Figure painting part 2:
Uniform and equipment

In the first part I described the painting of faces. Now I will deal with an "Unterscharfuehrer" of the Waffen-SS to explain the painting of clothes, details and equipment. The usage of different types of colour such as Acrylics, Enamels, oil- and water-based ones or pigment colour (diluted or dry) one can superbly influence the appearance of the model surface. How to gain these effects is described in the article.

Preparation of the figure

Although I repeat myself, I have to emphasize that a well prepared, sanded, smooth and seamless model surface is indispensably! The next picture shows my figure after preparing and a first base colour from Tamiya acrylics to check the surface´s smoothness.

This 1:16 scale S&T figure allows to build it in sub assemblies because of its marvellous good fitting of the parts. One can omit filling and sanding jobs without repentance. For the picture I only dry-fitted the right arm onto the body.

The bread bag was self made by using Magic Sculp (2 compound putty), angler wire and aluminium foil. The hair was detailed with some steel wool. The helmet got a new chin strap with its buckle. Then the parts were primed as you can see below.

Preparation and first base colour         glasses dark green then gloss varnish hair from steel wool Tamiya XF 63 Vallejo water colour: green, earth brown, yellow.           Model Masters Airbrush colour "Metal burnished" Locking detail improved and seams simulated Bread bag from "Magic Sculp" Base: dark grey, Camouflage: Humbrol dull 70/white, dark brown/black

Oils, Pigments, Enamels, Acrylics and Water colours

What follows now is a multicoloured mix of different brands of colour that are chosen sometimes in a random manner (because of its sheer availability), sometimes willingly to utilize their specific characteristics.

For the leather vest I took Humbrol red brown mixed with lot of khaki and light brown. The trousers were painted with pure white Vallejo water colour. The grey uniform jacket and the leather vest´s fur is Tamiya "German grey".

As the vest was painted with Enamels it has a slight shining compared to the rest of the clothing that got water soluble colours. This is good as preparation for the resembling of the leather.

The air brush helped me to set some yellow spots with Tamiya XF-60 at the knees, the lower parts of the trousers and the bottom.

Most of the small parts like belts, ribbons and handles of the submachine gun were painted with Humbrol black.

Now some lights have to be brought onto the self-coloured clothings: Start with adding white or flesh Enamels to the base colours. Then wipe off all of the redundant amount of colour in the brush on a tissue till nearly nothing remains. Now whipe the brush all over the protruding parts of the clothes. The lighter colour brings out the details and sets some lights onto the dress-folds.

Sometimes I also used oil colours to do so. With them you achieve smoother change of shades, but lets the surface shine a little bit. This is well desired with leather clothing or belts. An ideal simulation can be achieved by using "Raw Umbra" or "Burnt Sienna" oil colour to dry brush the black base coat of the belts, shoes or strips, depending on the desired effect: red or brown leather.

The cup of the water bottle got a Humbrol aluminium base coat which was covered with Acrylic "German Uniform Feldgrau" (XF-65). Immediately after the second colour I tore it off by means of a ball of Tamiya masking tape. That results in irregular scratches in the second cote.

The canteen´s denim was painted with Humbrol khaki. Several dark brick red, ochre, white and brown shades of pigments that were diluted with turpentine followed. I hope this is a good match for this kind of textile!

The seams within the leather equipment, like pistol bag or within the textile as there are the bread bag and magazine pouch were painted with diluted black or respectively white oil colour. Surplus was wiped off with a brush.

Painting details       "Leather" black base colour finished magazine pouch Resembling the felt textile and the worn out cup Handles in dull black

The darker areas in the folds were painted with shades of the base colour with Vallejo. This is difficult with the white trousers. I tried to use touches of blue and brown, where the pre shading of the Tamiya XF-60 was done.

The binoculars got a soot-pigment/turpentine paint at the handles whereas the rest remained gloss black. Onto the black I dry brushed a little bit of aluminium Enamel colour. The protective leather cup and the strip were treated like the rest of the dark leather stuff.

Dirtying, last touches

For realistic dirt I used brown, ochre and grey oil colours. With the brush I dotted them especially onto the knees, elbows and so on. Then I smeared and blended them with a turpentine-wet brush.

Another stage is that for using pigments. Those dry colours were attached onto the still wet oil colours. At last some diluted dark pigments were smeared at the lower parts of the trousers.

The leather was finally painted with clear linseed oil to enhance the shiny impression of the leather.

The basis

The kit comes with this interesting small part of a Russian muddy "Rollbahn" (axis of advance) with some remedies of a brick wall and some debris. So a lot of work could be spared except from the time consuming application of the "water", a two compound resin.

Some extra caution had to be taken to design the water trickles under the left foot of the soldier. One has to catch the right moment of stiffening.

The base was pained with rust white and brown-green tones of Enamels and pigments.

For the specialists: the base is not yet totally finished, because the shoes are still too clean regarding the muddy surrounding.

Finished Unterscharfuehrer, Kharkov 1943

© Schachinger 2004