From RobertT: 6mm Swedish Cavalry (45 points)

This post is the reason why I joined this challenge.  My mate Steve and I started playing the Great Northern War using Beneath the Lily Banners supplement "Talon and Claw" with big battalions (72 figures) and big squadrons (12-14 figures).  Which is fine except that Steve says he "can't paint".  So I stepped in and painted both armies in exchange for a hardback copy of the rules.  We were having a grand old time with victories going back and forth, then Baccus released "new improved" Swedes with more dynamic poses and, without any notice, about 200 Swedish cavalry landed on my doormat.

 

Hopefully it is possible to see the size difference between the old sculpts at the front and the new ones at the back.

 

 

To give an idea of how long the new arrivals have been sitting staring at me, I had to brush the cobwebs off the undercoat before I could begin.  And then I decided to paint anything BUT these, adopting the same mindset of someone who leaves all their homework to the last possible minute before going back to school.  I even tidied my room before finally biting the bullet.  Here they are having almost completed the horses.  Once these are done I can get on with my own Saxons, Poles and Cossacks.

 

 

I have completed three squadrons of Swedish cavalry of 14 figures each.  They are based but not textured.  Steve has found some Vallejo texture gloop which he wants to try out, so I have painted the horse bases "generic wargame brown" and left them at that.  Hopefully 42 points is accurate for this state.

 

 

They are in a "typical" Swedish wedge shaped charge which looks right.  

I have a palsy in my right hand which can be quite vexing so I tend to use inks at this scale.  Various browns (Burnt Umber, Sepia and Antelope Brown) with different amount of thinners for the horses and thinned Prussian Blue for the uniforms.  Hence the white undercoat instead of the more traditional black.  To get the yellow facings to stand out, I had to do a quick dab of tan first.  At this scale I am not interested in painting every little detail and the uniform shade might not be 100% accurate.  But they look like Swedes on horses and I can tell which direction they are facing.

When I was painting my Ancient Spanish for Hannibal's army, I used contrast paints instead of ink to get a lot more variety and they came out really well.

To do the hat lace and the gold trim round the flags, I deployed my secret weapon.  Gel pens.  I cannot recommend them enough for this scale and 15mm too.  Store them on their side, not tip down or up as gravity does bad things to them.  I thought they deserved their own photo.

Final shots of today's unit charging one of my Russian battalions.  In this scale the massed ranks really look like a battalion, even though the footprint is the same as 12 15mm figures.

 

 

 

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Sylvain: 6mm is my favorite scale and your nicely done Swedish cavalry reinforces my addition to it. They are so tiny yet so easy to visually "read" as cavalry on the board, even at arms length. Your colors are vibrant and they really look in motion. I will add 3 points for the flags. It has been an honor to be your minion; "à la prochaine".