad to let them go (along with many WRG rules) but happy that someone else is now having fun with them. Lots of granularity, eh!
@@TheHunch8ack Oh yes, damm fine set of rules, I used to game back in the eighties with the chaps who play tested them, Ian Shaw who wrote the Challenger rules was one of them. I don't think I could ever let mine go.
@@zippy5131 I had two Challenger books for some reason (and one Challenger II). I just had to let them all go, Zippy, as with so many of my minis, as I'm just never going to get the time to play them now (too old and busy!) so it's nice to know someone else is having fun with them. I do miss all those tables, though . . . mmmm, tables . . .
Hi! I'm actually playing KOW on 10mm, thanks u very much for your videos they were a great inspiration to start my games on this scale, I'm uploading videos on my Chanel about painting and battle reports with 10mm figures 👏👏
I was thinking of doing small scale for my next game but I'm having a hard time finding the models. I was thinking of doing a cyberpunk game but I can't find anything cyberpunk that's at that scale. I don't necessarily have to use minis but it's nice to have them.
Really want to get into smaller scale! Seeing all the detail on these models has opened my eyes! Clicked on the link - 350 quid for a desk lamp? Mate.. do you really recommend that over other lighting for that price? 😅
To be fair, 350 sounds expensive, but for high quality lamps it is cheap. In the lab we use magnifier lamps for 900 bucks a piece. And those are the "cheap" ones. So threefiddy is a steal in my book.
Rule One of painting 6mm. You are not painting the figure, you are painting the unit. That's how you use them for gaming, as units. That's how you see them on the table, as units. It's primarily a matter of mental approach rather than painting technique.
In the last couple years I really got into playing in the 15-18mm scale. 1 because my living situation didn’t provide me with a good enough sized space for a proper 28mm table, 2 because I did find that painting 10+ miniatures didn’t take me a million hours to paint and even my mediocre paint job looks pretty darn good at an arms length away. And the most important thing is it’s really easy to store everything in a space the size of a shoebox which helps in my small apartment because space is limited.
I actually think 15mm is the sweetspot, you can still add details, and both play scirmish and more epic games with it.. in my opinion..
I actually find 15mm the hardest scale to work with. 🤷♂️
@@aanler depending on what method and expectations I guess.
@@aanler what scale is better for company/batallion size games?
@@petepan82 I prefer 6mm for all games larger than skirmish. 🙂
@@aanler cool, I can see what you mean
Gradually worked my way from 28mm to 6mm, but I’m a big fan of massed battles in the historical/rank and file fantasy genres.
Really has an incredible mass effect and most of 6mm painting is strategic use of washes and glazes.
I painted 576 6mm Macedonian Phalanx in about 5 hours. Baccus 6mm is super easy to paint!
Since i got my 3d printer i have been leaning towards 15mm models because i live in a small apartment/condo so more terrain in less space and the models still have great detail if i want to or have time to paint it in
I think the 6mm painting benefits more from monotone painting schemes like painting space marines for Epic Armageddon.
I really like 1/72 scale: there's a lot of historical stuff, ww2, dark age etc... not so much fantasy, but with 3d printing I think the problem is solved... 15mm is also very interesting.
15mm seems like the sweet spot in every regard. I've begun the very fun and not so time consuming passion of taking the 28mm STL models I like and hafting the scale to make them 15mm, they still have plenty of detail, I can still use them as individual models and I can play any 28mm scaled game systems like OPRs or DnD by just hafting the measurements. This is especially noticeable when a 2x2 ft board becomes a 1x1 ft board meaning a kill team game only takes like a 16 inch² base or even use a large picture frame to make a custom gaming board. Personally I'll probably be playing on this scale from now on especially cause of the sheer scale of games I can play like a 1:1 star wars legion boarding action battle or using 1:100th scale airfix kits in my army or for kitbashing.
Alternatively, scaling up the Forest Dragon STLs by 50%, with the bonus that it'll make them even *more* durable instead of less.😆 I've been eager to try some "Pocket Warcry" with this method (thanks @eBay Miniature Rescues) by also basing/measuring at 50%. For something like Warmaster Revolution with its 40x20mm stands I would keep them at 10mm scale though, except perhaps some characters.
@@Ekaznae literally Pokémon wargaming, "HEAVY WEAPONS TEAM! I CHOSE YOU!!!"
I just got into half scaling 28mm as well! Crazy when a 3k point opr army can fit in a Tupperware container lol I can fit all the terrain for two 3x2 tables and two armies in a small Amazon box lol so much better than my heavy tote full of 28mm stuff. 3D printing is such a game changer.
Yeah for my Napoleonic wargaming I went into 6mm. Painting them is much more about the overall impression rather than individual detail. 10mm is a fair cross over, 15 is very popular too
Love the vid, I really love 15mm, it’s just the right scale for detail and speed painting…for me atleast. I have 6mm armies and I found a dark base coat with a dry brush of the colour you want, say dark grey undercoat and a dry brush of green for a tunic, and they are done.
Tiny scale minis is starting to become some of my favorite content. Great Work!
I play at 15mm and 10mm (hi from the facebook group). At small scale I prefer to use contrast over straight blinding white. It makes fantasy very nice and colorful. Then if you are doing scifi you can start adding washes after the contrast to dirty them up if they need it.
I paint my 6mm Baccus figures 100-200 at a time. I spot glue them to popsicle sticks. I try to stick to a 5 colour palette, and use acrylic paints. Then I assemble line them, all the pants first. By the time I get to the end of the figures, the paint is dry, and now I can start the tunics/jackets. The real key here is the basing. Spend the time getting the basing basing right, be reasonable on how much terraining you do to the base. The table you play on matters perhaps more than the figures.
