28mm late war British & Germans Arnhem etc

[Ash]

Hi Ash,

Really lovely painting!

For your British airborne, what figures do you think work the best in terms of mixing with Warlord plastics and metals?

Will Empress and Foundry miniatures work well?

Thanks very much.

Not painted any Foundry or Warlord plastic Airborne.
The metal British Airborne work well with the Empress figures (both sculpted by Paul hicks), the latest Arnhem Heroes range are IMHO far superior.
Much better detailing on the webbing/kit and accurate looking weapons.

Empress, then the others are Warlord metal. All pretty much the same height.



Only Warlord plastic figures I've painted were a couple of converted USMC bodies with Empress heads (modern range) and weapons (Vietnam range).
They are a bit chunkier than their metal counterparts, but as they are kneeling they don't stick out too badly, other than the large hands...

[Ash]

Started basing.

[Tom Dulski]

 Oh man those bases look great. I wish I had the talent/patience to do that.

[Ash]

Cheers Tom, they're not too taxing.
I just slap on some filler, to cover the metal base.
Whilst it's still wet press in some small bits of balsa and a couple of little bricks.
Then dunk the base in a tub of grit/sand & small 'rocks' (smashed up cat litter).
Finished off with a few drops of watered down PVA.

[carlos marighela]

Nice work Ash. Looking forward to seeing you work your magic on those paras.

[dickiegranthum]

Brilliant all the way round!

Warlord plastics are just poor, for whoever was asking earlier.

[Rickf]

Mine arrived today mate, I've a feeling you'll have yours done way before me. I'm struggling deciding between urban and rural basing.

[Ash]

Thanks guys. I'm going to try to remember to take some WIP pics, but as I know I'll forget they'll probably be of different groups.

Bit of primer.

[Ash]

Bit of paint.

[carlos marighela]

The mark of a clever bloke. Always do the webbing first when doing camo uniforms.

[Tom Dulski]

The mark of a clever bloke. Always do the webbing first when doing camo uniforms.

what's the reasoning behind that?

[carlos marighela]

Camo works as camo, even in miniature. Once you start applying the pattern it tends to make it more difficult picking out the details of straps and pouches.  I paint the base uniform colour then do the webbing. Only when I've finished painting the webbing do I return to the camouflage pattern and apply the contrasting colours.

[Ash]

Must say, it's become a bit of a habit.
I start with faces/skin parts, as I'm rather messy at it, and tend to get shades of pink etc over the surrounding area, which I go back to and tidy up with black on chin straps/ helmet/ collars.
Then all the webbing bits/gaiters/slings. Give them a wash of darkish brown then go back and basically dry brush the strap edges with a small cut down brush.
If I tried to do the kit after the uniforms I'd just get the webbing colours all over the uniform.
Touch up the over painted areas with black again, followed by the trousers (English uniform), dark wash, dry brush base colour, then dry brush something lighter such as Khaki over the creases and pockets. This can also hit the detail on the gaiters for an edge highlight.
Base coat for the smocks German cam. beige, which is lighter than it will end up.
With a fairly knackered old synthetic brush, brown parts of camo, green parts of camo overlapping the brown.




A green wash, which tends to flatten the whole finish, adds shade in the recesses and adds a greenish tinge to the beige base layer.
Then a very light dry brush (fairly fat brush) of the beige over the camo, adds a bit of highlight, makes the pattern look a little faded/muted. Doesn't matter if it hits the webbing as just adds to the edge highlights, and can always go back over it carefully with a thin wash.

[Ash]

I'm struggling deciding between urban and rural basing.

I'm just going with a fairly random mixed bag of both. Rural DZ, Fighting in (what's left of ) someone's house and maybe a nice bit of back garden, with rubble...

Got the first lot done. Some GPR blokes on a DZ/LZ

[carlos marighela]