modern infantry help?

[Atticus]

I was painting up some US and Russian infantry the other night. I'm not too excited about how they turned out. Could anyone lend me some infantry tips as far as technique..etc? I'm not entirely unhappy with them, I just think they look.....plain..... Does anyone do washes on their troops, or only on armor? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

thanks

[Timothy OConnor]

I've only recently returned to 6mm gaming and I too am still trying to figure this out. But here are some things that I've learned recently from others and through trial and error (mostly error!!!)

To make such tiny figures look good you need to maximize the detail and lighten (not brighten!) the colors to compensate for their small size. One way to do this is to undercoat white and apply your base uniform color thinned with water and a drop of wetting agent (eg Flow Enhancer). This pulls the paint into the crevices and results in very natural and smooth shading. You can then add a black wash to further enhance details and dry brush.

One good example of color compensation is black weapons and tires. Don't paint them black! Paint them a dark-ish gray so that the black wash and dry brushing enhances their details.

Also leave some space around figures. Too close and they become a jumble of color in this scale. Space them out and use a simple, contrasting ground color scheme to enhance their visibility.

Finally, over-emphasize the flesh areas even if this means painting into neighboring areas a little. This gives them "life" and makes them more noticable on the gaming table which is otherwise dominated by terrain and vehicles.

Remember, sitting at a game table you're going to be about 3'-4' from the figures. In 6mm what looks amazingly detailed and accurate while painting the figure close-up looks dark and obscure at "gaming range". While painting your figures place them on a table a few feet away and only then evaluate whether or not you're happy with the result. You'll often find that you need to lighten/fade your colors in such a way that they might look too light at "painting range" but which look great at "gaming range".

Here's an example of one of my first attempts using these ideas:

[Atticus]

Wow those grunts look great. I'm painting my US and Russian troops for woodland operations. You wouldn't happen to have any US or Ruskie troops painted in woodland colors, would you? As far as 'flow enhancer'....where can I get it? And how much that and water should I use? On my US troops i've been using either "PollyScale - US tac mid green" or "Nato Tri-green" for the base uniform color and then painting the kevlar/webbing with "US tac dark green". I'm trying to show contrast between the soldier's uniform and gear.....is there a better way to do that? drybrushing maybe?

[taskforce58]

As far as 'flow enhancer'....where can I get it?

I use isopropyl alcohol (i.e. rubbing alcohol) that you can find in any drugstore/p h a r m a c y for similar purpose. It reduces the surface tension of water-based acrylic paint and makes it flow better into crevices.

[Mk 1]

I too use Polly-S for most of my brush-work. Really like it. Easy to work with, no offensive smell, and really FLAT finish.

I have tried mixing Isopropyl in with some of my washes. (Never tried it just as a flow enhancer.) I was not entirely pleased with the results. Couple things occur with alcohol.

The issue is that it dries faster. The alcohol evaporates much faster than water (it is highly volatile). Depending on how much you put in, it can dry MUCH faster. At first I thought that would be a benefit. But, particularly with a wash (maybe less so with just a bit as a flow enhancer) it often dried too fast for my purposes.

Also, somehow, the alcohol tended to change the color of my washes. I wound up with a light, almost white, "crust" appearance, even though I was washing with a color called "Oily Black"! I think what happened is that the multiple pigments (common in Polly-S paints) seperated in the alcohol, and the lighter colored pigments floated to the top and quickly dried in place. Or some such. I'm guessing at the mechanism, but the end result was clear. Only the deep recesses looked like they had been hit by a dark wash (fine, that's what I like), while the larger flat surfaces looked like they had been hit by a light wash (not at all what I wanted).

So I have abandoned the Isopropyl alcohol with my Polly-S paints. (No mention of how I apply "other forms" of alcohol while I'm painting! )

However, another very handy, easy to find flow enhancer for Polly-S is ... dish soap.

Just touch a wet brush to the top of the squeeze bottle of dish soap you have at the kitchen sink. No more. Just a touch with a wet brush.

