How to paint 2mm figures. An idiots guide.....

I've been asked on my blog and on Facebook "How I Paint my 2mm figures". So I thought I'd turn it into a post rather than write it down over and over again.

I will admit this may not be THE way to paint up 2mm figures, but its the easiest way I've found. (cheers Richard). Unfortunately this doesn't make 2mm figures look like works of art, they are 2mm after all? But it'll give you, dear reader an insight how to make a reasonable job of it.

Ok here goes..... 

Mistake no1, I based all my figures up on MDF bases first, I now wish I hadn't, only because, the Irregular minis have a cast on lip at the front and back of the figures. I didn't cut that off and it left the small gap between the front and back row, which you'd think wasn't a problem, that is until you've gotta paint the base of the figures!  I did try on a few bases, but have now given up and leave it the same colour as the units uniform.

After baseing them, I gave the unit 2 coats of Vallejo grey undercoat.

BigLee, gave me 2 pots (a lifetime supply) of Chinchilla dust, to use as abasing material. Smother the base with a roughly 50/50 of PVA and water and sprinkle the dust all over, this stuff is dust and I ended up breathing a lot in, in my haste, so be careful! Cough!

I left a bare spot on the back of the base. After chatting to Reject Richard and Postie I decided to have a name plate of some description on the back, I hadn't quite decided if I would use dice holder squares on the base, (to tot up casualties and the like), so I left it big enough to fit one or several on, just incase.

For the basecoat of the unit I used Army  Painter Speed Paint Enchanted Blue.

there has been a lot of press with pros and cons with these paints, I've not tried them on anything over 2mm, so can't comment, if they bleed into the next colour or not, but they do work well for 2mm figures, I can tell you that. Even in 2mm they give you a highlight, which adds to the look of the figures.

These have only had one coat, I have painted another unit with two coats that give you a darker blue finish.

After the blue basecoat I painted on the first coat of the base colour, which is an Emulsion paint from Wilkinsons called Nutmeg Spice. 

Now I must admit to going a bit mad here, I've got 12 x 2.5 litres tins of the stuff.....

yeh I know...

Next up is the flesh, Reject Richard said "You only need to paint the faces" He was right!

I can hardly see the face, let alone the hands. I did tell Richard I was going to paint the cuffs, not sure whether he believed me or not?

All I did, with a thin brush was to run the colour over where the face should be, it doesn't matter if you go higher, because you'll just go over that later on.

I only painted the front rank of each base though using my goto flesh colour Tanned Flesh from Miniature Paints.

With a bigger brush, dot on a black hat. I did try another technique where I wiped over the hats with a wide brush, but wasn't happy with how it turned out. In 2mm dots are king.

Next up was the second coat of Nutmeg Spice for the base, just for any bits you miss.

Then a generous helping of Galeria matt varnish, I love this stuff, how ever much you slap on it dries without leaving any hazy marks and is very very matt.

For 2mm, you need to make the bases look good, that's the main thing you're gonna see. So it was highlight time. First up a drybrush of Vallejo Cork Brown.

Followed by another drybrush, this time with Iraqi Sand.

I wanted each unit to have a flag, again it helps with the overall effect. First off drill a hole through the bases of the figure, for my flagpoles I was using pins, so make the drill size a little bigger than the pin.

Drill all the way through the base, its just easier than trying not to, and make the pin more secure.

Ooo Flags, lots of 'em!

All the flags are oversized by roughly half, mine measure between 4 and 5 mm

Make sure the flag fits and you haven't scratched too much paint off the figures.

Cut the pin down, so the bottom of the flag sits just above the hats of the men.

Using a dot of Superglue, squeezed onto a piece of paper, dip the bottom of the pin in, then stick it in the hole!

For the flock I used 2 kinds, one was 2mm the other 1mm.

Sorry I can't remember who they were from.

In the pot it goes, after dolloping on lashings of PVA. Give it a bang and a shake after taking it out.

And you should end up, with something like this!!!

For the labels, I wanted something, 1. I could read 2.Not to be so intrusive that it was the first thing you saw when looking at the base. It did take me quite a while to match in the brown colour to the colour of my bases. You need to print the things out, because most of the time the colour matched perfectly on the computer, but hardly ever when printed out. Once you sorted the colour, you can't use another printer, either. Because the colour will turn out different.

Sharpe scalpel and cut out. You'll notice on this page the grey and blue to the left of the brown. I chose to colour code the 4 countries involved. Here we have Grey for France and Blue for Spain.

Again every gamers best friend, a 50/50 mix of PVA and water is used to glue the label to the base.

And there you have it front and back.

My "How to paint 2mm figures"

Now go give Irregular Miniatures a call and order some figures!!!

Wish I was on commission!