Attached war reporter

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I painted up a special figure the other day. Dale Dye who became famous for his work in Hollywood epics such as Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers and Last of the Mohicans etc. See the camera and the attached film boxes round his neck and the cigarette in his left hand. Figure by Empress Miniatures Sculpted by Paul Hicks.

take aim!

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Another NVA jungle fighter. I painted the backpack in a unusual light grey. As always taken the color from the excellent reference book by E. Emering.

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M79 Blooper gunner

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Good Morning.  So the Salute weekend is gone by without Salute… more time for painting though. I painted up this blooper gunner from Empress. Very nice sculpt by Paul Hicks.

It was a joy to paint.

More to come…

Another NVA fighter

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Next NVA soldier. This time in a unusual colored uniform. But it is a authentic color . You can look it up in this book:

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More to come.

M60 gunner

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As it is beginning to get boring only to paint NVA, I still have a lot to do, I sprinkle in the occasional US Marine. So today a Marine with a “pig” (M60).

 

The next NVA lot

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Here is the next NVA soldier . The first figure of the miniatures I bought at Crisis 19 in Antwerp. He is another Empress miniature. I painted him wearing a black pair of trousers ( you need new ones after a while on the Ho Chi Min trail) and a traditional blue and white Vietnamese scarf.

 

Who is calling in the Arty?

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of course a Prick 25 operator. This is a Empress miniatures US Marine figure sculpted by Paul Hicks. He is carrying a PRC 25, aVHF transceiver, on his back. I made the antenna out of a plastic broom “hair” as I am clumsy and fear to brake the included metal one when gaming.

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Here you see the PRC 25 with5 smoke grenades fixed to it. you can see that the metal frame , the PRC is affixed to goes down to the hip. Beneath the PRC is a role up rain poncho .

As always a treat to paint him.

Finished the first lot of my NVA soldiers

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Here is the last NVA soldier of the lot i bought at the release date last year. Empress Miniatures NVA soldier , sculpted by Mr. Hicks.

And the last three together:

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Next up ” throw smoke!”.

How to paint a US Marine with Contrast colors

Today I will show you how I paint my US Marines with, mainly, GW Contrast colors. As I have to stay at home this week , because of Corona, I had the time to take a picture after each step.

Step 1:

A base coat of Sky grey.

Step2:

Paint the trousers, shirt helmet cover and all bags water bottles etc Militarium green. This was thinned like all the contrast colors 50/50 with contrast medium. The trousers and shirt and helmet cover got to layers the rest only on. As you can see that gives a subtle different shade.

Step 3:

To paint the flack jacket I use a mixture of 5 drops Sepia shade + 1 drop of Creed camo.

Step 4:

Re base coat everything not jet painted and base coat the camo spots on the helmet cover in Sky Grey.

Step 5:

Paint the boots in Cigar brown.

Step 6:

Paint ca 50% of the camo spots on the Helmet cover with Nazdreg yellow, this time without thinning.

Step 7:

Paint the rest of the spots in Warp lightning again without thinning.

Step 8:

Paint the metal parts of the M16 in Silver.

Step 9:

Paint the plastic parts of the gun in Black.

Step 9:

Here I used paints from the Instar Alpha range . They can be used like the Contrast paints by GW but they are cheaper and give the same effect! Thinned down with their medium , called Water+, 50/50. Paint over the metal parts of the gun.

Step 10:

I painted the base in the color I use for my terrain building.

Step 11:

Paint the stones in grey.

Step 12:

Drybrush the base with Sand.

Now the figure gets a coat of matt varnish , I do this with my airbrush. Afterwards flocking and voila you get this:

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I hope you liked my run trough my painting technique !

NVA Soldier waiting….

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Another NVA regular . Figure by Empress miniatures.

Just one more and the first lot is finished.