1/72 German Fieldgrey Issues

Modeling Subjects Figures and Misc.
1

Hello all,

I am new to the forum and like to model mainly 1/72 armor and figures. I am trying to set up a wargame for the eastern front of ww2 and though I think I have mny armor modeling skills down, my figure skills are pretty bad. I am searching for a good way to paint 1/72 German figures. I particularly struggle with the fieldgrey uniform. I have been trying to get the vallejo stuff to work but the color I paint on looks nothing like the result people seem to be getting on the internet. The vallejo field grey is really dark and not very green at all for me. I hav even tried the field gray from army painter and it still doesn’t look very good. Is it possibly the scale that makes the color look so incorrect? Any tips or info would be greatly appreciated! Also really struggling with highlighting in this scale.

2

what looks perfect in 1/35 can appear too dark in smaller scales.i suggest adding between 5 and 10 percent white or very light gray into your field grey…for highlights go with a 20 percent ratio…good luck

3

“the Vallejo stuff”, Are you brush painting or airbrushing?

Vallejo makes several lines of paint. Model Color, Game Color, and Panzer Aces (among others) are made for hand brushing. Model Air and Game Air are pre-thinned for ease of airbrush use. Model Air/Game Air will be thinner and harder to get coverage when using a brush. Multiple coats will be required

The above suggestion to add some white/light gray is good, but consider the body of color paint when you are making your paint selections

4

For field grey i use both Tamiya and vellejo. In both cases i darken for the base then dry brush first with straight field grey and then lighten with some kaki and lighter brown shades. Thats mostly in 35th but when i do paint 72nd figures i use the same process.

5

thanks for the tip. I will try this on a figure tonight.

6

I am using the model color field gray and am brush painting

7

Thanks. My main issue is that the vallejo field gray (I’ve tested this on two different bottles) just seems too gray and not green enough (especially compared to the results other people seem to be getting with it on the internet). Do you also find that the tamiya paint is way greener than the vallejo?

8

No, i don’t see much differance in the 2. Somtimes i will even use both on a group of figures as i like to get a variety of shades on uniforms.

These were done with Vallejo.

I mix with Vallejo 896 German dark green to give it a darker base coat.

Do you have any photo’s ofyour figures.

9

Are you using a light colored primer or black?

You might want a lighter primer.

10

Yeah Im going for something a little greener than that. I will post some pictures of my own figures tomorrow when I’m off work. Thanks for the reply

11

This is a good point. I’m using a dark green primer (Just what I have lying around) and I think I’ll definitely switch to something lighter

12

Attatched is a photo of some figures I’ve been working on. The left figure was painted using vallejo fieldgray, with the top tunic painted mixed about 70% fieldgray and 30% sunny skin tone to lighten it up. The trousers were painted with straight field gray. The vallejo field gray looks really brown to me and is not what I am aiming for.

The figure on the right was airbrushed with tamiya fieldgray. It looks extremely green to me and is closer to what I am shooting for albeit a little too much on the green side. Any tips on how to reach a color somewhere between these two would be great. Thanks.