Painting Guide: 20mm Modern US in Multicam

So for the first time I actually took step by step photos for painting these minis and thought I'd put them all together in a guide. 

Backstory: Earlier this year, nearly my entire 20mm modern collection of painted minis was stolen. Fortunately, with the generosity of 3 companies and 2 individuals, I have been able to assemble a larger collection of Modern Middles East miniatures then I had before. So to start on the painting I chose the Modern US infantry that Elhiem Miniatures sent me. Doing a batch of 17 first and using my own uniforms and kit as reference. 

 

These are the Modern US sent to me from Elhiem.

Since I am deployed I could not bring any spray paints so I used a brush on primer to start. 

Next I painted all the skin tones. I made an effort this time to do a better job capturing the diversity in the armed forces. My old collection had all been the same flesh tone out of laziness. 

First Camo layer applied to all the clothing and kit, except weapons and skin.

Mixed 2 parts Beige and 1 part Desert Yellow for the next color but could probably have used just the Beige and would have looked good. Have to apply this and fallowing camo colors and a random pattern as best you can. Keeping them as small as you can. Another method is to use a small piece of sponge or foam with tweezers. I have not tried it but heard it can help get a smaller pattern.

Next the brown, making sure to overlap some of the beige.

Then a darker green.

Finally a black. I didn't want a mat black as that's too dark so chose something a tad lighter.

Next was the kit like gloves, knee pads, goggle covers, ect...

Used mat black for the weapons and highlighted with a grey.

Painting is done so just applied a wash to the whole mini.

For basing I got a scoop of local basing material. I had to do a couple layers in order to cover up the minis base.

The finer dirt kept coming off so I sealed them with a spray of hairspray. It darkened the soil a bit which I was not crazy about at first. After I let it sit for a few days it did lighten up a bit so I did the rest of them. 

Here they are the first batch done.