Flames of War - Painting Tutorial - Step by Step Winter Fins - FSO101 Finnish Command Group -

After all the time it is also time again to paint a couple of new things... I am always wondering why I am doing that so excessively while not playing .. well easy to say ... I am tooooo lazy to go ahead to travel the way down to Cork city and play at the Other Realms store there.....

So back to "normal" when...

What have I started... it is a finnish army usable for early , mid and latewar. Seemingly I also seem to favour more defensive formations instead of the tactical aggressive ones...

Lets start things first...

What to do...:

As a flavour of mine I normally base my miniatures last instead of others doing this step first.

The unit ahead of us is "FSO101" which is the "Finnish Command Group"
Colours used:

- Black Primer
- Vallejo Grey Green (866)
- Vallejo Sky Grey ( 989)
- Vallejo White ( 951)
- Vallejo Khaki Grey (880)
- Vallejo Flat Brown (984)
- Vallejo Deck Tan (986)
- Vallejo Rose Brown (803)
- Vallejo Beige Brown (875)
- Vallejo Light Brown (929)
- Vallejo US Field Drab (873)
- Vallejo Brown Violet (887)
- Vallejo Neutral Grey (992)
- Vallejo London Grey (836)
- Vallejo Brown Shade (200)


Step 1:
After opening the box I first clean up the models and sort them out. All new BF products come with holes in the bases to more easily conceal the bases the miniatures are cast with. Honestly.. I think this being a bit more annoying then helpful, but I guess this is a matter of taste. So clean up, cut off any excess from casting and head on to

Step 2:
I then glued all the miniatures onto tongue depressors... Why ? I do not like to put them on one small stick and not to touch them from there... instead I glue up to four of them on a tongue depressor and still do not touch them.

Step 3:
After glueing and the short time of drying of course... I primed them black... Still being a bit fascinated about that because I normally try to prime white or light grey... but ok black was available for me and I need to use up some of my stuff to get a bit more of a space at home... so use up black and sprayprime them black.

Step 4: 
Take your model and paint it nearly everythere with Vallejo Grey Green (866) as a basecoat. As this will be out darkest layer of the uniform please be so free in doing so. There is no real need to be tidy to the model at this point of time as every other colour will be painted above it. The only parts I left out here are the faces, hands, boots , metal helmets or hats and weapons.

Step 5:
After all the models are dry again and your brush is clean I used Vallejo London Grey (836) as first highlight of the models. Here I did a slight diversion as I will paint a couple of jackets more in a brown colour to get some diversity into the platoon and command. I also left out the trousers as you can see and only did the upper parts of the winter uniforms in this kinda style.

Step 6:
With this done take your models again and second highlight them with Vallejo Sky Grey ( 989). I still do this quite generously.

Step 7:
50:50 Mix of Vallejo Sky Grey ( 989) and Vallejo White ( 951) for edge highlighting.

Step 8:
By now our model already looks quite nice but still lacks the soul. As all the highlights might get a pain in the ass to repaint later I will now cover the flesh areas. So hands (as long as not being covered) and faces get Vallejo Rose Brown (803).

Step 9:
Use Vallejo Brown Shade (200) to get a better look at the eyes , mouth and other face details as well as for the flesh parts of the hands



Step 10:
Again Vallejo Rose Brown (803) to highlight the edges. If you like you can optional afterwards apply a 50:50 mix of Rose Brown with White for extreme edge highlighting. Due to all this colouring you will notice that eyes and mouth already are visible and this is quite enought for me for the face details. I do not need eyelashes etc... on a 15mm figure.

Step 11:
Vallejo Flat Brown (984) on all leather and all wood parts of the model. This means, rifle as well as belt, and straps.

Step 12:
Highlight belt and straps with Vallejo Khaki Grey (880).

Step 13:
Highlight using Vallejo Beige Brown (875) the rifle. Afterwards to edge highlighting with Vallejo Light Brown (929). This gives a good impression on light sources.

Step 14:
Vallejo Brown Violet (887) for any metal helmet being available as well as for every bag that is visible on the miniature

Step 15:
Highlight the bags with Vallejo US Field Drab (873). I used a drybrush technique here.

Step 16:
This is a bit of "I like" or "I dont like". If it is "I don´t like" then please use instead gun metal grey for the metal parts of the weapons... if not ... use neutral grey on the metal parts of the weapons.

Step 17:
Vallejo Brown Shade (200) for the metal helmets and on the just painted metal parts.



Step 18:
Edge highlight metal parts with 50:50 mixture of Vallejo London Grey (836) and Vallejo Sky Grey ( 989)

Step 19:
Colours for officers are sky blue and for any non officers red... so feel free to add a red or blue dot on the cap or furcap of any appropiate miniature.

Step 20:
I first base my miniature normally. This means apply filler which is mixed up with sand on a base and simply then stick your miniature into that and carefully remove any small wave of mixture from the miniature. You will get the surface as desired. After it is dry your mini will be very well placed in it and no extra glue is needed

Step 21:
Basecoat the filler flat brown. Set a few highlights if you have some special sort of area available.

Step 22:
Glue any other needed material for base decoration now on it.

Step 23:
Generously paint some Vallejo Deck Tan on some of the areas you want later to be more snow fields on the base.

Step 24:
Use PVA to cover the whole base.

Step 25:
Use snow flock effect on the base. Repeat Step 25 till snow part is as covering as you desire.

Finish

So tell me how you paint your winter fins :) Looking forward to your suggestions !:)