I have recently watched “all quiet on the western front” and “stalingrad” and also viewed this site http://www.atthefront.com/. The colour of the german uniform is more grey in colour, well it is grey full stop. However I am working on an academy set of 1/35 scale WWII german soldiers (basically same uniform anyway as WWI near the end), and am using the Humbrol Super enamel colour “field grey” as specified on the box, and it is too greenish in tinge I do believe. Does anyone have a solution for this problem? Maybe a mix they have used that is closer to the correct colour in real life? Maybe a different brand or a mix with other colours, or maybe a closer grey, compared to field gray.
Remeber all quiet on the western front is a WW1 film, German uniforms were actually a different colour then. And that website you list is repro stuff, and having looked through it I have to say the photography isn’t very good, quite a few of the photos of M36 and M40 tunics show a bit of a colour cast.
Field grey is generally quite green, certainly more green than it is grey. Uniforms changed quite a lot over the course of the war, there were all sorts of shades, but basically it is a greyish green. I would suggest trying for a green shade, and not being too misled by the name field GREY.
actually German uniforms were greenish early in the war… the greenish field grey dissapeared soon after the invasion of Russia and went into a more grey colour. I have seen many Authentic German Uniforms and they were GREY, NOT GREEN. However the M44 cammo smocks were cammoflauged with yellow, green and red!
Because of dye lots, different manufacturers, time in the field, fabric lots and weaves and their level of dye acceptance, age etc. there are variations in color. Field grey shows up as a green toa grey to a brown with variations in between and tone values that are quite varied.
Photos are a great source of documentation but remember that they are also 60 years old, with various levels of under exposure, over exposure, color shift, development variations, fading, damage etc.
Extant examples of clothing will have much the same problems.
You can nit pick color formulas, paint lots, scale effect, weathering and still not come up with a definitive answer that you can unabashadly say that this or that color is the exact shade of fieldgrau that Landser Schmidt was wearing when he went trapsing about France bringing the message of National Socialism and visiting payback for the Treaty of Versaille.
Other than that…vallejo is good, as is tamiya, humbrol, mm etc…
I think if you go back to the At the Front website and look at the examples they actually have a side by side comparison of all the different shades. It’s not something I’d worry about.
I am painting some minifigs. I used Vallejo Field Grey. I then coated it in Future, then did a very thin black wash with a bit of Field Grey mixed in. It turned it to a better shade of grey, with a green tinge.
I was looking at the painting guide for the Flames of War game ( which sells the Vallejo paint and says to use it). The German soldier in the pic is clearly wearing a dark dark grey uniform and grey helmet that don’t match the paints lol.
I’d just paint them how you think they should look.
Rather than nitpick percieved accuracy, the fact remains, that depending on your theatre of operations, amount of physical wear, staining, dirt, etc. you have a wide variety to choose from. Use photos as a guide, not gosple. With that said…WWI uniforms were a color called Stone Gray, and have a decidedly gray tone(neutral). WWII is a different story in so far as the uniform quality as much as variety was rather large. Quality varied in 3 stages. Prewar/Earlywar, Midwar, Latewar. Also keep in mind there were two types, summer BDU and winter tunic(wool) which IMHO are the nicest tones anyway. Anyway, Prewar M35 tunic, was a similar color to Stone Gray, Midwar M40 tunic (around 40/41) a standard color was issued/adopted for a field gray (Green-Gray) very similar to 3rd photo posted. Latewar M44 tunic were the worst quality and variety these uniforms were actually an Olive-Gray (decidedly more green) and color shift was WIDE. One other thing to consider which gets frequently overlooked in scale figues when painting is that the collar color also changed from PreWar/EarlyWar dark green to the the same color as the rest of the uniform by Midwar (which leaves you the best selection) the trousers were the same colors as the tunics. The Waffen SS and Motorized Artillery are a different story altogether as well as the helmet styles, textures, and decals configs. Hope this was helpful to you, as you can see it has driven me crazy over the years as well. I would go with Humbrol on this they have the most accurate scale colors I’ve ever used.
Early war (read that until the fall of France) called for field grey tunics with stone grey pants, this field grey was a bit more neutral than post-France feild grey…this one had significant green and brown to it. Mid-war was the latter field grey I just mentioned then sometime around late 1943 they went to twill instead of wool for new uniforms and they were reed green, these could fade out to a rather blue/green color quickly. Also take into account mud, grime and soot…you get a whole range of possible colors. Also keep in mind DAK uniforms were not tan at first, as issued they were a light olive green that faded very quickly to tan in the desert sun. Luftwaffe field divisions usually wore field blue uniforms (sometimes it looks dark grey) and naval troops yet another dark color that was probably almost black.
So i am using tamiya colours , can i use xf-64 in uniform and xf-63 for pants ? I am doing a german ss infantry man , I thought german gray uniform is for later stage of the war ?
