WWM Bolt Action German LMG Teams Painting

Painting West Wind Miniatures German LMG Teams for Bolt Action

  Hi All,

I would like to introduce you to my method for getting my minis to table top standard in a quick and easy fashion!


I use Vallejo Paints, and I use a variety of guides available on the internet to pick the colors for every mini I paint.



In the end this is not necessarily historical, especially in the finer details, but none of the colors you would use to paint will ever be completely historically accurate.  Remember the soldiers laundered, wore the uniforms in extreme weather, had soiled uniforms, sun bleached uniforms, and tattered uniforms at times.  You may choose to represent museum quality fresh uniforms, but I hope they are fielded as inexperienced troops!  A veteran force probably would not have pristine uniforms in the field.

Here is my paint list and the components I painted.

(979) Helmets and Gas Mask Canisters--German Camouflage Dark Green
(950) Pouches and Straps for all bags--Black
(955) Skin Tones (Can mix with browns if you want to vary the flesh tone)--Flat Flesh
(830) Pants and Blouses of Uniform--German Fieldgrey
(875) Rifle Butts--Beige Brown
(863) Rifles, canteens, shovel heads--Gunmetal
(821) Bread Bags--German Camouflage Beige
(886) Blankets--Green Grey
(826) Boots--German Camouflage Medium Brown

"Craft Smart" Golden Brown (Available at Michaels craft stores) Color I paint the ground for my minis.
This is a cheap paint available in bulk.  I don't need a high quality paint for the ground cover.

These are the minis.  I Super Glued the minis to 60mm GW bases using Loctite Super glue.

I then smear Wallboard Joint compound all over the bases to obscure the metal cast bases of the Minis, blending them into the base.

Then I prime them with P3 black primer paint.

This is the end result.

After I complete the application of all of these colors to the models I move on to shading and protecting the minis.  I do this in one step, with one product and no brushwork.

I use a Minwax product called Polyshades Royal Walnut Satin.  All I do at this point is dip the entire model in the can, let the excess drip off over the can and then step out into the yard and whip the model back and forth a good 8-12 times.  Be sure to count the number of times you shake the model, so you can do it evenly to all of your minis in the group.  It makes for even shading.  As you set the minis down to cure have a scrap of t shirt cloth or paper towel handy to dab off the top of the helmets.  This is the only place I have seen a common occurrence of pooling with the models.  Just tap the helmets with the cloth once and the excess should be removed.  Don't worry there is still plenty of polyurethane on the mini to protect the paint for the long haul.  I don't care about the pooling, it just makes the helmets look dirty.

As you can see after the polyurethane is applied the models are very shiny.  Not to worry, this is when I spray the minis down with Testors Dullcote.

The Final result looks like this.

The drying times in between each stage are important to note.

I super glue the minis down to the base.  I let that dry for 24 hours.

I smear the plaster on the base.  I let that dry for 24 hours.

I look at the plaster job I just did and decide if I would like to re apply or continue on.

I then paint the entire mini in one night.  If you are painting a batch of say 8 minis, like with these LMG teams you have ample time between each color to let the paints dry.

I let the paint dry for 24 hours.

I dip in Minwax.  I set the mini up like it would sit on the tabletop.  I place the mini on top of saran wrap to protect whatever surface the mini is drying on. I then let that cure for 24 hours.  Then you flip the mini upside down and let the Minwax cure on the bottom of the mini also for another 24 hours.  

You then spray with Dullcote, and let that cure for about 12 hours.  Now you have tabletop standard minis ready for play.

5-6 days to complete the entire process.  Actual time involved producing the mini...

Super glue assembly -10-30 minutes (dependent on the number of minis)

Plaster 10-30 min (dependent on the number of minis)

Paint 30min-6 hours depending on the number and complexity of the minis.

Minwax 20 minutes

flip the minis 5 minutes

dullcote 10 minutes.

2-8 hours actual time to completion.  The majority of the time is spent in actually painting the minis.

Enjoy!!

-PPS