Here are pics of a few of my recently built US Army figures. Hoping to get as close as I could to the Multicam pattern. Flesh painted using Vallejo, uniforms and gear painted with Tamiya enamels. Comments most welcome.
They look great! Although I might suggest a different rifle sling set up. Most guys use a 3 point type sling set up nowadays instead of the old GI basic sling.
Thanks for the kind words.
I think you nailed the Multicam pattern, both in terms of the colors that you used and the size of the pattern for the scale. Those figures look great too, who makes them?
The only thing I would do would be to make them a lot dustier, just some sand colored pigments should be fine. The dust and sun wear out the uniforms pretty quick and the pattern will turn almost monotone in places like the knees, seat, elbows, the gear especially will be very dusty, almost looking shades lighter all around just because at least the pants and tops are washed, whereas the plate carrier and pouches are usually not. One thing to note though, sometimes when guys wear the combat T shirts out on patrol, they will look a lot brighter/newer than the pants, just because they wear the pants all the time, but have to wear their thicker zip up tops day to day if they’re on a large FOB. So the combat shirts might get worn a far fewer times a week depending on the tempo of operations. I wouldn’t worry about the combat T shirt differences in 1/35 scale- but I do still think the guys should look a lot dustier. Even if you just did a light overspray with some sand colors out of an airbrush to tie them all together I think you’d be fine.
I will say I think the slings are fine the way you have them. While plenty of people do use the 3 point sling, most Infantryman and soldiers that have to operate their rifles complain a lot about 3 point designs. They rarely work as they are intended to and often hamper operation of the bolt release and can get tangled on gear much easier. Usually, you will see a lot of one point slings or what are often referred to as ‘wolf-tails’ -simply a few inches of nylon webbing and a plastic clip that attach to the weapon at the but stock or near the charging handle around the buffer tube and then loop through a D-ring or MOLLY webbing on the shoulder of the plate carrier.
Designed strictly as a retention system though, doesn’t take any of the weight off of the soldier’s arms like a sling would so they have to basically hand carry the weapon, but way more maneuverable and hardly gets caught up on anything. That’s why its usually used for mounted operations or CQB environments where the soldier is basically dismounting, clearing a compound, then mounting back up. For a foot patrol you’d probably have the 2 point sling as you’ve done. Even a full sized sling set up in a one point mount doesn’t wind up working well over a long period of time because they’re generally worn too loose to really take up a lot of the weight of the weapon system, they tend to just let the weapon dangle and bounce off of knees when the soldier isn’t holding on to it. But again, works great for a short amount of time.
www.brigadeqm.com/…/bmd05.htm here’s an example of the wolf tail/wolf hook one point.
And an older version of a two point/one point adjustable sling from Magpul www.midwayusa.com/…/magpul-ms2-multi-mission-single-point-2-point-sling-nylon ← if you click on the tan/FDE color option you can see the back plate mounting option some guys use for their one and two point slings.
Chris,
Thank you for the compliment.
Your inputs are much valued, and I will certainly take them all into account for my future builds (and Ive got a number lined up).
The figures are all Trumpeter Modern US Army Armored Crewman & Infantry, but with rather heavy modifications on almost everything, using Apoxie clay and Tamiya Pla Paper. Even the helmets were re-sculpted to make them appear similar to the real thing.
On a related note, have you seen Airborne troops in jump gear wearing Multicam/Scorpion camo yet? Id love to be able to model that.
Looking pretty good.
I just came across this clip on youtube. Presumably 3rd Batt. In the new multicam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opTFyjzONPw
With the Ospreys at the end, I had a serious mental image of Heinlein’s retrieval boats from Starship Troopers.
Stik,
Exactly what I’m looking for! Many thanks for that.
Wow!! Thanks for the in progress shot, some amazing scratch work
Hi could you tell me wait colours you used for the cam and your technique thanks
Wow, they came out great! Love the extra work you put in there.
Gamera,
Thanks so much for the kind words!
Chris,
I use Tamiya enamel colors for the uniforms. The exact mixes are as follows:
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XF-57 Buff
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XF-60 Dark Yellow
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XF-60 (85%) + XF-64 Red Brown (15%)
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XF-5 Flat Green (30%) + XF-49 Khaki (70%)
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XF-1 Flat Black (70%) + XF-57 (30%)
As Chris mentioned earlier, the 3-point slings were a double edged sword. If you were running mobile patrols from humvees, it got difficult to use the the 3-pt. slings because they kept getting hung up in vehicle equipment such as radios, stowed gear, and seat belts. Driving around in a wheeled vehicle makes you a target, so you want to unass the vehicle as quickly as possible and without entanglements. Our solution was to take a D-ring, parachute cord (also known as 550 cord or para cord) and 100 mph tape (OD green duct tape, fixes everything!! [:)]) We would make a double loop of 550 cord and run it thru the sling attachment points on the M4s. The loops would be about 8" in length. We then wrapped 100 mph tape tightly around the para cord loops so that they became harder to tangle with gear and pouches on IBA. The loop would then be passed through the D-ring and fastened to the shoulder loop at the top of the IBA. When you needed the rifle, it was right there on your firing shoulder. When you needed your hands to operate a radio, or pull concertina wire, the rifle would dangle along your body, out of the way. I still have my D-ring and para cord “ghetto sling.” It cost about $6 compared to the $25 and up 3-pt. slings…gotta love GI ingenuity!!
TAD
BTW Allan, tremendous job on getting the camo right and putting in the additional scratch work. It really brought out the versitility of the MOLLE system. Outstanding all the way around!!
Dave
[dto:]
Thanks again for the kind words, Dave and Stik!
Dave,
I’d really like to see that D-ring set up you have. Tips given by actual fight men are probably the best we modelers can get. 
Wow! This is incredible! I love doing modern US figures (even though I can’t to save my life but always helps to practice) because there’s so many possibilities to them. Have you seen the products by Live Resin? Some of his stuff is also really good like this (no affiliation).
On another note, is the PEQ-2 TPIAL still in use or has the Army/Marines switched to PEQ-15 ATPIAL wholly?
I’ll see if I can dig up a picture or two and post it, if you are interested.
TAD
Well, dang, I’m sorry I missed this before PB shut the photos down.
UCP is a funky pattern in full size, and the LBE covers so much as to make modeling that gear would be complicated.