Painting 15mm Cold War Soviets - How I Paint Things

[@shawnfisher9976]

Love these 15mm guides. There's not enough advice for how to do these. Ace!

[@johnkelley9877]

Great work Sonic! I have painted my own 15mm figures and I can say that while I enjoyed it it is a challenge. I always watch your tutorials but I have to say the 15mm ones are my favorites. I will try this method on some of my own miniatures. Thanks for sharing this as it was a big help.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Cheers, John! I'd love to know what it is you've been working on. I'm looking at branching into 15mm for things like Chain of Command, since it's a little easier for me to store whole companies of men if they fit in a shoebox! 😂

[@johnkelley9877]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio I bought some Pico Miniatures a while back for a diorama two grav tanks in the desert. I did an article on our club website a few years back and used those figures. They are metal with good detail.

[@72theboss1]

This is great, just picked up three companies of soviet infantry for Team Yankee and i love them! Painted all of mine with Citadel contrast paint, have you ever tried it on these figures? I found it sped up the process significantly

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

It generally seems to work really well on chunky 15mm designs - I'm sure it works, but I've got so many 15mm figures already painted in traditional methods that I'd rather stick to what will match the rest of my stuff. 😅

[@loupiscanis9449]

Thank you , Sonic .

[@matthewholehouse2718]

What other pulp games did you have in-mind for these? I'm painting mine up for the Renegade Games Transformers TTRPG.

[@honzabalak3462]

When painting these exact minis I found out it's better to use a light off-white color as a base paint and then paint the uniform around the webbing with agrax earthshade and skeleton horde contrast paint (the only two citadel paints I use). It's quicker and simpler than trying to painstakingly overlay the dark uniform with light webbing.

[@shad9379]

Hi Sonic, I really appreciate you putting together this guide, keep up the great work.

[@percyblok6014]

The wash kinda makes 'em too dark from afar. All depends on how far you're going to be looking at them. On the table, too dark, not enough contrast for my liking.

[@friendlyneighbourhoodnerd]

Great tutorial, as usual; Fivecore is a fun game too! I've been thinking about playing a Fivecore campaign of a Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia kinda thing (again, but in the 80s this time) using Team Yankee figures (that way I can split a box of vehicles across the forces :D). And I can also use the figures for the RPG Twilight 2000. Or ally them against NATO forces for any future projects. Many options! Battlefront suggest to use Soviet figures for Czechoslovaks as they look quite similar in uniform, webbing etc, and I can't disagree, especially in 15mm. However, I cannot figure out a good colour to paint them - got any tips? I have looked at some reference images of the vz. 60 and the vz. 85 uniforms but I'm seeing a few different shades of green. I'm not looking for the perfect, "historically accurate" shade of course, just something that looks good and is decently recognisable on the table. I even emailed Battlefront to ask them what colour they painted the Czechoslovaks on promo material and the books, but no luck.

[@Eric_Shaun]

brilliant, as usual! May I ask if you will you do some 10mm Battlegroup NorthAG painting tutorials, mate? cheers!

[@ModellingforAdvantage]

Would love to see more of this cold War 15mm

[@smoessmee]

I like the coloured rims, might do that for my own stuff :)

[@snacobsnib]

What system did you end up playing these guys with? Its not often I see individually based cold-war figures, and I might give it a go myself. Team Yankee seems too armour focused for my taste.

[@huwtindall7096]

Sweet! After watching this I wouldn't mind knocking up a platoon of 15mm British paratroopers or something. Can make them pop with their red berets nicely! Question though mate - you paint such a wide variety of minis so I was wondering what your favourite range/type of mini to paint is?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Tough call! I'm not sure that I do have a single favourite sort of thing to paint... It'd have to be infantry, at least! WW2 US infantry is probably an easy call near the top of the list, though; they're so easy to knock out in droves they're basically like popcorn!

[@huwtindall7096]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio Fair! I found out about all the WW2 wargaming models watching your channel so makes sense! On the actual painting have you thought about experimenting with some contrast paints instead of a going straight for the blessed Agrax Earthshade? Seen some great results using contrast like a shade but gives you nicer results with less need to highlight again over the quite dark muddy Agrax shade. Going to take a bit more time rather than just blasting a coat of Agrax on but you make that up with less need to go back and highlight so much.

[@Darkmouse20001]

What do you use to attach the base to the cork? I feel having a cork would be very handy!

[@soerenheriksen]

Have you ever tried the daler rowney inks? I've a lot of good things about them

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

I have to admit I've never even heard of them! Something else I'll need to check out. :D

[@snek2908]

So you just use primer as your first layer of paint? I may do this does it wear off easily?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

It's as robust as any other primer so it ought to be fine. I've never had issues with it rubbing off, but you could as easily varnish them and not have to worry about it at all.

[@snek2908]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio thank you so much definitely going give it a go .

[@lucioquinziocincinnato7984]

Very good base color, the some of mine.Cheers. Francesco Thau

[@karimaly1731]

awesome tutorial. Can you do a "how i paint things" for infinity minis?

[@ModellingforAdvantage]

Fantastic... I am literally about to start a ww3 Soviets from battlefront

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Then this is awfully well timed!

[@ModellingforAdvantage]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio indeed sir, thank you.