How to paint 3mm miniatures?

I don’t have too much painting experience at 3mm because I’ve started a couple of months ago, but I can tell it’s fun and it has its own flavor compared to painting in other scales.

I started painting WW2 3mm miniatures because I know pretty much about WW2 vehicles and related info and I was worried that I could not see well 3mm miniatures (!), so in this way I had more chances of understanding something from what I would paint.

Although I did a little research before buying Heroics and Ros (Coastal Forces line of miniatures) and Oddzial Osmy 3mm miniatures, nothing compares to actually painting those lilliputan miniatures. I mean they are really tiny, but you can do a pretty well job if you are aware that it is not like painting, for example, 1/72 miniatures. Not all techniques will apply while others need to be changed to work for 3mm and so on. Still, this is a guide, so you can only decide for yourself what works and what not. I, myself, tried to catch as much details as I could on 3mm miniatures, others may do a better job.

First thing I did is to buy, as I’ve said, miniatures from an era I knew and liked, WW2, so I would be once more motivated to paint. Then, I’ve opted for vehicles I knew. The option to buy also infantry was made simple from curiosity. I’ve started painting with the 6mm experience in mind, especially the time consuming aspect: for 6mm was not that much time invested, for 3mm should be even shorter and easier. It was indeed as I hoped: faster and easier, but easier only if you can refrain from adding or, better said, highlighting, too many details. And yes, there are many details to catch even at 3mm. It is up to you to reserve time for details or to paint a little fast: eye and time consuming and with not that much effect from a distance.

Then why it is worth buying 3mm miniatures? Because we can have many, I mean MANY, vehicles,  a little bit cheaper than in 6mm, but only if you can refrain from fielding too many military formations, that is from buying too many miniatures. An incredible mass effect can be achieved in 3mm measure! One other effect is that it makes you realize how tiny and with little power are the vehicles in the face of great army clashes. From 15mm miniatures on, you can be mislead in thinking otherwise, that some vehicles were like masters of the battlefield, but in most cases it was not true, even in WW2 (with an example from WW2 history, compare some of the more advanced tanks of German with less so developed, but available in by far more superior numbers, tanks of American and Soviet armies). It is a little error that we like to fall in, or maybe is just me thinking like this.

Coming back to painting 3mm miniatures, after cleaning with liquid soap and water, as no assemble step was required, at least to the miniatures I’ve bought, a primer in black was done. Black may not be regarded as a good primer for micro miniatures (2mm, 3mm, 6mm, 10 mm), since it may darken coats of paints applied to the miniatures (white primer can be better), but for me and for now it is ok. From primer on to the next step. I did 2-3 coats of a base color. The base color is the one relative traditional for some armies, at least in Vallejo color terms: Brown Violet for American, Iraqui Sand for British, Green Ochre for Italians and not German Grey for Germans, but Medium Sea Grey, so a grey a little brighter. Some details may have been lost, but I’ve opted for this pattern color and it is ok: the miniatures are easily recognizable and they are not “neon” or “wargame-boardgame” painted like, but in actual camo colors, at least for some theaters of war. For details like turret cupola or gun I’ve used a lighter color, for gun the same, but for the peak of gun I’ve used a little Gunmetal Grey . The same color was used for tracks of tanks and other tracked vehicles like half-tracks, while for wheeled vehicles the tires were painted with black primer or German Grey (there are other colors more suitable for tires, like there are many options available for many other parts of vehicles).

The windows of vehicles were painted with Gunmetal Grey, a color used primarily for metal weapons, metal parts of a vehicles and so on, but I will explain in detail why I choose this color for window, or to make a long story short, for showing the glittering from the light and sun rays onto the glass windows. Other painters use black or blue with different shades and effect to simulate the reflection of light. For the weapons of infantry I’ve used the same color. And here it is another problem, a compromise you may have to take it. 

The weapon's metal can be simulated with Gunmetal Grey, but at some scales/for some measure, 1:600/3mm, some may argue that it is not actually true to simulate the metal with this color, as from a distance it may be hardly to see it like this in reality, so with too many details. Another similar example is that although you can paint the eyes let’s say of a soldier miniature at 15mm and even at lower measures, in fact it is hard to tell exactly the eyes, mouth and other face characteristics from a distance not so long. So, the Gunmetal I did on weapons and others was done to show a little spark from metal components, but I did not even paint the face of miniatures let alone other of its characteristics . Maybe in the future I will paint some Flat Flesh or other appropriate color for face (with time I've added more details, but no, not the eyes!). 

As for the base of the miniature, I did not based my miniatures for now.  Even at 3mm I like to have 1 tank as 1 tank, thought for infantry is hard to actually have only 1 miniature, you often get 3 to 5 on a metal base (all in one), but Vanguard Miniatures, 3mm in sci-fi may contradict me. And what nice minis they have!

The infantry I keep not based but as I bought it (strips of miniatures), or when it is easy accessible I break them in lower figures per base. I may be crazy, but I really wanted individual soldiers, but I don’t have the tools right now to cut them without damaging them, as you may figure, the soldiers are very, very small and close one with another on, let’s say 5 figures per strip, and at least for British infantry from Odzzial Osmy, while for other types of infantry representation I think it is not desirable, as for machine gun soldier and his loader. 

In the very near future I will post photos, but bear in mind, I am no master of painting, but not a master of destruction either, as I am constantly improving. In fact, some of them can be accesed by clicking on the "3mm miniatures" label at the bottom of this article.

Trust me, it is easy and fast to paint in 3mm and to a certain degree, cheaper to get the miniatures than for 6mm miniatures and I don't even dare to take into account other scales. Don't expext to have the same level of details as, let us say in 15mm, but you will soon apreciate other strong points of 3mm miniatures. The more you paint, the better will you paint! Accept you current level of painting, persevere, be pacient and soon you will see (in 3mm!) the results of grand scales apocalyptic clashes of armies.

Some examples are placed here only to make you paint in 3mm and not from the point of a master. For WW2 I have revisited many paints of the miniatures (have not got the time to actual place new photos for the later paints), for 3mm sci-fi I think I did a better job, but this is for you to decide. There are now many producers of 3mm miniatures and even terrain so all is well for those of you ready to experiment and enter this niche of the niche in painting. As for the wargamers, expect little longer playing time as the game will be often interrupted by many WOWs!!

 

Updates: search this site for label 3mm miniatures to find out other projects involving painting 3mm miniatures. For example, the 3mm infantry miniatures painted recently from Vanguard Miniatures: 3mm Novan Elites Affray Infantry Century Mechanized.

3mm infantry miniatures painted
(click to enlarge)