Monday, July 23, 2018

3mm Napoleonics

Yes, you read that right.  THREE millimeter Napoleonics are a thing.  I had painted Baccus's beautiful 6mm figures.  I had seen Irregular's 2mm blocks.  When I visited the PicoArmor stand at Little Wars, I bought a few small packs of 3mm Napoleonics to see just how they would paint up.


I like them!  That's a 3" by 1" Litko base with 94(!) figures on it.  The infantry come in 20mm wide strips of ten figures.

Just how small is 3mm?  Here is a picture with a quarter on the left and a single grain of rice on the right.  Yes, the figures are smaller than a grain of rice.


Although I did my best on these, they really do not bear close scrutiny as individual figures.  Instead, it is the group look that is important, and they do look like an infantry unit in line!  Here you can see the drummers and sergeants behind the mass of troops.


I spent a total of two hours painting this unit.  I think I could crank out an army of these pretty quickly.


I am working on some hussars now.  If I like the look of them as much as I do the infantry, I may have to order enough troops to play a game with!


12 comments:

  1. Far Far to tiny for me- but you make them look fine

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    1. They have a certain appeal. I don't think they would ever replace my 15s or 28s.

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  2. Sheesh! Those figures are tiny. With your brushwork, they do present a convincing line of infantry.

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    1. We'll see what you think when you see them in the flesh. I like them.

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  3. Oh my, now these are something new. Wow, and I thought 6mm was tiny. Amazing.

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    1. Yes, they are really small. I am tempted to go all in and build some armies from these.

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  4. They turned out really well. At 6mm and below it is really all about 'impressionist' painting as the detail is meaningless at ranges beyond 6"

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    1. Thanks, Jake. Your 15mm Russians are really coming along!

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    2. Nicely done. I’ve given up on 6mm for Nappies. Somehow it’s too much work for the return for me. But 3mm hooked me about 2 years ago. It paints so easily and the “effect” is so real. Its a matter of mindset and what I want to see, 3mm lets me see and really feel the battle not the figures. I dont get the painting joy about of them as I do out of my 18s and even my 10s but the end result is somehow an epic effect ike I’m watch Austerlitz in War and Peace. That means in 3mm the terrain becomes as important as the figures maybe even more so. Don’t get me wrong. I am a painter and I love it and when I paint a beautiful WSS or even a seaming bland WW1 unit there is great joy in the result. But for Napoleonics I decided I wanted epic. The wonderful thing as to why this hobby has held me spellbound for 45 years is all the variety and none of it leaves me disappointed.

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    3. I'd love to see some of your figures. Maybe I need to see a whole battle line in 3mm.

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  5. I hate entering data on these things. Hit publish and POOF into the ether. I’ll Try the short version

    Check out “2mm and small scale wargaming” the stuff up on Facebook is amazing.

    I posted a small picture tutorial under Darran Wisons question post. It has some of my Austrians and my ideas on basing. I prefer waffer thin over block wood bases as I they are personally distracting to me and my basing attempts take small scale fiddling out of the equation a bit.

    Look at the foam tile terrain for air combat. Thats my bar for Marengo when ever I get that far.. But there is a lot of cool stuff there.

    When will my project be done? Who knows, I jump around way too much.

    The link is

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/1639662269377760/

    Tou don’t have to be a facebook member to look. The opening profile picture there shows off a land combat view.


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  6. Oh. My name is Tim Barkowski whn looking at my post there.

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