British Infantry: Vallejo Xpress Colors test

Yes I’ll admit it, I’ve jumped on the latest trend of contrast paints!

Very happy with how my HYW English are turning out, I thought I’d try out the Xpress Color (colour) paints on my British Infantry platoon for Burma 1944/45. Let’s have a look at the recipe I’ve followed here.

Step 1: I’ve started by basing the weak platoon, which are all AB Figures, and with my usual Vallejo Pumice covering.

Step 2: My go-to primer; Halfords Grey Primer applied.

Step 3: White drybrush to the skin areas, and a much lighter dry-brush on the rest of the figure as I know the green paint will be fairy light. I understand the phrase I should be using here is ‘zenithal dry-brushing’.

Step 4: Dwarf Skin applied to skin areas.

Step 5: Plague Green for all the uniform areas.

Step 6: Wasteland Brown and Medium mix (approx 1:3 dilution) applied to webbing.

Step 7: Black Lotus used for the binoculars and boots.

It’s taken around 15 minutes to get to this stage, so quite quick. I’d now left it to dry overnight but my first impressions weren’t positive. It will look better in the morning I told myself!

Here’s the result of my test the following morning:

While it’s super quick, I’m not especially drawn to the result!! I could try and save it with highlights and/or dry-brushing, but I’m going back to primer and starting again on the weekend. The rest of the platoon have been stood down and returned to their barracks in the WIP drawers!

In summary, I personally think these paints work really well on vibrant figures, but I’m not convinced for the more ‘drab’ periods. I’ll post up my HYW English soon, they’re coming along much better.