RoE Hobby Hitler Youth Anti Tank

Figures:

Colours:

Onto the figures.  After the initial undercoat of black I blocked in the base colours on the figures.  I’ll split the figures in to three groups, the old man, the young girl and the two lads.  As the two lads are both wearing basically the same uniform I’ll treat them as one for the descriptions.  First the common items, the fausts on all the figures were painted Green Ochre, any helmets were painted with German Grey.  The arm bands were painted with Dragon Red and White.  All the skin was painted with the Foundry Flesh Base Colour.  The old man next, his great coat and ammo pouches were painted with a 50/50 mix of German Grey and German Field Grey.  His balaclava Khaki, his straps Oak Brown and his bread bag Green Ochre.  The Young Girl’s trousers were left black, her jacket was painted German Field Grey, her hair was painted Desert Yellow.  Finally, the pair of lads; the majority of their uniform is black so that was simple enough.  I decided to paint the straps brown rather than using more black; I had looked in to the potential colours and it appears that there were several variations of brown as well as black straps etc used.  The eldest lad was given the same hair colour as the girl.  Both boys have the collars of their shirts showing so I used German Camo Orange Ochre for these, as well as a woggle - German Camo Pale Brown - and a neckerchief, which was left black.

After all the base colours had dried I gave them all a slightly watered down wash of Dark Tone.  Until the advent of the new Army Painter inks I had been a huge fan of Games Workshop’s Devlin Mud ink, and before that Winsor and Newton Peat Brown.  The Winsor and Newton ink always left the figures with a slight shine, although this could be avoided with the introduction of a tiny drop of washing up liquid to the ink or by varnishing with a good matt varnish.  When Games Workshop released the last lot of inks I had been told that Devlin Mud was like the Peat Brown, but a nicer colour and no shine!  Hey, that was a winner!  Now the Army Painter inks have come along and I prefer them again - the colours are slightly more to my liking - and there are three of them, all based around browns, and I prefer the finish.  So there we go, Devlin Mud is now finished and the Army Painter inks are my choice.

After the ink had dried I moved on to each figure.  With the next stage of painting I was using lots of the same base colour as a highlight over the top of the inked base cost.  I’ll be honest I have no special plan or scheme to what gets highlighted; after many years of painting (27 years now!!) you tend to get an eye for where the colour goes.  As a rule of thumb try to let the ink guide you - it will often pool and dry darker in areas which would naturally have more shadow.  The best way to approach it is to go for a “less is more” approach initially.  You can always add more highlights if you’re unhappy with your first go; it’s more difficult to add more shadow again.  For things like faces there are set areas which are highlighted - foreheads, cheekbones, etc. – and there are heaps of sites with tips and techniques out there if you’re not sure.  Again, I’ll cover all the common items.  The fausts on all the figures were picked out first with Green Ochre then Green Ochre mixed with a bit of Iraqi Sand.  I also added the instruction “labels” to the fausts - just a rectangle painted on the warhead section of Iraqi Sand - and then I applied “writing” (thin black squiggles).  The helmets were painted with German Grey then German Grey mixed with German Field Grey.  I added damage to the helmets, painting small areas around the edges with black and “scratches” across other areas.  These were then picked out with Gunmetal to represent areas where the paint had been scratched off revealing the metal below.  The arm bands were painted with Dragon Red and White and the white areas on the Hitler Youth arm bands were expanded in the centre to create a diamond shape into which I painted the swastika.  All the skin was painted with the Foundry Flesh Base Colour then highlighted with the mid tone and then finally small areas were painted with the lightest coat.  I left the eyes a dark brown colour.

Onto the old man; his great coat was painted with a 50/50 mix of German Grey and German Field Grey, and then a straight German Field Grey for the final highlight.  The ammo pouches were painted with a straight German Field Grey as I wanted them to look lighter than the jacket.  His balaclava Khaki and his bread bag Green Ochre, then both had a small amount of Iraqi Sand added to give the final highlight. The straps were first done with Oak Brown and then Oak Brown with a bit of German Camo Pale Brown.  The MP40 had small areas picked out with Gunmetal; I prefer weapons to be mostly black with small patches of metal rather than the old fashioned dry brush the whole lot silver approach.  The young girl’s trousers were done with German Grey, carefully picking out the highest areas, her jacket was painted German Field Grey, and then German Field Grey mixed with a little bit of Uniform Grey and Ash Grey, her hair was painted desert Yellow and then had a bit of Iraqi Sand and Daemonic Yellow added.  Finally the two lads; now here is the thing, I always struggle with black clothing.  I don’t know why but I have a fear of black clothing, my own rule of less is more doesn’t seem to apply, I always, and I really mean always go too high on the highlights and end up with a really light grey/white top highlight and then always look at the figure in disgust (mumble, grumble, not even bloody black looks like grey, etc).  I was determined that I wouldn’t make the same mistake this time.  So as with the girl’s trousers I only highlighted with German Grey on the highest most obvious areas.  The straps were then highlighted first with the original Oak Brown and then Oak Brown with a bit of German Camo Pale Brown added.  The eldest lad’s hair was given the same treatment as the girl.  The collars of their shirts were painted German Camo Orange Ochre, the woggle German Camo Pale Brown, and finally the neckerchief was given a highlight of German Grey.

I’m really pleased with the way that the figures have turned out, I managed to avoid my own issues with black cloth and I think the result is really effective.  I painted the bases for the figures in exactly the same way as the main base, including adding the brick dust at the end.  I also applied a very small amount of the brick dust to the lower parts of the figures, around the feet and the old guy’s coat. 

Next on to the tank.  This has made me chuckle a fair amount.  When I first started on this I didn’t really consider a tank at all, it was all about the figures, then the base and then the idea for the tank came along.  When we put the first post up showing the project in its first stages I was really surprised about the response to the tank - “the hatch isn’t right”, “the gun barrel is too big”, “the machine gun is all wrong”, well I’m sure if you’re reading this you have probably read the posts already.  At no point did anybody seem to allow for it being a work in progress, nobody seemed to mind that there were no tracks on the tank in the first picture at all, but they did seem to think that the MG was clearly finished, and clearly wrong!!  Okay so in the next post I’ll be showing the tank, I’m just waiting to get the final photographs done and then I’ll post it.  Hopefully it won’t cause such a big storm, maybe it will but, hey ho, there you go.  I’ll just put peoples’ mind at ease now, the MG wasn’t finished at the time - it is now - and as if by a miracle of magic, or maybe planning, it no longer resembles a plunger!!

To the Tank!