The Commander Series Forum

Finally got round to painting these - lovely 3mm miniatures:

US: http://nikharwood.pbworks.com/w/page/52973452/3...

Iraqi: http://nikharwood.pbworks.com/w/page/52973405/3...

Good work, Nik

Looks great amigo!

Oo look, rice with guns!

Great stuff Nik - I am impressed by the fact that you have painted camo on the Iraqi stuff. You did miss a couple of buttons on one of the infantry figures though...

Good stuff

Rice scale does work very well for desert battles KD. And if you lose you can always eat your battlegroup.

Still can't believe this lot sat here undercoated for a whole year before I painted them...they really don't take long

Given that you painted your Stalingrad figures in 45 minutes, I'd guess about 20 minutes for these guys?

not *quite* that quick & the Stalingrad stuff was 90 mins mate

I reckon these took maybe 55 mins each battlegroup from black undercoat to finished

Don't you mean one year and 55 minutes

Nice stuff Nik.
Just don't play with them on Dunster beach.

Paul

Hahaha - you've got a good point mate

Hopefully see you at Legionary

Beutiful stuff, Nik. I particularly like the fact that you based them on bright yellow flocking. It makes the 3mm scale really pop out!

I've just noticed that kd have started selling all their 3mm individually instead of in packs and a lot more terrain bits. I think were going to revisit 3mm.

"...based them on bright yellow flocking. It makes the 3mm scale really pop out!"

Thanks Thaddeus - although technically, this is very fine sand sealed with a PVA / water / Desert Yellow mix

"selling all their 3mm individually instead of in packs and a lot more terrain bits. I think were going to revisit 3mm"

Yeah - it was always a bit odd to have to get everything in packs of 15...KR Games selling singles really does make 3mm even more attractive - especially for "coffee-table gaming" with small forces - and for those 'odd' theatres...

Well, in any case your basing solution shows up the main issue people run into when moving to 3mm from a larger scale: you need the basing material to be different from the paint scheme or the figure will just blend into the table.

Your solution is just great: desert tan figures and brighter yellow basing. Works very well.

Ah yes, that's the problem I had with 3mm. I also had a problem when I showed them to my g/friend who said they looked shite, they were too small to see what the models are supposed to be and that I should throw them out.

Guess what I did?

LOL. That's why I like 3mm sci-fi, Pete: you can use any color scheme you like because the enemy has much better ways of finding you than the old MK I Eyeball! Or you can claim it's smartpaint and that these are the unit's parade ground colors...

The thing with 3mm micro armor is that you really shouldn't be playing it at typical miniatures-game armslength, but more at board wargame forearmlength.

Playing 3mm on a 6x4 table while standing up over it gives one a great panaoramic view. At that point, however, the attraction is the terrain and it better look sharp! No matter how you do WWII or moderns, they are going to blend into the table at armslength.

This can be fought, to a certain degree, by using exageratedly bright base colors and painting cammo to a scheme which opposes your board (i.e. woodland cammo on a steppes board; unadulterated dunkelgelb in Normandy and so on), but that will only go so far.

If, however, you play 3mm games on a 3x2 setup on the kitchen table, sitting down, like a board wargame, your girlfriend, bless her heart, is wrong: you can easily discern what's what.

After all, you can distinguish a T-34 from a Mk III on a half-inch counter, can't you? 3mm figs are much bigger than that!

You DO need to avoid breaking up their lines with cammo, however, which is why I try to paint my WWII one color only or, at most, two.

If you notice in my Smade's World photos, the basic colors for the terrain modules are brick red and dull gold whereas the NVL boys are in emerald green.

These color schemes were all chosen as a set beforehand. The NVL's opposition is variously grey (seen here: http://www.blitzkrieg-commander.com/Images/Gall... eye-popping crimson and light turqoise.

I collect 3mm armies too. It IS possible to paint them in an appropriate manner Nice paintjob, Nick!

May I suggest to paint the canopy tops of the A-10 all black? The bright colour on top looks more like a solid roof than a clear one.

What for are the SCUDs? Representing of-table artillery or just for fun?

The canopies might do well if they were painted a bright, reflective sky blue...

At this scale, any excuse to get a bright color onto the table should be taken.

Good points - I think Thaddeus is spot-on here...

I might repaint the canopies - will take a look over the weekend.

The SCUDs are mostly for fun - although also as target objectives for very small scale hit & run recon attacks using the Hummers

You could put some detail on the pilots helmets. Most of them had their "tags" painted on the side e.g. "Mav" "Moose" etc. Worth the effort in this scale methinks.

You may think you're joking, Dave, but I routinely paint red blotches and squiggly white graffiti bits on my WWII Russian tanks.

Why? Again, any excuse to put color on these figs should be taken as it helps makes them pop out. See here, for example:

http://leadnobleed.blogspot.com.br/2010/01/phot...

Yes, those front flashes on the Grants and Honeys are wildly exagerated. Do you really notice the discrepancy on the table? No. And the little bit of red draws your eyes right to the fig. This photo also shows the "paint against the base color" principle.

And in the side photos of these DAK vehicles (http://leadnobleed.blogspot.com.br/search/label... you can see an exagerated German cross. Again, way out of scale, but you don't notice that on the table and it draws your eye to the vehicle.

Finally, IIRC, Tumbling Dice makes nose art stickers for 1/600 scale fighters, so there's no need to paint your own.