Modeling Guides: Painting Micro Force 10mm Figures

Preparation and Priming - Miniatures must be prepared for a good paint job. Manufacturing often leaves a “part line” around the figures which may be removed by scraping with a sharp hobby knife. Also check for any flash or vents - small pointy spikes of metal. These are usually at corners of bases, or at the tips of muskets or swords. These are best sliced off with the hobby knife.

GHQ figures do not require scrubbing with soap and water, nor a primer. Here we will use a primer to assist in shading.

Locate the part line around your miniature. Holding the hobby knife blade perpendicular to the line, scrape the line away.
Slice away any vents. Remove other unwanted metal; on this horse, it is the stick under the fore hoof and fillet between the rear legs.
10mm figures are small enough to be gently bent into a new shape. Twist heads, straighten swords or muskets and modify poses with tweezers.
After gluing figures together, mount on nails, then use a black primer to completely cover the miniature. Be careful not to overspray!
After the black paint has thoroughly cured, drybrush all raised detail with white paint. Use a cheap brush as drybrushing is hard on them!

"Inside Out" and "Hard Edged" - Look for places where painting one area will damage other previously painted areas. These are the places to paint first - so work from inside to out! These figures are small, so only worry about getting one hard edge perfect. In the case of the hussar, that would be the collar, then head, next busby and then plume.

Get a book with color pictures of real horses. GHQ makes the best horseflesh available in pewter, so don’t settle for nags dipped in one shade of brown! Use washes and drybrushing to add realism.

Thin GHQ’s Sea Blue acrylic paint (CLR20) 50/50 with water. Paint this wash over this 4th Hussar’s dolman, especially the collar. The primer shows through the wash creating instant shading.
Use yellow to paint the sash, frogging and collar trim.
Don’t worry about getting yellow on the hussar’s head because the next step is to paint a “hard edge” with a flesh color, which leaves the collar trim crisp. Use red to finish up that pesky barrel sash. Keep working from the “inside to out”.
Here you see the brown hair and moustache, gold chin strap and black fur on busby and around the edge of the pelisse. Touch up any mistakes as you go along.
For the rider’s gear: blanket white, then tack black. Finish off with red blanket trim, white leather straps, brown musketoon, silver sword and barrel and blue portmanteau.

Painting Aides Supplied by GHQ - Micro force 10mm miniatures are designed for easy painting. Buttons, trim, straps, drum ropes, etc. are all oversized so you can paint them. Other details are scribed in to the figures, like this British drummer’s trim. Though you can use paper flags, most of the cast pewter flags have scribed lines showing where, for example, the CSA “Stars & Bars” or French Tri-color go. These figures are small, but not difficult to paint.

Beware of glomming too much paint into the fine details. Work with well-thinned paint. Wipe excess paint onto the nailhead and then paint the figure. Here, flesh is added to skirmishers.
Two 10mm infantry figures can fit on one roofing nailhead. Base coats applied, the black cartridge box straps are easy to paint.
After the black has dried use white to drybrush the haversack and strap, and the cotton canteen strap. Next, drybrush brass over the buttons.
This 54th Foot Drummer starts with base colors of flesh, green and red. A heavy drybrushing of white brings the regimental lace to life.
This 2nd issue bunting Confederate flag almost paints itself, since the lines separating the red, white and blue are scribed into the metal.

Painting Equipment - GHQ puts the same devotion to accuracy into the equipage in their 10mm models that you have come to expect from Micro Armour. Here you learn how to paint a French 6 pounder, one of the few correct models of the System of the Year IX gun (used from 1809 through 1815) available in any scale.

Use GHQ Olive Drab acrylic paint (CLR5) to paint French and Union equipage. British, Confederates and Prussians look best in Skyblue Kersey (CLR25). Metal furniture in the carriage is always painted black.

Mount the assembled model on the head of a small finishing nail. Here an Iwata Micro airbrush was used to apply the Olive Drab basecoat.
Use a fine tipped sable brush (00000) to paint the iron furniture black. Drybrush silver on the iron tires of the wheels.
The gun barrels can be painted separately. Once the brass paint has dried, glue the barrel into the trunions of the carriage.
Apply a blackwash (20 parts turpentine to 1 part black enamel paint) to the gun. Dullcote will protect the finished model.
If the crew is too tall for the gun, it is because each man has a base. Use .030” styrene strips to raise the gun. Flocking the base will obscure these strips.