20mm Modern USMC Paint Tutorial

A reader asked if I could explain the pretty quick method I used to paint my 20mm Modern USMC by Elhiem Figures so here it goes. This is a little different than my usual post so I hope it is understandable.

It just so happened that I just received another batch of figures that needed painting up so I thought I would grab a bag, paint up the figures and snap a few pictures as I went along step by step.

First off I'd like to say that the basic colours and techniques are taken from the Enduring Freedom book by Ambush Alley Games. Piers Brand wrote  how he had painted the figures for the book and I mostly followed that changing some colours and techniques to match colours I had in my collection. 

The first thing to do is pick out the figures to paint and clean them up before glueing them on bases and priming them.

The selection I had to pick from

The figs as they came out of the package. Note the bent guns and various metal flash & vents. 

I straightened out the guns, careful not to bend them more than necessary and cut off any flash and scraped down a few mold lines, all with the knife.

Next they are glued on bases with super glue. In this case I used pennies.

Then I took them outside to prime them with a spray primer(GW Chaos Black) being careful to try to get the figs pretty well covered.

I brushed on some black paint to get into areas the spray could not get into.

That is the prep done which did not take very long. Now to get into the painting.

These are the colours I use for the main uniform. Vallejo 873 US Field Drab, 819 Iraqi Sand and 837 Pale Sand.

The main uniform area in 873. This doesn't have to be tidy.

All 4 done. I will only show one figure for each step though I am doing 4 at a time.

A heavy dry brush with 819.

I put this on brushing from various directions to cover most of the darker base coat except in deep folds. After it drys I do it again to make the Iraqi Sand more solid.

I then dry brush on a lighter coat of 837 Pale Sand.

I then put on a wash of GW Devlan Mud thinned down with equal parts water and mat medium to blend the colours together while adding some shade.

 

For the webbing, gear and boots I used 921 English Uniform and 988 Khaki.

Webbing, gear and boots painted 921 English Uniform. From here on you have to paint carefully to make sure you don't get any on the main uniform.

I then applied the same wash I used on the main uniform.

 

I then dry brushed with Khaki.(I've also used British Uniform with some white added)

The team finished with the details painted. Skin, guns, sunglasses and the mounting bracket on the helmets.

After that it's time to do the bases and take them to the table.

Hope this helps and excuse the photography, it really doesn't show the colours very well.

Thanks for reading,

Rob

Mostly Modeling

Well I didn't get a lot of gaming lately bit I have got in a fair bit of modeling, mostly in preparation for some Malifaux gaming. Now that I have most of what I need painted for my Seamus crew I think I might be switching modeling gears to some historical figs. I have plenty to work on so picking an era and scale will be the hardest part. I will probably work on some 15mm WWII while completing the 1/1200 Napoleonic ships of the line. Of course I could work on my 25mm WWII, 25mm EWC, 25mm Napoleonic, 15mm Napoleonic, 25mm Infinity, Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, etc, etc... Oh well I should just pick something and get into it.

My complete rivers, next some bridges.

A view at river level.

Seamus completed.

His Belles.

Flesh Construct.

Dead Justice. She'll be used with her Dead Doxy stats.

The only games I've got in lately was at A Few Glued Men recently. It was a short evening as there was a low turn out for the evening with only 5 people showing up. I played a 3 way game of Heroclix which I've played a few times but am not terribly familiar with. I played Nova Force vs. Shawn and his Sentinels and Gareth with Capt. America, his Howling Commandos and the Silver Surfer(for some reason). Gareth and I teamed up against the Sentinels and then turned on each other once we figured they were beaten down enough. Gareth pulled out the win by keeping his units fairly safe and thus being relatively intact to take on me and the remaining Sentinel.

Gareth complaining about how his forces would be wiped out before pulling out the win. Shawn plots.

Shawn with his evil plans.

Well once again that's it for now. Keep gaming.

Rob

Random Games

Once again it has been a little while since my last post. I am going to have to start keeping a game journal so I will remember exactly what I have done between posts because my memory just isn't that great.

I managed to meet up with Ben from A Few Glued Men to play a few games of Dust Tactics. He wanted to give it a try but we were having problems getting together with our conflicting schedules. Ben was able to come out to my house though and we got in a few games. Dust has very uncomplicated rules but almost has a chess like feel of play. I hate to say I lost both games but it's true, and I hate to blame it on my dice rolling but  it was rather poor through both games. I think Ben enjoyed the games and maybe we will be able to get in some more games in the future. He is interested in getting into the SSU units that are coming out soon and I am interested in checking out the Dust Warfare miniature rules when they become available.

The Dust games in progress.

I also played a few games of Malifaux, one against Chet at A Few Glued Men and one against my son. And yes I lost both of these as well. These losses I can take full blame for though. Malifaux victory is based strictly on meeting your crews strategies and schemes which are usually different from your opponent and frequently have nothing to do with destroying the other team. Having not played in awhile I lost sight of my own victory conditions early on in both games and set out to destroy the other crew. I then was trying to reposition and recover from bad positioning to get my victory points after I came to my senses and realized my mistake. I will have to get a few more games in before the Malifaux weekend to make sure the rules are fresh in my head.

Tristan and I battling it out in the streets of Malifaux. Marcus vs. Nicodem.

   Tristan and I also played a few games of Heroclix which I have had for years but haven't played in a very long time. I picked up the new rules and some of the new figures and Tristan picked up some figures as well. The game is fun to play and also requires no painting!, so its nice to just open a box a battle it out.

Shawn started a Descent campaign in which I am taking part so we had the first game of that. We managed to get the campaign kicked off, travel to the first dungeon and clear out the first level. The game was fun but as always with Descent a little long, though now all the prep work is done the next time we get together it will be to go straight into the dungeon and kill things.

And that was about it for games, I did some modeling mostly to get some Malifaux figures ready for the upcoming Malifaux weekend.

I green stuffed the bases to fit the Streets of Malifaux.

 

Seamus under way.