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Hi guys, I need some help with painting up my DKoK, I have no idea what a good scheme is but I am looking for something grey/blue (not too blue), that stands out on the table without being too colourful, maybe washes? Also I am useless with colour theory so guides would be fantastic, also I would love to see your own army including artillery and tanks to give me a bit of inspiration. I don't have access to an airbrush either which limits me a fair bit.

I was about to post the above scheme that Ghaz did. It seems to fit the bill for what you want perfectly.

If you search the Dakka gallery or Google (use "site:dakkadakka.com death korps") you'll find all the images you could hope for.

Here's one of the first DKOK Grenadiers I painted. Since then I added some red markings on the shoulders.





The only thing I wasn't really happy with was the black. I would describe it as a semi-fast way of painting them, far from awesome looking but also not a speed painted rush job (at least by my standards). Here's the full instructions copy/pasted from my notes....

Reaper Twilight Blue basecoat

Eshin Grey armour plates

Calthan Brown (boots, mask, etc) and Khemri Brown (air tube, greaves, gloves) - replace with Mournfang Brown and 50:50 Steel Legion Brown:Rakarth respectively

Lead Belcher metals

Wash Army Painter Strong Tone over everything, Nuln Oil wash on black areas

Highlight coat with Twilight Blue thinned with Strong Tone rather than water to dull it down

Mix in a bit of Reaper Snow Shadow to highlight coat

Highlight Calthan Brown areas with Calthan brown, leave Khemri areas.

Highlight Black areas with Eshin Grey

Highlight imperial eagles with Leadbelcher then Runefang

Paint mask with Reaper Snow Shadow

Guys those colour schemes are fantastic thank you, but I am looking for slightly less blue and more on the grey side, which would be a good substitute for the fang base colour, also thanks so much for your help guys, I love this community!

Here's what I have so far but I can't help but feel that it could be so much better, can anybody recommend a drybrush for it or complementary colours for the cuffs/collar?


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No idea why its sideways...

Are you drybrushing the greatcoat colour on? Or are there layers?

Washes on a light grey dry brush.

Check out my Gallery, it's a bunch of my DKoK stuff, tanks and infantry.

I use Basalt Grey from Vallejo as the base. (German Grey if you are using their Air line) Highlight with a lighter grey and use a black wash once I get the models painted up to shade the recesses. Imperial symbols are painted in an old gold.

I don't have an army painted up, but I painted this guy a while ago and have been meaning to go back to the army recently. Based on your typical Kreiger but wanted to add a bit of extra colour to make it look almost nepoleon, mixed with the French WWl vibe.

Loving these guys, great inspiration!

 FURIOSO wrote:
Here's what I have so far but I can't help but feel that it could be so much better, can anybody recommend a drybrush for it or complementary colours for the cuffs/collar?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
No idea why its sideways...

If you're gunna go with grey great coats, I'd suggest a different colour for the helmet and shoulder pads. Maybe black, but you want it to contrast with the coat, otherwise the metal gets mixed with the cloth a bit. If you want the metal armour, I'd suggest going for a much darker grey for the coat.
I'd also be tempted to put a flash of colour in there somewhere, like orangey masks and/or cuffs, to cut up the otherwise monochrome scheme.

The sort of colours that work well tend to be opposites. For mostly monochrome schemes though, a splash of colour can often look quite good to pick out certain details, like the face or weapon

 Tiberius501 wrote:

If you're gunna go with grey great coats, I'd suggest a different colour for the helmet and shoulder pads. Maybe black, but you want it to contrast with the coat, otherwise the metal gets mixed with the cloth a bit. If you want the metal armour, I'd suggest going for a much darker grey for the coat.
I'd also be tempted to put a flash of colour in there somewhere, like orangey masks and/or cuffs, to cut up the otherwise monochrome scheme.

The sort of colours that work well tend to be opposites. For mostly monochrome schemes though, a splash of colour can often look quite good to pick out certain details, like the face or weapon

I share this opinion. When you plan a colour scheme you should also plan which types of materials and surfaces your paints will represent. By this, I mean selecting some paints to solely represent 'hard surfaces', such as helmets and pauldrons, and other paints to represent cloth.

Cloth and painted metal surfaces (such as helmets) reflect light differently in real life. It's really difficult to match a painted metal component with a cloth article in real life, and in most cases they didn't bother. If you look at the uniforms and equipment of 20th century armies, soldiers would be equipped with helmets painted in a colour approximately that of their uniforms, but never identical, and with wear and fading, helmets and uniforms would end up looking very differently.

I prefer a colour scheme where the main paints are only used to represent one specific type of material. I would also recommend colours with lower saturation for 'hard surfaces', and high saturation colours for skin and hair surfaces. This enhances the realism of the miniatures and makes them easier to comprehend at a distance.

and what about taking the guns to the age of the uniform? I think if you give the weapons some "wooden parts" it will give it a more wwII style, and it could be one of the details that makes the army stand out.