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I've noticed that most people follow the historical route when it comes to painting their tanks or whatever, anyone else not follow in suit? Post your/other people's examples!

Here's my camo that I've been using throughout my german army. It's kind of a mountainous forest or jungle theme??

 David Hume wrote:
I've noticed that most people follow the historical route when it comes to painting their tanks or whatever.

How very strange. It's almost as if people who play historical wargames try to be historically accurate.

Rather boggles the mind, doesn't it?

Apparently not all of them, Infinite.

Now move along unless you want to actually contribute to the post.

Behold this atrocity.

I tend to stick to historical patterns for games like Flames of War, though it's mostly because there are so many varieties of camo patterns that are already historically accurate that I don't feel too aesthetically limited. I actually do enjoy using traditional/historical patterns as I feel they better connect the models I'm using with the time and place in history that they are supposed to represent. That being said, here are some IRL bizarre camo patterns:

Naval "Razzle Dazzle" pattern



British EW Desert pattern:

I tend to do a lot of research and do my best to replicate historical patterns. That said, I've certainly seen a lot of Pink Panthers (lol) and other such things online. They're your miniatures and there's nothing wrong with it, it's just not my cup of tea personally and I prefer to play with and against historical forces.

Let us send the BIG P signal he will make this rite.besides havent we had this conversation before.

I love that EW British pattern. It's the one thing that keeps pulling me towards and EW British list.

I also like the pattern on the Landsverk L-62. Of course it was only that one model and the six vehicles that Finland bought that were painted that way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luftv%C3%A4rnskanonvagn_L-62_Anti_II

 col. krazy kenny wrote:
Let us send the BIG P signal he will make this rite.besides havent we had this conversation before.

Nah... paint them how ya like. Though im surprised this topic comes up so regularly.

That British scheme is known as Caunter btw. Could come in several startling variations.


Of course pink is used historically. The first LRDG vehicles were painted in a camo pattern using paints sourced from an Egyptian market. They were a mix of yellow, lime green, brown and pink lozenge pattern camo. One even added blue to the mix. Looked awful but apparently worked well as a disruptive pattern in the desert at distance, bkending with the heat haze.

Lasted for one mission when afterwards some passing officers ordered them repainted more normal colours...

Desert Pink was also used on the Long Range photo recce spitfires and post war on SAS landies in Oman.

Shotgun wrote:
I also like the pattern on the Landsverk L-62. Of course it was only that one model and the six vehicles that Finland bought that were painted that way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luftv%C3%A4rnskanonvagn_L-62_Anti_II

WOW that camo is SWEET.

I like painting and playing against armies that have at least a somewhat historically accurate paint scheme. If I want to play against garishly bright models then I'll play 40K.

That being said, there are painting opportunities in Flames of War. That's why I'm considering either SS-Kampfgruppe Peiper or a Hungarian Rohamágyús Üteg Assault Gun Battery as a future project.

And as Big P pointed out, some of the schemes used in North Africa could get quite colorful, especially on the LRDG patrols as you can see on the following website:

http://lrdg.hegewisch.net/camo.html

Painting historical minis in anything other than their originally designed camouflage (or uniform colours) just feels wrong to me. Sorry.

What would Rommel say if his panzers were purple? How would Wellington react if his Redcoats became turquoise?

Besides, I have enough problems painting established patterns without creating my own...

Well as a joke this monstrosity of a Sturmgeschutz will have to be made. Rommel's Afrika Korps would be proud.

It was that or an gold plated Panzer38(t).

Big P wrote:

 col. krazy kenny wrote:
Let us send the BIG P signal he will make this rite.besides havent we had this conversation before.

Nah... paint them how ya like. Though im surprised this topic comes up so regularly.

That British scheme is known as Caunter btw. Could come in several startling variations.


Of course pink is used historically. The first LRDG vehicles were painted in a camo pattern using paints sourced from an Egyptian market. They were a mix of yellow, lime green, brown and pink lozenge pattern camo. One even added blue to the mix. Looked awful but apparently worked well as a disruptive pattern in the desert at distance, bkending with the heat haze.

Lasted for one mission when afterwards some passing officers ordered them repainted more normal colours...

Desert Pink was also used on the Long Range photo recce spitfires and post war on SAS landies in Oman.

The old 110 Land Rovers that the British army use (and still do) are known colloquially as Pinkies - apparently it stems from the LRDG pink camo scheme as detailed above.

 Chrissy_J wrote:
Painting historical minis in anything other than their originally designed camouflage (or uniform colours) just feels wrong to me. Sorry.

What would Rommel say if his panzers were purple? How would Wellington react if his Redcoats became turquoise?

Besides, I have enough problems painting established patterns without creating my own...

I had read that the redcoats after a night in the rain before Waterloo turned an off purple and their faces and hands turned red.

I quite like some of the ww1 camo patterns, and I don't think its inconceivable that some ww2 vehicles could be done up with those schemes.



Would love to do some german tanks in something like that A7V

dethork wrote:

 Chrissy_J wrote:
Painting historical minis in anything other than their originally designed camouflage (or uniform colours) just feels wrong to me. Sorry.

What would Rommel say if his panzers were purple? How would Wellington react if his Redcoats became turquoise?

Besides, I have enough problems painting established patterns without creating my own...

I had read that the redcoats after a night in the rain before Waterloo turned an off purple and their faces and hands turned red.

It's true. Textile dyes were much less colourfast in those times (I think the first truly colourfast synthetic dyes were developed in about 1910) and prolonged rain would turn everything a muddy colour, just as exposure to bright sunshine would bleach fabrics. This is evident even in surviving examples of WW2 German camouflage clothing.

It's worth considering, when painting experienced troops from practically any era before 1950, that faded and discoloured uniforms would be seen in service.

Isn't it also true that most como patters we think are "historical" are just based off what historians and modeling companies guessed the camo looked like by looking at black and white photographs, and sometimes specific tones didn't show up in those photographs. For example, I read somewhere that afrika corp vehicles were actually two tone, but the shade of green that was the second color doesn't show up on the photographs.

I suspect there based on the paints and application directions issued by the German Army and on the various standardised camo patterns used by different factories.

For example, when factory applied three tone camo became standard, its possible to tell the factory in which a Panther was built by its template camo pattern.

Paint to be used, and how it was to be applied was by military directive in the German Army, so really the basic patterns (excluding the crew applied variety) are fairly easy to find as the paint colours and RAL numbers are all listed along with the suggested methid if application.

With regards DAK, a directive issued in March 1941ordered the use if gelbbraun on two thirds of the vehicle and graugrun on the remainder. These colours changed the following march to new ones.

So you dont need to guess from black and white photos, just look at what the German Army ordered... and then look at the relevant paint colour.

Or look at colour photos...

I tend to stick with standard camos. Although aslong as you use the correct colors you can paint anything design you want. The paint was given to the platoon and the platoon painted the tank. Granted, your models your paint. I have been tempted to do that horrible light blue and pink camo the Brits used on their desert tanks.

 econtutor wrote:
I tend to stick to historical patterns for games like Flames of War, though it's mostly because there are so many varieties of camo patterns that are already historically accurate that I don't feel too aesthetically limited. I actually do enjoy using traditional/historical patterns as I feel they better connect the models I'm using with the time and place in history that they are supposed to represent. That being said, here are some IRL bizarre camo patterns:

Naval "Razzle Dazzle" pattern



British EW Desert pattern:

Unfortunately, from what I've read, the blue caunter camo on the Matilda wasn't actually historical, LRDG jeeps were sometimes pink though although it didn't appear on armour.

Edit: bit more discussion of the "blue" camo here: http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=78155