KoW in 10mm 2: The Two-torial.

Hey party people! Billy’s back with a groan-worthy pun, and another article on Kings of War in 10mm scale! This time I’ll be talking about a few tips and tricks I’ve learned in my limited adventure into this scale. This way, you won’t have to make the same mistakes I did…because I did them for you!

First off, you’ll need some supplies (besides 10mm miniatures, you smart alec!):

• Hot glue gun (seriously get a hot glue gun)
• Popsicle sticks/craft sticks/quasi rigid-strips of some sort
• Texture paint

So first things first, 10mm minis come in 2 varieties: individual models or strips. Individual models are very self explanatory, but if you’re using old Warmaster models, for example, they come in strips of 5 dudes all attached to one integrated base. Each type has their own pros and cons, but whatever you get, the steps are largely the same. As with all metal models, you’ll want to give them a good soak in some soapy water to remove all mold release agent.

If you do end up with individual models (like I have) there are a few easy steps that can save you a lot of headache when you get to painting.

• Separate all of your models of a certain type (in my example, it’s Dwarf Ironguard) by their poses. Usually you’ll receive a few different poses to vary your units. By keeping all of them separate, it’ll speed up your paint time.
• Hot glue the minis to popsicle sticks facing the same direction

As  you can see below, I have models arranged by pose. From top to bottom I have Axe up right, Axe down, and Axe up left. This really speeds up painting.

When holding the popsicle sticks, try and finish every bit of a particular color that you can reach while holding the stick in that position. This way, you can mostly use muscle memory to use the same brush strokes across the whole stick. This tremendously speeds up the process.

Basically the idea is you use the hot glue gun to temporarily attach the minis to the popsicle sticks for painting. Hot glue is the best for this because it holds the minis really well, but there’s not too strong a bond, so they pop right off when you’re done. I’ve tried super glue, blu-tac, etc, and hot glue is by far the best. If you don’t have a hot glue gun, what are you doing? Order one now!

As you’re painting, remember that these are ⅓ the size of your average miniature for Kings of War. There’s also a lot less detail, and typically, the detail is less exact and a little less clearly defined. This means that you should concentrate less on making your models perfect, and more on just finishing. From an arm’s length away, they appear as your normal army would across the room!

It really helps to try and use bright colors. That hunter green I used on my dwarfs looks cool at 28mm, but this small you can hardly see it. Make colors pop! Don’t worry about being perfect, either. Black wash is your best friend for 10mm. It separates your colors and hides any mistakes you might have made. As long as you have paint sort of in the right places, it looks fine. Remember the old adage: faces, bases, banners and shields!

When all of your minis are done, you can easily pop them off the sticks and mount them to your bases. I recommend gluing down the front rank, applying texture paint around the minis, then glue down the back rank and finish off with the texture paint. This way you can fit between all the models without getting sandy brown paint all over your (hopefully not meticulously) painted models!

In conclusion, remember the following:

• Hot glue is life
• Separate models by pose
• Spend no more than 10 minutes per mini
• Use bright colors
• Glue down the front rank and texture before gluing down the second rank.

Anyway guys, I hope this helps. Can’t wait to see more people building 10mm armies. I know I’m having fun! Stay tuned for more cool stuff!

PS: If you haven’t checked out my first article about how to adjust the KoW rules to 10mm, click here!