28mm British Airborne paint test

[Rick F]

Just an experiment testing a new recipe for British Airborne. I backed the Arnhem kickstarter by Empress and Paul Hicks, so thought I'd have a practice before they come out. Found these old sculpts by Paul in my pile of shame, I think the one with the 2" is an old Bolt Action Miniatures one, but I could be wrong. Quite happy with the way the smocks have come out, a fair bit lighter than previous ones.

[fred]

Looking good!

A couple of minor suggestions:
* lighten the toggle rope a touch, mainly so it stands out from the smock more
* lighten the webbing quite a bit, I’ve gone with Vallejo Russian Uniform for mine.

[Rick F]

Looking good!

A couple of minor suggestions:
* lighten the toggle rope a touch, mainly so it stands out from the smock more
* lighten the webbing quite a bit, I’ve gone with Vallejo Russian Uniform for mine.

Cheers mate. I've gone for the newly blancoed "just dropped in" look. I used the colour Tony Barton suggested in his piece on WW2 Blanco colours.

[Tom Dulski]

Denison camo work looks great.

[Cubs]

Yes, I can confirm the dude with the mortar on his back is an old Paul Hicks Bolt Action min (I have a few). I agree with fred re: the webbing, but I particularly love that you've got the metal edge to the boot heel! It's them little details.

[Rick F]

Thanks everyone. I agree, the webbing does seem a bit dark, all my others are Green Grey or Russian Green. But having read this article I thought I'd try something different, it makes sense that troops would have gone into battle with clean and newly blancoed kit, it would take a while to wear off and fade, so I used Tony's suggestion for new Kg3 olive drab and olive grey. But the arguments for Blanco are the same as for field grey, endless
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/onesixthnet/british-blanco-in-1-6th-scale-t20847.html

[Cubs]

For my own webbing, I like to mix it up a bit as well, throwing in the odd green/brown khaki mix and buff on odd bits of webbing, as though the soldier has grabbed something from the quartermaster and hasn't had time to match it up to the rest of his kit with the blanco.

[Harry Faversham]

Thing to bear in mind, is the timescale of Airborne Ops. One minute you're in yer best bib and tucker, the next miles behind enemy lines giving it large. Same goes for the vehicles, bit daft making 'em look like they've been battling for months!

 

[Ultravanillasmurf]

They look very good.

[Uncle Goblin]

I also like the maroon beret a lot. The color is perfect. May I ask you which color/s did you use for it, please?.

[Rick F]

I also like the maroon beret a lot. The color is perfect. May I ask you which color/s did you use for it, please?.

Thank you. I paint a lot of figures as leaving presents for The Parachute Regiment, they generally say the beret colour is spot on, though in the flesh the berets are probably a slight shade darker. It's Citadel Screamer pink mixed with Mechrite red, generally 50/50, though it's easy to make it slightly darker if you want.

[Uncle Goblin]

Thanks a lot Rick. I have to try it and most probably repaint my  paras too. Your color is the best.

Thanks.

[Tom Dulski]

Damn that Multicam looks amazing

[Rick F]

Damn that Multicam looks amazing

Cheers mate, it's actually MTP which is made under license from Crye. We wanted a Multicam with a British feel, so used the same colours but with a slightly different pattern, mainly keeping the shapes of a couple of colours from the old DPM, the dark brown especially sticks out. But at our scales it's almost identical here's some Multicam in 28mm