all,
i’m mainly an aircraft guy but i recently got the tamiya M2 Bradley IFV, and was wondering what would be the best way to paint jungle camouflage on the figures.
If you are talking about Modern BDUs (which is the appropriate pattern for troops with a M2 Bradley), this is how I do it. First is a base color of medium green, next is the chocolate brown camo in a large pattern, next a khaki color in a small squiggle pattern, last I put on the black in a small squiggle pattern. Basically it takes quite a bit of practice to get it right, but you have to start somewhere. Here is what it looks like. 
Has anyone out there seen how gunstock manufacturers apply camo to a gunstock? I remember seeing a special on TV about how they have a dip where the gunstock is placed in a solution with the camo pattern floating on top. When the stock is pulled up and out of the solution, the camo pattern is perfectly transferred to all nooks and crannies. It would be great if this technique could be used on a smaller scale to be used on transferring camo to figures. I guess I’m just lazy.
A little laziness never hurt anybody!
Just to cause headaches, think about trying to paint the new MARPAT “digital” pattern, or the army’s new digital pattern on those 1/35 warriors! I’m thinking someone needs to make sheets of decal film with the patterns on it and then you just base-coat the figures and cut pieces to fit, use a little (or a lot of) setting solution and it’s a done deal. That would work, wouldn’t it?
I think fitting decals onto a figure would be an excercise in futility, considering the extremely small curves, corners, and crevices of modern 1/35 figs.
Subfixer, your idea sounds interesting. I’m not sure how you would be able to get such a small pattern to float, as you’d basically have to either drip the paint on or something close to it. If you get anywhere with it ever, let us know.
HeavyArty has the right idea. Handpainting is pretty much the way to go. I always start with the base green, then large coverage with tan, smaller coverage with brown, and even smaller with black. Works for me, but it is still fairly difficult. The one thing I haven’t quite gotten right is getting an appropriate wash to use after this multiple-colour basecoat.
LemonJello, what is your opinion on the MARPAT BDU design? I have seen a picture of this camo, and I laughed and laughed at it. Not so much for the actual camo the suit was made out of, but the cut and design of the thing. Looked like something out of the old TV Mini-Series “V” or something like that. Too Star Warsish for me …
Rob Savage
Well, since I wear the MARPAT on a daily basis, I think they’re good to go. The changes we made from the old style all work pretty well. Now, the new Army (ARPAT???) design does look a little too Starship Trooper for me, and I’m not sure on the whole “one design fits all” idea they’re going with. The one thing I didn’t like was the way the rank, unit patches and stuff like that all stand out too much, maybe it’s just me.
The MARPAT is much more efective at hiding and conealing you. One reason that the new woodland MARPAT is better than the old woodland, is that they got rid of that bright kaki-green. In tests in all diferent kinds of environments, the MARPAT was deemed much harder to pick out among terrain than the older stuff. And keep in mind that camo isn’t supposed to blend in, its supposed to cause irregularity, cause variations in what the enemy is seeing. After all, bushes dont blend in with each other, do they?
BARsrule2 is right. The MARPAT is much more effective because it isn’t designed to blend in, but to break up the human form. The human eye is better at recognizing shapes than differentiating colors, so a uniform with small color patterns will mix with the surrounding background and thus, breakup the human shape.
As for the Army’s new uniform, (it’s called the ACU- Army Combat Uniform) I don’t like it. I just hope that they come up with a woodland, a desert, and an urban pattern like the Marines cause the pattern we’ve got now doesn’t work.
Oh, Lancaster_lover,
For my figures, I use MM SAC Bomber Tan for the base light khaki color, then either MM Italian Dark Brown or Dark Green for the brown and green colors, and finally Flat Black to finish up. Getting the pattern right isn’t easy and takes practice, but a least it won’t be like painting the MARPAT uniforms. I’ve already tried doing that on a few of my figures…
[banghead][B)]
adrake2, got any pics of those MARPAT figures? I’ve got to come up with some way to do that that won’t put me in the loony bin.
I’ve been trying to post pics but technology has outwitted me yet again. Probably have to send them to you snail mail or email once I get back from Fort Benning late August. I’ve only attempted it on two figures and only the desert pattern.
Just to let you all know, the pixal camo will be issued to the army in 2005. There will only be one uniform that will work in desert, woodland, water and sky (according to the army). The reason for this is the massive shortage of the DCU (Desert Camoflage Uniform) that was experienced in the OIF II mobilization, which I am part of now. There is nothing like getting used uniforms to go to war in. But hey, if it was lucky for the guy before me, maybe thats worth something. Another reason for the universal uniform is to eliminate the cost of warehousing different colors of the same uniform. But Im all about the “rough out boots” No more polishing YEA!!!
Yeah, it is a time saver not to have to polish your boots, only to scuff them getting in/out of the car before formation. The ones we get are pretty comfortable, too, though they do get a bit hot sometimes.
Sometimes I miss having the spit-shined boots, but maybe I’m just getting to be “old breed” now…
Here are a few guys that I have painted. The colors that I will give you match up pretty darn close to my interceptor vest, wich is woodland, just like these little guys. It is pretty cool when all you have to do is look at what you are wearing, or simply step outside for some reference material.
First, I paint a base of Testors #1164 flat green. I break this up with large blocks of Testors #1165 flat olive. Next, I follow with thin lines of Testors#1167 flat tan, and flat black. Make your thin lines wavy, make Y’s, inverted Y’s, Y’s on their sides. Break it up a little with some whacked out crazy wavy X’s. Remember, where there is a seam line in the clothing, the pattern that you are on stops, and a new one begins.
Here is a pic of us in our woodland camo when we mobed out of Ft Carson. Training for the desert at the mountain post in the middle of winter. What was the army thinking!?! Im the guy on the far right.
I hope this helps. Like I said, those colors are almost exactly the same as the BDU.