I can't possibly paint anything so BIG!

The common refrain often heard about 6mm, and often repeated by Peter Berry is the comment "I can't possibly paint anything so small". It might be felt that at times this attitude is at times somewhat apocryphal, if it wasn't for it being repeated across social media, forums and in conversation with the unenlightened.

Only yesterday I read a post on Twitter about somebody complaining about failing eyesight and the impossibility of painting anything smaller than 28mm. To this, I would say 'Hogwash, poppycock and buncum'. I'll reverse the phrase and suggest 'I can't possibly paint anything so BIG!'. Stick with me for a moment.

Unless your primary enjoyment is painting  buttons, lapels and cross belts, this hobby is about playing with toy soldiers. Wargaming encompasses many disciplines whether that be painting, research, making scenery or rolling dice. But to my mind, the principle goal is to actually play with your toy soldiers, either recreating historical battles or playing plausible games in your chosen period in a fictional setting.

I went to a show in Reading 10 years or so ago. There was a magnificent display game refighting the Battle of Blenhiem in 28mm. Thousands of figures from flank to flank on a table at least 16 foot long. Really very nice. But it wasn't a game, more of a static display. And how long must it have taken the players to paint it all up - never mind the scenery. I was led to believe that the figures were painted by just one or two of the players at the table. As a veteran gamer, the very thought of the effort to put on such a mammoth game made my head hurt. But what about the newcomer to the hobby? I imagine, that although aspirational, the newcomer would think 'blimey, I couldn't paint all that...and how much to buy all of the figures?"

I'm not bashing the larger scales here. There are some fantastic displays at shows up and down the country and the magazines are full of them. But, goodness me. The larger scales aren't the be all and end all of the hobby, despite what the hobby press and most shows might seem to suggest.

Lets take a pretty standard unit of 24 British figures for the War of Spanish Succession. In 28mm, to paint them to a tabletop standard - ignoring buttons, but getting the colour where it needs to go might take at least 3 painting sessions of maybe 2-3 hours. I haven't hard evidence of this but I reckon I could paint 8 figures in a session. That may be optimistic, and they certainly wouldn't be figures that would withstand close scrutiny. But I think I could do it. This works out at least 15 minutes per figure, but in reality would be closer to 20 minutes with no highlighting; at most a basecoat and a wash. So lets settle on 3 hours per night totalling 9 hours to paint 1 unit of 24 figures.

Compare and contrast, dear reader, with the same unit in 6mm. Arguably painted to the same level - basecoat and wash. There are two or three methods for painting 6mm to a good standard. Peter Berry published a guide on the Baccus website link here using a black undercoat. He estimates that his method works out at 2 minutes per figure using a production line method. Another method is to spray the figure the principle colour - red, blue, grey or whatever, block in the detail and then wash with a dark brown ink whether that be the Army Painter range, those GW washes or even artists inks from Windsor and Newton. I have used this method previously and would estimate a similar amount of time per figure as the black undercoat method.

So, at 2 minutes per figure, my maths works that out at 48 minutes per unit. In the time it takes to paint your 28mm unit, you can paint at least 11 units of 6mm figures. And I have to say to paint your 28mm unit in that time, you're probably not going to be running around showing them off as your best painted figures ever. Probably. Of course someone may prove me wrong on this and knock out an award winning unit in an hour. But I doubt it!

Over the course of a month of painting your 6mm figures, I'd hazard a guess that you could paint the best part of an army for a small to medium game. In 28mm, you might manage 3 units. Not quite enough to play with. Maybe 6 months later, you might get those figures on the table. Returning to an earlier point, if painting the buttons, lapels and crossbelts in 3 shades, I doubt you'd get that far.

Now, if painting is your main pleasure with a game once in a blue moon, then that's fine. As I've said before, and I say again, this hobby is a broad church with room for us all. However, if you've just come into the hobby looking to fight your first battle on the dining room table, then 6mm is an excellent choice. If you're an Ancients gamer there are many great ranges, but the handily produced boxed armies available from Rapier here make getting a game on your table quickly very easy.

Take for example their Republican Romans which for £14.50 you get:

• 1 Mounted General
• 3 x 54 Hastati / Princeps
• 1 x 54 Triarri
• 1 x 24 Velites
• 1 x 18 Heavy Cavalry

240 foot figures and 19 mounted. At 2 minutes per figure that works out at around 9 hours painting, allowing  more for the mounted.

How about some Carthaginians to oppose them: 

• Mounted Command
• 2 x 54 Infantry (African & Spanish)
• 1 x 36 Gallic Infantry
• 2 x 24 Skirmishers
• 1 x 18 Punic Heavy Cavalry
• 1 x 15 Spanish Light Cavalry
• 1 x 12 Numidian Cavalry

192 foot figures and 46 mounted figures. Again I would think 9 hours would get these done. So 18 hours work and you have two small armies within a months work at most to play a game. Try that in 28mm.

So, I ask you, how can you possibly paint anything so BIG!