German elite 15mm

First platoon with command HQ

 So here are some new troops I finished painting last week. This was actually a longish project and I took my time. I am not really sure I need those troops but here they are, my attempt I elite Germans.

Back of 1st platoon

Bases were made for late summer/early spring. I was rather thinking at first to paint them for autumn, early winter but I thought that Battlefront would be releasing a new set for the Bulge and I could paint the new set with muddy bases instead.

2nd Platoon

The faces were not so good compared to the Udarnys and it was a major disappointment. While the poses were quite dynamic, the casting of the faces forced me to recreate the features with paints, not ideal.

2nd platoon back

Thinking it over, after the uniformity of the zyllion soviets, I needed to paint something highly different with a variety of colors and patterns. With Oakleaf autumn, Summer and pea dot patterns, I was probably painting a little more than I bargained for, but hey, they always say becareful for what you wish for... don't they?

The paints used for the autumn oak leaf were as follow:

Oakleaf Autumn

The Devlan wash from GW was to give a greyish tone to the base coat with 873. Whereas the  Ogryn flesh wash was to give a reddish hue to the base coat for the summer pattern,

Oakleaf summer

One trick that worked well for the peadot pattern was to paint the camo over the base so as to let appear dots rather than painting the dot themselves. It worked quite well and saved a huge amount of time.

Generally speaking, if I were to do it again (probably next series), I would highlight again the lightest colors to really give volume to the figures. I think the camo could stand out even more. I'm happy how the figures turned out, there is always room for improvement of course.

So painting those troops what have we learned?

The good:

• I'm quite happy with the colors for the camo pattern, they look 1944 enough for me
• a drop of paint in the glue for the base, before sprinkling with the grass helps giving it volume and prevent "tranparency"
• Again, strong contrast is key to define well the colors. I like for instance how the weapons look like pieces of engineering and not a dark stick
• I think that 3 to 4 figs a base looks a lot more to "scale" that 4-5. More space between the men, looks better in my humble opinion (and you have less to paint anyway)
• The brass wire worked very well at representing the spent cartridges of the MGs. 

The bad & uggly:

• Honestly, while the poses of the figures were good, the casting of the faces was very disappointing and it is not a set that I would like to purchase again
• I'd like to try even lighter colors for the light parts of the camo to really have a strong contrast
• Painting elite german troops was mostly a work of self-indulgence that takes time and in regard of what I'm interested to play maybe not all that necessary...