Posts from the Sangin Community- More British in MTP, and Terrain!

Following on from Matt's British last week, I got sent some pictures from Pat of his British, with yet another way of painting MTP!

Pat painted them using Humbrol Enamels (he calls himself "old school"!) I am sure if you would like the Humbrol list (for the other enamel-painting types out there), Pat will be able to share.

A big thanks to Pat for sending the pictures through, he had this to say...

As you can see I've got two moving Fireteams & one kneeling team, although I've got more figures to paint up, plus all of Empress Brit 06 so the exact teams will change. I saw the new Empress Brit 08 & 09 at the SELWG show, really cool especially the female medic and the vallon mine sweeper- but they weren't available, real shame but will order them later along with some of the new Taliban (good Christmas present, they will beat socks!).

So there you have it, another way of painting MTP! I like the nice mix of colours that Pat has used- it certainly looks the business!

Pat also sent through some WIP shots of his next batch of British, showing off some very neat greenstuff work!

Along with his British, Pat also sent through some images of a piece of terrain he is working on...

I for one, love how this terrain looks. It is made from 5mm foam board and are mounted on 3mm White Foamed-PVC (MDF works as well). Pat went with a pan-middle eastern white stucco paintjob, which has come out really nicely. For me, it is all about the fruit stands, the tiling, the white walls, I like it right down to the three colours of doors. Apparently it is a work in progress but I think it looks darn good as it is, and with the internal details (furniture) Pat is talking about it will look even better!

This is all just reminding me that I need to make more terrain.....

So now that we have three different ways of painting British MTP, so where is the love for the other ISAF nations? Surely you can't ALL be playing British... right? We must be due some other ISAF nations, or even some more Taliban? Send us through what you have finished through to chris@skirmishsangin.com, things like AAR's, ORBATs, Scenarios, Painting, Terrain and we will share them with the whole community.

Pooch

Craig H- Painting the Bundeswehr

Craig H has returned, this time he is looking at how he painted his Fallschirmjäger from Eureka Miniatures. While he claims to be not much of a painter, he has done a mighty fine job on these I think! Now to persuade him to come out for a game..... Over to Craig

Let me get started by saying I’m a complete novice when it comes to painting. My only real experience was painting a Skaven Blood Bowl team back in the 1990s – and they came out looking more like a retro 80s New Wave fluro boy band than a menacing Chaos-warped football team (Chaos offers gifts in many ways....-Ed). So I approached painting my Bundeswehr force with trepidation.

I took a lot of time to do some research first. German uniforms use a disruptive camouflage pattern known as flecktarn (or flecktarnmuster). This is a combination of the words Fleck and Tarnung and together simply means ‘spotted camouflage.’ As the name suggests this is a pattern of colours to create a dithering effect, to eliminate hard boundaries. The standard Western European pattern is a 5-colour scheme of greens, browns and black.

Bundeswehr Wustentarn, or desert camouflage, is the special design utilised in Afghanistan. It cuts out two colours and goes for a simple 3-colour scheme of khaki tan, with medium brown and dark green spots. And when I say spots I mean really small ones, but more on that later…

Suprisingly, Craig has decided to go without the non-regulation headgear!

Starting out, I mounted the team on some old Warhammer bases I had lying around. I then primed the team with white primer. I thought long about whether to use black instead but white worked quite well to create the lighter look I was aiming for. Shopping around, I settled on a range of paints from Vallejo and Tamiya as well as some washes from Games Workshop.

Finding the base ‘khaki tan’ colour turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. I tested a range of options and initially tried out a test figure with Tamiya Desert Yellow, and then Vallejo Iraqi Sand. However, I found these efforts resulted in a base colour that looked too brown when combined with the other camouflage colours. The tan is intended to get a lighter brown result. In the end I went with Vallejo Buff , which by itself gives the figures a butter cream look (and reminded me of a 1970s Volvo 66 my father used to own). Don’t worry though – in combination with the other two flecktarn colours it turns out quite well.

Next was painting the faces and arms in Tamiya Flat Flesh (XF-15) (with a Reikland Wash from GW), then another light layer of Flat Flesh for the cheeks, chin etc. With the weapons I sent with a black base. I intend to put highlight over the weapons , but for now that gives a good contrast colour.

So on to the tricky part, the spots. I chose Tamiya NATO Green (XF-67) and Vallejo Beige Brown. I went for a beige shade rather than a darker brown as I felt this seemed to reflect the small difference with the base colour. Looking closely at actual photos, I saw that the pattern of the dots is not uniform or random. In a lot of places, the browns and greens flow into ‘splotches’ of colour, with dots cascading from the edges. These the splotches are often seen along the pants inside leg, or on the inside of the arms, as a way of breaking up the soldier’s silhouette.

