I will be using Andrea's Black Paint set to practice painting black Panzer uniforms. I haven't used Andrea paints before. The first thing I noticed is that they have a strong smell, which is unusual for an acrylic paint. The smell reminds me of a metal polish.
The set includes six paint pots that are similar to Vallejo in style. A base colour, 2 highlights and 3 shadow shades are included.
An instruction sheet shows how to apply and mix the different shades.
The practice figure is from Tamiya's Panther G kit and is based on a crew photographed in Normandy in an early G. For it's age it is not that bad and will do nicely for practice.
The tools I use for figure prep. Mini side cutters, scouring pad, file, knife, old toothbrush and not shown, sanding film and a pin.
The scouring pad is very useful for removing the mold seams as it conforms to the creases and folds of the uniform. If used too aggressively it will scratch the surface and soften detail, but if used carefully it does a great job of cleaning up those seams. It can also be used wet to minimise dust.
I use a toothbrush, used wet, for removing dust from uniform seams. I use a pin to scribe any lines that are affected by the mold seam.
This is a very useful reference book, that I highly recommend. The book covers most types of German Army Uniforms, throughout WW2, from private soldiers fatigue uniforms to Generals best uniforms.
The publishers also do a book on the Waffen SS and another book dedicated to Panzer uniforms, as well as books on Allied uniforms.
All of the uniforms are original and are worn by real people, photographed in a studio. The book goes into a lot of detail about the uniforms and gives the dates that certain areas of the uniforms changed. (eg. pocket shape, collar colour, number of buttons, all useful information for modelling a particular uniform.) For example the dark green collar, seen on the book cover, was changed on new manufactured tunics to the same field grey cloth as the rest of the uniform, in May 1940. However, some soldiers had the new tunic collar changed back to the dark green! The rest of uniform was unchanged at that date.
The book also shows the inside lining of hats and uniforms as well as personal equipment.
The only criticism is that the lighting changes in some photos so that the same piece of uniform looks a different colour.
I will try and update as often as I can.
Tim