First, use your brush to add a few drops of water to the paint (assuming you have some paint in a smaller "mixer"). Now use that brush same wet brush ... touch the top of the dish soap bottle. Now use it to stir your diluted paint. No more than a touch (or you'll get suds). It is very effective in breaking the surface tension of the water. Your paint will now flow very easily into every crack and crevice.

Or so I have found. (Can't claim the idea as my own. Got it here on the forum from other members.)

[Atticus]

hmm very cool. looks like i have some experimenting to do. the trouble i'm having mostly is with applying the detail(camo patterns and webbing...etc) and also i'd like to have some contrast between the troops' uniform and gear/webbing, but using woodland colors.

[taskforce58]

I should add that I never used straight rubbing alcohol to thin my paints, it is always a 50:50 water:alcohol mix, and I really only use it for wash and not for general painting. Also regarding the Mk1's comment about alcohol and the lightening of paints (which is not a problem for me), I wonder if it also has something to do with the brand of paint. I am a plastic modeller long before I started on miniatures and micro-armor, so I am more familiar with Tamiya and Gunze-Sangyo acrylics and they are what I use for micro-armors also.

[Timothy OConnor]

I use Delta Ceramcoat's "Color Float" water conditioner. It's available at craft stores such as Micheal's and Hobby Lobby in the section with the cheap craft paints. Liquitex sells a more expensive version in the artist's paint section but I didn't like the results (or the smell! Color Float doesn't smell!).

http://deltacreative.com/Paint/PPnP/paint.asp

As to amount I pour out about 1/4 to 1/3 of the paint from a Polly S small bottle, add some water, and then a few drops of Color Float. Precise amounts depend upon the specific color in question since color opacity and paint viscosity can vary widely. Thicker paint and more opaque colors require more water and Float, thinner paint and more translucent colors require less. And it also depends on how much shading you want. More extreme shading requires more water and Float.

One word of caution: if you add too much Float the paint can become glossy but that would require almost a 50% float and 50% water/paint mixture which you would never do (but I did try it once as an experiment!)

[Cav Dog]

Infantry platoon

Infantry squad

AT section

Fire team

Platoon leader

These were unprimed & painted with model master acrylics for the most part. They do tend to blend in with the background on the game table but that just means the camo works as advertised!

[Mk 1]

hmm very cool. looks like i have some experimenting to do. the trouble i'm having mostly is with applying the detail(camo patterns and webbing...etc) and also i'd like to have some contrast between the troops' uniform and gear/webbing, but using woodland colors.

Well, I probably shouldn't say too much more, as others here seem to do far better and more detailed infantry than I. But I've never let my lack of capability hold me back before, so what the heck ...

If it is the actual skill of getting all the fiddly details painted up that is your concern, you might want to try the experimenting with your dry-brushing techniques to do the hard work for you.

I would suggest getting your base color in place, and then whatever squiggles you might want to effect some sort of camo. Then go directly to dry-brushing. Use a notably lighter rendition of your base uniform color, maybe something even a little towards browner, or greener, than the base color. Hit the figures with the dry-brush, and you will wind up highlighting all the webbing and web gear (packs and canteens, etc.). Do this BEFORE you detail the guns, boots, faces-and-hands, and helmets of your figures. That way you won't wind up with guns and helmet-edges colored like the web gear. Then finish with a dark wash ... maybe more dark brown than black, to bring out some of the detail (including further enhancement of the web gear's edges).

This is the sequence that IanH has described on his website for painting infantry. Putting the dry-brushing up front, and using it as a means of painting the details of the webbing, has helped me improve the results of my own infantry painting noticeably.

With this approach, you still paint up the details of the boots, guns, faces-and-hands, and helmets, but you don't paint up all of the webgear. Yet the webgear winds up looking distinct from the base uniforms. Kind of a cheap-skates detailing of the figures.


Here are some of my WW2 Italians. Again, I ain't the best infantry-painter around (although now I might have a chance since I can actually SEE the figures with with my new tri-focal glasses). And my photography skills also don't quite do justice to the figures. But I followed the sequence described above with these figures, and I am quite pleased with the way they came out. Not exactly Ritter- or Cama-grade, but better than what I'd done before.

Give it a try. See how it plays. Take some pics and post 'em up here. I'm sure you'll find someone kind enough to point out how you can do better next time!