Been trying my hand at a new field of action, specifically an early Battlefront Tiger in 15mm for Flames Of War or some thing similar like Rapid Fire rules.
Its not finished yet and I plan to do a KV1 at the same time ,but one thing is plainly obvious
…..what a pain in the arse 15mm is compared to giant 40k models.
All credit to people who paint 15mm stuff its seriously fiddly.
Problems I have encountered so far and as I mentioned its not finished yet !
- Battlefront Tigers don’t come with assembly instructions.
- Ever tried removing a metal jack in 15mm scale from a sprue and not cutting your fingers off ?
- Tiny parts of metal need super glue which by its nature runs and the parts stick to you.
- My detail brush is well small, but not small enough for 15mm.
- Even with super glue small parts fall off days after while you try to paint them.
- I never base tanks but after the tiny parts falling off scenario I can see wisdom in doing just that so my fat fingers don’t squeeze off a mud flap or two.
- Airbrushing tiny detail is difficult and its easier using free hand.
- Ignore pictures of other models on the net and use real pictures to get the detail correct.
- Leave gluing on tracks/wheels until last or you cannot get behind these areas.
The picture below is my work in progress. The KV is a plastic Zvezda.
I`ll update as I progress, if I progress ?
If anybody has any tips/hints on painting these mini beasts please feel free to share your secrets.
The model warrior 
15mm is not so bad to paint – remember the art is to fool the eye not accurately have a little rust around each rivet. I use same brushes for 28mm, 15mm and 6mm.
Do I get serious kudos for painting 6mm then? 😉
Hi there. Some tips that may help for 15mm is to blu-tack the pieces separately to something else, like a paint pot or golf tees. That way you’re not handling the piece that you are painting and break little bits off and chip the paint. Then once you are finished glue the pieces together.
I think that the Battlefront website is getting better at making guides at putting the kits together, try to find your model on the online store and see whether there is a link to the assembly guide. The search function is pretty bad on their website, but you may get lucky.
The forum is a handy point to ask questions about modelling details and for reference photos. I know that it’s helped me out a lot recently.
And finally keep the paint thin and your patience high 😉
A really nice looking blog that you have here, looking forward to reading more.
I find contact adhesive so useful that I never use superglue. I also use tweezers for handling small parts.
Kind regards, Chris.
I’ve done four Tiger I Es from BattleFront and have two more on order. I went to the platoon box set and clicked on the picture of the back of the box for the instructions, tiny but doable. I put the back flaps on the front of the first pair, then put the front ones on wrong on the second pair. I will do the front flaps correctly on the third pair and use it as platoon markings.
Another trick I learnt about the Battle Front site, the Magach box set instructions can be found, more or less, by looking at the Vietnam Pattons. For painting my original four I used pictures of real tigers as inspiration, which means I may get a 15mm scale Tiger to ride in the back of the Famo. That is wear the jack that fell off is ending up.