It’s not too hard to find decals to add rank patches to your GIs. The Warlord Games set of US Infantry even comes with decals in the box. For those of you who are gluttons for punishment or want the bragging rights of painting tiny lines on your already tiny toy soldiers here are the steps for how I add rank patches to my 29th Infantry Division army.
Using black paint, paint a chevron shape on each arm of the model. Aim to be neat but don’t panic if you mess up the shape a tad – we’ll go back and clean up the outside later. A Private with one chevron needs a thinner black chevron while a Sergeant with three chevrons needs the black patch to be taller. Here I’ll be adding Sergeant’s chevrons to this model.
Next paint in the chevrons. Try to stay inside the black shape but don’t fret if your hands/eyes fail you. I used Vallejo’s Iraqui Sand (819) for the chevrons and practiced on some scratch paper to make sure I have the right amount of paint on the brush and hand pressure.
Using black paint, paint vertical lines on both sides of the chevrons. The black layer will even out the sides of the chevrons and give them a more crisp, uniform appearance.
Using the uniform color, in this case Vallejo’s Khaki, carefully clean up the outside of the rank patch. After which this NCO is ready to lead his men into hell.
