"InCountry" Western Contractor Team - Speed Painted!

"Get ready to fly your final Blue Sky, Buddy!"

Blue Sky Protection

Known for their distinct runway attire with "Blue Sky Trim", they are sometimes derisively called "Skycaps" as many have a background in Air Force or Space Force Security Forces.  But it takes special knowledge and equipment to work safely around aviation, and BSP has what it takes!  This includes special low-velocity rounds that won't penetrate airframes, especially their fuel tanks.

Sure, some may have POG tans and yes, they do sleep in hotel rooms and dine well; but, their quick reaction times and commitment to intervene against any odds has been recognized by corporations dependent on commercial or military aviation for their profits and effectiveness, making BSP a leader in airfield security.

For this Team of InCountry [click] Legacy Pod Figs, I wanted a simple scheme that would paint up quickly. I also planned to time it and get an idea of how fast I could paint a Team:

1. Key Points for best results:
• Paint for a few strong color contrasts, even with neutral tones;
• Paint in contrast several small 'widgets' and 'pouches'
• Paint 1 feature different in 1 of the 4 from the others, e.g. 1 brown shoes, 3 black shoes. 
2. Prime in main color; probably a neutral tone,
3. Block paint the flesh and other garments,
4. Pick out the small details you want noticed,
5. Use a sepia wash over browns, a black/grey wash over blacks and greys.
6. Base and flock, using both to emphasize the Figs.

First, they were primed in a desert tan that eerily matches Vallejo's 70.821 German Camouflage WWII Beige. 

It is very convenient having a close paint match from a bottle to you primer. 

Then they were mounted on wooden Litko 3mm bases with super glue [this isn't the best way...as will be seen]

I used Calthan Brown foundation paint, thinned with water, to quickly paint up all the web gear. Overall, this looks a lot like Coyote Brown to me!

I also painted the boots as the present use suede Coyote Browns.

Next, I painted the guns and belts black. I also painted a few of the pouches in a medium olive, just to make them different. The knee pads were either olive or Calthan Brown.

This is about when I noticed that the guy on the right reminds me of a sergeant I knew a few years back. Hmmm...

While working with the advancing fellow w' shades, his glue gave way. I didn't want to have to mess with him any more, so I drilled his feet / legs...

...super-glued piano wire pins in [gluing them *then* snipping them off]...

...and then drilled matching holes in the base.  This I managed by matching the feet to the former glue pattern, pushing down, leaving two little marks which I drilled out.

From now on, I'm going to just go ahead and pin all these models to the bases. For the ones I already did, I'll just wait and see if they fall off then pin them.

Around this point, I jostled the table and bald guy fell off at a perfectly [bad] angle for him to snap at the ankles!  And it was only about 12" [30cm] or so:

I tried superglue, but it just wouldn't match up and hold right.  Instead, I cleaned it all off with a cloth, then drilled out all four feet / legs, again putting in piano wire pins:

...this still didn't look great, but it was "good enough" to let dry.

Later, I applied some paint, and the little gaps basically disappeared; ta-daaaa!

After all these trials, I finished the fine details, including the Blue Sky piping on the clothing, differentiating a few more pieces of equipment, etc.  Just little quick paint dabs on various small things, mostly. The piping I used a fine 0/0 brush. Then, I applied matte finish - two coats for the upper body / head which will get handled the most - and painted the bases. Next day, I did all the flocking in stages thru the day, allowing it to dry in between. I used the same Real Dirt and a little bit of railroad flock, just like my previous teams [click]. To make this team a bit different, I used a fall maroon / brown foliage for desert plants instead of the yellow.

Not 100% pleased with the blue hat - may need a bit more work...

but overall I like the tan, brown and sky blue scheme. It's "just right"!

This is the dude who always wears his wrap-arounds, but not always his sunscreen, there's one in every platoon!  He looks a lot like an actual sunburn from NTC that a certain sergeant got. Memorable, and funny looking at the time.

This guy, from this angle, looks like my cousin in the face.  Weird!

This guy I figure is Hispanic, so hasn't been sunburned. Digs his shades, however!

Red here did use his sunscreen... he needs stronger sunscreen!

Another amazing finished product. I lost track of the timing due to the repairs and pinning I had to do.  Also,I admit, the amazing details of these figs suck me in and have me trying some new techniques, blends, etc.  One experiments was with "sunburn" effects. Another was coming up with my own uniform scheme and "back story" for this team, who I intend to protect runways and freight storage areas.

Overall, I think if I had just pressed on with "getting them done" and had no breakage and pinning needs, they would have been about 8 Hours, not bad.

I hope this post inspires you to up your painting game with more detailed figs, more detailed painting, and new effects and schemes that push your painting forward.

Next, up... some of the opposition needs to get painted, and by a totally different manufacturer... so stay tuned and become a follower!

"InCountry" Russkie Advisors

Coming soon to an Army surplus retailer near you!

