Step-by-Step Guide to Painting NVA Infantry

After preparing the miniatures, glue them to a base in whatever order you want.

First, undercoat the stand of figures with a matt black spray.

Drybrush the figures with your chosen base-colour. I used Tamiya Khaki XF-49. This is not a particularly easy paint to work with since it dries extraordinarily fast on the palette.

Once the base-coat has dried, apply a very simple and rough highlight. I simply added a little white to the base-colour.

Next, pick out all webbing, packs and headgear. For this, add just a little more white to the mix.

Black out all skin areas and weapons. This prevents colours 'bleeding' through those areas you will subsequently be painting white as well as simply cleaning-up the models. Paint the base green - I use GW Goblin Green.

Areas of exposed skin are painted next. First, re-paint skin area in white and, when dry, apply a flesh-coloured wash (I use GW Flesh Wash).

Clean up weapons with black and then add touches of brown to the weapons to represent the wooden stocks.

Drybrush all helmets and bush hats with a pale green - I use GW Camo Green

As an alternative to light khaki, paint all webbing Camo green

Glue the stand ID to the back of the base using a simple wood glue and make sure that the ID strip is squared off against the sides of the base. I produce my ID strips for an entire company on a single sheet of A4 paper. I then use a clear plastic covering material to stick over the IDs - this is to protect the ID strip from paint.

The figures themselves are now finished. To complete the stand, cover the base in a suitable textured paint or use whatever method best suits you for finishing off. You can individualise the bases but at this scale such efforts will be lost once the stand is on the table-top.