Welcome to part #2 of my article series about painting different WW2 camo patterns. If you have missed part #1 where I explain how to paint Palmenmuster (palm tree) camo in Autumn/Winter colors, take a look here: http://stoessisheroes.com/step-by-step-painting-palmenmuster-palm-tree-camouflage-in-autumn-colors/.
In this article, I will show you step-by-step how I am painting an Eichenlaubmuster (oak leaf) camo, but before I get started, I want to highlight a painter and a painting guide that he created, because everything that I am describing here is basically based on his concepts: Ruben Torregrosa aka HeresyBrush. If you know him, you know exactly what I am talking about when I say that he is one of the best tabletop wargaming painters out there for both, 28mm and 15mm. If you haven’t heard of him, you really need to check out his work. He is a great inspiration for me. For everyone, who wants to paint WW2 Germans, you really need to get yourself a copy of PaintingWar Issue #1 WWII German Army. It is REALLY good and I use it all the time for reference.
Let’s roll!
I start by painting a base color consisting of German Pale Brown (MC825). At this stage I am not too concerned about getting these first one or two layers of paint to fully cover everything as there will quite a few layers of paint afterwards which will take care of areas where the primer might still shine through.
Next, I start adding Buff (MC976) the my base color to create my highlight color and I am creating a shadow color by adding Chocolate Brown (MC872). As you can see in the following picture, I painted the upper half of the robe generally lighter and the lower half generally darker in order to simulate light coming from above. I am also using my highlight color to hit all the edges and those parts of the robe where the light would be strongest and I am using my shadow color for all the recesses:
Next, I will start with the actual camo pattern by painting on some dark green blob-shapes and painting some dots with German Dark Green (MC896):
Using Luftwaffe Camo Green (MC823), I am now painting over the dark green areas, but I am making sure to keep a dark green outline for each blob and each dot. I am also adding some Sunny Skintone (MC845) into the Luftwaffe Camo Green to highlight some of these areas:
Now I am using the Dark German Green again to paint some dots into the light green areas. By the way, note the dots on my thumbnail? I am using a toothpick to do the dots and I am basically testing the toothpick out on my thumbnail first to see how big the dots are going to get:
Here you can see all the colors that I have used so far on the green blobs and dots for the camo. The yellow and the blue are being used to give some warmth to my highlight colors and to cool down my shadow colors:
Next, I carefully glazed on pure yellow ink on the upper half of the robe and blue mixed with black in the shadow areas (deepest recesses) and specifically the lower half. Camo done:
Using most of the above colors (sunny skintone, brown tones, etc.) and some reds I painted the face. For the hair I used black, white and blue:
Close to the end of the painting process you will notice how some of the recesses become a lot darker compared to previous pictures. That’s because I will hit those parts with a very dark mix of Chocolate Brown, Black and maybe a bit of Blue in order to increase contrast by intensifying the darkest shadows.
For the shirt and skirt I used German Fieldgrey (MC830) as the base color. For the highlights I mixed in Sunny Skintone and for the shadows black and blue:
That’s pretty much it.
To finish this one up a couple of group shots of the whole Jedi puppy crew:
Before I let you go, let me just point you to the Stoessi’s Heroes group on Facebook and also our Facebook page. I highly recommend joining both as those are the locations where
a) you get to see new releases of Stoessi’s Heroes first and
b) I will create some raffles with cool prizes every now and then.
So long!