Custom Infantry

I’ve been busy lately searching the world for the little plastic soldiers that I used to play with when I was a little boy. I just happened to come across them only a couple of blocks from my house at the hobby store. They didn’t have all the ones I wanted so I went online and ordered the rest. I’m not sure if I got exactly the same brand that I used to have as a kid but these look just like them anyways. Check them out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omPptc9C2_4

None of the infantry came in a colour which is consistent with A&A and all of the colours are different. The Germans didn’t need to be painted but the rest certainly did. I chose to paint the Germans because I liked the colour of metallic black more than I like the OOB colour. I was able to find a paint that was pretty close to the UK so I didn’t need to paint the rest of the pieces. The only paint that was even close to being Japan was the perfect colour but it was a clear paint so it needed 2-3 coats to get it the colour that you see in the video. Luckily the pieces were a light brown to begin with or that wouldn’t have worked. The Aussies were green so a clear burnt orange paint would have given them a different colour I think.

The spray paints that I used were Tamiya Color For Plastics which I bought in the hobby store where they sell models. The colours were;
U.K.  TS-46 Light Sand  Very close match don’t need to paint everything else
U.S.  TS-28 Olive Drab 2  I really like this colour so I painted all of the pieces to match
Japan  TS-73 Clear Orange  At least 2 coats
ANZAC  TS-66 UN Gray  Not sure I like it as much as OOB but went with it
Russia  TS-11 Maroon  Same colour but much deeper so had to paint rest of pieces
Germany  TS-40 Metallic Black  Turned out awesome
Italy  I couldn’t match a Tamiya paint to Italy so I cheaped out and got a plastic paint from the hardware store. I regretted this decision because it goes on a lot thicker and does not give a good finish. The good side is it matches perfectly to OOB so I didn’t need to paint the other pieces. The bad side is I’m not happy with the finished product. The lesson is buy the right paint, pick a colour you like, and paint all of your pieces.

I was able to buy 6 boxes of infantry at my local hobby store in the model department. This is your best bet because you don’t have to wait or pay a shipping fee. I bought 2 boxes from Amazon. They have a great selection and quick delivery (type in “Airfix 1:72 figures” into the search box and see what they have). The Italians are out of print so had to get them from Ebay (paid twice as much for delivery as I paid for the box).

Airfix is not the only brand but those are the only ones I’ve tried so far. There are several brands and I found a website based in Atlanta that sells all of them. I have ordered 6 more boxes from them but can’t vouch for them yet because I have not received delivery yet (still too soon). Their site is;
https://www.hobbylinc.com/1:72-scale-world-war-ii-wwii-plastic-model-military-figures

Last thing is that you will have to trim them a bit with a utility knife. They are molded and come still connected to their shipping plastic thingy. If you want them to stand up straight then you have to shave the nub off the bottom of the base after you twist them off. Some might also have a bit more to shave off as well. It’s not that big of a deal though, you’re a big boy (or girl) you can do it.

I will do that thanks. I pushed the button on the publish video just moments before I went to work last night and didn’t have time to do all of that yesterday.

Too bad Sired cuz I would’ve been willing to trade you some of them for a deck of your cards. I have almost half of them left unpainted.  :|

I’ve got dozens of troops with your name on it. Hmm I wonder if YG wants to trade for his pending card deck too…

I didn’t use primer but I don’t really know what I’m doing though. I washed the pieces in warm, soapy water then dried them thoroughly. I found the best way to paint them was to lay them all face down on a piece of cardboard and spray them as per directions on the can. After about 10-15 minutes I moved them to a drier part of the cardboard using a toothpick to keep them from sticking to the surface. After about 2 hours I flipped them all over and painted the other side again moving them with the toothpick. Depending on the colour you might have to do a second coat but most of them only needed one coat. I waited until the next day to spray the glossy lacquer on the pieces because I found that they needed to be perfectly dry and hardened to get a good finish. I used the same method to spray that on as the paint.

@GeneralHandGrenade:

I was able to buy 6 boxes of infantry at my local hobby store in the model department. This is your best bet because you don’t have to wait or pay a shipping fee. I bought 2 boxes from Amazon. They have a great selection and quick delivery (type in “Airfix 1:72 figures” into the search box and see what they have). The Italians are out of print so had to get them from Ebay (paid twice as much for delivery as I paid for the box).

Airfix is not the only brand but those are the only ones I’ve tried so far. There are several brands and I found a website based in Atlanta that sells all of them. I have ordered 6 more boxes from them but can’t vouch for them yet because I have not received delivery yet (still too soon). Their site is;
https://www.hobbylinc.com/1:72-scale-world-war-ii-wwii-plastic-model-military-figures

My infantry arrived in good condition and in a timely fashion. It took about as long as an order from HBG to get to me way up here in Northern British Columbia. Some things I’ve learned about these custom infantry that I should share with you;
1. Not all sets are created equal. The Russian Infantry and the Japanese Infantry had tiny bases on them and they don’t stand up very well.
2. Not all manufacturers are equal. Up until the time that I created my original post here I had only used Airfix Pieces. Since then I’ve purchased Caesar Miniatures and Pegasus brand pieces and they were better quality than Airfix. Not all of the Airfix sets were bad most of them I’m happy with. I’m going to do a video on all of my customizations and you can see the difference between them. I do have both in my R&D video, Greatcoat Germans from Caesar Miniatures and Greatcoat Russians from Pegasus but I don’t get up close to them and talk about them. Both have much better bases. The Russians you have to partly assemble but the end product is well worth it, they are the best that I have. I have just ordered some Japanese from Pegasus so I don’t have to keep picking them up off their tiny little faces.

There are hundreds of sets from different manufacturers at the Hobbylinc site if you want to check them out;
https://www.hobbylinc.com/1:72-scale-world-war-ii-wwii-plastic-model-military-figures

Nice!
Are those the WW1 Indian Infantry by HAT?