Painting WWI British Empire Troops - Wargames Atlantic [How I Paint Things]

Wargames Atlantic's range of plastic Great War miniatures expands fairly regularly, with the British Empire represented alongside the French and German forces. Not bad value at all if you're looking to throw down the core of an infantry army! There's a couple of historical oddities in this British kit, but if you don't mind a little knife work, they're relatively easily overcome.
This box was my own purchase rather than a review box, but given some of the burgeoning interest I've seen in gaming the Great War recently, it seemed a waste not to take a closer look at more than just the frames before putting paint to plastic.
00:00 - Intro
00:52 - WWI Equipment Overview
04:16 - Quick Kit Review
07:06 - Basecoats
13:15 - Shading
14:24 - Highlighting
17:11 - The Finished Soldier
Thanks to Producer Patrons Alan, Kyrie, Andrew, Jimmy, Rod, Phil, Robison, Woodcock, David Kinney, and Matt Dischner - as well as all the other Patrons that made this video possible, and Exit23 Games for recording equipment that helps keep the channel ticking over! Find out more at the following links:
/ sonicsledgehammer
/ sonicsledge
/ sonicsledgehammer
ko-fi.com/docwholigan
exit23.games
THE BASE:
A thick layer of Stirland Mud drybrushed with Golgfag Brown, then Tyrant Skull. As the paint runs out on your brush, lightly stipple grime and dust on the soldier's boots and puttees. Add tufts to taste, paint base rim in Dryad Bark.
PAINTS USED:
PRIMER:
Premium Grey (Vallejo Spray Can)
VALLEJO:
English Uniform
Khaki
Dark Sand
Beige Brown
Leather Brown
Brown Sand
German Grey
Red Leather
Pale Sand
ARMY PAINTER:
Tanned Flesh
CITADEL:
Liberator Gold
Agrax Earthshade (Shade)
Cadian Fleshtone (Layer)
Kislev Flesh (Layer)
Iron Warriors (Base)
VARNISH:
Instar Varnish+

[@heneagedundas]

It's a nice figure, but (there's always a "but") the small pack looks slightly too tall. Glad to see you point out the missing entrenching tool head, I was looking for it. And yes, the webbing should be crossed. Regarding the paint job, the only criticism I would make is the scabbard for the 07 pattern bayonet should be black leather rather than brown. Everything else looks spot on.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Ah, nuts! I thought I'd seen a dark brown leather bayonet sheath - it might just have been the way it wasn photographed. At least I'll get the next one!

[@MyWargamingJourney]

A very good paintjob! Fun fact: The BEF in 1914 had one of the highest surrender to death ratios. Throughout 1914, roughly 10% of the 120,000 personnel surrendered to the Germans during the war of movement. Source = I did my Master's disseration on it!

[@NSYresearch]

Interesting fact, not one I've seen before. Where are the stats for this please???

[@MyWargamingJourney]

@@NSYresearch Quoted from my Disseration: "as the Historian Alexander Watson has pointed out, the surrender to death ratio of the BEF during 1914 was I : 0.65, with 19,915 British soldiers being taken prisoner. This was larger than 1915 (I : 5.64), 1916 (I : 6.92) and 1917 (I : 5.67).(1) It is only in 1918 when large scale surrenders occur again (I : 0.75).*" (1) Alexander Watson, Alexander Watson, Enduring the Great War: Combat, Morale and Collapse in the German and British Armies, 1914-1918 (New York: Cambridge University Press: 2008), p. 145. *might not be the same page and I don't have the book to confirm.

[@ajones4574]

What is a disseration please?

[@yendub]

I love Wargames Atlantic WW1-2 miniatures. A great bang for your buck, better proportioned than Warlord Games, and I really enjoy kitbashing them. Commando + Italian + Panzer Lehr can net you so many different armies. With them I have created armies like Italian Airborne, Romanian troops, Hungarian (with help of the French heads), and even added in spare "uniformed" bodies and weapons for my French Partisans.

[@ConstableGrey]

Wargames Atlantic's historical accuracy leaves something to be desired in a number of cases -- especially evident in the great number of digital packs they have to rush out every month...

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

A WGA historical kit with something not quite right? Say it ain't so... 😅 Still, a lot of folks seem oddly resistant to metal miniatures - if it'll get people to try new eras or games, I'll weather some of the issues where they're relatively easily hidden as in this case. These chaps will pull double duty as guards and British-aligned fortress troops in some Jazz Era games I've got an eye to playing.

[@Strawfoot]

Thanks for posting, always good to see another painting video! :) don’t mind me really, just trying to do my part to feed the algorithm!

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

It can be a pretty hungry beast!

[@timm7305]

Well this is eerie. Bought a box of these guys to try out A War Transformed and here you are... My thanks in advance for helping me get mine on the table!

