Painting a Camouflage Pattern

[Pudelhund]

Evening gentlemen,

 

I'm brainstorming about what I want my guardsmen to look like and I've realized two things so far:

 

1) There is a somewhat inverse relationship between the quality/effectiveness/realism of the scheme and how good the miniature looks on the table and the best paint schemes strike a balance between this.  Some individually great "realistic" camouflage minis I have seen online look absolutely terrible on the table as the detail is totally lost.

 

2) The dude who came up with the Cadian paint scheme is a genius.  The cloth - the portion closest to the table and making up most of the outline and extremities of the model - is not green.  It would have been really easy to make it green.  I still might make mine green.  But green is sub-optimal because the table is usually green.  The khaki pops out from the table nicely while still looking like an acceptable field uniform.  It is helped by the green armor, which makes a compelling temperate-climate statement while contrasting the khaki.  It simultaneously stands out and looks believable as a military uniform.

 

What I want to do, and this may be too ambitious for a first-time painter, is make an autumnal-theme armored/mechanized force.  On the guardsmen, I want to roughly replicate Swiss Alpenflage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpenflage on the cloth portion and then use the same color green in the pattern to be the color of the armor plating.  I'm hoping that a relatively bright and high-contrast cloth pattern will be framed well by the solid green pads.  Do you guys think I can pull off this camo with some practice or is painting camo best left to seasoned painters?

 

As far as the tanks go, I would use the spray gun and jagged masking tape to make an analogous color scheme Alpenflage for them.  There is a good method in the Painting Citadel Miniatures book that looks easy enough to replicate for a newbie painting vehicles.

 

Thanks in advance,

Pudelhund

[FlamingDeth]

Painting camo is hard to get perfect but really easy to make adequate. For the novice overlapping the colors doesn't require much precision or even planning, but for the expert making the fatigues look even and uniform can be a headache.

[Father Mehman]

So you want to paint camo? You want to make your troops look realistic and maybe even gain an additional cover save by just being more awesome than others? Well, mate, you've come to the right place !

For guardsmen-sized models (including Ogryns and Bullgryns) there are two ways to go about it:

A- Basecoat colour and then layer your other colours on

- Basecoat colour followed by stippling the other colours

I'll come right out and say that I'm a huge fan of the "B" option. This can be seen in the following two pictures:

What these camouflage patterns represent in the German "Flecktarn" pattern utilized in temperate wooded areas (all seasons). Do the pictures do them justice? Of course not. We all know that as our amateur photography never shows it how it's supposed to be. But what it does show is that with a little time and knowledge on stippling, you'll be painting your pattern in no time.

So how does one go about this stippling? What tools are required?

Thank you for the questions. Stippling requires the use of a special brush. All the brush is is an old, worn drybrush or even layer brush whose bristles have been chopped off close to the ferrule (the metal part of the paintbrush's head). Personally, I like the length to be a tad bit longer but just experiment with this.

How to stipple is both simple and complex. It's not about dipping the brush in paint and going to town on a model. No, no, no! First, you get some paint loaded onto your augmented brush. By practice on a tissue or spare model, you'll know how much you're putting on there. The first layer (after your basecoat- we'll talk about that later) should cover about 50% of your basecoat in uneven patterns. The more random the better. Second, your next coat of paint should cover the previous layer at around 25%, making sure to leave basecoat colour showing through. At first, this will look like almost no basecoat is showing and that's fine. When it's over and finished, you'll be able to see it again- a mind trick or some-such. Third, the final stippling of paint should be used very sparingly and very randomly. That's it, you're finished!

Ok, so to recap:

Basecoat

First Stippling Layer covering 50% of Basecoat

Second Stippling Layer covering 25% of Basecoat

Third Stippling Layer covering sparingly and randomly

Which Basecoat should I choose?

The Basecoat will be determined by the unifying or most used colour in the camouflage set. For my guys up there, I start of with Castellan Green as green is the most used colour.

How do I go about Stippling Alpenflage onto my Guardsmen?

Well, looking at the picture, it looks like the paints we'll be needing are: Rakarth Flesh for a Basecoat, Elysian Forest, Wilder Rider Red, Skavenblight Dinge, and White Scar.

