PAINTING 15mm Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom figures.

PREP:
First I do is figure out what uniforms to paint. This is easy since I can just dig into my ruck and look at 3-color desert camo. Now while there are other colors that may be more spot on, when painting in 15mm you have to try and bring out the colors a tad more or else you might as well paint it all one drab color for all the good it will do. NOTE that I'm not painting for show quality but good looking game quality and speed since I have tons of minis to paint.

I deflash minis if necessary. You can wash the minis in a soapy water mixture supposedly to degrease them. I sued to do this religiously but I stopped doing it years ago and it hasn't made a damn but of difference. But if your minis look greasy then do it. Next I make any mods to the minis needed, new heads, or what not. I actually took some thin pieces of medal and glued them under a few M4s to make M203s since I was a little light on them. Next I mount them on small washers individually (size No 10 to be exact). For this (personal taste) I prefer individually mounted, and steel washers can be placed on magnetic bases to make move stands. Then I spray prime them in black . You can use any good primer, today I was using krylon flat black.


So here's the paint lineup and the order I'll paint. Buff (vallejo), olive green (global games) and snakebite leather, (citadel) round out the desert 3-color. Then comes tanned flesh (coatd'arms). and then olive drab (global games) for the web gear, rucks, goggles. then black (vallejo) for the weapons. Not shown is straw (musket minis) for the boots and (I use that color for flocking too). then flesh wash (citadel) and black wash (mix black w/ water). I experimented with different colors in my stable and this mix ended up suiting my tastes best.




So on to painting: Note: there are many ways to do this, paint like you put your clothes on, paint light to dark, all good ideas though none are hard rules. First a stiff flat brush on of buff on the whole fig as a base coat.




Then the Olive Drab and the snakebite leather brown, Note the brown is painted in stripes. With the camo, if you put enough to match real life quantities it'll look to busy on a mini, put a splotches around the fig so that whatever angle you are looking at it you can see the guys wearing camo.



Then I do flesh :


Then I do the guns and equipment. Note that some US wear the camo molle, some web gear, some interceptor body armor, some rgr , but at 15mm your best is just green. Later we'll wash the green in black wash and it'll bring out all the great detail.:


I love my little bottle of Citadel flesh wash. It has been rendering honorable services for many years. Just a dab on the face, if you put too much on soak the excess off with a brush.

The the black paint wash. Make it runny but ensure it's not just watery without enough color to soak into the nooks and crannies. The black wash will at first look as if you are screwing up your wonderful paint job. But it eventually gets into where it needs to go. Besides, you get dirty fighting (except in the bizarro world), and I like that look. once that is done you have your guys pretty much set. Note that I'm not dry brushing these guys as they don't need it really. Older guys ala nappies of ACW could use a dry brush. Definitely 20mm or above gets a dry brush. But dry brushing can be overdone too where your miniature looms like a caricature of itself.  I will post some taliban guys I am drybrushing and they look good. It depends on the fig. Be caseful with the drybrushing and washing of camouflage 15mms and smaller as it could hide much of your paint job. Subsequent to these guys I am drybrushing the weapons and other dark bits just a tad.



Then it's on to flocking. Other than the normal flocking materials I also have a little zip lock sandwich bag of sand I nabbed from a North Carolina beach like 8 years ago. I'm still using it for flocking. One important note especially with smaller figs. If your fig has a dark paint job, a light colored flock brings out the color better, likewise a light paint job works best with a darker flock. Something to keep in mind.  Here's the boys: Note I snuck in a taliban/afghan militia guy in there. Just got them today:


And of course I put them right into action:


Anyways using these techniques I can crank out a platoon a session in a few hours start to finish.