This was the look I was going for, EMR camo, the new Russian "Ratnik" camo pattern. I thought it would be easy to do, and distinct on the table. Unfortunately, it just didn't work out that way.  Below, the base coat of Vallejo green with some lighter green splotches:

and with brown splotches:

Splotches courtesy of my old, battered brushes I save for these purposes:

This wasn't coming along the way I wanted, so I tried a wash of Nuln Oil, to see if it would "blend" better, and look more like the above. This improved the look, but not to the EMR camo I was striving for, at the top.  This also darkened the colors a bit:

...and they didn't look good at gaming distance.  

This could be discouraging, and I was, a bit.  But, I figured, as long as they look good - in the end - I'll have another shot at Ratnick camo later.  So, now, let's just concentrate on making them look COOL!  This is part of the fun of "near-future" wargaming... no one can tell you that they don't look like that!

So...I went back and highlighted them a bit, which brightened them: 

This made them pop a bit more at gaming distance, about 2 feet [look COOL!]:

Satisfied with that, I started the final painting of details - it's the little things that make these figures look a lot more realistic, just a dab of paint here and there to differentiate small objects that don't match the surroundings:

Trying for a yellow lens eye-pro look, not sure it's succeeding...but it's interesting.

As the final details get painted in, the figs look better and better. This gives more momentum to finishing them up.  A few early morning and late evening sessions, and they progressed quite a bit, often with a 0/0 brush [just a few bristles on that VERY fine brush]. 

One thing I got answers on, was a strange object hanging from some of their belts - looked like an old keychain [with large keys].  Turns out they are chem-lights, some infra-red, for marking LZs, etc.  The IR ones are a dark purplish look, and to bring up the colors I did a quick dry brush in white with a small brush, to give something light for the colors to stand out on:

yellow glos on the left, IR on the right:

Altho there's a few more little details I may pick out, for now, these guys are done, so gave them a matte coating and then flocked them in a matching arid dirt like the other InCountry figs.

Close up of the two trigger-pullers:

and the leader with a female Soldier:

Anyway, this is them for now!

Have been playing a bunch of solo games of InCountry 2.0, getting some questions answered at the Discord and Fb pages, etc.  Will have to post on this, soon, so stay tuned as we go deeper "InCountry"!

Gettin' the Flock "InCountry"!

Comin' right attcha!

Is it a coincidence that his beard matches the ground cover?  High-speed grooming!

I've a neutral Base color that matches my most-preferred table cloth cover [courtesy of Lowe's paint sample deal - matched to the cloth itself]...

... It can be easily darkened for temperate climates or lightened for arid. 

Where will these InCountry fellows fight?  Great question.  I'm running with arid / Mediterranean at this point.  Still want them to look good, however.  So I made a quick mixup with standard railroad flocking that I have on hand, it just emphasizes the brown and olive tones - with some fall colors - in 3 of the selections.

The yellow is an imaginary desert plant, blooming in the wild. More importantly, it adds a bit of color to the bases.  This is, after all, an artistic endeavor!

For the dirt, I used actual dirt.  I found it under a telephone pole in my neighborhood while walking the dog, and like a true gaming nut it immediately occurred to me that it was the perfect tone for desert / arid bases:

God conveniently put little bits of dead roots [plants] and rocks [rocks] in it!  Best of all, it was free!

I used a version of white PVC glue that claimed to be 'stronger', an Elmers brand. I just squeezed it directly on, spread it with a watered-down brush near the feet, and then placed the fig among the dirt and pushed it on. Once covered, I pushed down on the dirt to get it in there solidly, then shook / tapped off the excess.

Note: all these bases were done this way, takes a few seconds a base.  No additional rocks / dirt were put onto the base.

Once the dirt was on, I just did a little gardening with the flock mix.  I used a long toothpick and dabbed some glue in the spots I wanted it, usually 2-3 a Base.

Once I had the plants down, I put a little dab on for the yellow 'blossoms'. I imagine they are some sort of thorny scrub that has a bit of yellow in its flowers.

Below, final result for the Rangers.  A certain amount of unity in the basing, but they also look varied enough to be 'natural' which is what I was going for with them.

On table, the InCountry hard board folding mat matches quite well!

I assume the board is some sort of digital printed scheme.

The Yankies Ranger team Boss man, beard and all...

three men with assault rifles

two SAWs, a 5.56 on the left, and a 7.62 on the right [technically, a light machine gun, really]. These appear to be the Mk 249 para and Mk 48 GPMG.

The Russkies also came out well on the table.

Leader w' 5.45 assault rifle, drone operator with 9-19 SMG [probly]...

two 5.45 RPDM, the Russkie SAW [again, probly]

two more 5.45 assault rifles.

As you can see, the bases match the lighter tones of the table, which is ultimately what catches the eye.  I'd like them to have a bit more 'depth' so perhaps a darker initial coat of dirt is needed, but this is good enough for now.

Hope this is helpful to you hobbyists out there.