PAINTING
15mm Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom figures.
PREP:
First I do is
figure out what uniforms to paint. This is easy since I
can just dig into my ruck and look at 3-color desert camo. Now while
there are other colors that may be more spot on, when painting in 15mm
you have to try and bring out the colors a tad more or else you might
as well paint it all one drab color for all the good it will do. NOTE
that I'm not painting for show quality but good looking game quality
and speed since I have tons of minis to paint.
I deflash minis if
necessary. You can wash the minis in a soapy
water mixture supposedly to degrease them. I sued to do this
religiously but I stopped doing it years ago and it hasn't made a damn
but of difference. But if your minis look greasy then do it. Next I
make any mods to the minis needed, new heads, or what not. I actually
took some thin pieces of medal and glued them under a few M4s to make
M203s since I was a little light on them. Next I mount them on small
washers individually (size No 10 to be exact). For this (personal
taste) I prefer individually mounted, and steel washers can be placed
on magnetic bases to make move stands. Then I spray prime them in black
. You can use any good primer, today I was using krylon flat black.
So here's the
paint lineup and the order I'll paint. Buff
(vallejo), olive green (global games) and snakebite leather, (citadel)
round out the desert 3-color. Then comes tanned flesh (coatd'arms). and
then olive drab (global games) for the web gear, rucks, goggles. then
black (vallejo) for the weapons. Not shown is straw (musket minis) for
the boots and (I use that color for flocking too). then flesh wash
(citadel) and black wash (mix black w/ water). I experimented with
different colors in my stable and this mix ended up suiting my tastes
best.
So on to painting:
Note: there are many ways to do this, paint like
you put your clothes on, paint light to dark, all good ideas though
none are hard rules. First a stiff flat brush on of buff on the whole
fig as a base coat.
Then the Olive
Drab and the snakebite leather brown, Note the brown
is painted in stripes. With the camo, if you put enough to match real
life quantities it'll look to busy on a mini, put a splotches around
the fig so that whatever angle you are looking at it you can see the
guys wearing camo.
Then I do flesh :
Then I do the guns
and equipment. Note that some US wear the camo
molle, some web gear, some interceptor body armor, some rgr , but at
15mm your best is just green. Later we'll wash the green in black wash
and it'll bring out all the great detail.:
I love my little
bottle of Citadel flesh wash. It has been
rendering honorable services for many years. Just a dab on the face, if
you put too much on soak the excess off with a brush.
The the black
paint wash. Make it runny but ensure it's not just
watery without enough color to soak into the nooks and crannies. The
black wash will at first look as if you are screwing up your wonderful
paint job. But it eventually gets into where it needs to go. Besides,
you get dirty fighting (except in the bizarro world), and I like that
look. once that is done you have your guys pretty much set. Note that
I'm not dry brushing these guys as they don't need it really. Older
guys ala nappies of ACW could use a dry brush. Definitely 20mm or above
gets a dry brush. But dry brushing can be overdone too where your
miniature looms like a caricature of itself. I will post some
taliban guys I am drybrushing and they look good. It depends on the
fig. Be caseful with the drybrushing and washing of camouflage 15mms
and smaller as it could hide much of your paint job. Subsequent to
these guys I am drybrushing the weapons and other dark bits just a tad.
Then it's on to
flocking. Other than the normal flocking materials
I also have a little zip lock sandwich bag of sand I nabbed from a
North Carolina beach like 8 years ago. I'm still using it for flocking.
One important note especially with smaller figs. If your fig has a dark
paint job, a light colored flock brings out the color better, likewise
a light paint job works best with a darker flock. Something to keep in
mind. Here's the
boys: Note I snuck in a taliban/afghan militia guy in there. Just got
them today:
And of course I
put them right into action:
Anyways using
these techniques I can crank out a platoon a session in a few hours
start to finish.
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