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.