Tutorial: Painting British WW2 Commandos Part 1

Hi folks, 

Today I'm pleased to introduce you to Troy Brand of Brand Painting Studios who will be showing us how to paint World War 2 British soldiers like a pro.  If you're not a WW2 gamer you might find the colour scheme and techniques useful for painting imperial Guard or other SciFi troopers. That's all from me, over to Troy!

Ed

Warlord Games WW2 British Commandos

A couple of weeks ago I got my hands on some of Warlord Games' WW2 British Commandos. My first impression of them is that they are very well made. There are only a few mould lines to file off and all the pieces fit together very nicely. Some pieces, like the stocks on the sten guns, are very flimsy and prone to snapping before even clipping them off the sprue.  Another good impression it made is that the sprue contains more than enough arms, heads, berets, helmets and accessories to have a huge variety of poses, weapons and faces. So, having sat down and examined the pieces one by one and deciding on the poses I wanted, I went ahead with my little project.

Getting the right colour scheme

It is perfectly acceptable to paint Space Marines in red. However, anyone would consider it a cardinal sin to paint Red Army soldiers in that colour, and equally sinful to dress soldiers of the Wehrmacht in pink, however funny the implication might be. So the first thing to do before even priming your models is to look for reference material to get the colour schemes as accurate as possible. This also means researching the colours of the equipment as well as the uniforms themselves.  The internet is full of very good (and bad) sources for this but I found this rather handy picture on the Encyclopaedia Britannica's website which makes a nice reference.

British commando from 1944-45

Preparing the model

One 28mm plastic Commado ready for painting!

Once I had decided what colours I would use to represent our commando and his equipment, I decided I would try using a beret and equip the model with a sten gun, canteen and rucksack.After I had clipped the pieces I needed for the first model and filed them as necessary I put the model together and based it with some Citadel sand.

I proceeded to undercoat the model with Grey spray primer from Humbrol. Lately I find grey to be a perfectly good compromise between black and white. This has to do with the type of paints I normally use, which are acrylics. They usually need to be thinned down in order not to obscure detail. Two or more thin coats of paint are usually enough to cover a surface. Still, the paints retain a certain transparency. This allows for the colour to appear muted if the undercoat is black, or equally very bright if the undercoat is white.  Grey being more neutral allows for the true pigment of the paint to show after the second thin coat.

Painting the Commando's uniform

Base coating the uniform

Having looked again at my reference, I picked Vallejo Flat Brown for the uniform. When painting large numbers of models it is easier to paint from one darker base coat and build highlights from it. There are other techniques which require the use of a neutral colour onto which shadows and highlights will be added, but for this model in particular, this was not to be.

Once the base coat was painted I then went on to paint the first highlights. These were achieved by layering on a 1-1 mix of Vallejo's Ochre Brown and Brown Sand. To this mixture I added a drop (or less than) of Vallejo Off White for the second layered highlight.

Clockwise: First highlight, second highlight, wash for shading.

Like I mentioned earlier, some techniques involve darkening and highlighting certain areas of the model by blending in different shades from a neutral base. However for this model I have applied a more traditional technique of layering highlights on to a darker shade then using a wash to produce a smoother transition from light to dark as, after a couple of lighter layers it would not have looked very natural. To achieve this I used Vallejo's Sepia Shade. Another good wash would have been Citadel's Agrax Earthshade but I prefer Vallejo's because of a higher pigment saturation. If you have the old Citadel Devlan Mud, I would recommend it for this also.


Painting World War 2 British Commandos: Part 2
Troy continues his tutorial with tips on how to paint skin tones.

 If you enjoyed this tutorial, check out Troy's website. He does commission work and his rates are very reasonable. Ed

Better Painting for Beginners: Undercoating your miniatures

It's often the basic things that help people paint better and more easily. In our rush to paint a shiny new miniature it's often tempting to skip those basic but rather tedious steps that give you a good foundation to work on. Today we're going to look at undercoating or priming your figures.

Whilst you can undercoat with a brush I think that most people tend to use spray paint. What could be easier I hear you ask? It's a spray can... Actually there's a bit of a knack to it if you want best results.  So here are my top tips gleaned from years of doing it wrong the first time....

1. Spray outside. Aerosol fumes are toxic and unpleasant and you don't want to breathe them in. Really.
2. Wear marigolds, you know, the gloves people wear when washing up.  Unless you really enjoy washing spray paint off your hands that is. If you wear gloves then you also have more choice about how to hold the figures because you're not fussed about getting paint on your hands.



Blue Tack is your friend when undercoating...

3. Mount you figures on a nice piece of wood about three feet long. Use some decent Blue Tack so that they stay on firmly and you can move them around without risk of them falling off.
4. If, like me, you live in the UK it's rare to get a day where there is no breeze at all. If possible try to find somewhere sheltered from the wind, otherwise take a moment to move around so you have the wind at your back. This stops the paint getting blown back at  you and away from the miniatures.
5. Hold the can about 30cm or 12" from the figures. If you get too close the paint will pool and obscure shallow details like on the miniature of the king.  If your spray from too far away you'll get a dusty look. This is because the paint starts drying before it hits the model and means the paint won't stick as well when you get down to the fun part of painting.  Neither of these are fatal if you're just painting up a few grunts for your army but they won't provide a good base if you want to paint the figures up nicely.



Oops, sprayed too close!

6. Start spraying just before the first figure and move along the row. Stop spraying just after the last figure. This should give you a nice even coat. You may need a couple of passes. That's fine, it's much better than doing one coat which is too heavy.

   

   Start spraying just before the first figure and move along the row.

7. Don't worry about getting the spray into every last area. Trust me, it isn't possible. Just touch up the areas you missed afterwards with a brush using a paint that covers well. If you missed a lot then reposition the miniatures and spray them again.
8. Leave the figures to dry before touching them. Ten minutes is long enough, although I think that half an hour is better - it gives the odour of the aerosol a bit longer to dissipate too! I've heard that professional painters leave them overnight but frankly at my level I don't think it would make much difference.

One neatly primed with grey paint and accepting
the paint well. :) Note that the crossbow needs a little
tidy up where the spray missed. Typical!

Finally a few things to avoid - you'll just wish you hadn't bothered and, yes, I have done all of them over the years!

• Don't undercoat in the dark or bad light. You'll miss loads.
• Don't try undercoating in the rain and juggling an umbrella. Picking up minis out of a puddle is not fun...
• Don't forget to check they are securely blue tacked.  Trying to find your minis in the bottom of a hedge is not fun either.

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