20mm WW2 Early War

In an extraordinary stroke of unexpected events, both my Norwegians and some Bobbies and Spanish republicans (to use for VBCW) have been delayed from two different companies. Which both informed me the same day. But as the Swedish proverb says, “the one who waits for something good, doesn’t wait too long”. I therefore made a quick change of plans. After all, I do have enough 1/72 scale figures to last for many hobby hours.

Looking at my collection, my ESCI 8th Army British could work for Operation Mercury, the invasion of Crete. The Fallschirmjägers were already done. After a bit of open source research it seemed that the troops in shorts would be okey. Time to dig out the British.

Turns out I tried to paint the British 8th Army in the early 90’s. The evidence suggests I used enamel paints, probably a too big brush and most certainly one thick coat. About half of the figures are covered in old enamel color. Any suggestions on how to strip enamel colors?

After some more research on the uniforms, I have opted to go for a color scheme that makes them viable for both Crete and North Africa. As far as I’ve been able to make out the British uniforms on Crete seem to be a mix of the brown and khaki uniforms.

I have sprayed the British in Army Painter Desert Yellow and then given them a drybrush of Skeleton Bone. There is a bit of difference between my painting skills in the early 1990s and 2020.

After drybrushing the miniatures I started to pick out the details with other colors. It’s at this point I notice that there are moldlines that I didn’t remove. Moldlines seem to be a reoccuring problem with 1/72 scale figures. Not to worry, Im doing these to game with, and at tabletop distance I can’t see them. Turns out painting 20mm/1/72 scale figures is really fun.