Painting On Sprue

Painting On The Sprue

Painting On The Sprue
With Brian

The guys here at the office asked me about a painting technique I recently picked up where I paint on the sprue. Apparently they had never heard of this and asked me to give a brief highlight over the reason why I’ve started painting this way.

In the past I have painted either on base or on popsicle sticks, the former being difficult to hit every angle, and the later being time consuming to set up for an extra step. I thought that by painting on the sprue I could save myself some time.

I started out by cutting the sprue bits away from the heads of all the models and scraping off the nubs left over on them. Then I sprayed them and left them to dry. When it came to painting the individual colors on the models I started with painting the base color of the zeltbans and helmet covers, followed by the normal helmets with Vallejo German Medium Camo Beige, and Battlefront’s own Heer Green respectively. I also used Heer Green for the radio packs and the gas mask tins.

I then painted boots and the radio wires with Battlefront’s Worn Rubber. I used Vallejo’s Boot Brown for the rifles, Saddle Brown for rifle slings, and Battlefront’s Dark Gunmetal for the barrels of the rifles, MGs, and SMGs. I used a sort of khaki color for the canteens, but I threw the bottle out afterwards since it had run dry and I don’t recall the name.

Battlefront’s Panther Yellow was used for grenades, panzerfaust, and panzershrecks. This may come as a surprise, but I used Battlefront’s European Skin for, well European Skin. Rifle and SMG pouches were painted with Vallejo’s German Grey, and the finishing touch was a liberal wash with Battlefront’s Bradley Shade.

This being my first time painting on the sprue, it was an incredibly easy process. The sprue as a whole gave me a large surface area, with multiple options from where to grip it. I could manipulate it in my hand a full 360 degrees, giving me the ability to paint at any angle without having to hold my hand in an awkward position. It also helped me paint in a methodical way, having a full platoon on a sprue, I could just go down the line, applying the same color to every model, without having to switch popsicle sticks to continue.

Painting On The Sprue

I don’t imagine this is for everyone; after all, each individual has their own style and preferences. But if you are looking for a different approach to painting your infantry, I’d recommend giving it a try, I know that from now on this will be my normal approach.
~Brian