“KGB Bully Boys”

OK so some of you might remember (though probably not) over the last couple of years I’ve been (very) slowly building up a small stable of “Secret Agents”, now do I plan to ever game with these figures…probably not but it’s a fun little side project that I plan to add to this year. Now to this end I stuck a few suitable figures on my “advent” list along with asking for a couple of packs I would like for my birthday, and these three come from the latter (which was last month by the way). So unfortunately this does mean that they don’t qualify for Dave’s “Paint what you’ve got challenge” (sorry Dave), but anyway I give you…

KKBB108 KGB Men (Copplestone Casting)

These three figures are by the great Mark Copplestone, I love Mark’s stuff, they are just really paintable in my view, nicely detailed but nothing too small as to be a pain to pick out, and as with these chaps they always have great faces. But enough gushing by me let’s get onto the painting.

We’ll start with “Baldy”, well I say start, but I guess I need to cover the preliminaries first, as usual they were re-based away from their (spit spit) “slotta’s onto two pence pieces, their bases were then textured with some filler and cat litter, and they were sprayed black. Good, now that’s out of the way, here we go. I set straight to work on his leather jacket and as one of the others was going to have a black one I went chocolate brown with highlights of saddle and leather on this, his boots were the same without the saddle middle bit (OK I forgot 🙄). Next I added his trousers in dark grey with mid grey highlights, and while the dark grey was out I highlighted his gun with his to give an   ebonised finished as opposed to the metallic of the others. His flesh was European flesh with a touch of dark fleshtone added, and after his eyes went in I highlighted with just European flesh. Lastly I added a “dot” of dark red on the tiny bit of his shirt visible at the neck of his jacket.

“Flat top” next and he was even easier to paint due to his single colour suit. Which I started after dry-brushing his gun with a little chainmail, with a coat of navy blue mixed with a little black, next highlights of more navy blue were applied and finally yet more navy blue this time mixed with a little royal blue formed the final highlights here. His jumper I decided would be sand but before I could apply this I undercoat the area in a mix of sand and saddle to darken the lowlights. His boots I left black but added some dark grey highlights. His flesh along with the following figure I did in a mix of Bronze fleshtone, pale flesh, dwarf skin and a touch of dark fleshtone. I basically blobbed a bit of each on a “Pringles” lid and mixed touches of each together till I got something close to what I was after then painted his fleshy bits in this. after his (and the next chaps) eyes were added I highlighted the flesh in another mix of these but with more of the pale flesh added, (I actually love the way his eyes came out all crazy and starring, he looks a total nutcase!). That just left his hair to add and I went with more black with dark grey highlights here too.

Lastly we have this chap in the “black leather jacket” (as these look more like assassins or enforcers, than actual agents I haven’t bothered to name them), again I started with his gun giving it a dry-brushing of chainmail, and his jacket was just highlighted with dark grey over  the black undercoat, as were his shoes. His trousers were then painted Eurasian flesh (I never seem to use this on actual flesh! 🤨), anyway this was followed by highlights of the same mixed with a little coffee to lighten it. I added a little coffee and cream to the collar of his shirt/jumper whatever, that’s visible at his neck, and did his flesh the same as above. That just left his hair and as he reminded me of an old “Action Man” (12”, GI Joe for our American friends) that I’d inherited from my older brother as a child, I painted his hair to match this (this was a pre “realistic hair” version). So that means after I’d painted it in chocolate brown I added highlights in chestnut.

All the figures were then given a coat of “Armypainter” Quickshade (strong tone) and the bases on all three figures were first painted chocolate brown before being heavily dry brushed with Khaki and then lightly dry brushed with coffee, then sections were painted over with scenic green and “javis” hairy flock was glued on, and of course a final blow over with some matt varnish knocked the shine off them and I called them done. Of course there is another thing these chaps don’t exactly qualify for and that is Alex’s “Fem’bruary challenge”, where we as wargamers and painters celebrate all things la’femme, but I hope to put that right next week.

So till then, Cheers Roger.

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