One benefit of the smaller scale is you can print some of the huge models, that you normally would not run, and they basically shrink down to a more manageable size.
And printing tanks and other heavy wargear in real scale to the men is perfect
For 6mm models, I like to make them bright uni-color such as red or green. Since using small models makes me feel like a general in a war tent planning, I think it works well. Similar to an older game of Risk I had with their bright tokens.
I've painted thousands of 6mm figures and absolutely love them. I've got 1200 6mm ACW figures, and about 2000 Epic 40k figures. I've got about 2,800 Napoleonics, 1,000 Romans and Carthaginians and another 500 ACW on the to do the list.
I tend to prefer 10mm for use with the Fantastic Battles rules set. Fun to paint. Really nice sculpts available. Look great massed on a 40mm square stand. Usable on a small kitchen table. Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm for these smaller scales. Great fun to watch.
I started painting minis at 6mm scale, I find the larger minis harder to paint but that's just because of the skillset I've built up over the years.
Having painted well over a thousand flames of war 15mm minis the simple way is base coat, wash, heavy dry brush with base coat & light dry brush with highlight. It’s certainly a good table top standard & if you wanted you could bring it further.
Please make lots of Videos about small scale stuff.
Terrain, army painting, and all the other things.
They are cool.
Loving this content. You’ve convinced me to print my new Wargames Atlantic Tribes in 15mm scale for playing Black Powder and Hail Ceaser.
Playing 40K at 6mm scale, I thoroughly dislike painting the rank and file troops (dodgy eyes also!). I'm gonna try the way you did it and see if I can start to enjoy it.
And definitely checking those lights out. Nice 👍
Great tips Luke thanks
I'd go with the 10mm, if that's the one you prefer to paint.
Loving the tiny gaming videos, find it very interesting :)
Try 2mm or 1/300th armour
That'll feck your eyes up. 😅
Seriously Luke, if you like painting go for the 10mm.
Love all your videos Luke! I was curious what adhesive you use on your grass tufts? I’m trying to get the self adhesive result and PVA is not cutting it
Those tiny orcs look great , i'm still looking for some decent 18mm fantasy minis to build my dungeoncrawler/rpg game like heroquest but more expanded, at 18mm scale it would save a lot of space and would be able to create some very epic enconters...just imagine a group of heros walking down a path in a dense forest or arraving at a small town with a lively marquet..got to take note of that one for a project...lol.
As always great video, thanks for keeping us in a good mood.
Stupid question time - how long does your code work for that light? I’m moving house in the new year and would like to order a couple. But i don’t want to move them twice. And so if valid until Feb that would be awesome.
Love this channel keep up the awesomeness
I've just finished 6mm WW2 French, British and German Blitzkreig armys to the old Firefly rules, which works out at around nine hundred figures and over one hundred vehicles per army. In 6mm the best way is to undercoat in flat black and just pick out the detail, tanks and artillery base coat, wash with a Vallejo wash and dry brush a lighter colour. Then varnish with matt. Oh yes Luke use a smaller brush, that's a bona fidy secret.
I unloaded two 1980s Firefly rule sets on eBay a while ago, Zippy. Sad to let them go (along with many WRG rules) but happy that someone else is now having fun with them. Lots of granularity, eh!
@@TheHunch8ack Oh yes, damm fine set of rules, I used to game back in the eighties with the chaps who play tested them, Ian Shaw who wrote the Challenger rules was one of them. I don't think I could ever let mine go.
@@zippy5131 I had two Challenger books for some reason (and one Challenger II). I just had to let them all go, Zippy, as with so many of my minis, as I'm just never going to get the time to play them now (too old and busy!) so it's nice to know someone else is having fun with them. I do miss all those tables, though . . . mmmm, tables . . .
6mm minis for mass combat should be painted as a unit instead of individually - you stylise them and they look very good. This also goes for 10mm
What’s best to seal miniatures once painted?
Hi! I'm actually playing KOW on 10mm, thanks u very much for your videos they were a great inspiration to start my games on this scale, I'm uploading videos on my Chanel about painting and battle reports with 10mm figures 👏👏
I tend to prefer 15mm, but I have painted 10mm. Those are the smallest scales I drop down to from 28mm.
I was thinking of doing small scale for my next game but I'm having a hard time finding the models. I was thinking of doing a cyberpunk game but I can't find anything cyberpunk that's at that scale. I don't necessarily have to use minis but it's nice to have them.
Those 10mm with exaggerated features are my choice! I'm thinking of D&D with 10mm...
Do 12-15mm, Rohan. Big areas and big enough features.
Going to check them lights out. They sound great. Excellent vid
6:41 Mysterious vapour?
Really want to get into smaller scale! Seeing all the detail on these models has opened my eyes!
Clicked on the link - 350 quid for a desk lamp? Mate.. do you really recommend that over other lighting for that price? 😅
To be fair, 350 sounds expensive, but for high quality lamps it is cheap. In the lab we use magnifier lamps for 900 bucks a piece. And those are the "cheap" ones. So threefiddy is a steal in my book.
Try washing your 6mm stuff in W&N Nut Brown ink.
Rule One of painting 6mm.
You are not painting the figure, you are painting the unit.
That's how you use them for gaming, as units.
That's how you see them on the table, as units.
It's primarily a matter of mental approach rather than painting technique.
I really miss new Geek Gaming Videos :C
Cheers Luke ,
🐺
So when you doing an epic game?
I need one of those lights! 😉 X
Time to try 8mm
Please cover 3mm! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
8mm. Happy medium? :)