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Hey guys I am looking to work on a basilisk and would love to have camo netting etc across it.

My initial thinking was to have camo netting over it, but this would look quite strange as camo netting is usually set as canopies not just laid over artillery. So I plan to raise a camo netting (which is going to be cheese cloth) over the back platform of the basilisk, and raise it slightly higher to accommodate an artillery crew. The issue I am having is what to add on the gun itself, it is silly to camouflage a crew and not the gun itself but the idea of using a canopy is not realistic really. I was thinking foliage possibly but again, unsure of where to go with it.

If anyone knows of good camo netting/foliage please do advise! (Sandbags and ammo crates also!)

Cheers!

As far as I'm aware, the actual barrels of artillery pieces wouldnt usually be camouflaged. The crews wouldn't want to risk fouling the mechanisms or risk anything getting into the barrel. Usually the barrels are just left sticking out, however I'm not an artilleryman, so someone might come and correct me. maybe search for artillery pieces on google?

I think QAR has the right of it. Not an expert but I have a friend in the Royal Artillery, who's been interested in the regiment since we were 15 and played 40k together. He modelled his Basilisk with a marquee of camo-print over the back-platform for the crew and then just painted his barrels camo.

Don't know what that's worth but he is quite switched on when it comes to the British military so maybe its an indicator


Logically speaking tho, QAR's note of fouling the mechanism or getting stuff in the barrel, is probably true. I would suggest just painting the barrels, honestly, but bear in mind that the paint might chip and weather from the heat of the barrel itself.

Ok I looked for pics and found two of different types of artillery and different camp types.





Looks to me like lighter artillery that doesn't have a massive recoiling barrel can be covered with netting. A big barrel that recoils a lot, you don't out camo on it, you put camo netting around it. For that you might want to make separate pieces of terrain as big camo nets and put them on the sides and maybe behind it. Possibly make a piece that lays on top the side pieces to provide overhead camo.

Otherwise big artillery is mostly painted camo.

Thanks for the input guys.

The idea of using a canopy of the platform and painting the basilisk itself as camouflage might well be a winner. I will also try to copy the first image you have posted, but covering the entire thing may take away from the model.

Looking forward to this project, gonna try and follow a military theme throughout.

The way we did ours for an objective marker was to get some medical bandage, cut a piece off, stretch it out so the gaps opened up and then soaked it in a 50/50 mix of PVA and Water and then draped it over the pieces we wanted to have a camouflage netting, after that it was just a case of painting it, then adding PVA glue again and sprinkling over flock for ghillie type cover.

You could get the same effect here by using a forest floor scatter terrain to finish the look

Ended up working pretty well....

Hair netting comes in a variety of mesh sizes and materials. You could look into it.

Regular bandages are very easy to use and they look great.

You can cut and shape as you please and you can dye it just by using watercolors or mixing a bit of citadel paint with a lot of water and soak it.

Before/after applying, thin PVA glue with water and brush it over. It will harden and then you can happily drybrush it.

Never thought of using a bandage, gonna try using both see what gives the best effect. Grabbing some leaf foliage too!

Yeah I used some old bandages from our med kits when I made canvasses for my DKOK diorama

I can add a little more to this, currently serving in the Army as an artilleryman. When it comes to light and medium howitzer, basically anything towed by a truck, we have camo nets we put over everything. If we're out in the open the net will be elevated by poles anywhere from 6 to 8 feet and resting on trucks. If we're tucked into a tree line we will drape it over the trucks and either tie it to a tree or try to get poles up. Either way we will throw a piece of net over the entire gun, tube and muzzle included, in order to hide what we are until a fire mission comes down. We also grab whatever tree branches and other natural vegetation to help disguise and hide the guns

With self propelled guns, like what the Basilisk represents, they vary based on unit but most times they just crash the back of the gun into the trees and park, when a mission comes down they will drive out if needed, stop and then fire. Some units do supplement with a camo net and vegetation. Often times you'll see camo net partially unrolled on a vehicle just waiting to stop and be rolled off.

For the Basilisk itself, I could easily see them leaving a piece of camo net left over crew area like a pop up tent if for nothing else but to get some shade. The sun is hot and rain sucks when you're in the field. Hope if helps some.

You could always make a canopy with medical gauze and some wires that you "deploy" with your models and move around. they dont count for anything in game realistically but would look super cool on the table.

