Phew! It’s been a longish stretch of painting Partisans this week (and picking up penguins*). It’s not that the Partisans took a long time in the grand scheme of things, a full platoon in a week isn’t exactly tough. However, they did take long as far as Bolt Action painting is concerned. My Russians and Italians for example were painted far quicker.
Russians on the whole get sprayed light brown, you pick out faces and hands, boots, blanket rolls, banding and finally helmets and guns. Give them an all over wash, followed by a bone drybrush and you’re good.
My Italians were even easier since everything was green.
For Partisans however, you need them to not have uniforms. Uniforms being rather counterproductive for a lot of what Partisans might want to get up to.
So I went with the grid system:
You put your figures into a grid, and then to save you the headache of making decisions, you paint all the figures’ trousers in one row brown, the next navy and so on. Then you paint in columns, all figures in one columns coats are brown, the next navy and so on. In the end you have a uniform looking force, however no single man matches any other.
Then you have to basecoat the rest, skin, weaponry and accessories.
Each figure was then washed with Army Painter’s Strong Tone which I hadn’t used before but quite liked, however I think I do actually prefer Citadel’s Targor Rageshade for this purpose. And then each figure was drybrushed with Citadel’s Wraithbone for highlights.
With a bit of extra time to spare and sticking to the mantra ‘faces and bases’ I took the time to highlight each figures’ face:
I did the bases in my current standard way, a glued down sand and gravel mix, which then gets locked in with my base wash (water, pva and black paint), and I then put down patches of my one step basing mix:
https://deathzap.co.uk/2021/10/03/one-step-bases/
So that’s my 32 Partisans painted. I’ve got the MG team, mortar team and anti-tank gun to go. I’d like to work in a unique looking squad at some point, possibly some free French police. I’ll probably actually need some vehicles and maybe a looted tank.
Looking forward to more Bolt Action 3rd Edition in the new year!
*If you’re not from the UK and of a certain age you may not get that reference.
Deathzap 
They look really nice.
I like the painting on the partisans in particular.
Thanks!
So much character, the scarf alone! must resist urge for new project
Wargames Atlantic’s Partisans are soooo good!
They look effective.
I love your grid technique for speed-painting an army! I might give that a go on my orcs, and I’ve got zombies from Zombicide to do as well!
Very nice overall look – I like them!
Very nice looking group!