Entry for January 21, 2007

Good news ...

As of this morning I have my entire Marine company based and primed! Hurray for my side!

Now I will have to paint them..ugh!

Now for the disclaimer. I am not a paint nazi. Well not when it comes to other people's stuff. With mine...I am a bit more...ah...exacting shall we say...

I have been looking at color pics and artwork (Osprey books) of WWII Marine uniforms. The uniform used by the Marines in combat was intended as a working uniform (fatigues) but ended up being their most recognizable combat uniform. My thought was that I should plan out what I was going to attempt to achieve before I did it.

So...

My basic Marines would get the faded sage-green Herring Bone Twill (HBT) combat fatigues and brown camo helmet covers (Marine camo came with two variations of base color, refered to as "brown" and "green")

My scouts and snipers would get the brown Marine combat fatigues with matching helmet covers.

To start with I have been wanting to try something I have been reading about which is the effect of scale on color. I have checked out a few art books and done some reading on the IPMS site and found that at 15mm the colors should be 15% or so lighter than what color swatches show. Since this is the Pacific we are talking about (land of sun and rain) I am going to lighten everything a bit more to say 20% off the "full scale" color.

Starting with the HBT fatigues, I decided to use Reaper's Ghoul Grey as a base and lighten it with Vallejo's Sky Grey ( I tried this later with Vallejo US Dark Green and acheived almost the same color). The result is a very faded grey green - just what I was looking for! I also used this on the soft utility covers some of the figures had.

While that platoon was drying I got out my scouts and snipers. They all got a base coat of Vallejo German WWII Beige-Camo (faded with 20% white). Next I applied irregular dots of Flat Brown and US Dark Green (both faded). The camo dots were too...loud... so I lightly over-brushed the figure with the base color (German WWII Beige-Camo) to tone it down.

I liked the look, but Marine camouflage uniforms had three colors + a base, so I need to find a color between the base and the brown camo color. Since the camo uniforms were reversable, the rolled up portion of the sleaves should show the "green" camo side. I am not sure I will be that much of a paint nazi though.

Brown Camo
Base: Vallejo German WWII Beige-Camo (faded)
Color 1: Vallejo Flat Brown (faded)
Color 2: Vallejo US Dark Green (faded)
Color 3: ??

Green Camo
Base: ??
Color 1: Vallejo Flat Brown (faded)
Color 2: Vallejo US Dark Green (faded)
Color 3: ??

Misc
Skin : Cote d'Arms - Suntanned Flesh
Uncovered Helmets & Equipment: Vallejo - Brown Violet (faded)
Web Gear: Vallejo - Green Grey(faded)
Backpacks/Belts/Leggings/etc : Vallejo - Khaki (faded)

Pictures soon...I promise...

Tim, they call him...