Painted plastic Conte GI's and smattering of Germans (4 Viewers)

[Thyer]

Just finished up painting 5 figures after not picking up the brush for over a year!! My new soldier acquisitions this Xmas gave me the bug to paint again!! Happy New Year Everybody!!

 

[Thyer]

 

[Thyer]

 

[Thyer]

 

[bilblas]

awesome.

 

[aujj65]

They paint up very well - {bravo}}

Jeff

 

[einaroneeye]

Nice brushwork on these guys. Its always good when inspiration strikes. I've had the same thing happening here over the past couple of days and I didn't even get any new troops for Christmas; just had the time off from work and the time to slide back behind the painting table. Thanks for sharing the pics.

 

[swalterh]

Hello,

Seeing the photos on this thread sparked some inspiration. Here is a Conte GI painted up to test out some new paints. He is clad in the wool trousers and M-41 field jacket.

 

[Thyer]

Nicely done Swalter!! It's great when something or someone inspires you into creating something of your own! I really like the realistic grass base on this one. I am in the midst of trying some of Steve Weston's WWII Tommies now, post em' up when I get them done - hopefully I can turn them around in less than a year!!

 

[swalterh]

Nicely done Swalter!! It's great when something or someone inspires you into creating something of your own! I really like the realistic grass base on this one. I am in the midst of trying some of Steve Weston's WWII Tommies now, post em' up when I get them done - hopefully I can turn them around in less than a year!!

Thanks Thyer,

The grass is a mix of woodland scenics turf and static grass. I've been kicking around the idea of painting some Weston Tommies myself, but right now I'm trying to figure out how to properly depict OD#3 & HBT. I'm looking forward to seeing how your Brits turn out. Did you make your chevrons and 29th ID insignia decals yourself? They look great.

Thanks again,

Shane

 

[Thyer]

I use a mix of acrylics to come up with my GI color scheme. The webbing/backpack etc... I use cermacoat timberline green out of the bottle, for the field jackets I go with ceramcoat sandstone mixed with a few drops of timberline green, the pants I use cermacoat mudstone also mixed with a few drops of timberline green, lastly for the helmets I use folk art(haven't found this in ceramcoat) olive green mixed with a drop or 2 of ceramcoat dark burnt umber. It took me a while to come up with the mixes that suited my liking too. I would prefer to use paint right out of the bottle, which I guess I could if I wanted to pay thru the nose for the vallejo military paints(only 17 ml bottle), but the craft acrylics (59 ml bottle) are FAR cheaper and do the job just as well, if you can deal with mixing! The decals are from Archer Fine Transfers and they are brilliant, they rub off very easily and much easier to use vs. painting them yourself!! Def pick them up!
Thanks for your generous comments Shane!!

-Todd

 

[binder001]

swalterh, you did a nice job. Good color choice on the wool trousers. WW2 GI wool is the darndest thing to match, it's brown in some light and olive green in others, but still a definite BROWN tone. I have tried several mixes and techniques to try and capture the color that I remember wearing as a reenactor (in my day we didn't have repro uniforms, we wore original WW2 stuff).. The green of US HBTs is also a funny color - OD green when new but fading to a lighter green. The older Osprey books kept drawing them as "gray" but they are a definite green even when faded.

Keep up the good work.

Gary B.

 

[swalterh]

Hi Todd,

I’m a big fan of the craft acrylic brands too. I’ve tried a few of the Vallejo paints before and found that they are remarkably similar to ceramcoat in both color and consistency. Some people will swear by the modeling paint brands, but I just don’t see what justifies the cost for what you get. Thanks for the suggestions on what to mix, I’m experimenting with a few more GI’s that are currently on the paint table. I’ll have to check out the Archer Transfers.

I like how you did your German camo smocks. The MG42 team looks really good.

-Shane

 

[swalterh]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for the encouraging words. I like how the wool trousers came out too. I’m not quite satisfied with the webbing and OD#3 on the M-41 jacket though. I’ve got a few more figures I’m experimenting with to try and rectify this. We’ll see how they turn out. The Osprey and DML illustrations are maddening when trying to do color comparison. The FOW painting guide gives you a decent base line from where to start. But, I’m not really into paint by numbers.

I read the “What is Khaki?” piece on At the Front

http://atthefront.com/us/uniforms/whatiskhaki.html

I also like to check out a site on modeling the US Army in WWII that I find pretty handy for uniform reference and kit reviews.

http://usarmymodels.com/

Maybe one of these days I’ll get this WWII US uniform issue worked out.

Thanks Again,
Shane

 

[binder001]

Yes, both of those sites you mentioned are very good. Tim Streeter has done a lot of work over the years on his "Modeling the US Army in WW2" site. At The Front seems to be a good supplier of repro WW2 uniforms and such. As I mentioned, when I was doing WW2 reenacting in the mid 1970s we used all originals - nobody was doing repros of US gear. A brand-new US M1941 Field Jacket in OD#3 came in a distinct greenish shade, but they turned "khaki" with repeated washings and wearings. The same can be seen in vintage photos. The same goes for web gear in OD#3. OD#7 appeared to hold its color a bit better.