Waffen-SS - Erbsentarn Colour Guide

Following on from last weeks Colour Guide on the summer version of the Oak Leaf camoflage pattern today it's time for the Erbsentarn or Pea Dot pattern. Both camouflage patterns were widely used at Arnhem. But beware Pea Dot pattern was never used on anything else than uniforms and field caps. There were no smocks, no helmet covers, no mittens or even Zeltbahnen in this pattern.
Thus I went for the Oak Leaf pattern for all of these items as this was the most widely distributed at the time.

My painting style is based on the so-called Triad-System or Foundry System in which you use a Shade as the darkest colour. Then you paint over it using what is called a Base Colour (in general the actual colour you want to achieve for the piece you're just painting) leaving the Shade show only in the folds and recesses, followed by a Highlight on the points which will catch the most light. However, I'm using intermediate steps to make the transitions between the different colours much smoother.
Thus typically the steps I use would look somewhat like:

Shade - 50/50 mix Shade/Base - Base - 50/50 mix Base/Highlight - Highlight

In general what I'll give you in this tutorial is the three colours as if used as simple triads. If you prefer the more elaborate approach just add in the intermediate steps mentioned above, or start from an even darker Shade or end with a lighter Highlight.

If fractions in brackets are given these are just approximations. Just try what looks best to you.


Note: I haven't documented every single step for this Colour Guide, so you might want to refer to some of the guides I wrote earlier. To do so just go to the top of the page where you'll find a link to a page containing direct links to all the Colour Guides I wrote to date.

Step 1:

The uniform is painted using a base coat of VMC 70.871 Leather Brown. As I won't add any highlights later on I made doubly sure to let the black primer show in the recesses and seams thus adding some depth

Step 2:

This was followed by random spots of VMC 70.876 Brown Sand. Again I stop at seams and crevasses to add interest and hint at the uniform being sewn together from printed cloth instead of camo being painted on afterwards like with the British Denison Smocks for example

Step 3:
Now dark spots are randomly applied next and partially on top of the light spots using AC Fieldgrey 2nd Shadow. Any other dark-greyish green can be used just as well. Don't use pure black though as the contrast would be too stark

Step 4:
Now the last layer of bigger splodges is applied using VMC 70.881 Yellow Green. As before make sure not to cover your black lining but instead let the different coloured spots slightly overlap

Step 5:
Now comes the fun part. The small dots. Using a brush with a sharp tip I painted small dots of VMC 70.871 Leather Brown over the brighter (i.e. Sand Brown and Yellow Green) spots. Don't bother with spots on the Dark Green as they'd disappear due to lack of contrast

Step 6:
This is followed by small dots of AC Fieldgrey 2nd Shadow. Don't over do it as less is sometimes more

Step 7:
Now in a final step small dots of VMC 70.876 Brown Sand and VMC 70.857 Golden Yellow are painted on top of the darker areas. It's not necessary to paint dots on the brighter areas as with the dark spots before these would disappear do to lack of contrast.

So, there you go! Quick and easy Pea Dot pattern camouflage for your SS thugs.

I hope this short guide was of use to some of you. As ever, should there be any questions or you'd want me to do a specific Colour Guide just let me know in the comments below.

Waffen-SS - Eichentarn Sommer Colour Guide

Due to a variety of reasons I'm not very active hobby (and blogging-) wise at the moment. So apologies to everybody on whom's blog I failed to comment recently. I still read all your blogs most of the time but simply can't find the time to actually comment. At least if I'm not to comment with just a hollow phrase like "nice" all the time.

Be that as it may, I've done yet another Colour Guide some of you might find useful, especially those preparing for the release of the long anticipated "Arnhem" supplement for Chain of Command.
Todays topic is the Eichentarn camouflage (oak leaf camouflage pattern) in its summer version as used by the Waffen-SS on Zeltbahnen, camouflage smocks and helmet covers.

My painting style is based on the so-called Triad-System or Foundry System in which you use a Shade as the darkest colour. Then you paint over it using what is called a Base Colour (in general the actual colour you want to achieve for the piece you're just painting) leaving the Shade show only in the folds and recesses, followed by a Highlight on the points which will catch the most light. However, I'm using intermediate steps to make the transitions between the different colours much smoother.
Thus typically the steps I use would look somewhat like:

Shade - 50/50 mix Shade/Base - Base - 50/50 mix Base/Highlight - Highlight

In general what I'll give you in this tutorial is the three colours as if used as simple triads. If you prefer the more elaborate approach just add in the intermediate steps mentioned above, or start from an even darker Shade or end with a lighter Highlight.

