DIY: WWII painting tips

[Kage]

I have lots of tips but I'll just stick to a few, until I find out maybe people are interested.
Even Fantasy painters can use these tips, its just more driven to painting tanks.

Paint

Being in a small city, its very difficult to find good paint.  And if you do find one color, its even harder to find all the paints for a scheme from the same manufacturer.  I've used most of the main brands...Citidel, Reaper, Tamiya, and Vallego.

Vallego is BY FAR the best quality paint for miniatures.  Especially for WWII colors.  A little thick for airbrushing though.
Tamiya is great for the Air brush, but their range really sucks. 
Reaper is almost as good as Tamiya, but seem to be more fantasy driven. 
Citidel...well those little pots they come in are brutal, Especially since good painters do a lot of mixing.
The dropper bottles are the best way to go.

So, any how, I've developed a chart in my travels of equivalent paints by each brand.  Since most of the stores here never carry exactly what I need and none of them carry the same brand.  thought this might help others, and save them some work....for all 2 of us that paint wwii miniatures.   

I will add more, if interest arises.

Colour	Vallego	Tamiya	Reaper
Russian Tank Base	Russian Green (894)	Field Grey (XF-65)	??
German Tank Base 41-42	German Grey (995)	German Grey (XF-63)	?Pure Black? (9103)
German Tank Base 43-44	Middlestone (882)	Dark Yellow (XF-60)	Worn Olive (9159)
German Camo Green	Reflective Green (890)	Olive Green (XF-58)	??
German Camo Brown	German Cam. M. Brown (826)	Red Brown (XF-64)	??
German Camo Oxide	Cavalry Brown (982)	Hull Red (XF-09)	Carnage Red (9135)
British Tank Base*	Russian Uniform (924)	Khaki Drab (XF-51)	Military Green (9176)

* this colour was also used by the Canadians.  Russian Lead lease tanks were also kept in this colour.
And German captured Shermans can be in this colour.

I don't do American's, so if someone really wants me to add to the list I will.

Air Brushing

You may find this crazy but don't use turpentine or water to thin your paints.  I hear so many people complain that they can't paint for very long because their nozzle clogs.  You'll be surprised by what I use...

Windex.  That's right  about a 2:1 ratio.  2 parts paint, and 1 part Windex.  its crazy how good it works.  I can spray all night with no clogging.

The problem with Airbrushing is, you better know how to use washes. 

Wash
This is something I really wish I had someone show me when I first started out painting.  I was always afraid to try, and when I did, it totally sucked.  But then I came across another astounding house hold product that helps with washes.

Future Floor Polish.

yup, it is insane how easy it was.  I used 20 drops of Future, 20 drops of water, and 2 or 3 drops of the desired paint colour and presto...a perfect wash.  just brush it all over the tank, making sure to get in the creases.

[Kage]

Dry Brushing
This is one of the easiest techniques to make your miniatures look great.

Basically you put paint on your brush and then wipe off the paint on a paper towel until no more paint comes off.
Then gentle run the brush along the surface of your miniatures.  it will highlight all the raised edges.

You can use this to varying degrees.  I haven't figured out how to airbrush 15mm infantry yet, so I use pretty much all dry brushing on infantry.
I do what I call a heavy dry brush.  I know most fantasy painters will prime their miniatures white.  This is to make the colors stand out more.  I've found that if your paint is good quality this doesn't matter.  So I prime my miniatures black.

When I apply a 'heavy' dry brush I leave more paint on the brush and the paint across the raised parts and not along the creases.
This will leave black in the creases to give it some depth.  This takes a bit more practice then a normal dry brush.  to much and you might as well have airbrushed it, and not enough it looks like crap.

then you add some white to your base color, and do a super fine dry brush.  This gives a even more depth to your figure.  you will now have 3 levels of shadowing.  Some really good painters use like 5 layers of shadowing, but it already takes me long enough to paint all those russian infantry.

I might have to start doing some pictures or videos'
here is a good pick example the infantry on the left is when I was better at doing a heavy dry brush.  you can see more of the base color.

The figs on the left is when I first started trying this technique.  you can see to much black, and more of the highlight then the base color.



I made that marsh as well.  I'll post a DIY for this terrain later on.