I've finished painting the first few US Paras to test out my paint scheme. I made one adjustment along the way - the initial colour of the helmets wasn't quite dark enough.
I'm happy with most of the colours; it's only the uniform that I will need to change. It has come out too dark and a bit too green. However, the shade on these test figures would be fine for after Normandy. As I probably won't need BARs and Bazookas for New Guinea, there's no reason for me to strip and repaint them.
Edited: Now, if anyone is thinking "but the M1942 jump suit was Khaki/tan coloured, not green" well, according to at least two sources I found (NB - must remember to make notes of links in future), it was actually issued in two colours - Olive Drab #3 and Khaki. The 82nd Airborne were, it seems, issued Khaki as they were going to be operating in North Africa and Italy, but the Airborne troops in the Pacific theatre were issued OD #3 which is a yellowish-green. The OD#3 was known to fade to a tan colour.
The reason for the edit is that someone posted comments querying this. Well, what they actually did was to copy-paste tracts they'd found with no comment. Had this person opened their comments with "I'm sorry, but I think the information you have is incorrect" I would have published them, but they didn't so I deleted the comments. They then decided to post a snarky comment, which I also deleted.
Now that I know where I need to make changes to the scheme, I can crack on with the rest. I'll be working in batches of 10-12 figures. The first of these batches is now on the table:
I've started on the flesh since taking the photo above.
They look superb
ReplyDeleteLooking smart. Perhaps a filter/glaze to make them look less green might fix the colour?
ReplyDeleteWonderful work Tamsin, and great research on the different uniforms as well
ReplyDeleteThey look good to me! - I understand your annoyance with posters being Trollish, it happened to me once, I deleted them too!
ReplyDelete@ Neil - cheers! :)
ReplyDelete@ Ashley - thanks! Filters to lighten a colour are tricky, so what I might do with the test figures is to go back over them with the "new" highlight shades. Or just leave them as they are. :)
@ Dave - cheers! :)
@ Herkybird - thanks! I don't blame you. :)
I have a bunch of US Paras to paint and your colours look good to me. Care to share the 'recipe'?
ReplyDeleteThanks! :)
DeleteI will post my "recipe" when I have finished the first batch of 12.
Thanks Tamsin. I will keep an eye out. Painting some Japanese and Commonwealth troops for Malaya, so it will be a while till I get to the US Paras.
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