I have been commissioned by my Belgian friend Karel, from BTB, to re-paint x4 German figures from Alpine in 1/16 Karel, wants all the figures painted to reflect Waffen SS troops in the Ardennes, this write up will discuss the various uniforms and camouflage patterns, for this I will be using Tamiya paints I will tell you what paints to use and in what mix ratios each figure will be covered individually, here are the x4 figures x2 are Panzer crew and x2 are Panzergrenadiers
To help paint the figures as authentic as possible I will be using “Camouflage uniforms of the Waffen SS” by Michael D. Beaver.
The first figure is an SS Gebirgsjäger, from the 7. SS-Freiwilligen-Gebirgs-Division „Prinz Eugen“ this figure will be changed to represent one from the Ardennes offensive, to do this all I have had to do is remove the divisional emblem on the right collar and the Gebirgs marking on the right upper sleeve latter SS collar tabs will be added, this figure will be painted wearing Pea dot M44 trousers M40 service jacket and the helmet will have an autumn Oak Leaf cover.
M44 drill uniform
This uniform was first issued in March 1944 initially the camouflage patterns were Oak Leaf and Blared Edge latter when stocks on material were used up Pea Dot was used, this pattern was available with either a dark or light background unlike other patterns Pea Dot wasn’t reversible and both colours were released simultaneously, all SS camouflage used 5 colours in there patterns and can be difficult to work out what needs to be painted first, I start with the base colour this is also used in some of the spots latter the base colour consists of XF52 flat earth and XF2 white these are mixed at a ratio 1:1 if you are planning on painting a number of SS figures it may be worthwhile making a pot of paint so future mixing won’t need redoing, once the trousers are painted they will look like this
Once the paint has dried it’s time for the next colour, it’s always useful to study a picture first and try to replicate the pattern, for the main large camouflage areas for this I use XF52 flat earth once your main pattern is painted and you are happy it should look like this
Once you have allowed the figure to dry properly next comes the darkest shade this is XF27 Black Green this is applied in small random areas again using you reference you also add the first dots at this point then it should look like this
Now it’s time to add the first green dots these are the lightest shade XF5 Flat Green and XF2 White mixed at 1:1 ratio again using your reference it should look like this
Next comes the darkest green spots which are XF5 Flat Green and XF52 Flat Earth mixed at a ratio of 1:1 again once completed it will look like this
Now it’s time to start to fill in the darkest camouflage pattern with the lighter colour XF52 flat earth and XF2 white
And then finally the lighter area with the darker colour XF52 Flat Earth
More to follow