PAINTING GUIDE:

TM

BRITISH ARMY
Wor War II saw soldiers from many of Britain’s
World
former colonies - now part of the Commonwealth -
form
stand to fight alongside Britain again against the Axis
stan
powers. Not only did British soldiers fight around the
pow
globe, but men from Canada, India, Australia, New
glob
Zealand, South Africa, and others answered the call.
Zea
In so
some cases this meant they were uniformed as the
typical British soldiers were (such as the Canadians
typi
in EEurope) or they fought in uniforms more suited to
the
tth
he environment (such as the ANZACs in North Africa
or tthe Ghurkas in southeast Asia). There are plenty of
uniform options for Bolt Action forces drawn from the
unif
British and Commonwealth armies.
Brit

This Painting Guide will provide you with a step-by-

step guide to painting an infantryman of the British
Army, and the Cromwell Cruiser-class tank. The basic
Arm
colour schemes depicted here were used in the
colo
European Theatre, from the early days of the War
Euro
through to the Normandy landings and the push over
thro
the Rhine. This guide is even helpful for the Home
Guard. Other units, such as the Airborne troops in
Gua
Europe and Commonwealth troops in other theatres,
Euro
sported a wider variety of uniforms and equipment.
spo

Following the step-by-step painting guides, you’ll

Foll
find a collection of other units from the British forces
that display the wider variety of painting possibilities
when collecting these models.
whe

There are many paint ranges available for painting

up your miniatures,
miniatures and it doesn’t really matter which
paints you use. That’s completely up to you. We used
a variety of paints in preparing this guide, and named
them with abbreviations.
These can be deciphered below:
w:
VMC = Vallejo Model Color
AP = Army Painter

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 Painting your British Infantry
1 2

The first step is always to prepare your models for painting. After The next step includes painting the basecoats over the largest
assembling a squad of five models, we applied a layer of fine areas. We started with VMC English Uniform over the uniform
basing grit, and let the glue dry. tunic and trousers. This was followed by VMC Russian Uniform for
Many people undercoat their models with black or white sprays. the helmet. We then painted the face and hands with AP Tanned
We chose to spray each model with AP Uniform Grey spray Flesh, a good base colour for Caucasian skin.
as sometimes a black undercoat can mean you have to apply
multiple coats of your other paints, and white can leave the
colours a bit too bright for the muted uniform colours of WWII.

3 4

The next step was to paint all of the webbing (backpack included) We followed up Step 3 by painting a layer of AP Strong Tone Wash
and gaiters with VMC Khaki. The hessian strips on the helmet were over the entire model and let it dry thoroughly.
painted with VMC Dark Sand. We then painted the rifle stock and
If you are painting a lot of models at once and chose to paint the
entrenching tool handle with AP Oak Brown. The bedroll in his
black and silver areas before the wash, you could finish your
backpack was painted with VMC German Camo Brown-Black.
painting here, although your models would like quite dark and not
If you are painting a lot of models at once and are on a tight quite as nice as they could if you decided to push on.
timeframe, you might also choose to paint the black and silver
areas (covered in Steps 8 & 9).

5 6

While the wash adds great shadows to your model, to make For the next stage of highlighting, we touched up the highlights on
it really pop you need to go back and add some highlights. the face and hands with VMC Basic Skintone, and highlighted the
We started by highlighting the uniform tunic and trousers with tunic and trousers with a 70/30 mix of VMC English Uniform/VMC
VMC English Uniform. The skin was highlighted with a 50/50 mix Dark Sand. We highlighted the webbing with VMC Khaki, and the
of AP Tanned Flesh/VMC Basic Skintone. Hessian strips on the helmet with VMC Dark Sand.

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 7 8

The uniform was given a final highlight of a 40/60 mix of VMC The next step was to paint all the metal areas and boots with AP
English Uniform/VMC Dark Sand. The webbing and gaiters wre Matt Black. You can really start to see the finished product, as the
given a final highlight with a 50/50 mix of VMC Khaki/VMC Pale black helps tidy up all the rough areas left by the previous painting.
Sand, and the eyes were painted at this point.
The final step for painting this model was to paint the metallic
areas. We highlighted the areas with a 50/50 mix of AP Matt Black/
AP Gun Metal.

Decals Top Tips

If you feel like
adding more detail
to your British (or
Commonwealth)
infantry models,
we make a range
of great waterslide
decals covering a
variety of the units
that were part of While almost all buckles on the British webbing were painted in the
the Commonwealth same khaki color, we’ve chosen to paint them silver to add a bit of
armed forces. variety to the miniature. The same thing goes for the tea mug, which
would typically have been enamelled. Of course, during the course
of the war, the paint and enamel could most certainly have chipped
off with regular wear and tear.

Basing

Basing is the thing that really helps tie your army together. with VMC German Camo Brown-Black, drybrushed the grit and
There are many, many ways you can do you basing, depending on painted the edge with VMC Beige Brown, drybrushed again with
where you want your troops to be fighting, and what your gaming VMC Dark Sand, and then glued down different flocking materials
table looks like. For our purposes, we painted the base completely to give a variety of colours and textures.

The Completed British Infantry Section

This completed Regular

Infantry Section (using the
squad listing on page 22 of
Armies of Great Britain),
has the minimum five men,
including an NCO with a
Sten submachine gun
and a soldier with the
Bren light machine gun.

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Copyright Warlord Games Ltd, 2015. Warlord Games, Bolt Action, and the Bolt Action logo are trademarks of Warlord Games Ltd. All rights reserved.
 VariAnts of British Uniforms
These men are part of the BEF -
British Expeditionary Force - that
fought in Belgium and France in
1940. You’ll note that while their
uniforms are the same olive drab as
our infantryman, their equipment and
webbing is a darker green.

These hard-as-nails Commandos have been built using the

plastic British Commando sprues, almost identical to the Infantry
sprues except for the classic green berets. Their paint jobs are
also similar to our infantryman, with the webbing and packs/
pouches being lighter.

These paratroopers of the British Airborne

are wearing three-colour camouflage jackets
with quite a lot of extra gear, as befits a unit
dropping behind enemy lines. They are also
wearing a mix of the famous red berets and
the Airborne Troop helmet, a more rounded,
tighter fitting helmet than the ubiquitous
Mark I helmet worn by most Tommies.

The Chindits were units comprised of British and

Burmese troops and Ghurkas, trained to operate
deep behind the Japanese lines and engage in a
hard-and-fast, hit-and-run style of guerilla warfare.
Their uniforms are typical of the green worn by
many nations against the Japanese.

The Ghurka regiments fom Nepal

have fought alongside the British
for close to two centuries. During
WWI they fought all around the
Mediterranean as well as in southeast
Asia. These Ghurkas are dressed
for combat in the tropical jungles
against the Japanese.

Here we see a unit of the

famous Home Guard - these
are based on the popular UK
TV series Dad’s Army - who
were tasked to be the last line
of defence against the threat of
German invasion. They typically
wore surplus uniforms or
uniforms made to mimic those
of the frontline forces.

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 Painting your British Tanks
We assembled the Cromwell as per the instructions.
1 Much like the infantry, once everything was ready, we
undercoated it with AP Uniform Grey. Once the undercoat was
dry, we used a large brush to apply the basecoat - VMC Russian
Uniform. We thinned the paint a little to ensure it went on
smoothly, so had to apply two coats for a solid coverage. If you
have an airbrush and are painting quite a few vehicles, you could
certainly spray on your basecoat.

Once the second coat was dry, we applied AP Strong

2 Tone wash over the whole tank with a very large brush,
paying particular attention to where the shadows would fall.

We let the wash dry thoroughly and then drybrushed the

3 entire tank lightly with VMC Russian Uniform.

We then followed up with a light drybrush of a 50/50 mix

4 of VMC Russian Uniform/VMC Pale Sand, concentrating
on picking up all the edges.

Many people wait until the end of painting their tanks to

5 apply the decals, but we chose to do it at this stage in
order to ensure that any shading and weathering we applied
later would be applied to the decals too. As we’d built our
Cromwell with a hedgecutter, we moved the unit decals up to
the front panel of the tank
Once the decals had dried and were fully secured in place, we
applied a coat of VMC Satin Varnish over them, to cut back the
glossy appearance.

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 The next step was to apply a bit of ‘chipping’ - areas
6 where the paint has been scratched or worn off
and reveals the original primer coat underneath. For this
we simply sponged on VMC German Camo Brown-Black
using a folded piece of sponge from a Warlord Games blister
pack. Be careful to apply the chipping in areas that would
see the most wear and tear.
Of course, if you want your tanks to be factory-fresh,
you can skip Steps 6-7.

With decals like the Allied Star so prominent on the back

7 deck of the Cromwell, we took a little extra time to paint
in some of the thin panel lines using VMC Pale Grey, a fine
brush, and a steady hand.

Almost there! We then painted everything that wasn’t

8 going to remain in the camouflague colours with AP
Matt Black. This included the tracks, the rubber edges of the
road wheels, some of the tools on the deck and so on.

Any metallic areas were highlighted with a 50/50 mix of

9 AP Matt Black/AP Gun Metal. Some of the edges that
had been chipped received small dabs of AP Gun Metal.
The tool handles were painted with AP Oak Brown and
highlighted with a 50/50 mix of AP Oak Brown/VMC Beige
Brown. At this point we also gave the silver areas (and some
of the chipped areas) a thin wash of VMC Red Leather for
that slightly rusting look.

The Completed Cr
CromweLL
r Cruiser Tank

And finally...
To give it the ‘slogging around
Europe, seeing lots of action’
look we drybrushed a mixture
of browns onto the tracks and
undercarriage of the tank,
simulating a coating of mud.

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 VariAnts of British Vehicles
This Churchill MkVII has obviously seen
a lot of action recently with mud and
road dust caking its undercarriage. In
addition to the standard green, this tank
is sporting some soft-edged patches of
black camouflage paint.

This Churchill AVRE has been modified

to take out German fortifications. The
main gun has been replace with a 290mm
petard, and the tank has been modelled
with a winch on the rear deck to help with
recovery. The light coloured road dust
suggests this Churchill has been active
near the French coast.

This Matilda II Infantry tank is painted up like those that served

with the BEF in Belgium and France in 1940. The three-colour
camouflage scheme is two tones of green plus black.

This Universal Carrier has been adapted to carry a 3”

mortar. The colour scheme is a very simple one, much
like our Cromwell tank, and probably matches the vast
majority of British vehicles in the later years of the war.

This Morris Quad Tractor is also painted in the BEF scheme,

with the windows painted up in a blue-grey to simulate the
reflection of glass. This tractor has markings that show it being
used by a regiment of the Royal Artillery.

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Copyright Warlord Games Ltd, 2015. Warlord Games, Bolt Action, and the Bolt Action logo are trademarks of Warlord Games Ltd. All rights reserved.