Camo Patterns

[muddinman04]

Hello,
I am new here to this site. I have been building 1/35 scale figures for a couple of years now. I am getting pretty good at it but just cannot for the life of me figure out how to do German camo patterns. The pictures that I have seen of some your guy's figures suggest that I have come to the right place to ask. How is it that I paint German camo patterns (any of them...fall pattern, spring pattern, paratrooper, etc.)? What colors should I use?

Thanks for any help that you guys could give me

Matt

P.S. The models that I have seen on here astound me!

[eastern thunder]

First let me admit that i'm not an expert on SS camo. I do however have some good books and that is the starting point, get some good colour photos. the ones i use are a series of books by Borsarello and Lassus on SS and army camo, they may be out of print now but there are plenty of others, some of the ones by Windrow and Greene are very good with full colour and clear photos. You don't need to spend alot on them. the next stage is to analyse the cammo you want to do. Let me illustrate my method by using a bust i posted up here recently, its larger than 1/35th scale but the principles are the same. you need to peel back the colours one a time and look for the base colour and then determine the three other colours you want to use as most are made up from 4 colours i think. This figure is based on an oak leaf camo


the base colour is normally easy to spot, here it is the grey-violet, this is painted on and left to dry. the other 3 colours are laid over this. On this figure orange is the next dominant colour but you will notice that it never touches the base colour, it is always surrounded by either the green or earth brown. The next stage therefore would be to put in patches of green and brown letting each colour dry before applying the next. Once dry the orange is then painted inside these patches leaving an outline of the green and brown around it. I would then go over the figure a number of times with each colour(green,brown and orange) painting in the oakleaves and squigles, but only working on one colour at a time and letting it dry before moving on to the next. You need to play about with it till you get what you are looking for but don't be afraid to go over parts again and again till its right. I shade my figure as i paint but in 1/35th you can do that at the end with some thin washes in the creases. Don't try to copy a photo exactly either, what you are looking for is a representation of the camo, try to get a feel for how it is built up, look at a good clear picture for a period of time and try to analyse it.
Remember painting a camo is about building it up, you won't do it over a sitting or two it will be over a period of time and it needs alot of tweaking to get it right. Don't get too caught up in getting an exact colour match either, as the colours varied alot, if you mix a colour up rather than use straight out the tin remember to store the colour in a jar till you've finished the figure as you'll find it very difficult to match the exact colour again.
I'm affraid there is no easy way but practice and get some good clear photographs. Also look at how other modelers paint their figures and try to analyse how they have laid the colours down. The link below is to the modellers site missing lynx which has some good camo shots amongst the figures. Hope this is of some help. Good luck.
http://www.missing-lynx.com/gallery/gallery_figures.htm
Just as i was checking the link for the website i remembered that they also have an articles section which will be of great benefit to anyone interested in figure or armour painting, there is sections in there on camo painting.
http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles...es_figures.htm

glen

[muddinman04]

Wow!

Glen,
That is a great figure you have there. Thank you so much for the information. I have been trying to paint them this way and the technique is starting to pay off. I know that it is just going to take a little time and patience to learn.

Thanks,

Matt