So looking at what we know, here's the layout for stippling this pattern onto your guardsmen's fatigues:

Rakarth Flesh Basecoat

Elysian Forest Stipple (1st Stippling)

Wild Rider Red Stipple (2nd Stipple)

Skavenblight Dinge (3rd Stipple)

White Scar (4th Stipple- more sparsely applied than the 3rd Stipple)

And you're done! With practice and patience, anyone can do this. Let us know how you find your results !

[Galron]

Or you can look up German ww2 autumn oak camo and there are bunches of guides out there on how to paint them. My favorite and the easiest is a pale brown base. Do orange blotches, do dark grey(almost black) blotches. Do tan dots on everything not tan. Do orange dots on everything not orange. Do almost block dots on everything almost not black. Argax earthshade wash the entire model or the parts you have camo'd. Do a very light bone colored(dont remember what they call it these days) dry brush. Do details. Bam done. Looks excellent and remains distinctive on the board.

 

Its rare a green camo comes up looking good on the board as its job is to blend in. I like that effect and I prefer my opponent over look my models due to camo doing its job. Autumn and non-green camos tend to look pretty good. Even green camo looks good if done right, when you hold them in your hand. I had a whole army of guys in BDU camo that looked great. BDU camo really does blend in fairly well, even if it is darker than the normal board. I won a game once because my opponent didnt notice a squad sitting by itself in a forest template, walking distance from an objective. They had firepower but felt they served their purpose better by staying under the radar, they were guard after all. My last turn rolled difficult terrain and hopped on the objective.

[Pudelhund]

Thanks you guys.  I think the hand-painted "autumn oak" camouflage looks more distinctive at this scale than the stippling.  I saw a great youtube video tutorial about making the camouflage here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJM4I1uedAM

 

I am considering combining the colors of Alpenflage with the pattern of Autumn Oak.  It would look cool on the infantry fatigues with solid green armor, but a similar pattern on the vehicles would be really cool.

[Inso]

Painting Camo isn't too bad if you aren't too bothered about highlighting etc... but it can be a bit sould destroying if you have to do it for a hundred+ troops... so bear that in mind.

 

I tried to paint something similar to standard British DPM but got the colours slightly wrong. It looked OK but it wasn't quite right... however, I had started so I ended up painting the army in the 'wrong' colours.

 

Here's a good link for camouflage patterns... there is ALL sorts in here:

 

http://camopedia.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

 

Oh... one more thing... don't be afraid to think outside the box with colours. This is Sci-Fi after all :) :

 

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/Inso/BrightLibby.jpg

[WarriorFish]

The trick with camo is to look at it "table top first" as mentioned. You want it to be cool yes, but you need to consider that it'll be in number (especially on Guard!) and on a likely green table. There's also the consideration of how long it takes to do compared to how it works from a couple of feet away as you play. So contrasts are a good idea to make them stand out but there's nothing wrong with being more subtle.

 

It's all about getting the colours right and reducing the effort required to paint the scheme :P

[Father Mehman]

Painting Camo isn't too bad if you aren't too bothered about highlighting etc... but it can be a bit sould destroying if you have to do it for a hundred+ troops... so bear that in mind.

I tried to paint something similar to standard British DPM but got the colours slightly wrong. It looked OK but it wasn't quite right... however, I had started so I ended up painting the army in the 'wrong' colours.

Here's a good link for camouflage patterns... there is ALL sorts in here:

http://camopedia.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

Oh... one more thing... don't be afraid to think outside the box with colours. This is Sci-Fi after all :

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/Inso/BrightLibby.jpg

Camopedia? You've just made my day !

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

If you have the patience to do I say go for it. I do not have the patience to do it, so I'll be doing the standard solid color uniforms. My vehicles will have a two tone grey scheme, just like my Aircraft (slightly different though) since my army is all mountain troops.

[nismogrendel]

That alpenflage scheme is really cool.

I watched this vid to get an idea of how to do camo:

(his whole channel is great btw)

I'm doing camo as lines of color rather than really small patters or digi camo. For me I just have to pay attention to the direction the cloth is facing.

For example, straight leg, all the lines go horizontal.
Running leg, horizontal lines above the knee, vertical lines on the leg that is coming up off the ground.

