Elhiem British SAS/ SandS Models Toyota van (deceased).

Hi. Just a little post of pictures of Elhiem's British SAS  in Gulf War colours. Lovely sculpts as always.

Possibly the packs/equipment are a bit bright, but I'm not stressing about it.

Also, I have several items of resin terrain from SandS Models to paint, the first of which is a distressed Toyota van. These are cracking models, and I have some street barricades primed and ready to go. I have painted this in a similar way to my figures- base colours blocked in, a suitable colour wash, then re-establish base colours and add highlights. Unfortunately, I haven't been fussy enough to fill in a few blow holes from the casting process- I know, a cardinal sin- so I apologise to all those less lazy than me!

Anyway, just a quick post. Have a good week all!

Elhiem Modern Russians

Since my last post I have been concentrating on Matt's Modern Russians, and decided to do the lot before posting, so this is a little pic heavy I'm afraid.

I found these figures particularly enjoyable to paint, with a wealth of detail (in common with all Elhiem figures), and attempted a 'Flora Digital' pattern which did not really come off, but I'm still relatively happy with the final appearance.

So, RUS01

RUS02

RUS03

RUS04

RUS05

RUS06

The Spetsnaz in GORKA suits were a pattern I found on the net, but I have seen a number of different ones. I am well aware that many details/colours may be inaccurate, but I'm not going to be too precious about it- life's too short!

I also managed a couple of pieces of scatter terrain while I was at it, the first cobbled together from a mixed bag of mis-cast items from 'SGT'S MESS' (a brilliant bag of stuff for this sort of thing)-

and at your convenience (sorry), a, er, convenience, also from SGT'S MESS.

So, I've got lots in the pipeline- mostly from Elhiem- Aussie SASR, US Rangers post 2010 and others.
I have knocked out a few more Taliban, and some Liberation minis recently, but there are enough pictures here for one post I think.

As usual, any helpful comments welcome, and thanks for taking an interest.

Some 20mm Vietnam War items.

Wow, no posts for months, then two in consecutive days!

Just a few pictures of re-worked Vietnam era stuff, minis from Britannia mostly, with a few thrown in from FAA and Liberation miniatures.

I do like to see a muddy half-track.....

A few grunts-

(I can't help but feel a bit smug about the rebel flag on second from right- I'm usually poor at detail).

Finally, some Viet Cong-

That's it!

Elhiem Modern Germans.

Well, following on from my 'epiphany' moment about black undercoat, I have finally completed my selection of Modern Germans from Elhiem. I'm not suggesting the standard is spectacular, and the pictures aren't the clearest, but the technique suits me, and gives more definition than my previous style. I have now started stripping paint from some more figures to re-work them, but I won't be doing all of them- too many nail varnish remover fumes!

I have also started repainting Matt's DEVGRU SEALS in multicam, so when they are done I'll have pictures up, maybe a few at a time.

Best wishes to all.

Long Time No Post!

It has been almost a year since my last post- I found myself trying to paint a volume of figures for gaming instead of painting purely for the pleasure of it, got rather bored, and so I had a break. To freshen things up, I then decided to try a different scale and era, so having seen some fantastic painted figures on the internet and various blogs of modern warfare miniatures from Elhiem Figures, I ordered a batch and got painting.

My first efforts at this scale were okay-ish, but not a patch on others that I had seen.

These are Elhiem's Afghan/Taliban figures...

And a few more....

I also had a few Britannia 20mm figures, but didn't make much of an effort with the goats!

I also bought  some minis from Liberation miniatures, and found them to be more in the style of the Britannia offerings, but I haven't taken any pictures of those yet.

After clearing out a cupboard, I discovered a large number of painted and unpainted minis from Britannia's Vietnam range- poorly painted- so they've been stripped off and I'm working my way slowly through those.

This is one of the re-paints, and it brings me to my latest revelation. I have always avoided black undercoating in the past, but I have now realised that I have been wasting my time a little. I know that those of you who are experienced painters will know the pros and cons of various different undercoat/primer colours- I guess black/white/grey etc all have their applications, but the beauty for me is the way a black undercoated figure is so forgiving- missed a little bit? It just looks like shadow or similar. So easy for scruffy daubers like me!

I returned recently to 20mm WW2 minis from Britannia (I used to have a sizeable collection when poor old Dave Howitt was still with us) but they were sold a long time ago. I started off with a few-black undercoat by now- so here are some...

As you can see, a mounted SS trooper (yes, I know the collar decoration isn't correct) base to be finished.

SS sniper team (same collar problems)

Fallschirmjaeger MG40 team

Afrika Korps officer

Afrika Korps Motorcycle/sidecar combo

Finally, some modern German troops kitted out for 'Afghan'.

All the figures in the last eleven pictures have had the black primer treatment. I painted some other modern Germans in exactly the same colour scheme as these with a grey undercoat, but in comparison they look dull and washed out. I suppose for reality's sake, that is probably okay, but for table top miniatures, I like a bit more contrast.

If any of you more experienced types out there would like to give me some pointers on how to improve my technique, I would be grateful to hear them.