Urban Camo without being too monotone?

[Cripple X]

Hey Folks,

 

I was thinking about picking up the Vanguard half of the new Shadowspear boxed set and doing the Vanguard units in an Urban Camo scheme. However, I'm worried that all the grey may not provide much contrast to make the models look a little dull. I'm really trying to figure out what color would be best for the power armor so that it feels like it fits with the camouflaged idea, but isn't just a mass of grey. I was thinking of Mechanicus Standard Grey, but maybe I should go with something like The Fang? Do you veterans have any tips or ideas? Thanks.

[Tichinde]

are you talking about Space Wolves (or other grey armoured chapter)?

 

a lot of it would depend on what urban environment you envision for your marines. I would do the following:

 

1) have a look at modern day urban camo (T-pattern is my favourite) which are mostly based on grey/black with occasional white or brown

2) match it to your terrain/basing material (if any) I am hoping to do most of my terrain white/gold buildings so would probably paint camo cloaks on my recon marines (when I get round to it) something to blend in with that.

 

hope that helps!

[PeteySödes]

+1 for the fang. That, a dark grey and a mid grey looks great IMO. I add a few light grey tiger streaks to add a bit more in some spots but i tend not to overdo it. Camo seems like a thing that walks the line on minis.

[Exilyth]

For camo patterns, you could take a look at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_clothing_camouflage_patterns

do note that many of the articles linked in that list show more color (and sometimes pattern) variants.

 

See also

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_camouflage

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_camouflage

(maybe even https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_camouflage)

 

 

For camo colours, you could go with

• white, black, greys and browns for a more realistic and muted scheme
• white, black, greys and blues for a winter themed scheme (this would contrast a lot with red, orange or yellow armour)
• white, black, (greys) and <chapter color> for a less muted scheme - if you want models to not stick out as much, use mixes of <chapter color> with the other colors to reduce the color intensity. If you don't mind a gaudy pattern, use high color intensity.
• dazzle camo if you want to create a cognitive hazard.
• mostly white and black if your <chapter color> is grey or the model is going to be positioned in front of concrete structures (or other grey buildings).

If you would tell us what terrain you intend to use for basing, we might be able to give better advice.

 

 

edit: fix'd active camo link

[Gederas]

Well, this question is also relevant for me as well. I'm also getting Shadowspear, and I'm using black-armoured Dark Angels.

 

Only issue is, I'm unsure what/if any terrain will be on my models (I'm honestly thinking of using the Sector Imperialis bases), so the recommendations for using what terrain is on the bases isn't exactly helpful.

 

Not to hijack, but what colours would you all recommend for camo on a primarily black armoured unit?

[Exilyth]

If the armour is one of the colours in the camo schemes colours, you could leave that color out of the camo scheme, e.g. brown marines with desert camo could leave out brown and just use different greys and yellows for their camo.

Marines with black armour could leave out the black colour and so on.

 

White and a light grey and a dark gray would go good with black imho, but the result would look rather monocrome.

If the chapters color scheme uses other colors, you could use them in the camo scheme, e.g. dark angels could go with black, dark green and bone as camo.

 

Some camo schemes tend to look weird without certain colours, so I'd do one test with and one test without the armour colour and then go with what looks better.

 

 

Most camo schemes are designed to blend into the terrain and break contours.

While a unit could end up in a place where their camo doesn't fit, it's usually better to have terrain and camo match.

So on a weird alien landscape, a scheme with unusual colors and shapes could be used.

 

Muted browns, greens, greys with black would create a very generic scheme which could be usefull in many places, but would probably look dull on armour of similar colours.

 

 

Since this is 40k and we're talking about marines, one could also go in a "wear your colours with pride" direction and pick colors which complement the chapter scheme but contrast with the armour and terrain, e.g. imperial fists with a yellow, white, purple camo would stand out in most places.

[CMDR_Welles]

The best Urban Camo:

 

[Cripple X]

Thanks for the responses, folks. As for bases, I am thinking of going with either Astrogranite since I have that already or picking up the Sector Imperialis bases.

[Evil Eye]

How about something like Berlin Brigade camo?

 

[Ciler]

Duncan has a tutorial that may be inspiring :

[Cripple X]

The Camo Cloak video was the first thing I watched when I saw the vanguard units. I really like the cape design, but I cannot decide what color power armor to go with it that is both complementary and subdued. That's really what I am struggling with at the moment.

[Exilyth]

Consider this:

white/wood/pva glue + tissues = cloaks

 

Make some for marine models you own, but don't glue them on so you can try out different pattern and color combinations.

[Cripple X]

Thanks for the tip. I bought one of the little boxes of push fit Reivers. I'm gonna try and use those as test models. I think I'm gonna try and do the power armor using the Fang as the main color. Unfortunately it's supposed to rain all week so who knows when I'll be able to prime.

