In this post, I talk about painting miniatures quickly for my Sci-Fi Human Defense Force Army. So far, I have been using these miniatures for the game Grimdark Future by OnePage Rules. That said, the army is built so that it would work like a proxy Imperial Guard Army (aka an Astra Militarum Army) for Warhammer 40K.
Table of Contents
The Miniatures I used for this Project
In this post, the figures I focus on fare the Death Fields Cannon Fodder miniatures by Wargames Atlantic. To paint them, I used paints exclusively by The Army Painter.
Let’s look at the boxes quickly before I jump right in and show you how I painted these miniatures up.
The parts within the Cannon Fodder and Cannon Fodder 2 miniatures are interchangeable. For more variety, I intermixed some of the parts on these minis from the two boxes.
If you are interested in the Cannon Fodder Minis, you can check their price on Amazon, go directly to Wargames Atlantic or check your favourite retailer.
Now, let me tell you how I painted these miniatures up for my Imperial Guard / Human Defense Force Army.
Painting Miniatures Quickly to a Tabletop Standard with The Army Painter
Below are the paints I used for this project. The paints I used from The Army Painter are from an older line, but they still look fantastic! I hear that their newer paints are even better.
Now, let’s go through each step quickly.
Step One – Prime Miniatures
To Start, I primed these miniatures white with a can of The Army Painter Matt White Spray Can Primer. Next up, I painted the base colours on the model.
Step Two – Lay Down the Base Colours
It is at this stage that I picked this project back up at. My attention shifts often, so I jump from project to project and often have many models on the go in various states of completeness.
This time, I picked back up my Cannon Figure miniatures and continued on with them. In this batch, I have 20 miniatures destined for two squads of 10 infantry squads.
Again, I used an older paint line, and the newer lines of The Army Paints are better reviewed than the older ones I used in this post. Regardless, let’s carry on.
For the base colours in this step, I used the paints listed below.
- Ash Grey (Helmets of one of the two squads)
- Matt Black (The base)
- Barbarian Flesh (Face and hands)
- Fog Grey (Clothes)
- Matt White (Shoes / boots and helmets of one of the two squads)
- Gun Metal (the guns)
- Pure Red (Hair)
Step Three – Apply Shade
For this step I applied the shades. To start, I used Blue Tone over the Fog Grey parts of the minis. It looks fantastic! I really like how this blue turned out.
To give it a richer tone, I went over the models twice with each shade.
After painting the models, I moved on to the guns, helmets and feet.
The Grey Helmets and Guns I used strong tone while the shoes received dark tone.
I gave the soldiers with white helmets a dark tone there instead of strong tone. Looking good so far!
To finish up, I painted the eyes and hands with Skin Tone.
Step 4 – Highlights
I skipped this step for these 20 miniatures standard infantry models, but I did not skip this step for the special weapons teams, commanders and veterans / command squad. More images of those miniatures further down in the article.
This figure I highlighted the metal hand, gun and white hat. The jump suit looks different on this miniature than the others because I used different shades for it. For this model’s blue suit above I base coated with Fog Grey, then placed a Dark Tone on it and added a Blue Tone after the dark on dried.
That is why this miniature’s suit appears to have a little more definition to it while my other minis are a little more vibrant. She is destined to be a commander in my Cannon Fodder forces.
Now, let’s take a quick look at how the 20 Guardsmen that I was working on most recently look.
The Completed Cannon Fodder Miniatures
Below is a showcase of miniatures that I painted in this batch of figures. Overall, I feel they turned out really well! Further down, you will see the specialist miniatures I mentioned earlier that I spent a little more time painting.
These miniatures look absolutely fantastic!!!! I am very happy with how they looked upon completion of the project.
To take the figures further, I should add a little more colour onto them. I am thinking that painting some red badges, or applying decals, on them would look great. Perhaps even putting a number on their backs as if they were some sort of “Vault Dweller” or from a specific platoon would look nice too!
Earlier Cannon Fodder Miniatures Painted using The Army Painter
The 20 miniatures I painted in this batch of figures is a part of a larger force. Many of the miniatures I painted earlier. If you follow my Instagram or my Facebook feeds, you may have already seen these pictures.
For those of you who have not seen these painted miniatures, let’s take a closer look!!!
As a note, I am using these figures for Grimdark Future by One Page Rules, but the miniatures could also serve as a proxy force similar to the Astra Militarum in games like Warhammer 40K.
The figure above I gave a grey jumpsuit with blue kneecaps and a blue hat. I painted her different than the 10-member infantry squads to denote a different type of squad. The five miniatures I painted in this style I envision as part of a command squad or as a veteran soldier group.
In One Page Rules, there are 3 soldier weapon specialist teams. I made three figures as plasma gun operators. They look fantastic. I used a different blue for the gun affect and gave them extra highlights through dry brushing to mimic a glowing gun look.
I also gave them backpacks too so that I had a reason to break up the blue of the model with some white with Dark Tone shading.
The minis above are carrying the equivalent of a melta gun. I am super happy with how the highlights turned out on these miniatures. Wow! They turned out amazing!!!
Related Posts
If you enjoyed this close look at painted Cannon Fodder Miniatures by Wargames Atlantic, then please take a look at these posts below for related content.
- Paint Tanks Fast for a Brilliant Tabletop Ready Army with The Army Painter – A Quick 3 Color Paint Scheme
- Working in the Sun – Work In Progress
- Basing Miniatures in Seconds – Geek Gaming Scenics Review
- Ending 2023 – My Awesome Les Grognard Ogres
- New Guard Proxies by Wargames Atlantic
- Les Grognards Command and Heavy Support Review
- Wargames Atlantic British Bulldogs Review
- Les Grognard Cavalry Review – 3D Printed
- Les Grognard Command and Heavy Support Video Review
- Eisenkern Stormtroopers Video Review
Wrapping it up…
Thank you for checking out my most recent batch of painted miniatures by Wargames Atlantic. They make great miniatures at fantastic prices!
The Army Painter paints helped me make these figures look really great quickly. The paints I used are from their older line. There newer paints are even easier from what I have seen on the internet.
If you haven’t checked out The Army Painter, they are worth a look. Like Wargames Atlantic, they make great products at very affordable prices. These paints are very easy to find at many retail stores, and you can even check their prices on Amazon too!
Until next time, Happy Gaming Everyone!!!
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