Not sure if I'm making a whole lot of sense, that vid explains better than I can.

This is the scheme I'm using, I basecoat the uniform red, then do light grey and black stripes/splotches.
I just finished a Catachan in the same scheme, his camo pattern is a bit tighter. This is one of the first guardsmen I finished.
(please don't laugh too hard at his googly eyes :) )

See how the stripes are vertical on his raised arm and horizontal on his straight legs.

[Inso]

One of the important things about camouflage (not REAL camouflage, the stuff that gets painted on miniatures) is deciding whether you want it to be realistic Camo or nice looking camo.

Realistic camo will disrupt everything on the miniatures and make it all blend in. Nice looking camo gives the impression that it could work but is contrasting enough to look good and provide areas of relief.

You also need to consider which colours are painted in which sequence... it will make a huge difference to the end look.

This is an example of the DPM I painted:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/Inso/Grymn/Grymn%20DPM/GRFB1.jpg

Started with green, washed, highlighted, then it was the light green with a highlight, then the brown with a highlight, then the black squiggles. If you batch paint each part of the sequence, you get into a rhythm and can manage to paint them quite quickly. that is mostly because the patches are irregular and you don't have to worry about getting them perfect. If you choose to go with a more urban theme, think carefully because regular shapes are a pain in the wotsit to repeat over lots of troops:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/Inso/Grymn/Grymn%20Inquisition/GrInq.jpg

I would suggest that you have plain areas of a slightly contrasting colour to break things up and effectively add a border to your camouflage (which makes the effort you put into the camo worth while).

Good luck with your choices

###EDIT### just for spelling :)

[SW1]

This has been a really helpful thread. I'm currently trying to work out if I should do camo or flat colours. Plenty to try out!!!

 

Cheers

 

SW1

[Inso]

Quite often, the least complicated patterns are the ones that work best. I'd suggest three colours at most. That is enough to give variety but not so many that you end up with a confused mess:

 

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/Inso/Grymn/Grymn%20Urban%20Powered%20Armour/GrymnUPA6_zpsee0a447a.jpg

 

And don't forget that there are animals out there that have an interesting take on camouflage that dazzles/confuses rather than blends in:

 

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/Inso/Grymn/Grymn%20Urban%20Powered%20Armour/GrymnUPA16_zps7403de65.jpg

[Pudelhund]

Quite often, the least complicated patterns are the ones that work best. I'd suggest three colours at most. That is enough to give variety but not so many that you end up with a confused mess:er than blends in:

 

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/Inso/Grymn/Grymn%20Urban%20Powered%20Armour/GrymnUPA16_zps7403de65.jpg

 

Wow, how do you get such consistent, even, and clean brush strokes?  I love those patterns!

[WarriorFish]

Practice makes perfect ;) I'll echo the "natural" patterns as that makes it a lot easier as you don't have to worry too much about getting the camo perfect. Helps keep things more varied too :)

[Inso]

Patience and practice :)

[elmo]

Real life camouflage patterns do not transfer well to 28mm models as they are too busy. You need to take a "less is more" method to pull it off also the practice does not hurt. ;)

 

I have done 3 different patterns,

 

Imperial guard chocochip, British Temperate DPM SM scout cloaks and tarnflek lozenge tau.

 

I will put up some links later.

 

Looking at your chosen scheme, it should be doable and I would use a sand base with vermin brown and goblin green as the 3 main colours and streaks of black and white. Just remember to spread it out on the model itself to stop it becoming to busy.

 

Try it a couple of times to get the feel for how much is needed.

[WarriorFish]

Indeed, as nice as a scheme can be remember you've got to paint it many, many times at 28mm... so best not to make it too good :lol:

[elmo]

Here are the examples as promised:

 

Chocochip cloth only

 

Chocochip + armour camouflage

 

DPM Temperate

 

Tarnflek lozenge

 

For vehicles you can buy pre-cut masking tape from Critical Mass: Review here

[SW1]

Elmo some great looking camo patterns you've done there.

 

I'm thinking of black base colour very lightly drybrushed dark grey and then medium blue/grey blobs with dots of light grey on them.