The toughest thing was to avoid adding too many spots, particularly the green ones. In reality, there are large areas that are completely clear of brown or green spots. Although it is a 3-colour scheme, the green appears a lot less than the other two colours. This makes sense in a desert environment, but getting the right distribution is tricky. A couple of times I had to repaint over areas that seemed just too predominantly green.

So, with an unsteady hand and a fine detail brush I got to work. Getting the spots as small as possible and appropriately spaced proved difficult. In the end I settled for a more general pattern. The spots may be bigger than reality, but I consider that the outcome captured the essence of the flecktarn design.

For the boots, I went with Tamiya Desert Yellow (XF-59) or Tamiya Khaki (XF-49) for the webbing and side packs etc. This served to add a little variety to the colour scheme. Finally, I used brown wash in the folds of the fatigues for shadowing and along the seams to make them stand out.

The bases I painted in Vallejo Iraqi Sand, and added some desert flocking as a layer. Finally with a fine detail brush I added a German flag in black, red and gold.

All in all I’m reasonably happy with the outcome, for what was only my second effort at painting. More practice and less caffeine would have probably ended up with smaller, closer grouped spots, and a finer level of detail but I think that these are a good representation of what a Bundeswehr combat team would look like. There are a few touch-ups required, such as buckles, and getting the combat canine right but for now I think they’re ready for combat.

While I haven’t gotten the painting bug (yet) I am already thinking about a new project. There’s an Empress Miniatures Force Recon team on my shelf that, with a couple of conversions, would look good in Polish GROM colours. Already back to hitting the websites for some research…

Craig

So there you have it, a good way to paint those desert Germans you have lying around! Now Craig, it is time to get those Germans out on patrol!

Ray- Painting the 2nd REP

Ray is back, and having now got a whole lot of his French figures, has been hard at work painting some up to show off! And, given the nice chap that he is, he has shared a bit of his process on how he painted them.

I love that feeling you get when a new batch of figures arrives in the post. It’s like being kid at Christmas! Well a few weeks ago it felt like all of my Christmas’s had come at once. Pooch dropped of my French Foreign Legion figures over the weekend and a few days later I received the VAB and VBL which I had ordered from Gasoline. The biggest quandary was deciding what to start first.

In the end it wasn’t that hard a decision. The Eureka figures are so nice you just have to get stuck into them.

As figures go, Eureka's French are amongst the nicest I’ve seen. Like all Eureka stuff I’ve ordered, the castings are crisp, free of flash and mould lines and need an absolute minimum of preparation before painting.

I decided a while ago that I didn’t want to paint these guys in the usual desert camouflage but in something a little more striking. From what I have seen in photos, while the desert camouflage has been worn in Afghanistan, it is much more common to see the Legion wearing the European theatre camouflage so that’s what I plumped for.

2nd REP wearing European theatre camo

Painting camouflage has never really been my strong point. I can never really seem to get it to a stage where I’m completely happy with the finished result. In saying that, I think these guys have turned out as well as I could have hoped. Camouflage is awkward stuff to paint. At 28mm, if you make the colours authentic, they tend to blend into one another and the effect gets lost. So from the outset I wanted to slightly over emphasise the colours to make the contrast more apparent. You can make your own mind up about the finished article. At this stage I should also apologise for the shots. They were all taken on my dining room table, hence the reason for the dodgy tablecloth.(It makes for a lovely base cloth!- Ed)

On to the painting:

Stage 1.
After undercoating the figures black. I started with the Flesh:

Caucasian skin: Basecoat of GW Ratskin Flesh with a wash of GW Reikland Flesh Shade then highlighted with the basecoat lightened with a little white. The darker skin is Vallejo Leather Brown , highlighted with Vallejo saddle Brown.

I’m never comfortable painting eyes at this scale. I invariably end up with my grizzled veteran looking like a rabbit caught in the headlights. So I haven’t attempted to paint the eyes on most of these guys, with a couple of exceptions.

Stage 1 completed!

Stage 2.
Onto the uniform. The basecoat is Vallejo German Camouflage Beige with a wash of GW Aggrax Earthshade and highlighted as above with the basecoat and a little white added. The camouflage green is GW Castellan Green highlighted with Vallejo light olive, Brown is Vallejo leather brown and the black is (funnily enough) Black! I then went back over the basecoat areas and picked them out in basecoat and white to add to the contrast.

The webbing is GW Castellan Green highlighted with a little white mixed in with the green. For the body armour on the beret wearing figures I used Vallejo Khaki Grey. On the heavier equipped guys I used Castellan Green.

Stage 2 finished

The finishing touch is the tricolour emblem on the left shoulder of each figure which I think sets them off perfectly. I then did the bases which are sand painted with Dulux Hokitika (house paint from NZ-Ed) and washed with Aggrax Earthshade. Once this dries I highlight it with off white and add some tufts and static grass.

