PeterA: 15mm Moderns and 28mm Federales (61 points)

 Hello all.

This week I have indulged my painting butterfly (again). Myminifactory have a sale on at the moment to celebrate their acquisition of Thingiverse, and so I snapped up several files from WarDaddy Studios. I got some of their modern Russian and NATO stuff, and first off the paint bench are a squad of 9 NATO infantry. The tenth soldier lost his gun when removing the printing supports, so I will just use him as a medic.

Although intended for more temperate climes, I fancied doing a winter theme, and I thought the chunky design of the figures leant themselves to bulky winter clothing. So I painted their jackets and FAST helmets white and lightly washed them with GW Apothecary White. Some had some sort of scrim modelled on their helmets, so I added some spots of AK Dark Green as camo. They have lots of pouches, a radio, rucksacks etc, which I painted AK Denison Tan, washed with Sonic Hedgehog's 'Marine Juice' recipe and highlighted in Denison Tan again.

Trousers were Vallejo Afrika Korps Uniform (MTP camo in 15mm is beyond me), washed as above. I looked at quite a few photos online of NATO troops exercising in Norway and they often showed troops wearing white jackets and green trousers or vice versa, so I went with this half and half approach with these figures.

1st Fire Team

2nd Fire Team

2nd Fire Team plus Squad Leader and Medic

Obviously, these guys will need an opponent. I am a fan of the Twilight 2000 RPG, so I imagine these NATO figures will be the remnants left fighting in the Nordic countries to repel the Soviet invader as part of Operation RESET. I got some WarDaddy Russians which I have started painting, but I wanted to see how some BF plastics I already have would match up. So I assembled a T72B and BMP2 from their Team Yankee range.

The kits go together very easily and match the WarDaddy figures nicely. I painted them in AK Dark Green Grey, then gave them an oil wash with thinned Windsor and Newton Black. After letting it dry for about 10 minutes I used a cotton bud (well several cotton buds!) to remove the excess and then drybrushed with the original basecoat. I wanted them to be quite heavily weathered, so I dabbed on GW Valhallan Blizzard effect paint on the T72 but it looked awful, so I didn't repeat this on the BMP2. Instead, I gave both a heavy drybrush of Pro Acryl White. 

Finally, I printed out a police truck for my cartel project. This is from Turnbase Miniatures and is the personnel carrier version. There were supposed to be two passengers, but the print failed so there is only one. I'll print a companion when I print the LMG version of the truck.

It was a very simple paintjob - basecoat of Vallejo Game Colour Imperial Blue, washed in Marine Juice and given a coat of AK Satin Varnish. Windows are just a couple of coats of GW Abaddon Black contrast paint, which I also used on the 'cage' in the truck bed, mostly just for a bit of contrast. Finally it was given a light drybrush of Vallejo Iraqi Sand to reflect the fact it will be operating in a pretty dusty environment. The passenger's uniform is Army Painter Tyrion Navy over a grey undercoat, the intention being to have a dark uniform with a blue tone, but it was a bit too dark, so I gave it a highlight of Army Painter Night Sky. His body armour, pads and helmet are all Army Painter Occultist Cloak speedpaint.

So, 10x 15mm figures = 20 points, 1x 28mm figure = 5 points, 2x 15mm vehicles = 16 points and 1x 28mm vehicle = 20 points, for a total of 61 points.

From DaveD . I do like the cartel truck here . Suitably narco . Sometimes of course you just have to feed the butterfly . Those T72 and BMP2 remind me I need to bump my own up the queue . Good job - 61 it is .