Terrain & Buildings: Russian Buildings, 6mm or 10mm?

Undercoated in Halfords grey primer, base coats going on.

I bought all these buildings quite a long time ago now. They were gathering dust, very literally, in a plastic tub. I decided, when I recently made a scratch-built Russian church-tower, to get these out, dust them off, and start painting them.

All the better buildings base-coated.

The buildings from the Big Battalions range by Total Battle Miniatures are fab, and very nicely varied, even including burnt-out/ruined hovels. I've base-coated them in a range of grey/browns, some veering towards beige, some brown, some green-ish. Only a result of these building have much stonework. As was the case in Russia at the time, most buildings were largely constructed from wood. And most old external wood turns a silvery grey, unless it's somehow preserved or painted.

Some other 6mm buildings I bought, at Salute, years ago.

Pictured above are some 6mm scale buildings, by Timecast. These are a lot lower quality, the resin being fairly brittle, and therefore more prone to chipping. They're also less well sculpted, being rather too regular and 'foursquare'. I will probably wind up using them. But perhaps hidden in amongst my Smolensk project scratch-builds. One good thing about them is that they're smaller than the Total Battle buildings, so actually work with my 6mm figures and my own scratch-built buildings.

The better buildings, from the Big Battalions range, are intended for use with 6mm scale figures. But they are too large in my view: if buildings are made in 'true' scale to an individual model figure - and remember each figure usually represents about 20-30 actual soldiers - they actually wind up seeming oversized. So I think I'll use the 6mm scale buildings from Total Battle with my 10mm figures, and build my own 6mm buildings.

Gradually getting into layering the paint on...

Painting is proceeding slowly... but it is proceeding. The Total Battle Miniatures buildings are superb. I'm painting them with a mixture of artists acrylics (Windsor & Newton, Rowney, etc.) and Vallejo. Using washes occasionally, to build up uneven patchy finishes, for a more natural look. When I've done the basic blocking in I'll give the lot a gloss varnish, and do some oil paint washes, to bring out the detail, and then seal it all off with some matt varnish.

Lighter colours and oxidising copper roofs blocked in.