hey kind folks, 

I need help!  I'm tying to hard to pain my Russian Nappy's and try to pain everything.  can someone describe or show pics or simple but effective paint jobs for 6mm Nappy's.  I'm not sure what to include and what to leave off.  I'm very happy with the one's I've done, but they take too long and it's too hard on my older hands and eyes.  

If anyone can help that would be much appreciated!

Undercoat them a charcoal "dark not quite black" grey

Brush on green tunic leaving grey as shade

Brush on off white trousers as above

Paint cross belt white

Boots and hat already painted

Paint in Brown musket, face and hands

Paint face and hands flesh

Paint bayonette silver

Thanks for this Jon.

I was trying to set down my system but this is better and its nice to see that somone else doesn't do the facings.

My method is a bit sacreligious;

I undercoat white....

I then paint the rest as above but just flesh with no brown undercoat.

As the last step I wash with a mix of 50:50 water: tamiyaX19 smoke mixed in a small Tamiya bottle with a dash of flat base (to give a matt coat), which serves as both a wash and sealer. It also tidies up the rough edges.

I've been using this method for 25 years in a variety of scales and it works well.
 

I'm using a ligth grey undercoat (my eyes are no more good enough for black), painting them and for shadowing I'm using dark brown ink. So your method is not sacreligious at all - whatever works, is fine.

And for facings, I do turnbacks, collars and so on. It looks nice on pictures, but I must say, on the table it does not make a big difference, unless I crawl over it...

That picture just makes me wonder if I should give up painting Napoleonics and go back to 20th century gaming.

My painting style is more "on campaign" so no pretty embelishments.

As you say, on the table you don't really notice unless you get up close.

Cheers,

Rhys

Don't give up!  Something I've noticed is that less detail almost looks better at "table" distance.  What I mean is, for my moderate skill level, by the time I paint cuffs and collars and belts, I'm loosing that much of the main coat color on the table.  I'm experimenting with speed painting methods with less detail and more main coat impact. 

There are lots of different techniques and it's a matter of finding the one that works for you.  Once you click with one you will never turn back.  You will find a pretty simple system based on black undercoat here https://baccus6mm.com/howtoguides/HOWTOPaint6mmfigures/

Whichever method you decide to try, here are few general tips:

• Don't over paint.  6mm is more about what you choose not to paint on a figure.
• Be bold.  6mm is about contrast.  Use bright colours.  Subtlety is wasted on the very small.
• Make a nice job of the basing.  That is half the battle.

Hope that helps.

Thx all for the great tips!!!  Will study them all and try my best to tame advantage!

Let me echo Peter's admonishment to avoid over painting. Coming from a background of 25 mm, I had a tendency, and still have to a degree, to paint 6mm figures the same as thier larger compatriots. As rsjahn mentioned, it looks great in pictures, but dosn't make that much of a difference on the table. I now try and focus on how the unit as a whole looks rather than the individual figures. This has done wonders for my sanity.

I was never very good at painting the big soldiers really.  I have painted for 30 plus years and I have improved a little but I would never even be mentioned in a painting competition.  The good news is I have always been about the overall look of an army versus treating each figure like a work of art.   Finding Baccus a couple years ago and struggling thru a SYW Prussian army pack, then struggling with the ACW set was a great learning experience.   I had life happen so got off the toy soldier band wagon for a few years but have recently begun purchasing more stuff.   I appreciate this thread because it has inspried me to believe that i too can paint these guys up to a good enough standard.