6mm Ancients Test Basing

I made a larger order with Commission Figurines in September/October. I'm actually kind of slow on reducing stockpile, the Bloody figures I bought in April are just being completed. Anyway, half of that order was about eight hundred 6mm lasercut Ancient figures, infantry and cavalry. They are meant for the late Republican Roman period, but what I really wanted was some generic bods for my Gudugan Pudugan rules.

There are seven troop types in Gudugan Pudugan (which can of course be used to fight historical battles as well), and once I had the figures and the bases required, I set out to try my basing concept which would help discern the troop types and give armies a unified overall look.

My method was the following:

These troop types are on 60x30 pill bases:

High Infantry units, 24 (or 23 or 22) figures per unit

Low Infantry, 16 figures per unit

Battle Cavalry, 10 figures per unit (in 2x5 tight blocks)

Chariot, 2 chariots per unit (these are actually repurposed Napoleonic limbers)

Grave Beasts, 3 or 4 figures per unit (these are my own sculpts)

And the following are on 60x30 oval bases:

Missile Cavalry, 8 to 6 figures per unit

Missile Infantry, 12 figures per unit

As you can see there is a very visible difference between units that shoot and those which prefer the sword or the spear.

I have a proven method for painting 6mm figures, so I can churn out quite an amount in a day. First, I coat the MDF figures in express wood glue to seal them, which dries in about an hour. Then I hit them with a dark brown undercoat (VMC Flat Brown or Mahogany are good choices), followed by a heavy  medium brown drybrush. Then I use a brush with a fine point to pick out the details with bright colours, and that's about it. 

As you can see I tried some variety with the reds on the infantry to the left, some have a pink hue while others are more orange.

The bases are first painted a dark beige, then drybrushed with Sand and Cream White after the figures were attached. I put some blobs of coarser sand and patches of ground tea on them for texture, but otherwise the drybrushing itself yields a good look.

Another important step is to drill a hole and attach a banner pole (a cut off paper clip with a dot of Magic Sculpt to hold the banner up), this device is to discern which body of the army the unit belongs to.