Elhiem US Paratroopers Painting Guide

I have finally recieved all I need to start painting the forces for Easter's demo game at GothCon in Gothenburg.

Some lurrverly figures from Elhiem, or Matt as his real name is.

When I ordered the figures last summer I simply ordered a pack of everything, thinking it would give me roughly a platoon sized force. However, the 82nd and 101st airborne had very different equipment in Normandy which meant I couldn't use some packs and didn't have enough of other packs. I also realised when I was about to start painting that I was out of round bases. After a frenzy of completing orders I was finally able to start painting last week.

The poses are lifelike and full of character.

I followed an old painting guide that Matt did before he started sculpting. Although I didn't have the exact colours I followed it as closely as I could, using similar colours. I did skip the final highlight stage and used a sepia wash instead to save same time. In hindsight that might have been a mistake as I didn't get that faded "Band of Brothers" look I wanted.

There's not any useless poses with Elhiem, everyone is either moving or using their weapon.

These are very much first test and I'm quite pleased with the, except for that faded look. The first photo above was "HBO-ized" meaning I reduced colour saturation and increased the contrast a bit. That's the look I want, but the TV-show also fiddled with the colour settings to give a bleaker more pale version than reality. So should I be content that my figures probably look like the real deal when filming or should I try to paint them like the final version? I don't know. I will try something little different on the next figures and see how they turn out.

By request from the customers Matt also sculpted some "pointy waving dudes" for variety.

Matt hasn't been sculpting for long -- relatively speaking -- so his style is a little rough. It shows on faces and boots especially, but he's got an incredible eye for details and a good sense of poses and anatomy.

Sgt. Malarkey I presume. (Or is it Lt. Spiers?)

Paints used:

• Undercoat US Drab (flames of war spray) and Olive Drab (Tamiya)
• Uniform painted with several thin layers of Desert Yellow (Coat d'Arms), leaving undercoat in recesses. Knee patches left as undercoat.
• Webbing, straps, helmets, backpacks and pouches highlighted with Green Grey (Vallejo)
• Boots and pistol holsters painted Saddle Brown (vallejo)
• Skin areas painted Flesh (Wargames Foundry mid-tone)
• Rifle stocks and wood painted mid brown and highlighet with beige (Wargames Foundry Dusky Flesh mid- and light tone).
• Everything washed with thinned Sepia Wash (Vallejo)
• Finally metallic areas highlighted with Gun Metal (Vallejo)

If you are wondering why they are not green, it's because in Normandy the paras jumped with uniforms designed for Italy and North Africa. The uniforms were light tan causing them to stand out in the lush green french countryside. The patches on the knees were not for camouflage but simply because the thin fabric teared easily and so green canvas was used to reinforce it on the knees.

The figure is murky from the wash. It appears lighter in reality though, the photo got a bit dark.

The figures were based on round 20mm bases from Renedra, but I used a hexagonal base from Minibits for the squad leader. I will do that for all Big Men for ease of recognition. Should come in handy in a convention game.