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Ha! By coincidence, so had one of my gorgeous producers. 😂 Total stroke of luck that I had mine arrive a couple days ago!

[@trollpaintingminis4496]

You should also check out the wga british trench raiders. They're pretty cool

[@vividius7951]

I've said this before to a few people, if wargames atlantic gave instructions with any of their kits they would be 200% better

[@danielchandler4585]

Great job. Looks 1st class 😊

[@NSYresearch]

So glad you point out the problems with ' uniform' colours. My WW1 uniform is quite different colours ...trousers are much lighter as the get cleaned more often than the tunic.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Uniform that hits reality doesn't stay uniform for very long. That's even if it comes out of the quartermaster's hands from the same manufacturing and dye batch!

[@loupiscanis9449]

Thank you , Troy . 🐺Loupis Canis .

[@matthewholehouse2718]

I used to use English Uniform for my WW2 brits, but I recently picked up the AK Interactive WW2 British uniform paint set and I actuslly prefer it to my old Vallejo schemes.

[@ajones4574]

Terrific video. Wish I had seen it before I painted my WA figures. Liked the piece about uniform colour. The one thing about military uniforms out in the field is they never seem to be a uniform colour. Truth is that observation is also true about QM stores. 😢

[@lucioquinziocincinnato7984]

Very nice video and painting!

[@Gamerswithcoffee]

Fantastic paint job!

[@alessiodecarolis]

A perfect example of a WWI 's Tommy, it's strange that the error with British webbings was made also by Plastic Soldier, with their plastic boxed sets. After all they could've just found a book about British army, such as Osprey 's. P.s. for "kiwi" hats, you should search for some 3D prints , also if, as seen in the old ANZAC serial, all the troopers carried the helmet, at least on the Western Front.👍

[@TheEccentricMan]

Lovely painting.

[@user-ez4wt3ni4b]

Another great video. Fair play you're knocking them out this week . Would love to see some lord of the rings figures

[@WithHotLeadandColdSteel]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing. I need to build my two boxes 😂

[@yendub]

8:30 when talking about uniforms and colors. Just Google 50 shades of Field Grau. Between the mud, sweat, wear and tear, and of course different manufacturer differences, uniforms are never uniform unless you all just got them issued new to you.

[@oliverbonenfant9724]

Really helpful review and tutorial thankyou 👊🏼🙏🏼 Just wish It’d have been last month before I painted all mine 😂😂🤦🏻‍♂️

[@kevinkuster5225]

AMAZING! You were very talented. Perfect timing in this video as I'm painting WW 1. Will yoi please do WW1 Fench figures as well?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

French are on the horizon!

[@alessiodecarolis]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio Horizon Blue, naturally!😜

[@Sauerkrautkopf]

I really should see if I can find a good Ruleset for 1914 skirmish wargaming. Should be fun.

[@Jimmietwoshoes1]

Could you do a video on their German kit as well?

[@PioneerList]

Is there a chance you can go over lead miniatures? I found tons of cool historical stuff but they are all made of metal containing lead and I’m bit afraid of it

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Wear a mask if you're filing - if you're trimming with a knife that cuts softer edges, it's not really necessary, but I wear a simple cloth mask while filing large numbers of metal figures. Wash your hands once you're done, and don't put them in your mouth. Miniatures that contain a bit of lead aren't that scary; once they're primed, they're just like anything else!

[@skarpskytten]

I have ben toying with the idea of painting Cadians british ww2 style uniform colors (with camo green armor). If one would like to replicate the english uniform color using Citadel contrast paint , which should one use?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Truth be told, I'd just use a regular acrylic for the uniform. I've never quite found a mix for Contrast or similar that closely matches what I'd have in mind for English Uniform.

[@AnExtrovertPaints]

Can always count on WGA to mess up historical accuracy with their kits.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Quelle surprise. 😅

[@hedonia2497]

Fantastic job! Did you dry brush the puttees off camera or is it just my dodgy eyes!?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

They got a little bit of drybrush of the basing material when I was finishing up.

[@user-ez4wt3ni4b]

Quick question, i don't think you mentioned it, but what game system would you use these in? I suppose maybe you could use bolt action rules, however I'm pretty sure wargames Atlantic just do soldiers not much else such as tanks or machine guns etc

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

I haven't actually given rules any thought!

[@user-ez4wt3ni4b]

@SonicSledgehammerStudio shame. Hopefully wargames atlantic expand their range, I'd live to see some commonwealth, yanks or ottomans... playing a gallipoli campaign would be very interesting

[@brandoncorley1508]

@@user-ez4wt3ni4bYou could try Through the Mud and the Blood for roughly platoon level skirmish games.

[@nickdavis5420]

Now I need to listen to Sabaton !

[@LurksNoMore]

That's generally a good idea. 🤘