US Armoured Infantry For “Secrets Of The Third Reich” Project

These “West Wind Productions” models are from the ‘Secrets of the Third Reich’ ‘blister’ US-SOTR-1 “US Amoured Infantry”, but also form part of the SOTR-SP03 US Armoured Infantry Starter Box Set.

All of the models were initially treated to an undercoat of Chaos Black, before their shirts and ankle armour were painted with Dheneb Stone and Devlan Mud. Their body armour was first treated to a coat of Knarloc Green before being given a combined wash of Thraka Green and Devlan Mud. However I just used Knarloc Green and Thraka Green for their helmets, in order to make them stand out a bit more. Their trousers were painted with Calthan Brown and Devlan Mud. Although for the odd model (not pictured) I have used a combination of Dark Flesh and Devlan Mud. All of the gas masks' breathing apparatus and eye lenses were painted with Boltgun Metal before being given a wash of Badab Black.

Back in January 2010 I got hold of a couple of US-SOTR14 ‘US Battle Suit 50 Cal HMG–Comanche’ models second-hand (as part of a pair of SOTR-SP03 ‘US Armoured Infantry’ starter sets). At the time I complained about how dissatisfied I was with the models' joints and that even after some significant drilling and pinning, and some liberal applications of (various) superglues, I still found that the arms continued to droop or the torso fell apart. In the end, I resorted to some generous ‘dollops’ of "Milliput" to ensure a ‘fit’. I was never happy with the final result as I felt that the putty around the arms was so obvious, especially after I managed to fit the second model together without anywhere near as much "Milliput".

In the end, this unhappiness ground me down and in a moment of madness I pulled the beast apart in order to start again. I don't know what shocked me the most, the sheer amount of putty I had used or the fact that it was still soft despite some eight months of being on the model! Anyway, after half an hour of careful scraping, I managed to clean the limbs and set about re-attaching them to the body using "Games Workshop" "Modelling Putty (Green Stuff)". This stuff worked like a charm, and quickly set. Thus I was left with just the problem of repainting the 'damaged bare metal' areas of the battlesuit.

Previously the model had simply been painted with Knarloc Green and a wash of Devlan Mud and Thrakka Green. This time I painted the 'bare metal' areas Dark Flesh in order to build the foundation of a simple camouflage scheme. I painted over a few of the other areas of the model with Dark Flesh as well to expand the pattern. Then I added 'blobs' of Dheneb Stone to these areas and finally some further 'splotches' of Chaos Black. I gave the Deheneb Stone and Dark Flesh areas a wash of Devlan Mud to dirty them up and tie-in better with the rest of the model's Knarloc Green/Devlan Mud/Thraka Green paint scheme. However I still wanted to show that some of the battlesuit's parts had been recently replaced/patched up, so I simply picked out the odd piece of armour with Boltgun Metal and Badab Black.