Figure painting, part 3:
Wehrmacht- "Splinter" Camo

The German camouflage smocks, equipment and other clothing were made in numerous kinds of patterns. Considering a Waffen-SS pattern difficult to paint, what about a Wehrmacht "Splitter"-Camo? I want to show, how I painted this challenge.

 

 

NCO of the 352.^nd "Volksgrenadierdivision. Battle of the Bulge, 1944

The kit is injection moulded and comes without PE parts. A DIN-A4 construction plan has also a coloured painting guide. Unfortunately the hints for the right colour of the pattern are only in Gunze and Italerie codes. So I tried to assign these codes to other brands. Here it is:

Pattern	Gunze Sangyo		Italerie		Humbrol		Tamiya		Model Masters Acrylics		Model Master Enamel
Basis Jacket	H66	Sand dull	1706	no info	94	Sand dull	XF52	Earth light dull	50155	Sand dull	2088	Sand dull
Basis trousers	H85	Sail colour	1706	no info	71 (?)	oak (?)	XF21 (?)	Sky (?)	?	?	?	?
brown spots	H47	burnt sienna	1533	no info	180	burnt sienna	XF09	burnt sienna	50185	rust	2007	burnt sienna
green spots	H303	US light green dull	1712	no info	117	US light green dull	XF58	dark green dull	50113	US light green dull	1713	US light green dull
green strips*	H304	(olive drab?)	?	no info	66	olive drab	XF62	olive drab	FS 34087	olive drab	1711	olive drab

*For the lighter green stripes there is no information in the colour guide. I tried a light shade of US light green (H303). "Olive drab" is really hard to standardize!

I always use colour pictures of the real thing to match the right tone, but for all of you, who want to stick to the plan, I made this assignement.

If the uniform was in hard service at front line troops, the variations were even more significant. So to define a " right" colour is almost impossible, but surely a definite wrong one!

Some of the colour codes don´t match the real items, such as the water bottle and the glasses.

One big advantage of this kit is its - compared to the expensive Resin models - low price. Friends of Dragon should stop reading to keep their positive attitude...

... because the price is the only advantage of this kit!

Flaws in fitting and bad anatomic sculpting require much additional effort, especially with the arms, hands and thumbs (yes, these are extra parts).

Preparation of the figure

These flaws prevent us from glueing the figure in segments and hamper the painting of the camouflage pattern. I treid this solution:

The left hand was glued without the thumb onto the arm, but the right hand was fitted straight onto the well detailed weapon ("Sturmgewehr 44", Assault rifle 44).

There one can fit the hand tight onto the rifle. Thus one can paint the pattern after the arms are fixed. At the very end the rifle and the right hand are attached, trimmed and painted.

I do not mention the uncountable dry fittings I had to perform till all was in a convincing position... You can see it in the pictures that may emphasize these troubles.

Some further details were added: the water bottle got a new mount and the fixing "leather" strips of the spade were thinned as they are made in full plastic instead of thin strips.

The vent holes at the helmet are not existing, so I had to bore two holes. One half of the leather belt for the glasses is also missing and was therefore made from aluminium foil. The muzzle and the front vision was bored with a Dremel micro drill.

Details of the figure       correction of the left hand rear equipment Helmet painting new mount for the water bottle

Painting of the camouflage pattern

After the usual base colour, Tamiya XF52 was sprayed on the trousers and the jacket. The brown spots were next. One should take care, to keep the margins square and sharpe-edged.

The green spots are then fitted in between the brown ones and have contact to the brown spots, but some of them remain without contact. The allotment of base colour, brown and green is at about 5:3:2.

All colours are water based, but one could also use Enamels. For further treatment of the figure it is easier to use water based ones, as the curing time is neglectable and you can continue with Enamels much sooner.

Now a wash of dark brown/black turpentine was added. The airbrush was then used to make a misty cote of highly diluted gray and brown, which reduced the so far bright shine and the strong tones. That way also a worn appearance of the clothing is resembled and furthermore the shades in the pleats are achieved.

Now all colours have to be lightened and painted onto the highlighted spots (upper parts of the uniform, where the halo causes highlights, see left). This highlighting has to be done by adding white, flesh or yellow respectively light brown to the base colours.

Important: each camouflage colour separately!

To brake the monotony of tones, I mixed different shades for the jacked and the trousers. The former was kept somehow bleached. So I had to add a little bit gray and black to get this result with the jacket.

At last the knees, elbows, lower parts of the trousers and shoes were treated with light Earth pigment colours.

The detail parts were painted as it is described in part 2.

NCO 352. Volksgrenadierdivision, Battle of the Bulge 1944

© Schachinger 2004