So that’s it, first batch done and I’m pleased with how they turned out. I’ve already ordered more from Eureka and have enough to do the rest of the Platoon now. You may also notice the VAB in the background of the last shot. I’ll go into that and it’s kid brother the VBL in the next article.

En avant mes amis!

For someone who feels that camo is not their strongpoint, those French are looking really nice! You should be happy with how they look, the balance between the skin tones and the camo has come out really well. As for the VAB and VBL? I am incredibly excited to see them, the Gasoline Kits are just super aren't they?

Dougie - Painting British Part 5- Varnish and Basing

Like some avenging angel, here to remind us what productivity looks like and how we all should be painting rather than writing poorly attempted witty comments on blogs, Dougie is back. And this time, he is here to finish stuff.....

This update will cover varnishing the figure and finished the bases. First off I always use 2 varnishes. The first coat is standard Humbrol gloss poly 35, this is a good protective coat for the paint and also helps unify the colours. The photo shows our figure having had his coat of Humbrol 35.

He then gets a coat of matt, now there’s a load of discussion on painting forums about matt varnish and which is best, I use Daler-Rowney Soluble Varnish Matt, and I’ve never had a problem, it dries dead flat, as below

The next 2 shots show the figure with the base finished, I’ve simply used Silflor 2 tone tufts Late Autumn in 4mm size, his glasses have also been re-glossed.

The last 2 show my first 4 man fireteam.

Lots more to follow!
Dougie

Well. They are simply lovely. That camo has come up really well Dougie- Craig and I have been debating about whether it is a touch bright, but you know what, I quite like it. And it's actually making me wonder if I have made my Auzzies too dark. Well that, and reminding me that I really should buy the whole range of Empress British. Because when painted up like that, they are just awesome.

Any clues for us for what is next?

I really need to get back to painting....

Dougie- Painting British Part 4- Badges/Boots/Weapons/Equipment

Dougie is back again, having given us all a couple of days to try his Multi-cam technique (I did, did you?). He returns to finish off the other elements of the model, guns, boots and badges. All things which if you get right, will really add a cool element to your figures.

First off I’ve painted the uniform badges; I’ve restricted this to jump wings and 3PARA DZ Patch. Here’s a photo of the actual kit, the jump wings are subdued and below them on the Velcro is the green 3PARA DZ patch

Here’s a close up of my version on the figure...

I’ve painted his boots starting with a base of VMC SS Cam Blk Brown 822, then brought the sand coloured boots up using the following colours from dark to light, VMC Cork Brown 843, VMC Tan Yellow 912 and VMC Dark Sand 847.

For modern weapons I’ve never been keen on using metallic colours, so I use a range of Greys running from VMC German Grey 995 to VMC Light Grey 990 and the shades in between.

I then finished off the helmet band, strap, gloves and radio earpiece and boom mike.

This is the front and back views below of the completed figure.

The next update we’ll be varnishing the figure and finishing the base.
Later, Dougie

Dougie - Painting British Part 3- Multicam

I hope you are sitting down in a comfy chair, because Dougie's "How To" guide continues, this time tackling the MTP camo for his Paras. I'm sure everyone who is planning to paint any form of Multicam will find this useful, if only for the techniques he chooses!

Well here’s how I paint MultiCam. At each stage I’ve included front and back views of the figure.

These are the paints I have used...
VMC Medium Grey 987
VMC Buff 976
VMC English Uniform 921
VMC Golden Olive 857
VMC USA Uniform 922
VMC SS Cam Blk Brown 822
VMC Ivory 918
and finally Daler Rowney Acrylic Artists Ink Sepia 251.

It’s an 8 stage process so here goes!

Stage 1 is to paint the whole uniform, body armour and webbing/load carrying equipment in VMC Medium Grey 987. Leave a small amount of black showing at the clothing joins.

Stage 2 is to highlight this colour with VMC Buff 976 as below.

Stage 3 is to lay on the first camo colour, VMC English Uniform 921 in a horizontal pattern, as below

Stage 4 we add VMC Golden Olive 857, again in a horizontal pattern as below

Stage 5 we add smaller areas of VMC USA Uniform 922, as below

Stage 6 we add flecks/swirls of VMC SS Cam Blk Brown 822, as below

Stage 7 is to add flecks/swirls of VMC Ivory 918, as below

Stage 8 is the last stage in my MultiCam method, we use Daler Rowney Acrylic Artists Ink Sepia 251 and a fine brush to line out and edge all joins and uniform seams, as below

It is a bit time comsuming but I’m quite pleased with the result. Next update we’ll be adding uniform detail, so that’s the buckles, Velcro areas and badges/insignia.

Later, Dougie