Baccus 6mm Early Imperial Romans

Just a quick update to highlight my embryonic Warmaster Ancients Baccus 6mm EIR army. Painting generally has been chronically slow for me lately due to various life commitments, so I have had to content myself with what I can - hopefully there will be time to achieve more progress soon.

This is the first time I've used Baccus figures, only ever having encountered Irregular's 6mm range years ago, so the first thing that struck me was their size. They are in fact, closer to 8mm, but with plenty of detail, nice proportions and a dynamic feel to them.

My aim is to build a 1000 point Warmaster Ancient army, but also use them for Impetus and whatever other rule set are en vogue at the time; I am not and never have been an obsessive stickler for strict basing per rules conventions; life is simply too bloody short.

What you see here is a single unit of legionaries and auxilia; I am slowly drifting back into love with 6mm due to its economy of cost and effort as well as the obvious visual appeal of massed units. While these few chaps are admittedly not that awe-inspiring by themselves, once multiplied several times over, the effect should be very impressive (I hope).

As with all scales, much is written about the painting and basing of 6mm figures, but in my case, regarding the latter, I find scratch-built bases just as good (and cheaper) than pre-cut purchased ones. My personal opinion is that many MDF and suchlike products are simply too thick - even before the application of basing materials etc. Therefore the humble beer mat, albeit carefully cut to size is perfect and once based and PVA'd is rock solid with no chance of warping.

I tend to shy away from static grass too at this scale, as I think the figures then appear to be wading through elephant grass. My own preference (for what it's worth) is good old flock; but I'm certainly no expert.

The comparative lack of effort required to achieve reasonable results in a short time coupled with their massed visual appeal and cost makes 6mm very attractive and for me, the way ahead. If only I can devote some more time to them...

All the best,

Monty