Company of Comrades

To most painters 15mm figures can be quite intimidating. The details are generally small, and tend to rely on the composition of figures as well as the strength of the basing work to tie the entire miniature together. Recently I decided to expand my Team Yankee army in the anticipation of entering in the Team Yankee two day tourney at Cancon. However, I didn't get my entry in so it seems to be all for naught. Never the less, I now have a full Battalion of Soviet Motorized Rifles. Since I haven't seen much material in terms of how to paint 15mm, so I think it'll be useful to share my standard method for painting infantry at 15mm.

1. Preparation and Mounting

First stage involves unpacking the miniatures from their box and cleaning up any mold lines. I usually do this with a scalpel and a very light file. Once the miniatures are cleaned up I mount them, about six at a time, to a paddle pop stick. In turn, I mount the paddle pop stick on one of my usual miniature painting model stands, in all cases using blu-tac for adhesive.

 2. Priming

I tend to prime in big batches, in this case I primed all miniatures in the batch at once using my usual method. First a Chaos black layer, worked into all angels and recesses. Once that layer is dry I give the miniature a 45 degree zenithal highlight with Corax White. This layer catches all of the highest highlights and helps emphasis the highlights after applying our first layers.

3. Main Basecoat

In most cases the first basecoat I put down is the main uniform colour. In this case VMC Green Brown. I did the initial application with an airbrush, however due to feed problems I ended up doing the last layer with a brush.

4. Basecoat of Details

This is by far the most tedious stage of the painting process. This involves using a fine tipped brush to paint all of the major colours on the model. While all of the colour choices were lifted from the Team Yankee rule book, I translated them as best I could into Vallejo Model Colour.

• Helmet & Painted Metal - US Dark Green
• European Skin - Flat Flesh
• Webbing - Khaki
• Boots - Black Grey
• Metal Parts - 50/50 mix of Black and Gunmetal Grey
• Rifle Furniture & Magazine - German Camouflage Orange Ochre

5. Washing

This stage involves a single application of Agrax Earthshade over all colours apart from the flesh, which will get an even layer of Reikland Fleshshade.

6. Re-Layering

This stage involves re-layering all of the mid-tone colours to reestablish the mid-tone while ensuring the deeper recesses remain the shaded colour. This is probably the second most tedious stage of the painting process. About seventy percent of the model's surface should be painted this colour.

7. Highlights

For my highlight colours I typically use the mid-tone colour with some VMC Buff mixed in. The exceptions are VMC Highlight Flesh for the flesh highlight, and pure VMC Gunmetal Grey, applied very sparingly to the metal components.

8. Base Work

I usually use my standard basing method to base fifteen mil miniatures as well. The chief difference is that I glue some tufts of railway flock on the base along with the static grass to represent bushes.

That is pretty much it for my standard method for painting 15mm. This works for almost all colour scheme and is fairly easy to adapt to a wide variety of subject matter. I hope this helps with your own projects.