Meine Leibermuster sieht besser aus als deine
Guten Tag Soldat, today we shall dig a bit into the fine art of camouflage. As you are here, chances are that you play, or are interested into playing, Germans, be it for Dust or another game like Bolt Action. One of the factors drawing players to the Axis is the possibility to paint interesting camo patterns, well, that and big scary panzers, of course!
One of the last camo patterns produced by Germany was the Leibermuster, a seemingly complex pattern that was also able to evade infrared to some extent. As this camo was starting to get issued only in early 1945, it didn't get as much widespread as it could have. But the beautiful thing here is that my game is DUST, thus the war hasn't ended yet by 1947 so I can have some fun with this pattern and have a change from my boring (to paint, not to play) Canadians.
Put up or shut up!
So it's all well and good this little history lesson but let's crack those paint pots open and smear colors here and there! Keep in mind that I'm very content to keep a tabletop level on this project.
So the first step is to paint the base colors. For this Soldier 3 model (DUST models are awesome, if you don't play you should look into it!) I start with a base coat of Citadel Tausept Ochre, which is sadly a defunct color but any light ochre should do the trick. Then I paint the face (in a pale tone as he's German) and his bit of clothes that are visible in grey.
And then I wash, a mix of chestnut and black (3/1). Once the wash is dry you can come back and do some highlights with the same ochre used.
Step two consist merely of painting elongated spots of green. For most steps, the spots will be more on the horizontal line.
Step three is pretty much the same as step two, but this time in Orange Brown.
For step four, we simply dab a few spots of a dark red, less frequent than the two previous colors and less elongated.
And now to step five, and where it begin resembling Leibermuster. Here we stop doing spots of paint, and you need a very fluid black paint, thus having a wet palette or paint retarder is a must, as well as a sharp brush tip, be it a quality Windsor & Newton Series 7 or a very fine detail brush. Here we do fine curved lines, a bit like a tiger's stripes.
Now we can go to step six, and use the exact opposite color, good old white. However, pure white is always to be avoided on a miniature, except when representing a pure light, which is not the case here, so i tinted my white with a small amount of green, just enough to break the purity. You could use Menoth Highlight or something similar if you don't want to mix colors.
Here the goal is to put small dots of white, sometime paired, as you can see in the left hand picture.
Finally, here we are at the final step, you need to go back to your black, still ready to be used thanks to the wet palette :) the effect we want to create here is as if the black lines were wet and dried while dripping. So, using still your finest brush, draw some fine vertical lines beneath the horizontal curved lines, getting longer and a bit bolder as you near the bottom middle part. You also want to go upward once in a while.
And voilà! A simple, though maybe long to some's tastes, technique that can be done in batches. At this point you will need to consider what base you want to do. Now, don't go waddling in snow with Leibermuster or you shall suffer the same grim fate as the Germans of the Eastern Front. You want to fight in a woody place, like the bocage, a forest, a jungle, etc. Now is also the time where you can put those little details that make these miniatures pop on the table. Well, sort of pop, as this camo, even at that scale, does it's work on a table.
And here's a finished picture of a few squads I did at a rate of about a squad in 5-6 hours (I'm a slow painter as I crave for details, you could pour them much faster if you don't bother too much.) The Ludwig is obviously not Leibermuster, it's an ambush camo.
The 213 schwerjägerabteilung is on the move, searching for a good spot to prepare an ambush for the foolish Allied invaders. I did really put any effort in the editing of the picture I am afraid, but it'll do for now.
And two close-ups:
Lara is the most recent one of the heavy armors, and has the best paint job among them, in my opinion. Stefan and his two cronies from the Geister squad are my favorites. Guillaume gave me the very clever idea that since this is very late war camo, they might not have for everyone even though it is an elite division, thus most Infantry2 (and eventually Infantry1) will have mismatched pants, except heroes and squad leaders (Infantry1 leaders might even get the cheap pants).
Now I'm just wondering what to do with Sigrid, but for now that is all for me. I will try to post more often (no promises here!) even if it's just a showcase of my latest mini.
