I am having a little trouble with this. At the onset of WW II German Infantry in the west had like a greenish (field green) trouser with gray pants correct? I am building a German invasion of France dio and was making sure I had the correct color. I have consulted a couple books and this seems to be correct, but I was just making sure because I have not seen very many dios were Germans are painted like this.
Ryan1021
The german field grey uniform varied from a greenish color to a grey during the war so I would not worry to much about the color you use.
Yes, you are correct about the uniform colors for early war German infantry. I think field green is a little too green. The uniform color is field grey but during the early war years the color was much more uniform. You can use anthracite grey for the pants. As long as you show the two different colors for jacket and pants it would be good enough. There seems to be more and more dios of Germans in camo and late war periods.
Yeah, I did not mean to say field green. The colors I am using is dark grey for the pant and field gray for the jackets.
The “stone grey” trousers gave way to field grey colour in 1940. Note too that up to this date the tunic had bluish-dark green collars but continued to be worn, especially popular with senior NCOs and young officers. Rank insignia for both shoulders and arm (along with the breast eagle) also had this bluish-dark green backing. In 1944 this colour changed to mouse-grey and the uniform no longer appread as green as it once did due to the decrease in the quality of the material. One book describes the colour gradually changing to a brown-olive shade by war’s end.
Jack
I think your choices of colors sounds just fine for what you are doing!
the germans had either a faded od green color or a good one to use is Tamiyas Field grey. the stone grey pants were for working hard like engineers or Panzer and stug crews working cloths. I’m not sure since I wasnt there, but I would say youd be better off using tamiyas field grey overall.
He wants to model the Battle of France. The troops should have two tone uniforms to be accurate. The exact shades don’t really matter as much as you need to highlight and shadow for a good figure anyways.
Thanks for the responses guys. I have another question, what would be the best way to go about painting later war infantry. Should I go with a German grey or like a mouse grey for both the pants and the coat. Also with helmets in the early war, should they be a field gray, which is more greenish or a stone grey or some variant of that?
Anthracite gray is what you want for early war helmets. Panzer gray would not be too bad of a match. Field gray overall would be good for late war, although many people would like to do camo smocks.