[Cripple X]

Quick question, so I've primed a couple of the Reivers to test paint schemes on. One guy is in the Fang and another in Chaos Black. Now the Chaos Black spray is very matte in finish compared to the Abaddon Black which looks a bit glossier. I find I prefer the matte look for a bunch of stealth guys. Does GW make a more matte black to match the Chaos black? If not does anybody know of another paint which is a match for it?

[D3L]

Quick question, so I've primed a couple of the Reivers to test paint schemes on. One guy is in the Fang and another in Chaos Black. Now the Chaos Black spray is very matte in finish compared to the Abaddon Black which looks a bit glossier. I find I prefer the matte look for a bunch of stealth guys. Does GW make a more matte black to match the Chaos black? If not does anybody know of another paint which is a match for it?

your best bet is to matte varnish after*

 

the blacks are actually slightly different anyway, and this is not always down to the surface finish, with this in mind, even if priming Chaos black, I think most people would suggest coating with a thin layer of Abaddon Black (if this is to be your... final black), this allows you to not only keep a consistent black hue and shade across models, but also correct any mistakes later on with the Abaddon black and not fall foul of different hue/shades, this approach is more reliable that just relying on the undercoat and final matte varnish

 

*disclaimer I gave up using GW paints 25 years ago

[sarabando]

 

1) have a look at modern day urban camo (T-pattern is my favourite) which are mostly based on grey/black with occasional white or brown

 

I have a full set of USMC urban T patt camo :D its rare as rocking horse doodoo but its so pretty. And alot more purple than you think.

[duz_]

Hi Cripple!

Not sure if you've started painting yet, however I was asked to a quick tutorial on the "digicam" I developed for my RG.

Some examples:

Forewarning! I haven't finished my RG having started this scheme :P
Although, I also haven't finished any other armies with easier ones ^_^

Conceptually its fairly straight forward, its just tedious and time consuming.

• Having base coated the model black
• I start with applying Eshin Grey in relatively large boxes and rectangles irregularly on the model
  • I used a Medium / Small tipped brush to achieve these
  • They didn't have to perfectly square, although I tried to keep it as square as possible without going insane (you also get a chance to touch these edges up with each additional layer)
  • For expedience I avoided the torso and shoulder pads
• After laying down the Eshin grey 40 - 60% of the areas I applied it to (the goal isn't to be spot on each time with this), I went back and did slightly smaller and slightly different shaped rectangles with Administratum Grey
• Now we have essentially 3 core colours on the model (black, dark grey, light grey) I added one more lighter colour just to break things up a bit more
• For that I used Ulthuan Grey or Corax white (its been a while I've forgotten :sweat: ) with a small brush
  • When adding this final layer of colour I used it very sparingly usually crossing over 2 or more of the "base" colours to break them up
  • The goal of this one is to break the tedium a bit
• Once all those layers are down I then went back with Black
  • With a small brush I went back to add "squares" of black similar to the whites above
  • I was aiming to achieve 2 things here, 1 square up any lines and 2 create the digital effect in the otherwise rectangular patters.
  • As above I would often hit 2 colours at the same time with the black creating a black rectangle within a rectangle
  • Occasionally I would just do a small square on the edge of one colour

After that I considered the camouflage done and would wash the model and do the other details.

In retrospect I'm not sure if washing the model (at least with standard nulin oil) did any justice to it, it certainly dulled it down and grittied it up though

The drop pod use the similar technique, but with larger rectangles.
The size of the rectangles you have to go by feel. For speed and sanity's sake you want them as large as possible without them looking disproportionate, also you want be able to tell once they're on the table top if they're too small.

Having died doing that to so many models I went to a more dazzle style pattern on my Rhinos and Flyers. This is a lot easier as you just make irregular polygons on the model using masking tape. :D
I used the same colours here except for the final light colour, this could probably be easily replicated on infantry models too.... and now I've said that I wonder if I should do that on my RG vanguard...

Hope that helps! :tu:

[Cripple X]

Thanks for the post duz_ ! I can't imagine how long it took you to paint that Camo, but it looks wonderful! I'm sure I'll be taking cues from that when I do my camo cloaks. The camo you did is so excellent. 

 

I do have another simple question. Which Grey matches the "Astrogranite" texture paint the closest? I've got some really old crashed shuttle terrain second hand that I'm going to try to repaint to match the bases of my units. If I do the surrounding ground in grey, I'm going to have to change the shuttle since it's already grey. Any suggestions?

[duz_]

You're welcome

I find Eshin Grey to match fairly well to it

At least that's what I paint the rims of my bases to match the astrogranite on the bases

[sultansean]

It's not urban but I did a two tone grey and dark green scheme for my guys. It's east german tank camo. You can at things like Flames of War/ Team Yankee painting guides to get some ideas. Although not many of those are urban. Tau are fairly often done in a grey urban camo scheme.