Painting a Britannia Miniatures US Ranger in 3-colour Desert Camouflage
Note: Unless otherwise stated, all paints used are Acrylics
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The model I have chosen is the M60 Gunner, which is one of the 2 figures available from pack MOG11.
First, take the model, and clean off all the flash and mould lines using a
file, a modeling knife and a set of clippers. Ensure that the base is flat and even using a file. |
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Using Superglue, glue the model to a base. For this size of models, I usually use UK 2 pence pieces, as they provide a wide,
stable base and have the bonus of being magnetic, so that they can be used with sheet magnets in storage boxes.
Once the glue is dry, spray the model with acrylic matt black paint and allow to dry. I use either black car body primer (available from motor parts stores, such as Halfords or Motor World), or
Citadel Chaos Black, which is available from any Games Workshop store.
Once the paint is dry, paint over areas the spray may have missed using a brush. |
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Time to apply the base colours.
The figure has two main colour areas: The uniform, and the flak jacket.
The uniform is painted using Tamyia "Buff", whilst the flak jacket is painted with Tamyia "NATO Green". |
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The exposed flesh areas are now painted with Citadel "Bronzed Flesh", whilst the Ranger's webbing and kit are painted
Coat D'Arms "Jungle Green" |
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The metallic areas of the model; namely the M60 machine gun and the ammunition belts, are now drybrushed.
Drybrushing is a technique where the brush is loaded with paint, and then wiped on a cloth until most of the paint has been removed.
The brush is then gently stroked across the area to be painted, leaving a paint deposit on the raised and detailed parts of the model.
For the M60, I used Coat D'Arms "Chainmail", drybrushing quite heavily.
The ammunition belt was drybrushed more lightly using Citadel "Brazen Brass". |
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The model is now shaded, using a "wash" technique.
Washing involves painting a thinned down layer of paint over a surface. The theory is that the paint (which should be of a
milky consistency) will naturally pool in areas of shadow, thus creating a darker colour.
Washes can be produced by thinning normal paint with water, or some other sort of thinners is your paint does not use water
as it's suspension medium. Tamyia acrylics, for example, use an alcohol based suspension medium.
Alternatively, there are several commercial washes available to buy - or you can use inks as an alternative.
For this model, I have given shading washes to the Machine Gun, the ammunition belts, and to the face and hands.
I've used Citadel "Armour Wash" on the gun and ammo belt, and Citadel "Flesh Wash" for the flesh. |
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Time to add a few bits of detailing.
Citadel "Chaos Black" is used to tidy-up the boots, kneepads and goggles. Citadel "Chainmail" is then used to paint the
goggles, and also the top of the water bottle.
The flesh areas are drybrushed with Citadel "Bronzed Flesh"
At this point, I also painted the base of the model using Tamyia "Flat Earth" |
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The model is now ready to add camouflage.
Both the uniform and the flak jacket have camouflage patterns on them. The uniform camouflage is a desert pattern, and is
dealt with in the next section.
The flak jacket, however, was a standard green 4-colour pattern.
The colours used in this pattern are all Tamyia acrylics, being:
NATO Green
NATO Brown
NATO Black
Dark Yellow
Since the flak jacket was given a base coat of NATO Green, the other three colours were then applied over the top. |
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Note : It is generally not possible, due to the scale of the miniature, to paint an entirely accurate camouflage
pattern on clothing without spending a lot of time doing so.
Since these miniatures are for to be used for gaming, and not display, I'm more concerned with creating the correct
impression of the camouflage being correct, as opposed to having the pattern entirely accurate.
This method is applied to both the flak jacket and the uniform.
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I believe that the US Rangers in Somalia were issued with a mix of older pattern 'Choc Chip' 6-colour desert camouflage fatigues, and the
newer 3 colour camouflage.
Up until recently, I thought this was a two colour
pattern of a Buff coloured uniform overlaid with brown stripes. It wasn't until I was watching the American "Combat Missions"
series on the Bravo cable TV channel recently, that I saw the uniform up close, and realised that it is, in fact, a three-colour pattern.
The third colour in the pattern being a light green.
After going through my paint collection, I cam up with the following colours:
The base coat colour is Tamyia "Buff", with the overlaying colours being Tamyia "NATO Brown" and Tamyia "Sky".
I'm undecided as to whether the cockpit green colour is a little dark, but it seems to work on the final model.
Finally, I painted the goggles using Tamyia "Clear Blue". |
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The base of the model is now finished.
The base is firstly covered with PVA glue, dipped in sharp sand, and left to dry.
The sand is then painted with Tamyia "Flat Earth", and finally drybrushed using Citadel "Swamp Brown", Tamyia "Dark Yellow"
and Tamyia "Sand Yellow".
As a final touch, before the model is varnished, an American flag is painted onto the right sleeve of the uniform using Citadel "Skull White",
Citadel "Enchanted Blue" and Citadel "Go Fasta Red".
Finally, the model is varnished using 1 coat of Humbrol Gloss Cote, followed by 1 coat of Humbrol Matt Cote. |
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