Painting: Bolt Action - Soviet Infantry

So for a little while now I have been working on my soviet infantry.

This has certainly been a learning curve and I'm still not quite there; essentially I had ideas of where I wanted to go but not quite how to get there, so trial and error have been my only option.

I have followed the same initial process for all 40 models:

Undercoat of Army Painter Desert Yellow

Then following the guide on the soviet paint set, which are from the Vallejo Model color range:

• Flat Earth (70.983) for the webbing
• Cam Olive Green (70.894) for the helmets
• Luftwaffe camo green (70.823) for canteen, grenades, molotov bottles 
• Tan Earth (70.874) for the bedrolls and bags

then outside of that paint set I used the following from the game colour range

• Beasty brown (72.043) for the gun stocks, handle of the knife and some hair
• Black (72.051) was used on gun barrels, ammo casing, boots and some hair
• Gunmetal (72.054) was used on the catch of the canteen, blade of the knife/bayonet, anti-tank grenades and drybrushed on the helmets
• The boots were drybrushed with Stonewall gray (72.049)

The fire of the molotov was painted with a base coat of GW Iyanden Darksun, then Sun yellow (72.006), then Bloody Red (72.010) around the edge.

That was the basics after that things didn't stay as consistent as I wasn't happy with the results:

On some models the gun barrels were painted with Gunmetal (72.054), then washed with GW Nuln Oil. I wasn't keen on this as it resulted in overly shiny guns. So I tried Gunmetal grey (70.863) which is much darker and provided a better look for the weapons, this was then washed with GW nuln Oil. This can be seen in the flesh pictures below.

The flesh on most of the models were painted using Bronze flesh tone (72.036) then a wash was applied which was then drybrush/highlighted with Elf Skintone (72.004) but this gave the models too pale skin, everyone looked scared or drained so multiple different techniques were tried for the remaining few that hadn't been through this process.

I tried:

1. Tan (72.066), then Dwarf Skin (72.041), then Elf Skintone (72.004) on 3 models
   
2. Tan (72.066), mix of GW red wash and Army painter strong tone in the gaps, then Dwarf Skin (72.041) on 2 models (courtesy of this guide: http://www.talkwargaming.com/2015/03/tutorial-how-to-paint-bolt-action.html?m=0) although the mix ratio wasn't quite right so ended up a little more red than I had hoped.
   
3. Tan (72.066), Dwarf Skin (72.041) soft tone on 2 models
   
4. Bronze flesh tone (72.036), soft tone, Elf Skintone (72.004) on 2 models
   

Processes 1 - 3 had improved results but I still want to find a quick process for painting flesh, as these processes are too long winded in my opinion for infantry. I don't mind spending time on characters and specialist units but for standard infantry I want something that can be done quickly and easily.

Further to the issues with painting flesh I was unhappy with how I washed the troops; 20 were washed with Army painter dark tone, although this looked good it meant that any highlight didn't work so well unless it was bright and a bright highlight didn't work (various paints were used from plague brown to bone)

The next 20 were washed all over with AP strong tone, this produced a much better look that allowed the uniform to be drybrushed with Plague Brown (72.039), the bed roll with Khaki (70.988) and the webbing with Leather Brown (72.040).

The bases! the bases almost drove me to insanity! By all accounts they shouldn't be that difficult to add sand to a base and paint it but I encountered two issues;
one some of the positions (in particular the laying down models) were difficult to cover in sand, resulting in some locations getting missed.
The other issue was having to paint the sand on 40 bases! this took ages and lots of black paint.
Going forward I will cover the bases with sand, spray black and then glue the models (I know that's a bad idea, so maybe I'll just do it to the laying down ones and invest in some childrens acrylic black paint so not to use my own "expensive" model paint)

After this I added some static grass and some foliage.

So overall, what I feel is working is:

Undercoat of Army Painter Desert Yellow

• Flat Earth (70.983) for the webbing
• Cam Olive Green (70.894) for the helmets
• Luftwaffe camo green (70.823) for canteen, grenades
• Tan Earth (70.874) for the bedrolls and bags
• Beasty brown (72.043) for the gun stocks, handle of the knife and some hair
• Black (72.051) was used on gun barrels, ammo casing, boots and some hair
• Gunmetal grey (70.863) for the guns, followed by a black wash
• Strong tone wash over the majority of the model, but not the flesh.
• Uniform drybrushed with Plague Brown (72.039)
• Helmets drybrushed with Gunmetal (72.054) to give scratched look
• Boots are drybrushed with Stonewall gray (72.049)
• Webbing with Leather Brown (72.040)
• Bedroll and bags with Khaki (70.988)
• Matt Varnish (70.520) all over
• Gloss Varnish (70.510) on Molotov Bottle

So now I need to find a quick, yet effective flesh painting process...