Painting Camo
Blank Dave
camoflage?
The purpose of wearing camo is to break up your profile, making you harder
to recognize. But painting a figure involves bringing out details and
making them recognizable. So naturally they don't seem to go hand in hand.
I'ld like to find out how you painters suggest it, because I'm working on a
Vindicar in urban style (blues and greys) and he's comin out crappy.
--
Blank Dave
The sky mightn't be falling, but our helicopters certainly are.
Rob Fungsang
Blank Dave wrote in message ...
>Alright here's a fun challenge. How do you paint a figure like he's
wearing
>camoflage?
>The purpose of wearing camo is to break up your profile, making you harder
>to recognize. But painting a figure involves bringing out details and
>making them recognizable. So naturally they don't seem to go hand in hand.
>I'ld like to find out how you painters suggest it, because I'm working on a
>Vindicar in urban style (blues and greys) and he's comin out crappy.
>--
>Blank Dave
I painted up a sniper scout squad with camo cloaks. Normally, I would prime
a dark tone model with black, but in this instance white will probably be
better. Your starting basecoat should be a neutral tone. My jungle squad
was basecoated Goblin Green; for city camo I would start with Shadow Grey.
Then add the other colors using whatever method you want (completely random,
tiger-stripes, etc.) For city tones, I guess that would be Codex Grey,
Black, Midnight Blue, and Space Wolf Grey. You really can't highlight a
model wearing camo because it tends to break up the camo pattern, but it's
not impossible. To correctly do so, you would have determine what lines
would be highlights to find a lighter value of each color along that line.
Not impossible, but not really worth it either. You can, however, still
shade recesses with Black Wash.
Rob Fungsang
Blank Dave
>Black, Midnight Blue, and Space Wolf Grey.
The one I'm using uses more neutral and lighter blues, with greys, black and
white thrown in. (http://hdesert.com/aahduniform/aahdcamotshirt.htm the
midnight tiger)
>You really can't highlight a
>model wearing camo because it tends to break up the camo pattern, but it's
>not impossible.
That's kinda the problem there. Because if you highlite and shade you break
the pattern, but if you don't you get a little blob. Then again, seeing
some of the pages with guys in camo, I might be being overly aggersive and
trying to hard to get a "proper" pattern as opposed to a mini's camo pattern
if you know what I mean
RLobinske
>camoflage?
>The purpose of wearing camo is to break up your profile, making you harder
>to recognize. But painting a figure involves bringing out details and
>making them recognizable. So naturally they don't seem to go hand in hand.
>I'ld like to find out how you painters suggest it, because I'm working on a
>Vindicar in urban style (blues and greys) and he's comin out crappy.
>--
>
>The sky mightn't be
First off, you don't have to go for the greatly highlighted model, especially
for camo jobs, being subtle works better. If you really want a dramatic
highlight to shadow contrast, you may want to use an underpaint and glaze
method. Paint the model in a neutral grey, then shade and highlight as normal.
Apply your camo pattern as a transparent glaze over the underpainting, the
intensity contrast of the underpaint will show through the camo pattern.
Jpattern
a mini the size of a Space Marine. (Well, you can do it, but it takes forever.)
Instead, paint, highlight, and shade only the *base* coat. For instance, for an
urban camo pattern of black-and-white tiger stripes over grey, paint,
highlight, and shade the grey first, just as if the mini were wearing only
grey. Then go back and with *thin* paint, paint your tiger stripes. Some of the
original shading and highlighting will still show through the tiger stripes.
Also, don't use stark white and black for the stripes. Since you won't be
highlighting and shading them, they'll be too bright. Instead, use muted tones,
maybe bleached bone with a little grey mixed in insted of white, and a dark
charcoal grey instead of black. This is true of most camo patterns: use muted
tones, since you won't be shading or highlighting them.
Get a copy of a military surplus or hunting catalog, and check out the pictures
of camouflaged outfits, especially the pictures taken out in the field, and
you'll see the "muting" effect I'm talking about.
Good luck!
Jeff Moore
jpat...@aol.com
JS Turner
<blank...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
>Alright here's a fun challenge. How do you paint a figure like he's wearing
>camoflage?
>The purpose of wearing camo is to break up your profile, making you harder
>to recognize. But painting a figure involves bringing out details and
>making them recognizable. So naturally they don't seem to go hand in hand.
>I'ld like to find out how you painters suggest it, because I'm working on a
>Vindicar in urban style (blues and greys) and he's comin out crappy.
well, I am always leery of camoing a mini for a game, because it
usually works on yourself! I have an Imperial guard army that is
painted camoflauge to match my scenery and I inevitably miss a trooper
in moving them.
But anyway....
a good looking camo pattern for urban situations is to use sharper
corners and squares rather than the splotchy or stripey patterns used
in the wild. You could also substute the colors in a desert camo
pattern to blues/greys. if you want an authentic look, avoid black,
it sticks out in any sort of moon light irl.
Rogue Trader Maitreya
> well, I am always leery of camoing a mini for a game, because it
> usually works on yourself! I have an Imperial guard army that is
> painted camoflauge to match my scenery and I inevitably miss a trooper
>
> in moving them.
I have a Whirlwind painted in a forest green pattern, which I fielded
deep in the corner of a game against Eldar once. I fired it the first
round I could, and totally forgot about it the next 4 rounds of the
game because it blended in with the jungle trees nearby!
RTM
Tom Bryant
Blank Dave wrote:
>
> Alright here's a fun challenge. How do you paint a figure like he's wearing
> camoflage?
> The purpose of wearing camo is to break up your profile, making you harder
> to recognize. But painting a figure involves bringing out details and
> making them recognizable. So naturally they don't seem to go hand in hand.
> I'ld like to find out how you painters suggest it, because I'm working on a
> Vindicar in urban style (blues and greys) and he's comin out crappy.
> --
> Blank Dave
>
> The sky mightn't be falling, but our helicopters certainly are.
There are many great suggestions to which I will re-iterate and add a
few. First off use subdued tones of grays, blues, whites and blacks if
you choose. Nothing stark or "Bright". In fact, a good suggestion would
be after you have painted the model to give it a dry brush of a light
gray to tone down the colors completely.
Another good suggestion is to change the pattern you are using. Try
for a "dazzle" scheme. Look up some books on World War I for more info,
but briefly the dazzle scheme was a paint scheme developed by the US and
Britain to protect warships and break up their silhouettes. The dazzle
scheme was a series of lines and blocky shapes that would confuse a
German U-boat captain as to the true course and speed. When painting
this use lined forms and angles to cut up the base color and to mask the
outline of the mini. If you have a catalog, pre-paint photo or another
mini study it and figure out how you would want the lines to go to cut
up the figure (a sketch maybe?).
The third thing, and I cannot stress this enough is to do some study
in your home town. Take a walk around old warehouses and buildings and
other urban settings. Take some color photos and use these for study and
reference. Notice how the colors blend and fall (sounds like regular
painting). The effect you are after is to have the darker shades "below"
the lighter tones to simulate shadow effects. Hope this all helps.
Tom Bryant