Bolt Action - Painting Guide: Australian Pacific Theatre Infantry

Welcome back to the jungle BARbarians! Bryan here and this time around I have a guide for how I painted the infantry in my army showcased in a previous article. 

Before I jump in, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First off, the steps in this painting guide may seem many, and you may be daunted by the lack of dry-brushing  or the use of dips and other such time saving techniques, but don’t be! If you can be neat, and take care with these steps, you can get the same result in a short time. I am an army painter, and I aim to be fast and get the result I want in a reasonable time, before my inspiration fails and my attention wanders off to another project.

I am using a mixture of acrylic paints from the Vallejo (V) and Citadel ranges (C). Feel free to substitute for colours that are close enough in your collection. I also recommend a good quality brush that can hold a point, I use Windsor and Newton series 7 brushes.

Step 1: Undercoat
Assemble your miniature and add base texture using polly filla and pumice or sand. Undercoat spray with Warpainter Bone.

Step 2: Basecoat colours 1
Paint all the base colours. The undercoat is the colour of all the webbing, gaiters and hat bands, so take care to be neat in this stage to avoid spending time fixing mistakes. Painting the flesh first means less cleaning up, also.
Flesh: Cadian Fleshtone (C)
Uniform: Olive Grey 888 (v)
Hat/waterbottle/knife scabbard: English Uniform 921 (V)
Guns, boots: Abbadon Black (C)
Bedroll: Green Grey 886 (V)
Entrenching tool/Flame thrower:  Abbadon Black (C)

Step 3: Basecoat colours 2
Everything that was painted black can now have it’s actual colour painted on.
Gun metal/Knife pommels: Boltgun Metal (C)
Gun stock: Flat Brown 984 (V)
Boots: Flat Brown 984 (V)
Entrenching tool/Flame thrower:  Russian Uniform 924 (V)

Step 4: Washes
Now, we begin adding the shading. Wash the entire model with one of two colours.
Uniform/ any metal: Black wash ‘Nuln Oil’ (C)
Everything else: Dark brown was ‘Agrax Earthshade’ (C)

Step 5: First highlightCarefully highlight the raised areas of the model with deliberate and controlled brush strokes. Make sure to not cover all the areas in paint again. Leave darker areas in the shadows from the wash stage.
Flesh: Cadian Fleshtone (C)
Uniform: Olive Grey 888 (v)
Hat/waterbottle/knife scabbard: English Uniform 921 (V)
Gun stocks/boots: Flat Brown 984 (V)
Webbing/gaiters/hat band: Ushabti Bone (C)
Bedroll: Green Grey 886 (V)
Entrenching tool/Flame thrower:  Russian Uniform 924 (V)

Step 6: Second highlight Carefully highlight a lesser area of  the raised areas of the model with deliberate and controlled brush strokes.
Flesh: Kislev Flesh (C)
Uniform: Mix of Olive Grey 888 (v) + Ushabit Bone (C) 70:30
Hat/waterbottle/knife scabbard: Mix of English Uniform 921 (V) + Ushabit Bone (C) 70:30
Webbing/gaiters/hat band: Screaming Skull (C)
Bedroll: Mix of Green Grey 886 (V) + Ushabit Bone (C) 70:30
Flame thrower + tank:  Mix of Russian Uniform 924 (V) + Ushabit Bone (C) 70:30

Step 7: Third highlight and black lineCarefully highlight a lesser area of  the raised areas of the model with deliberate and controlled brush strokes. We are only highlighting the uniform and webbing at this stage.
Uniform: Mix of Olive Grey 888 (v) + Ushabit Bone (C) 50:50
Webbing/gaiters/hat band: Skull White (C)

After the highlights above, use a fine detail brush and watered-down black paint to paint a thin line of black paint between major areas of the model. This helps define the details on the model, especially between to light coloured areas. For example; between the uniform and webbing, and between the hands and weapons. Also paint the eyes black with this mix.

NOTE: This third highlight can be very ‘extreme’ and the green uniform and khaki webbing will now appear very pale and ‘washed out’. This is a deliberate technique of mine to achieve a striking depth in the shading. Because these are wargaming models and are mostly viewed from 3 feet away on the table top, it helps them look great from a distance. In the following stage we will complete this ‘trick’ and get our colour back.

Stage 8: Glaze + eyes
Paint the uniform with a thin layer of green wash. I used  ‘Thraka Green ‘ (C) but any green wash will do, it should not be a dark or dull colour as the purpose is not to shade the green but to bring it back to a vibrant green, while keeping  all our shading work. Do the same for the webbing now and use a sepia wash - I used ‘Seraphim Sepia’ (C) but again, any light sepia is fine.

Now paint the eye balls with white, and then a carefully placed black dot for the pupils.

Stage 9: Paint the bases + varnish
Basecoat: German Camo medium brown 826 (V)
Drybrush: Ushabit Bone (C)

Spray the entire model with a matte varnish. I always use Testors Dullcote if I can find it! A matte varnish will remove the shine from all those washes.

Stage 10: Jungle bases
Collect a variety of at least three types of different basing materials to mix up and create a vibrant jungle look. I used clump foliage, lichen, tufts and long static grass. All of these you can get from a model railway store of hobby shop. Last, I found a small plastic aquarium plant from a pet store, which I could cut the leaves off and glue in place.

Glue the basing material down with PVA or wood glue, and the plastic plants with super glue.

Well there you go, that’s how I painted my diggers. If you have any questions, let me know on the forums! I’ll do my best to help out anyone trying this out for themselves.