First Speedpaint layer on 40 Australian early 1941 infantry

I have 40 Australian Infantry from Slave 2 Gaming's Bardia set. Metal miniatures with rifles, bayonets and platoon support weapons. I have also have 3 Warlords Games British Officers to do. The last 10 are all in shirts and shorts so will be done later (or are objective carts).

I started with an undercoat of Vallejo English Uniform spray can and then I'm trying for the first time a Zenithal highlight with Vallejo Bonewhite spray can. I want them to be lighter when I look at them, and as that will be their backs to me on the battlefield as they advance out of the darkness of the dawn with the sun at their backs (if advancing west to east, which they did NOT do at Bardia, but did do after Tobruk), I did it from a 45 degree angle behind them, rather than on the traditional 90 angle from the top, because none of my paint jobs are good enough up close. Best I can do is looking at them from 6 feet away on a tabletop.

After spray painting the 50 infantry from all angles, the Vallejo English Uniform spray can is almost empty. 

I used an Army Painter Regiment brush. I'm not good at this and I'm splitting it already :(. I DO very much like the fact it's a triangle so you can put it down without rolling away like Citadel brushes do! I won't be buying the Citadel ones and unless I have no choice. Flat based ones are so much better to use. 

I did use a Citadel Wash cup which has got some ribbing on it and slots to try and sharpen the brush and a Citadel Figure holder to actually hold the figure in place. Trying to do it with just my hand was a lot harder. These are indispensable. Also used is a Citadel paper palette as I have read that Speedpaints and a wet palette do not work well, the Speedpaint is wet enough as is.

I choose to the battledress uniform and great coat in Army Painter Speedpaint 2.0 Warrior skin....but looking at there results maybe should have chosen Ruddy Fur. I didn't do the ruddy fur as it's listed as being a bit red more than brown. The paint went on VERY smoothly. I never want to go back to normal acrylic paints again. Citadel Layer paints take FOREVER compared to these speedy paints that go on once and you're done. Also, I don't need to thin my paints or use a wet palette! A huge time saver!

From the back/top it's very light brown, but from the front where the highlight didn't go, it's a lot more dark. I think it will look better once I put a dark wash over the backlight areas. I shall have to try a mid-brown wash and then a strong wash to see the impact.

50 infantry base and Zenithal highlight

First figures

Front and Back in Warrior Skin.

Finished painting 2 Matilda II's - my first Bolt Action minatures

It's taken several days but I've finished my first Bolt Action units - two Matilda II tanks. Painted as late 1941/42 desert. Technically they should be in Caunter Camouflage but that's way too hard for me.

Every paint and shade below the line for my future reference. I used the Vallejo undercoat spray can because no one seems to sell the Army Painter undercoat, and this was a better colour I think. I used mostly Army Painter Speedpaintd 2.0 for the base layer and Citadel dry's for drybrushing (because I have had them for years before, and no one else seems to sell dry paints). Finished in the Vallejo Matt Varnish.

Undercoat and base coat of Matilida II's in the desert

I got all but one Army Painter SpeedPaint 2.0 from https://khaki-green.com.au/ so I can start painting! Yay! One bottle was not in stock but it's being sent the same day everything else arrived. I'll need to use the 10% discount it came with next time to get some more colours to replace the old warpaints and speredpaint 1.0 I have.

 Undercoat (called Primer these days for some reason):

Undercoated Vallejo Bonewhite Spray Can

I started with an undercoat of Vallejo Bonewhite. I found it very easy to spray and put on, though it was a bit windy. It looked a bit thick when drying initially but came out fine.

Base coat:

I spent some time looking at Google Earth to see the colour of the sane around Bardia. Turns out it's either red or yellow depending on when the photo was taken.

Left tank is the wing-man tank, right tank the command tank, currently not painted beyond undercoat

The left one is painted in one coat of Army Painter Speedpaint 2.0 Pallid Bone. I found the paint very thin, practically a wash, but that worked out fine for what I was using it for.  It might not work for me when doing the infantry. Technically the tank's supposed to be painted in Caunter Scheme but that's WAY too advance for me, and by the time the tanks were in action with dust and sand it was covered up anyway and barley visible. By the middle of '41 they gave up trying to paint the dazzle camouflage and just went all sand anyway.

Turret painted on the right, unpainted on the left

I broke off one of the headlights from the command tank, and getting back on was very very hard. I dropped it once, and found one of the missing headlights for the other tank! So at least that has one headlight, even if's unpainted lead I tried to cover with the Pallid Bone.

The one on the left looks a bit darker, I did that one first and I'm not sure why. Maybe I needed to mix the bottle again more before doing the second one.

Next up: Paint details like the shovel, blankets, grenade launchers , lights front and back, exhaust and treads.

Assembled my first Bolt Action infantry, and undercoated

I got most of these infantry years ago but Bolt Action V3 has got me to put them together.

Most of the infantry is all from https://www.slave2gaming.com/ from their 28mm Australians at Bardia range. I seem to be missing one of the squad commanders with SMG but that's OK. I should buy 2 more Vickers MMG's and 2 Stokes mortars.

After playing around with my list for the 99th time I have all the infantry figures I need, and some left over. I still need to put together 2 Warlord Games resin Australia Matilda II's. The actual battle had English ones but close enough. 

The infantry and my soon to somewhat replaced paints

This is all because I had a great half uncle who was in the Australian 6th Division 2/2 Field Park company - the combat engineers. This is a...play to win list, so does not follow correct historical order of battle. But it does match the theme. I think in real life the engineers wouldn't have been in the Universal carriers of the Divisional cavalry but it's close enough for my fluff, or moved past the initial barbed wire, anti tank ditch and minefields. I'll need to read the company's battle history I downloaded from the AWM eventually to see what they actually did.

There's also some Warlord Games Snipers, Australian Radio/spotter crew, some objective carts, British officers, a wounded carrier (come to think of it, that would make a good medic!), and  a pinup called Jesse from a Kickstarter. 

I found they only had mold lines on the bases that took some filing off. Unfortunately nearly all of them have bayonets ready, and they BEND ALL THE TIME.  I expect they'll snap off before their first battle and look bad doing it with just the bayonet lug left.  I don't know how to fix that :( The paint on the undercoat's coming off of them already. 

I should have put some sappers equipment on some of them, but I have JUST enough to work as my rifles AND my engineers. I think I will get some more advancing infantry later and make them the more obvious engineers, 1 squad of whom will have satchel chargers (aka anti-tank grenades).

Pictures below the line: