AK-47 Republic infantry units

 My Old Glory UK modern African irregulars have been painted ready for battle.  Here's a quick description of how I painted them, it was a slightly different procedure from my normal method.

After a quick clean up and a wash with hot soapy water, they were attached to a long wooden batten with some double sided tape.  They were undercoated with Wilko grey spray primer, then touched up with some Vallejo cold grey to make sure there were no bare spots.  A heavy white drybrush pre-highlighted them ready for the next stage...

Undercoated grey with white drybrush.

Undercoated grey with white drybrush.

 I painted the base colour of the uniforms with Army Painter Camo Green speedpaint, the pre-highlighting enhances the contrast effect of these paints.  I left them to dry for a good 24 hours to reduce the reactivation issue of these 1st generation Speedpaints (apparently the newer gen 2 version doesn't have this feature).  I carefully painted in the webbing with Vallejo Khaki.  Flesh tones were added using a variety of browns: Vallejo charred brown, Vallejo Beasty Brown and GW Gore-Grunta fur contrast paint.  Weapons are GW Leadbelcher metal and GW Skaven brown for the wooden parts.  I mixed up a wash of 1 part sepia ink, 1 part black ink, 1 part matt varnish and 2 parts water.  This was applied to the flesh, weapons and webbing.  Metal parts on the weapons looked a bit dull after this, so were re-painted in leadbelcher.  Final details included black on the hair, boots, and parts of the RPGs and Army Painter Blood Red Speedpaint on the berets, followed by some Humbrol 60 matt scarlet for highlights.

Uniforms finished, webbing etc. base coated.

Uniforms finished, webbing etc. base coated.

Uniforms finished, webbing etc. base coated.

 Basing for standard foot units in AK-47 Republic is 3 figures on a 30x30mm square.  I ordered some MDF bases from Warbases, these come with neatly laser cut with rounded corners which will hopefully reduce the chances of them catching on bits of scenery or getting bumped and chipped.  The figures were peeled off the tape on the painting batten and fixed on the bases using gel superglue.  Brown wood filler was used to build up the texture and hide the edges of the figure bases.  I applied a coat of burnt umber craft paint to give an even base colour, then painted on PVA and sprinkled with my "soil" mix of brown grout and fine sifted sharp sand.  A mix of dilute PVA and matt acrylic varnish was dripped on with a pipette to seal the mixture in place.  I was a bit worried about whether the bases might warp slightly, but so far they seem OK, presumably because they're quite small, and they also have the protective covering of wood filler.  The final touch was to dab some PVA over the surface and sprinkle on some static grass.

Commander and radio operator.

This is Javis Countryside Scenics, "Autumn Mix" I think. It doesn't seem to photograph very well, looking very bleached here rather than the greener shade it appears in real life.

Rifle team.

  The Speedpaint worked well on the uniforms of these figures, so I'll be using it again for the rest of these Old Glory UK African Irregulars.  I didn't get any problem with reactivation this time when I painted the webbing etc, which was encouraging.

RPG teams.

The painting really brings these figures to life and the detail is much easier to see now. The Warbases MDF bases are very good, excellent value and speedy postage so I'd definitely recommend them.  The rounded corners add a touch of class and finish things off very neatly.

RPG team and kneeling figure.

 So that's my first unit of infantry for AK-47 Republic done, I have plenty of tanks so more troops and more APCs or trucks is the way forward now.

Family photo.