1/35 SS Infantrymen

[Adam Baker]

A little bit more progress tonight. Painted the trousers & the boots, but after looking at the pictures, looks like I need to put down at least 1 more coat of paint on the trousers, so probably do that tomorrow evening, and might get the courage up to put down the first color on the camo. Was going to do that tonight, but chickened out.

Got 7 more weeks left in the Fall Figure Campaign, hopefully I can keep this up, and have them done, and snag my first ribbon.

 

[SA Dave]

You will get that ribbon Adam

great work

 

[panzerace007]

ADAM ,

You got a great head of steam ..... Keep on Rollin' !! I'm lookin' froward to th camo !!

 

[Adam Baker]

Not much progress to report tonight. I put down another coat of paint on the trousers, and I think it looks a lot better.

I also discovered that the brown I put on the smocks, was mixed wrong. I got the paints backwards, and had been wondering why it came out so dark.

Tonight, instead of taking the chance of screwing up my figures, I decided to try putting together a test panel, to see if I could paint the camo w/ a reasonable degree of accuracy.

Didnt get too far. Just ahve 2 colors down so far.

Tomorrow night I'll work on getting the other 3 colors down, and hopefully it looks decent. Not a big fan of painting camo, I always seem to dislike my results.

 

[moon puppy]

 

[AndyFettes]

Adam,

If you dont mind me saying,....that green camo paint looks a bit too thick and possibly wants diluting a bit more with whatever water you are using, I always use distilled.

Thin layers progressively building up a shape works best for me.

personally, now that you have that great base colour down I would prepare that base by doing some highlights now before adding any camo colours thus making it more difficult later on in the procedure.

I hope you dont mind me adding my 2pence/cents worth :drinks

Ps did you say you are going for the Plane tree pattern ?

If so Ill try and dig out some good references

 

[Adam Baker]

Yea, I thought it was kind of thick when I was putting it down, but I laid it down kinda heavy. I wasn't worried about the consistency of the paint, I'm just trying to see if i can get the pattern laid out. When its time to do the figures, I'm definitely going to work hard to make sure the paint isn't too thick.

This pattern is the Oakleaf pattern, but I'm considering doing one figure in Oakleaf, and one in Plain Tree, so that they don't look exactly the same. I'll definitely take any pictures you would be willing to share w/ me.

 

[Iron Mike]

Adding the highlights now sounds like a great idea, would make things much easier.

 

[Adam Baker]

I missed the doing the highlights, I agree, definitely a good idea.

I was looking at the Artizan Designs website, and found some info that I think will be helpful.

In 1941, a completely new Oak Leaf pattern (Eichenlaubmuster) was issued. Oak Leaf was used for
several items including smocks, parkas, helmet covers and uniforms. It was widely used until the
end of the war.

In 1944, Pea Pattern (Erbsenmuster) was introduced. This was an all season camouflage and only
appeared in one colour scheme. Two piece uniforms consisting of trousers and smocks were issued.

So, seeing this, I think what I'm going to do, is one of the figures will have the green pants, and the camo smock, and the other will have the full Pea Dot uniform, which I think will make for a nice variation between the 2 of 'em.

 

[Adam Baker]

Small update on where I'm at.

Last night I went through and dry brushed the pants & trousers on both figures. It still looks pretty subtle to me, but I didnt want to over do it, so I left both where they were.

Tonight I jumped in and started working on the camo. I decided on one, to go w/ the Oakleaf pattern, and the Pea Dot on the other.

Here are pic's of the base colors down for the camo. Unfortunately I dont have any decent place to take pictures, so the pic's suck.

Going to try to get at least 1 more color down tonight before going to bed. Should be able to get a little bit more done tonight than normal, going to a trade show for work tomorrow, so I can sleep 3 hours later than normal.

 

[Adam Baker]

Havent worked on these in a couple of days, the jury is really out right now on how the painting looks. The figure w/ the Oakleaf pattern looks ok I guess, but the plain tree pattern I dont like at all, and I'm trying to decide whether to press on, or strip or paint over what I have.

Oakleaf. I'm going to push on w/ this one, in the hopes that it comes out decent.

Plain tree. I just dont know about this one. I think that I have all the spots, both large & small, too large, and it just looks like crap to me, but I'm probably just going to push through w/ this one too in the hopes that when its done, it looks halfway decent.

 

[jknaus]

Coming along nicely.
James

 

[AndyFettes]

Nice start,...

The plane tree outter black lining appears to be a bit too thick take your green mix and narrow up the black lines a bit and itll look much better

heres links to both Oakleaf and plane tree variants

https://www.google.com/search?q=oakleaf+camouflage&hl=en&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=t1JjT5nLNMGYgwe_usHyAg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CBwQ_AUoAQ&biw=1866&bih=1038

https://www.google.com/search?q=plane+tree+camo+smock&hl=en&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=PlFjT4bAGIn2gAesvICgAg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CCgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1866&bih=1038

http://www.ahagreat.com/ww2-german-elite-m42-plane-tree-no3-camo-smock-s-31357_p277.html

Try using this as a guide dont worry about the smock being a reproduction use it visually to help with the patterns.





PS: sorry to be a pain again Adam but are you saying that you are going to paint one of the smocks in 44 pea dot ?

I getting confused as you're mentioning 3 different camo patterns on 2 figures ?

Oakleaf
Plane tree
Pea dot 44

 

[Adam Baker]

Thanks for the links Andy I'll take a good look at them.

The outlined pattern is Oak leaf, but I think your right that its too heavy.

On the Pea Dot, I kinda feel that everything is too large. I think the large dark green & tan areas should be smaller, and then the little dots, should be at least half the size they are, if not smaller.

I'm planning on doing Oak leaf & 44 Pea Dot. From the info I found, the Plain Tree kinda trailed off in early 44, while the Oak leaf & Pea Dot were both used extensively through the end of the war.

I'd originally planned on doing Plain Tree & Oak leaf, but changed my mind once I found the info on the time frames that the patterns were used.

 

[lupanzer]

...great references on this thread!

Very useful!

 

[AndyFettes]

Yes, I see, but you have to consider that they did not manufacturer Smocks in 44 Peadot camouflage

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news

 

[Adam Baker]

No worries Andy, this is the sort of help that I need.

I joined a figure forum a couple of weeks ago, right after starting these figures, and it was suggested that to get the variety that I want, to do one figure in the Spring Oak leaf like I'm doing, and do the other one in the Autumn Oak Leaf pattern, so thats what I'm going to do.

But for now, I've decided to just focus on the single Spring Oak Leaf figure, and I'll do the other figure later, that way I'm not taking on too much.

 

[AndyFettes]

Well mate if you need help fire away with questions,..I must admit Oakleaf is not an easy pattern to represent ,...

Well except if your name is Calvin Tan

 

[AndyFettes]

hey Adam how is progress coming along ?

 

[Adam Baker]

I haven't touched it actually, either haven't had the time, or haven't had the motivation to work on it. Still not thrilled about how it looks and pushing through that to finish it is pretty hard. We're working on a couple large projects in the backyard that have taken quite a bit of my time lately. Hopefully pull it out either tonight or tomorrow night, depending on whats going on. My goal is still to finish this by the end of April.