Welcome back to another Flames of War Friday. This week its time to pick the paint brush back up and start painting some German infantry.

The Open Fire Starter Set includes a full Grenadier Kompanie, made up of a Command HQ and two grenadier platoons. It's quite a lot of models and they are packed full of detail so be prepared for them to take a bit longer than the US paratroopers we painted a few weeks ago.

I'm going to be using the following paint scheme using the colors from the Vallejo Model Colour range.

• German Fieldgrey- Uniforms
• Green Grey – Highlights & anklets
• German Camo. Dark Green- Helmets & gas mask canister
• Chocolate Brown – Boots & canteen
• Beige Brown – Rifle wood
• German Camo. Beige- Bread bag & rifle sling
• Gunmetal Grey – Exposed metal
• Flat Flesh- Faces & hands
• Black- Webbing & pouches

Stage 1: Priming & Base Coat

Start by gluing the models to popsicle sticks in batches of 5–6 and priming them. I used model air grey primer and an airbrush but a spray or brush primer will also work well. Then use a medium sized brush to paint the uniforms and trousers German field grey. Notice how some of the models have a baggy uniform smock? We will come back to those next week as they are wearing camouflage.

Stage 2: Drybrush Unifrom

To highlight the raised areas of the unform make a mix of 50/50 German fieldgrey and green grey. Then drybrush the uniform. Drybrushing is when you wipe most of the paint off the brush onto a paper towel or tissue and then quickly brush across the raised surfaces. This will quickly and easily highlight those areas.

Stage 3: Helmets, Webbing & Pouches

Now its time to start painting the smaller details. there are 2 types of helmets; covered and uncovered. Paint the uncovered helmets German camo. dark green, the covered ones we will also look at next week. Also paint the gas mask canister dark camo green as well. Then paint the webbing straps and pouches black.

Stage 4: Bread Bags, Boots, Tools & Rifles

The boots, tool handles and rifle wood are given a coat of chocolate brown, as is the canteen. Just above the boots are the anklets, paint these green grey. Then paint the rifle slings and bread bag German camo. beige. The metal rifle and tool parts are painted with gunmetal grey.

Stage 5: Faces and Hands

The final stage for this week is painting the hands and faces. Start by giving a base coat of light brown or camo beige. This will help give good coverage when you paint the flat flesh which follows. At this point we have everything base coated and are off to a good start.

Stay tuned for next week as we will bust out some washes and highlights to give shading and definition to the models and go through how to paint the camouflage patterns.

You can also check out this great tutorial video from Battlefront.