Welcome to our first Bolt Action blog post!

As I'm itching to get a small Bolt Action force on the table and play my first games I've begun speed painting some British Commonwealth Infantry, which will be the core of my new list.

This plastic kit series is a collaboration between Italeri and Warlord Games, and is a great way to get things started.

So lets go through a quick step by step of painting British infantry to basic tabletop standard.

Paints Used:

• Army Painter Black Spray Primer
• Army Painter Quickshade Strong Tone Dip
• Vallejo Light Ghost Grey Primer
• Vallejo Model Colours: English Uniform
• Khaki
• Russian Uniform Green
• Reflective Green
• Black
• Flat Brown
• Flat Flesh
• Gunmetal

Step One: Priming

Once the models are cleaned and assembled I started by spray priming with Army Painter Matt Black. Then I applied a quick zenithal highlight by applying a thin coat of Light Ghost Grey primer using an airbrush spraying down at a 45 degree angle.

This is a really quick, easy way to apply some pre-shading and highlights to the figures prior to the main basecoats and you could also do this using a light coat of a light grey or white spray primer.

Step Two: Base-coating the Uniforms

English Uniform is the main colour for British infantry. To keep things nice and quick I used an airbrush to basecoat my figures in batches. Since I was using the model colour paints these need to be thinned down in order to apply with an airbrush, so I made a 60/40 mix of paint to thinner.

If you're not using an airbrush, grab a medium sized brush, such as an Army Painter Regiment brush, and apply the uniform colour to the trousers, jackets and canteen.

Step Three: Painting the Details

Next I picked out the webbing, ammo pouches, gaiters and back packs with Khaki. The covered helmets, including those with camo strips, were picked out with Reflective Green.

Then I grabbed some Russian Uniform Green and painted the uncovered metal helmets, respirator bags and the camo strips on the other helmets.

For the bayonet scabbards and boots I used Black, with the exception of my officer's boots which were painted with Flat Brown.

Flat brown was also used for the wooden stocks of the weapons and tools, with Gunmetal used on the metal parts.

Finally I gave the hands and faces a couple of coats of Flat Flesh

Step Four: Time for a Quickshade Dip

When it comes to getting miniatures looking good on the table quickly, the Army Painter Quickshade Dips are second to none! These dips are a pigmented gloss varnish, which gives fast shading and also helps to protect your basecoats from wear and tear.

As the name suggests the fastest way to apply the quickshade is to dip your model into it and shake off the excess- Do this outside and in old clothes as it gets messy quickly!.

However I prefer to apply Quickshade using an older brush, in this case I used the one which came with the Italeri infantry set, as it gives more control over the flow of the dip. I also add a small amount of turpentine to thin down the quickshade slightly.

The important thing is to apply an even coat across the whole model and remove any excess if it begins to pool. Make sure you work in a well ventilated area when using this brush method.

Step Five: Anti-shine Varnish

After a model have had Quickshade applied to it you need to give it plenty of time to dry before continuing with any more painting- I usually leave them for 24 hours.

Since Quickshade has a very high gloss finish you need to apply a good coat of matte varnish to dull it back down. I used the Army Painter Anti-shine Spray, as has been specifically designed to be used in combination with the quickshades.

With the gloss finish gone its a lot easier to see the results of the quickshade, which has added a lot of definition to miniatures and a good standard of shading. So these miniatures are now ready to go onto the tabletop for some games.

Next time I'll go through adding additional highlights, shading and weathering to take these models from a basic tabletop standard up through to a completed finish.