Painting Russians - Red Undercoat and Strong tone

The figures I bought from Ingo's Figuren are very cleanly sculpted and cast. The Russian Observatin Corps uniform of red waistcoat and breeches is very simple too. So I thought I'd try using the "Army Painter" style method to paint them. 

I picked up some red spray paint from an online shop called Fat Buddha in Glasgow. The spray is for graffiti style painting so is fast curing with a wide spray top. Perfect for undercoating I thought, especially since it was almost a 3rd of the price of regular modelling spray.

It came out ok and cured very quickly....but a rather orange red I thought.....!

However, I thought, if worst case came, I could use a darker red topcoat brushed on. No panic though once fired they were fine.

Vallejo red went on once the spray was dry. Black for gaiters, hat and pouches, hair and stock. Mahogany brown for the musket, golden brown for the belts, white lace, bronze for the front of the pouches, buttons and top of the musket barrel. Then flesh over the red undercoat. 

Everything worked fine, and less than 30mins later the fig was ready to wash. 

I tried GW Earthshade, Army Painter Strong Tone and GW Devlan Mud, the latter now quite old and possibly a little thick, on a piece of paper to try to see the effect their use would have. The Army Painter Strong Tone is almost midway in colour between the two GW shades and about the same consistency as them too, so I decided to use it. It is a little darker then the Earthshade and thought the figs needed to be a little darker to match my earlier unit. 

I'm very pleased with the result and will finish the rest of the unit like this and the rest of the infantry like it too. 

In the above pic are two traditionally painted figs, the red sprayed fig, one with a brushed red undercoat and two unpainted undercoated figs.