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Alright, so I thought Id be a big boy and try and figure it out on my own but I just cant seem to get it looking right! So Im painting a USMC themed army and I want to give them the new BDU's (which sorry to the old dogs, but being a new generation guy, I like the MARPATs better).

Im starting with a basecoat of desert yellow (which I think I need to darken a bit) and then trying to stipple on some goblin green and chaos black. But it just looks like crap! Does anyone have any suggestions other than just keep trying to get it right? Thanks!

For those of you who dont know what MARPAT is

As much as I hate to say it, perhaps cut your brushes up a bit. Older brushes of course, or get some cheap model brushes and cut them into patterned shapes then try stippling.

Good luck on this. When I painted my SR16 in Marpat, I used stencils. You really won't be able to get "Marpat" without defined edges. Ever think about multicam?


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Oh, and darken your tan option.

I hate to say this, but I think Marpat is going to look ugly as hell on 28mm figures. More power too you if you can pull it off though.

Ya stencils definitely won't work on infantry. I'll do old school woodlands if I have to, but I'd really like to try and get marpat down...

You can start with a basecoat of that tan color, add on green splotches staying more horizontal than verticle (stipple around the edges of each splotch) and then stipple on the black.

Would using toothpicks or something other than brushes work?

Use some Woodland Scenics bush foliage as sponges & sponge paint the pattern.
If the bushes are too fiddly for you fingers, then white-glue them to a pen cap.
It should make a fine pattern as long as you don't overload the 'bush'.

I've tried for years to paint SCU and Marpat. You cannot achieve the digital look on figures at 28mm. On larger figures you can use toothpicks or the salt method ( which is very tricky).

The best you can do is paint the figures in a normal camo scheme, in the right colors.

I ended up painting most of my guard in a Multicam style, and during the painting I finally came up with the right paint colors for ACU..the few figures I've painted in ACU colors look great.

Also, I'd go with Catachan green over Goblin...Goblin is a clowny shade of green.

Im definitely not painting them ACU colors (Sorry, but Marines first, not Army).. I saw a tutorial a while back for oldschool woodlands camo.. I think Ill go with that then. Thanks anyways guys

Digging up from a month ago.... but I found this tutorial on the Arcadia Prime Blog - Painting ACUPAT
I figured it deserved a post for the guard players that may have missed it.

I once did a CADPAT (Canadian version of MARPAT) Space Marine to test out the scheme. I found the easiest and quickest way to get that effect is to stipple areas with the correct colours. It also looked way better than painting it directly. If I could find the model I tested it on I would take some pictures of it but it's only one model and I have a ridiculous bitz box... :S

I actually ended up going with Operationg Desert Storm era tricolor desert cammies for my Marines. Heres what came of it http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/284210.page