Painting the Freikorps [Tutorial]

Painting the “Freikorpsman” model. This is how I paint the Freikorps models, most of this tutorial is replicated on the other troop types such as Librarian, Specialist and the Trapper. The tutorial is written in the “painting order” which allows for most convenient painting and cleanup procedure of these somewhat tricky models.

Pants and shirt as well as mask undercoated with charred brown

Mask, Khaki over charred brown. Wash with Badab Black, then after it has dried, wash again with Gryphonne Sepia.

Eye lenses, dot with white, then apply a light wash of Thraka Green

Basecoat shirt and pants (don’t forget the collar beneath the mask front and back of the neck area) as well as pants in a 50-50 mix of Khaki and Charred Brown. Pants should be covered to 100% since this will be the basecoat color. While painting the shirt you can leave some of the Charred Brown visible in the folds.



Pants,
The pants are not that hard to paint. I use 3 shades of cream color – Vallejo Khaki, P3 Menoth White Base and Vallejo Bone white. In that order. To smooth the surface after the last layer of Bone white I apply some Vallejo Matt varnish. Start with the Vallejo Khaki and work your way towards Bone white. Simple as that. Leave some of each previous color showing as you apply the next layer/color. You want some shadows in the folds of those pants.


Shirt,
Starting with  the sleeves and the stripes – for the Freikoirpsmenn I picked the color yellow. So I start painting the stripes by applying lines of Charred brown, then Vallejo Scrofulus Brown mixed with Iyanden Darksun. Leave the dark brown edges visible. Then fill in the Khaki colored stripes with pure Khaki (also good time for cleanup if you need to make the lines straight). Wash the shirt with a light wash of Ogryn Flesh wash. Then apply Sun Yellow to highlight the yellow stripes.

The Freikorps symbol on the wrist is undercoated charred brown, then painted with Scarlett red followed by Blood Red.

With the sleeves done, simpy highlight the shirt fabric around the neck and the waist with Khaki.

Armor, gas mask, earphones, wires, tubes, shoulderpads and kneepads.
This next step completes a lot of areas on the model. I only use 3 colors for all above mentioned areas. Black, Stonewall Grey and White. White is only used as final extreme highlight. So most is done by mixing black and stonewall grey, and start out painting all areas and highlight everything in layers, going from a dark grey to light grey mix and finally top it off with one highlight of pure Stonewall grey and pure white on top of that one.

Leggings, shoulder and kneepads
The shoulder and kneepads area made up of 4 “stripes”, paint half in stonewall grey and half in orkhide shade. Also paint the leggings in orkhide shade. All of this is a basecoat, but be careful not to make a mess and ruin your highlights on the knee and shoulderpads.

Wash the shoulder and kneepads with Ogryn Flesh Wash, and the leggings with Badab Black. Now repaint the grey areas on the shoulder/kneepads with stonewall grey and the green areas with a mix of Knarloc Green and Orkhide shade.

The leggings now shaded with the badab black wash should be painted with a 50-50 mix of Vallejo US Dark Green and Orkhide shade followed by a highlight layer of pure US Dark Green. Paint the buttons on the leggings with black and give them a highlight of stonewall grey to make them pop out from the green color.

Only a few easy things left to paint now, the straps, backpack, bedroll, flesh, weapons and base.

Starting with the bedroll and straps around the neck and holding the air filter. Basecoat the straps and bedroll Scorched brown. Mix 50-50 Scorched Brown with Bestial Brown and apply that as a second layer on the bedroll. Then a highlight of pure Bestial brown and give it a wash of Ogryn Flesh Wash. For the straps around the neck and the ones holding the air filter use Leather Brown and highlight it with Leather Brown mixed with Bone White. The straps holding the bedroll together are basecoated black and highlighted with a mix of Stonewall grey and black.

Backpack,  is simply basecoated Orkhide shade, highlighted with Vallejo German Uniform and gently washed with Badab Black.




Flesh,  basecoated Charred brown, First layer is made up of Tanned Flesh, then Dwarf Flesh and finally highlighted with Elf flesh. Give the skin a gentle wash of Ogryn Flesh Wash.

Weapons, simple drybrush of Chainmail on the knife blade and pommel, wash with Badab Black. The hilt is painted bestial brown. The pistol is painted chainmail and washed with Badab Black. The grip is painted black.

Base, the entire surface is painted Scorched Brown, follow up by drybrushing it with Khaki. The leaves are painted Purple and highlighted with Purple mixed with Bone white. Jungle Tufts and Grass Green flock are then applied – and it’s done.