African wars

[blacksmith]

Hello, I wanted to start a project in 1/72 with African wars, using Insurgency Wars, AK-47 or FUBAR rules, but I couldn't find any 1/72 soft plastic miniatures to represent them. Then I saw somebody who used the Esci's North Vietnamese soldiers and Vietcong and some Esci's US Elite Forces as African regular troopers and I stole his great idea.

I also bought Esci's NATO troops that I'll use for, well NATO troops, but also to make some soldiers of fortune with them. Finally, I ordered 20 militia 20mm metal figures from S&S model, together with some civilians and a technical.

I want to have a group of regular militar African soldiers, a group of militia, a group of NATO troops and one last group of mercenaries.

Here is the first group, the African soldiers. They were painted in a bit of a rush and also the pictures are not very good as the day is cloudy and the light poor.

The whole lot, 22 figures. Maybe I'll paint some more later.


Close ups. The first RPG on the left has his head swapped, and the next his Asian hat removed with a knife and hair sculpted with same knife.


The first guy on the left has got the same hair cut, and the one in the middle his head swapped.




I'll keep posting figures of my project in this thread as I'm painting them.
Cheers,

[C M Dodson]

These look excellent indeed.

Great painting and a real ‘feel’ to them.

Looking forward to seeing more in this often neglected theatre.

Best wishes,

Chris

[atalante]

Well seen! It’s going very well!
Beautiful painting, can’t wait for more!

[Santi Pérez]

Those Esci/Italeri figures look great, Javier!

Santi.

[blacksmith]

These four are the first mercs I paint and they are supposed to be the first to start a campaign in Africa as well. My idea is to start playing like in the computer game Jagged Alliance 3. That is, with low status and basic weapons and equipment. They are armed with a pistol, a SMG, a shotgun and a rifle.

Also, this time I only gave them basic colour and brown wash, and only highlighted skin and hats, so I could paint them very quick and almost with same results as full highlighting. I am pleased how they turned out overall and I think I am going to explore a little more this way of painting.

[Rich W]

Very nice work Javier!

[blacksmith]

Hello again, it has taken me nearly an hour to log in and post this but anyway.
Here it is the final batch of mercs. I painted these ones exclusively giving them a base colour coat and then a wash with no lights at all except for the soil of the base and the metallic shine in the guns.

They would be better with some lights on berets and helmets as well as on flesh, but I wanted them just after the wash and varnish to compare them with highlighted ones.

I think they turned out quite good but I fell I can still improve results as I was trying right proportions in the mixture. Rougly, I used 3/5 parts of Mercadona floor wax and 2/5 of acrylic Betumen of Judea. I also used lighter colours on the figures to prevent too much darkening from the wash.

I used to wash directly with Mercadona wax and ink, but the mixture got to watery and run so fast on the figure that some details weren't properly covered by the wash. However, now the Betumen of Judea is so thick that allows the wash to work similarly to the oil versions, and it gets a better coverage and result.
I am still struggling with the right proportion and you can see below the difference in the top left and right figures with the two ones in the middle who are lighter or cleaner.









This picture is to show you the difference between wash and no lights at all (left) and wash and lights (right). The details in the figure are so thin and small that I cannot highlight them properly so they get better without lights IMHO, and get done in half the time! Plus the miniature gets a hard protective cover from the wax, so it is a win win situation.
If you observe the webbing in both figures below, you will understand what I am saying.








Cheers,

[Bill Slavin]

I agree, the figures on the left are better defined by the wash. Thanks for taking the time to log on and share your experiments!

[PatrickJ71]

The left ones are better indeed.
I didn't know about washing with wax and ink (there's is still a lot to learn for me) so thank you for explaining your way of working.
Anyway, your painted figures are great as always.
thanks for sharing
Patrick

[blacksmith]

I've painted some UN troops to game in Africa with the same box of figures I used for my mercs, the Esci NATO troops.

They are painted like previous ones with just block paint and wash, but I think this time they are a little less dirty and with some extra lights that I did by wiping excess of wash with a clean wet brush. I think their uniforms are good, and although the blue on helmets and berets should be lighter, I'm happy how they turned out in the end.

[Chariobaude]

Your painting skills are fabulous, and i have to see ESCI is just the best manufacturer our hobby ever had... What a shame they didn't last so much....

[blacksmith]

Your painting skills are fabulous, and i have to see ESCI is just the best manufacturer our hobby ever had... What a shame they didn't last so much....

Thank you very much for the appraisal but the figures only got a base colour and a wash
You're quite right, ESCI was and still is the best around, very clean and sharp figures, a shame they are gone. Cheers,

[Peter]

Good use of these kind of figures! And great painted!