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Hi all!

So I'm moving country again soon, and that means more time for planning, less time (and resources) for painting. I grew up with stories from my grandpa about El Alamein, and the North African theater of WW2.
As I've recently started a (traitor) guard project, I'm tempted to add a bit of flair to my basilisks, and copy the Afrika Korps camo scheme. However, though I've got a vague photobook notion of tortoiseshell/leopardspots/tigerstripe patterns of dark green and pale khaki, I've no particular references in mind, nor do I really know how to imitate it beyond spray cans and bluetack. Anyone on here got all the answers? Some of them? A vague punt?

Cheers very much for looking!

 posermcbogus wrote:
Hi all!

So I'm moving country again soon, and that means more time for planning, less time (and resources) for painting. I grew up with stories from my grandpa about El Alamein, and the North African theater of WW2.
As I've recently started a (traitor) guard project, I'm tempted to add a bit of flair to my basilisks, and copy the Afrika Korps camo scheme. However, though I've got a vague photobook notion of tortoiseshell/leopardspots/tigerstripe patterns of dark green and pale khaki, I've no particular references in mind, nor do I really know how to imitate it beyond spray cans and bluetack. Anyone on here got all the answers? Some of them? A vague punt?

Cheers very much for looking!

Well its not like you need 100% accuracy on this since i dont think the DAK had plague crawlers

getting a close approximation with close enough colors and pattern should get you where you need to be.

If you have an airbrush i think you could pull off a little something like this by priming desert yellow then lining with your secondary color

If you're looking for references, it's worth googling the year(s) for a particular camo scheme. I don't have much knowledge on Afrika Korps but I did a little bit of research on them when I painted my own Panzer II and camo schemes vary from vehicle to vehicle.

The most common scheme is the simple desert yellow (below) while the camo is less common and isn't modelled as much, so you could distinguish different groups by their collective camo scheme.


A good book range for references are by a company called Osprey, which have lots of information on specific vehicles. I have a couple for aircraft but I'm sure they'll have books on Afrika Korps.

In terms of application, stippling, layering, or airbrushing will get your desired effect.

I looked into Afrikakorps camo a couple of years ago and as I recall it was pretty yawnworthy, what with North Africa being what it is. Basically you had ochre (dunkelgelb) as a base color and if any additional work was done, it was pale olive in patches or stripes. I find European or Pacific camo patterns much more striking, which in the context of a sci-fi game that puts practicality behind style may be worth considering instead. Just something to think about.

With that said, my favorite way of painting these camo patterns (as kind of seen on an old Sturmtiger below) is mainly using a bristle brush and stippling the lines or patches. Starting with the base paint and stippled layer of camouflage color, the next step is a layer of brown wash to darken everything and get some depth. After that you can stipple over each with the respective base color again, lighter this time to preserve some of the darker color and get good transitions.Finally if that doesn't give you enough contrast, you can go over it again with a lighter color. Also apply highlights as you see fit.