How do you Paint Infantry?

[vdal1812]

Hi

I was wondering how others paint their infantry. I'm an old hand at painting larger scale miniatures but I haven't done too much in 1/285. I've picked up some German and Russian infantry packs to get me started on a couple of armies to play Blitzkrieg Commander but I want to start off on the right foot painting wise.

thanks for the help.

Vidal

[Terrible Tim]

Hello Vidal,

Sorry I can not help you, because I am a new gamer to 1/285 as well. Check out Ritter site for inspiration:

http://www3.telus.net/Ritterkrieg/

Canadian Infantry:
http://www3.telus.net/Ritterkrieg/canada.htm

[Mk 1]

I second the recommendation to check out the Festerplatz Ritterkrieg (Ritter's website). There is no more inspirational single source of information on painting microarmor than Ritter. His work is superb, and he goes to great depth in describing his techniques.

Another source for information is IanH's website: http://www.iandrea.co.uk/wargames/6mm/6mm.html
I have adopted his approach for painting infantry. In particular, I believe that he inverts the sequence of washing vs. dry-brushing, at least from what I am used to for painting the tanks and vehicles. When painting infantry Ian suggests doing light-toned dry-brushing early in the sequence of steps, and saving the dark wash for the later. I have found that this approach works well for me.

Of course my own infantry hardly stands up to the results those two gentlemen achieve. But my results are improving each time I paint up another unit. Well, that or my eyesite is declining. Either way, they look better to me!

[Timothy OConnor]

Having also made the transition from larger scales to 6mm this past year my advice would be this: don't make your colors too dark! What looks right in 15mm or 25mm looks way t0o dark in 6mm. Better to err too light which can be toned down with a wash anyway. Even if you think the paint is too light it's probably not. Be ruthless when making this transition!

I start with a white undercoat and then apply a thinned base coat of the primary uniform color over the entire figure. This makes painting faster, hides gaps you might miss if you try to paint only parts of the figures, and actually makes it easier to paint details since the paint acts as a bit of a wash by flowing into crevices. The result is a nicely shaded figure with the details highlighted by darker paint around the edges. Again, remember to lighten your colors. If painting olive drab infantry you paint them lighter olive drab so they can be seen as olive drab at gaming distance. If you try to paint olive drab as olive drab and grey as grey you really can't tell them apart in 6mm if not lightened.

I then paint the weapons and important bits like helmets if a different color from the uniform. I do flesh last since arms and hands are typically "over" the weapons and other equipment. You simply paint the raised flesh areas and let the dark bands of uniform and weapon color in the crevices serve as a natural outline.

Note that this is the fast and easy approach for noobs like me. If looking for expert results I agree with the others. Check out Ritter's work and also check out the Vietnam thread. Some other amazing infantry in camo there by Will.

Tim

[Ritter]

I fully agree on the tech talk posted so far - White undercoat, keep colors thin and light, cover the entire mini in the base coat, wash, pick out tools, boots and weapons, paint all flesh areas, and finally helmets. I dont drybrush but others do and it helps lighten a dark project.

Troy