Adventures in camouflage land, WIP2

Work on my French Paras continued over the weekend. This is just such brilliant fun!
Painting these guys has simply been the best painting fun I've had since...painting their Viet Minh opponents a while back. They are more fun than Dust Tactics figures and that is saying a lot, I can assure you!

So, some pics. I am still getting used to the camera on my new Samsung and all of these were taken indoors in lamp-light, but I hope they will at least show the progress made.

 Note that the gaiters and carrying straps are grey because they are not yet painted while the rifle stocks are grey because I am working a way of painting them to reflect the fact that they were made from aluminium.

Any suggestions on how to paint oxidised aluminium are appreciated!

I also based the LRDG that has been sitting untouched on my desk since October last year. The basing material is white acrylic paste mixed with MIG African Earth pigment. I think it is too red for the Libyan desert and will need some paint or wash, but it will be perfect for the DBP figures as the soil in the Viet highlands look close to this.