AIW Painting Challenge Month One - Ben's Israelis

Hello All

As you may remember we start an Arab-Israeli War painting challenge thanks to the sale Battlefront did a month or so ago. After much chatting and swapping of sides I ended up with Israelis and decided to paint up an infantry company to be different from the mainly tank heavy forces the others would be collecting.

My original plan for the first month was to paint up my 4 M51 Isherman's and the jeep squadron, As you might tell from the above photo I didn't get to do this as my Isherman's were delayed (I should have guessed the tanks would be popular!). I ended up buying two Sho'ts off ebay and painted them up instead.

I followed the painting guide from the Colours of 67 guide on the BF website but with my own little twists. I will be honest (yes Winner it is the best policy) and say I hated the tanks until the final stage. This is nothing new to me (I had the same experience with my US, British and Soviet armour) but it was very disheartening to be painting something you don't think looks good. I am very happy with them now I have finished them and I look forward to getting the M51's and other tanks painted at a later date.

The Jeeps were a lot of fun to paint. I painted them at same way as the tanks but after the tanks were done (so these were a lot less disheartening!). I wanted to paint the jeep this month to try out painting the uniforms and the basing. Yes I know people are going to say "Evan and BF went for all that trouble of removing the bases from jeeps for you to put them back on one!" and while there is a point to statement I personally like jeeps and over transports on bases, I might go back and base the Sho'ts too.

The basing was simple, I used Vallejo's desert sand basing pumice, once dried (and it takes a good 6 to 12 hours to dry) I dry brushed on some Vallejo Deck Tan and added some greeny/browny turfs. I was going to add some green flock but I couldn't find any and I like the way they look without them so I don't think I'd add them on now. I will say if you are doing desert bases then I highly recommend Vallejo's basing pumice.

Next month I plan to paint up both infantry platoons so this will be the biggest month by far. My M51's from turned up now so if I get time I will paint them up too to "replace" the Sho'ts.

Thanks for reading, please check out Adam's and Winner Dave's updates over the past week.

Ben