Sunday, January 2, 2022

6mm Napoleonics 3D Print Update

Happy New Year friends:

I hope that the year is off to a good start for you and yours.   Joy and I had plans for NYE which had to be sadly but prudently cancelled.  Here in Ontario the spread of Omicron is so rapid that the provincial health authority has given up on testing and contact tracing for the general public.   While we both have our three doses of vaccine, we decided to cocoon at home and have a low key start to the year, which meant that I got some figure painting done.

Several weeks ago I described here getting some 3D print 6mm Napoleonics from V, the owner of the local gaming store.   V really wants people to play LaSalle in 6mm with him, and while I have a large collection of old school metal 6mm Naps, I was intrigued to see how these figures would paint up.

They didn’t paint up badly at all.   Since these figures all have bicornes I painted them as Spanish.   As a painting guide, I used the Spanish 8th Regt. de Soria from The Wargaming Company’s Campaign Guide, To Assure My Dynasty: 1808 in Iberia, which is an excellent resource to b featured in another post. The 8th’s Fusilier uniforms are white, though there is some purple facing on the cuffs and tunics, but I doubt anyone will notice that on the table top.   

Front:

Back:

They are very well equipped and uniform for a Spanish army, but again, the 3’ rule applies, and is especially true of 6mm.  If one wants historically accurate and ragged individuals, 28mm is the place to go for that.

I’m rather proud of the handpainted flag.  As you can see from the rear stand below, the second rank of figures in each stand has very little detail on the front face, so other than the two figures at either end, I contented myself with painting the muskets, red hat cockades, and flesh for the faces.   Otherwise only the rear of the back rank figures required painting.

Just for fun, here’s a comparison shot of these two stands facing off against two stands of recently painted metal Baccus French figures.

If you didn’t know better, you might think that just from this shot, these two forces were from the same manufacturer.   Because the Baccus figures are cast in strips of four, they have 360 degree detail and can be painted individually, but again, looking down at the table while standing, I think the differences are minimal.

While I’m not sure that I would want a whole army of these particular printed troops, there are definitely producers out there who are doing 6mm 3D files in luscious detail.  I have my eye firmly on Turner Miniatures, for example, and hope to get some of their sample figures printed as soon as I get the teething issues with my new machine sorted.  That’s another post, so for now I’ll wish once again wish you a happy, and happier, new year.

May God bless and keep us all in what lies ahead, and give us good gaming and friendship.

Cheers,  MP

9 comments:

  1. Those turned out well, and I will definitely check out the Turner options - thanks for the tip, and happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. You should indeed check out the Turner line, I think he's pretty much sewn up the market for 6mm Nap STL offerings, and he's on his second Kickstarter campaign to do Nap cavalry in that scale, I just backed it.

      Delete
  2. These look pretty good to me Mike, if your mate V has provided an armies worth gratis, I would be applying the "gift horse in the mouth" thought process, and be getting on with pairing them 😊 I will be interested to see how your own 3D printing efforts go.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers mate. It's a slippery slope though, crack on with painting V's other Spanish figures, and then I need Penninsular Portugese, and British, and ...... :)

      Delete
  3. These look just as good as the Baccus minis from where I’m sat. An army full will look excellent!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers, Dai. It's odd that I've gravitated to 6mm given my terrible eyesight, but the sheer look of the figures on the table makes up for it.

      Delete
  4. Glad to hear that you are keeping safe and it has afforded you some painting time. Amazing work! So very small.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thank you Michael. Very small indeed but I don't agonize over them the way I do with 28mm SYW figures. It's liberating to learn different painting styles for different scales.
      I wish you and yours a safe and happy new year/

      Delete
  5. Michael -
    You are starting to make 1:300 scale look ... enticing. I might be forced to resist temptation. I am not overfond of resisting temptation...
    Cheers,
    Ion

    ReplyDelete