Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've been running a small miniature wargaming company for over a decade now. It has had its ups and downs, but about a year and a half ago I decided to branch out a bit and go for the really high-volume selling scale in the miniature wargaming scale pantheon...3mm!

Starting a little project log here for motivational purposes. As these are 3mm miniatures and so extremely tiny, any game they would be played with is going to involve element basing. I do occasionally have delusions of writing my own rules using 20mm squares for basic infantry to help advertise the line, but given my time constraints with running the store and my day job, I don't see that happening anytime soon. Looking at most of the games out there, they typically either use or are compatible with Warmaster's general basing schema of 40x20mm bases, so that is what I have decided to go with.

I'm starting out with Dark Elves, which are kind of a bit of a more niche army, but are a favorite of the sculptor doing these, so they got pushed way up in the production queue. The basic units for the army are spearmen and crossbowmen, so I am shooting to get those done first as I think they will be the biggest slog. A majority of the first wave I am painting are actually miscasts that didn't make it into the packs I sell. With spears especially you get some instances where a weapon or two doesn't get filled in when the mold is spun. I find I can't really notice when they are arrayed en-masse

My first semi-completed strips with a dry run of basing orientation:




A little scale shot:

Slowly but steadily making progress through the core troops. I still have 6 popsicle sticks or so of spearmen to reach my goal. I started thinking through an assembly line approach for the crossbowmen as well that I think will work out.

Going to have to figure out how I want to base these soon...which is not my strong suit. Will probably be some serious trial and error there, but my goal is to have all the spearmen done by the new year.

Haven't made too much progress lately, and I have had to switch gears a bit away from the Dread Elves onto painting 3mm Imperials to be used in promo shots for a Kickstarter I hope to run soon-ish to get them released.

Very work-in-progress in nature as I haven't done any highlighting or even finished all the base colors, but I am happy with how easily they paint up.

Really nice to see, great effect. Highlighting all those shields would've driven me bonkers.

I've a little too much invested in 10mm but I'd be interested to see the kickstarter, and I wish you all the best with it.

More progress on the Cavalry, hopefully next time will be finished pics:

These look really great. I can't imagine the skill and dexterity needed to paint at that scale. I can't wait to see more of what you paint!