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Hi all,

My 12 year old was very much interested in Bolt Action, having previously bounced off the 40k setting - so he's just unwrapped a Bolt Action starter set (Band of Brothers) and some extra scenery for his birthday.

I'm looking for paint advice for getting stuff done as quickly as possible while remaining as close as we can to historically accurate. My plan is to use Contrast (or equivalent) over a zenithal prime. Not sure my son will be up for painting multiple layers, washes, highlights etc.

Looking at what I already have, Militarum Green and Creed Camo look about right for the US helmets and uniforms. But I'm struggling with the Germans. Basilicanum Grey looks the wrong tone. Can anyone recommend anything better?

Looking at Stahly's swatches (thank you dude!), I was wondering about Gunner Camo from Army Painter. Can anyone confirm / deny / suggest anything better please?

I think you got the speedy idea down already.
Zenithal prime into Contrast/Speed paint into light drybrush.

I do not have anything specific to reference, or help you directly with right colors or camo patters, but can offer general tips:
1 - Zenithal prime then Contrast/Speed of your armor color over whole unit.
2 - Use the color of the hair to paint the hair, and silver for metal parts.
3 - Paint skin color where skin is needed
4 - (optional) A light dry-brushing/dusting of preferred light color or off-white over whole unit.
5 - (optional) Wash skin with thin thin pinky/peachy wash (ratios doesn't really matter as long as the skin pieces are are shaded/etched) and black wash for the metal parts.
6 - Spray Varnish to protect pieces during game play
7 - (optional) Basing is optional but recommended. For me bases are fun and time consuming, but compensate in a powerful way for my mistakes and poor painting.

Camo is just a different way to apply Contrast/Speed during the step 1. Instead of washing whole model with Contrast/Speed, unit is selectively washed with preferred colors in a preferred pattern.

Hope this helps.

My son (13-14), wanted to do Russians in 28mm to play Battlegroup. He painted around 80 of them in short order.

I don’t know if you’re using an airbrush, but we airbrushed the base coat for Russians and Germans using Vallejo and Army Painter colors, and then he did a simple dark tone wash over the Russian uniform color and picked out hands and faces (I did Germans)

Without the airbrush, we would have used Army Painter rattle cans. They come in colors appropriate for base coats.

For Contrast, a heavily thinned Templar Black might work to get a ‘field grey’. Or a mix of Templar black and dark angels green, heavily thinned. German uniforms had a grey/green coloring to them. You may need a quick dry brush back up to ‘grey’ though if it’s too dark.

The other thing we found is ‘close enough’ works for ww2 with bleaching, sun damage, dye lots, etc.

Thanks guys.

Yes I've already more or less moved over to this technique for my own painting - time and motivation are limited!

I do have an airbrush and while I'm barely more than a beginner with it I'm quite happy to do a zenithal prime...

Having watched a few videos I'm thinking Gunner Camo is a bit too green, but Burnt Moss might be a better fit?

We (largely he, with just a bit of help from me) built his half-track over the weekend, so painting is imminent. I will try to get it primed through this week, and order some supplies, so we're ready to paint next weekend...

Awesome!
Please share the result when you can, we'd love to see it.