If you want to add some camo flair to the barrel, try some fancy paint camo techniques, like countershading (see the railway gun example), which would complement the camo netting over the crew area.


(There are two railway guns in this photograph!)

Current armies don't use it routinely for several reasons, in part due to the time and expense of repainting so carefully for every warzone, but after months in an Imperial Navy hold en route to the system? Ideal time to repaint!

A variant of this is what they did with Sherman Firefly barrels in Normandy to disguise them as the less-threatening 75mm Shermans.

 Haighus wrote:
If you want to add some camo flair to the barrel, try some fancy paint camo techniques, like countershading (see the railway gun example), which would complement the camo netting over the crew area.


(There are two railway guns in this photograph!)

Current armies don't use it routinely for several reasons, in part due to the time and expense of repainting so carefully for every warzone, but after months in an Imperial Navy hold en route to the system? Ideal time to repaint!

A variant of this is what they did with Sherman Firefly barrels in Normandy to disguise them as the less-threatening 75mm Shermans.

That's amazing. I never knew that, and now I'm astounded that the military hasn't taken up this concept en masse.

clamps wrote:I can add a little more to this, currently serving in the Army as an artilleryman. When it comes to light and medium howitzer, basically anything towed by a truck, we have camo nets we put over everything. If we're out in the open the net will be elevated by poles anywhere from 6 to 8 feet and resting on trucks. If we're tucked into a tree line we will drape it over the trucks and either tie it to a tree or try to get poles up. Either way we will throw a piece of net over the entire gun, tube and muzzle included, in order to hide what we are until a fire mission comes down. We also grab whatever tree branches and other natural vegetation to help disguise and hide the guns

With self propelled guns, like what the Basilisk represents, they vary based on unit but most times they just crash the back of the gun into the trees and park, when a mission comes down they will drive out if needed, stop and then fire. Some units do supplement with a camo net and vegetation. Often times you'll see camo net partially unrolled on a vehicle just waiting to stop and be rolled off.

For the Basilisk itself, I could easily see them leaving a piece of camo net left over crew area like a pop up tent if for nothing else but to get some shade. The sun is hot and rain sucks when you're in the field. Hope if helps some.

Thankyou for that, that is some great insight! Will be useful in my projects to come aswell!

Haighus wrote:If you want to add some camo flair to the barrel, try some fancy paint camo techniques, like countershading (see the railway gun example), which would complement the camo netting over the crew area.


(There are two railway guns in this photograph!)

Current armies don't use it routinely for several reasons, in part due to the time and expense of repainting so carefully for every warzone, but after months in an Imperial Navy hold en route to the system? Ideal time to repaint!

A variant of this is what they did with Sherman Firefly barrels in Normandy to disguise them as the less-threatening 75mm Shermans.

Interesting.. I have painted my basilisk green and thrown on a ton of weathering! I am not a huge fan of camo on vehicles, I like the traditional military green and I am not sure I could pull it off as well as I would like. But being able to add some colour to the barrel in the form of countershading would be very interesting!

Thankyou very much for the information!

queen_annes_revenge wrote:

That's amazing. I never knew that, and now I'm astounded that the military hasn't taken up this concept en masse.

I think there are a few reasons. In the past, it was a mixture of cost and overly-conservative commanders. Many crews used it personally though. I don't know why they didn't use it on high-value, low-number equipment like the railway guns pictured.

Nowadays it is probably obselescent- the cost of repainting every tank in a new warzone remains, and the benefit is reduced. It will still provide some benefit hiding from long-range visual observation, but most surveillance includes infra red and radar mwthods which are probably unaffected by countershading.

Alphabet wrote:
Interesting.. I have painted my basilisk green and thrown on a ton of weathering! I am not a huge fan of camo on vehicles, I like the traditional military green and I am not sure I could pull it off as well as I would like. But being able to add some colour to the barrel in the form of countershading would be very interesting!

Thankyou very much for the information!

You are very welcome! It is a great way to make the barrel stand out a bit, and the barrel is the most unnatural, obvious part of the tank from a distance, so is the bit that most needs hiding.

funny enough the opposite was done in the film Kellys Heros, the shermans (commanded by an oddball leader) carried drain pipes on their easy eights.

When they were out on patrol they would put them over the shorter barrel and pretend to be fireflys as the germans were less likely to engage them!