When I accepted to do a Workbench report, I wanted to do a painting scheme that would not be too difficult or too time consuming - but rather, something quick and simple that any average painter could do in 2-4 hours, and would look great on the table.
The miniatures came in two packs; each had 3 machine gunners, 3 loaders, and 2 spotters. The miniatures were nicely cast, with little flash.
First, I cleaned the miniatures with a file. Afterwards, I applied a light coat of primer. I usually stick to white, but since I am not going to use bright colours, I used gray.
Then I started to block off the colours. This is what I used:
- Uniform
- Vallejo Khaki Grey
- Helmet and equipment
- Vallejo Military Green
- Coat Roll
- USA Tan Earth
- Bags and pouches
- German Camo Beige
- Weapon stocks
- GW Vermin Brown
- Boots
- Vallejo Flat Black
- Flesh
- GW Bronzed Flesh
- Bases
- Bronze Green
- Weapons
- Flat Black + Vallejo Gunmetal drybrush
- Ammo belt
- Vallejo Brass
I like the Khaki Russian uniforms, but you could use other shades of brown, khaki or green to good effect. Since 
Editor in Chief Bill 
would base the figures himself, I decided to paint them in a dark colour that would be easy to cover either with flock or more paint.
I just blocked the colours neatly - no fancy painting techniques here. As you can see in the picture, I have no extraordinary painting abilities; just tried to block colours neatly. Nothing that puts me above the average, and that would allow me to charge gazillions of dollars for my work!
Now to the stage where the paintjob really takes off! I applied a liberal coat of Winsor & Newton Nut Brown ink straight from the bottle with a wide brush. Again, no fancy techniques. I just made sure that the paint didn't pool too much. The ink is thin and "runny", so it flows in the nooks, crannies and folds naturally, without staining the paintjob too much. It leaves a nice sepia tint, which looks a little gritty.
I really like the results. I use this for almost all figures in any colour - no need to apply separate washes to different parts of the figure, or to repaint/drybrush. If you haven't tried the Winsor & Newton Nut Brown (or Peat Brown) ink, you really owe it to yourself to give it a try!
A word of warning: The stuff dries shiny, and if it comes in contact with water, it will come off! So do yourself a favor, and varnish the figures after the ink dries.
After the ink, I drybrushed the helmets and machinegun with Vallejo Military Green and a little white, to give the figures more dimension.
Then I took the miniatures out into a cool autumn to seal the figures with GW Purity Seal matt varnish. That's when tragedy struck! The varnish turned semi-glossy! I don't mind a satin finish for sci-fi armour, but it didn't look good on WWII Russians....
Apparently, the cool temperature affected the varnish. I was tempted to leave it like that (I don't mind on my own figures) - but since this is a Workbench report, I decided to try and find a solution.
Another coat of varnish under better conditions didn't really solve the problem.
Reluctantly, I decided to give Vallejo's brush-on matte varnish a try. I had had bad experiences with other brands before, but this one worked like a charm! It killed the shine completely.
Then I just lightly drybrushed the metal parts Gunmetal, and the figures were done!
I hope you find this useful, and that proves that you don't need to be a master painter or invest hundreds of hours working to get good results!
