My eyes!

Hi all,

Once, a long time ago, in a province far, far away, I painted plaid kilts on 6mm Highlanders.  Over the last week or so, however, I've been forced to acknowledge that when I did, it was a good 15 years or so ago, and my poor aging eyes are not what they used to be.

87th and 88th Highlanders

All of this to say, I painted up some 6mm Highlanders for my Brit/Hanoverian army, only to realize that my days of plaid painting in this scale are over.  I did my best to pick out some kind of contrasting pattern on the kilts, but couldn't get the contrast high enough to stand out, and seem to have been left with one set that are greenish blue, and other that are bluish green.

Hoping a brisk wind doesn't blow up.

Another thing about these figs that challenged me was the webbing.  For the highlanders, belts and straps were in black leather.  I think, I'm pretty sure, this is the first time I've come across that in a 6mm figure, and to be honest, it threw me a little.  Really dark colours are something I've struggled with in 6mm.  I find painting in this scale is really about brightness and contrast - it's almost an impressionist style.  Black, by it's nature, isn't bright, and it's difficult to get contrast on black over a black undercoat, unless you just go grey, and pretend it's black.

I still like the over-sized flags.  

The net effect has been to make these guys seem a little dark.  That said, I now have at least one unit of highlanders (without which no Brit army is complete), and am quite close to a workable army list for Maurice.  I have another unit of Hanoverians primed up on sticks, so am quite close to the goal.

This, of course, has me thinking about other projects.  The likeliest 6mm will be SYW Russians.  I'm following my usual practice of picking an actual battle, but being a little haphazard in choosing units from it (picking them for flags and facings rather that actual formations).  In this case, it'll likely be Kunersdorf, partly because it will make it easy to branch into Austrians (as the battle involved a combined Austro-Russian army).  Russians, and Austrians, have me thinking about the conflicts between Austria, Russia, and the Ottomans (I played a LOT of Diplomacy back in the day), which of course has had me eyeing the Baccus Ottoman range.  Not an immediate prospect, but I can see that happening down the road.

Thinking about the Russians has also got me digging about the Drawers of Shame, and I came up with a few units of AB Russians I picked up back when the THMG gang were doing Lasalle (something like 6-7 years ago).  It's been a little while since I've done 15mm, but I had the itch, and the first unit will likely be my next blog post.  Until then, enjoy!

FMB