If fractions in brackets are given these are just approximations. Just try what looks best to you.


Note: I haven't documented every single step for this Colour Guide, so you might want to refer to some of the guides I wrote earlier. To do so just go to the top of the page where you'll find a link to a page containing direct links to all the Colour Guides I wrote to date.

Step 1: Basecoat:

This is applied using VMC 70.826 German Cam. Med. Brown

Step 2:
Random splodges and small dots of either AC Fieldgrey 2nd Shadow or VMC 70.896 Camo Extra Dark Green are applied liberally

Step 3:
Dots of different sizes of 70.850 MediumGreen are painted on top of the Dark Green splodges. Make sure not to completely cover these over

Step 4:
Highlight the Medium Green dots using VGC 72.030 Goblin Green. Yet again make sure not to cover too much of the darker colours

Step 5:
Finally use VMC 70.825 German Camo Pale Brown to highlight the brown areas of the fabric. Make sure not to cover the Medium Brown in the recesses and leaving a little space around the green splodges. This would probably work just as well when done directly after step one, but I like the look, thinking it adds a little more substance to the green areas

So, here we are. Nice and simple Oak Leaf Pattern Camouflage for your SS thugs. Admittedly I still don't feel comfortable to paint a force of these but for Arnhem there's not much choice on the matter. At least when I don't want to restrict myself on the more obscure proceedings around the edges of the cauldron, which might still offer some fun though.

I hope this short guide was of use to some of you. As ever, should there be any questions or you'd want me to do a specific Colour Guide just let me know in the comments below.

Revisiting the French-Indochina War in Greyscale

Has it really been five years since I've last worked on this project? Feels like yesterday really. I've never completely forgotten about the project and always intended to get back to it. But frankly I was intimidated by painting camouflage using this technique. I wasn't quite happy with my first take, but never quite could put my finger on the why. But when our beloved Over-Snowlord let me choose one of three tasks in order to claim the price for climbing SnowLord's Peak I decided to finally man up and tackle this particular problem.

Figures by Empress Miniatures

Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry - 1st Section... and some KSK

Being ordered to stay at home for the day till the company has decided on how we field-service technicians are best and safest to proceed with our jobs in face of the virus I've taken the chance to take pictures of finished stuff. These lads have been sitting on my desk for a few days now as I haven't had found the time to finish the basing. 

Some much needed terrain at last

First I have to apologize for my lack of comments both on the Challenge blog but also on your individual blogs. Live has suddenly gone crazy around here and there wasn't much time for anything hobby related. That said since the start of the painting challenge I've been doing something rather unusual for me. I've been slowly but steadily adding to my terrain collection to a point where I feel I have enough buildings to comfortably fill a table. What I need now is some scatter terrain like fences, billboards, road signs and the like.

Cars and the issue of the "perfect" scale

One thing I really love about 3D printing is the possibility to get my grubby mittens on stuff otherwise not commercially available in 28mm. And I can scale it to my own visual preference as well...

Final Soviet Infantry Section... for now

Some of you might remember I've been slowly, very slowly indeed, building a Soviet force. Initially this was for use with the Operation Squad set of rules, later on for Bolt Action. In 2018 it's latest incarnation came in the form of a Tank Rider Platoon for use with Chain of Command. All of these various forces had one in common: They were never really playable. Well, until today! This last section of Tank Riders and accompanying PTRD AT-rifle give me a full Platoon of these hardy veterans.

Early War German light mortar

Several weeks ago I was gifted a sprue of the plastic Afrika Korps by Warlord Games and while I didn't like the figures some bits still can come in handy here and there. One thing I still needed for my other wise rather complete force of Early War Germans for Chain of Command was another 50mm light mortar and luckily there was one in the DAK sprue.

Cats big and small

I'm burning a lot of midnight oil at the moment and actually get some stuff done for a change. Work is still extremely hectic and I've spent most of my weeks away in Munich (imagine disgusted gurgling sound here) and thus I've started to take some stuff to paint with me. It's always a little difficult to set it all up in an ergonomic way in a hotel room but definitely better than staring at the TV most of the time.

Nun with gun

Surprisingly enough I feel like I'm doing quite well painting wise this challenge. It's just the photographing and editing which seems to take ages, if I can be arsed to do it at all that is.
As I want to take advantage of a ride with Lady Sarah's Balloon to Snow Lord's Peak I needed a 'female' miniature of some kind. Luckily enough there was one in a recent order from Wargames Foundry...