colours to paint german and british

[tneva82]

Hiya. Planning to start british and german forces but somewhat out of ideas for what colours to use. I would like to have them be reasonably close to historical appearances. Anybody could point some nice painting guide for these 2 forces?

Even better if you could suggest few humbrol colours I need to buy.

Also which company(if any) does 1/72 scale cromwell VII tanks? Tried to look out for one here: http://www.kolumbus.fi/martti.kuivalainen/engindex.html but ran out of luck. Does any of the companies listed there do them or do I need to find alternative company?

 

[Agis]

For the Cromwell check this site:
http://www.milicast.com/british/uk_range/uk34.shtml

 

[Mr Evil]

a good guid to painting forces for WW2 i find is flames of war references... also check out the flames of war paint sets they come with the colours you need and on back of box a painting guid, and the paints themselves are top quality and cover black with ease.

 

[Laffe]

Not sure about the humbrol colours, because I'm into acrylics. For brits I have varied a bit, but I've used Foundry Moss (slightly more greenish tint, works for canadians), GW Khemri Brown/Graveyard earth or Vallejo British Uniform (well, duh!) in various combinations.

Revell has a cromwell kit as well as Armourfast. In resin 1/76 you have Frontline Wargaming (pictured below) and Cromwell Models. I'm sure there are some more that I don't know about.

 

[Alexb83]

Depends on your theatre of operation, but with Cromwells I guess you're limiting yourself to mainlaind europe, post d-day.

I can't help much with the humbrol as I too am an acrylic user. Personally I find that British Uniform is too brown. But start from black, I go up in layers blocking Black, Uniform, brown ink, then a mix of uniform and khaki, ink again, then highlights. Ends up as a mid-green sort of tan which seems right.
That being said, almost all of the tanks at Bovington for example (except Desert examples) are in slightly reflective parade ground green - very similar to russian colours.

For Italy you insert black camouflage.

 

[Laffe]

Depends on your theatre of operation, but with Cromwells I guess you're limiting yourself to mainlaind europe, post d-day.

I can't help much with the humbrol as I too am an acrylic user. Personally I find that British Uniform is too brown. But start from black, I go up in layers blocking Black, Uniform, brown ink, then a mix of uniform and khaki, ink again, then highlights. Ends up as a mid-green sort of tan which seems right.
That being said, almost all of the tanks at Bovington for example (except Desert examples) are in slightly reflective parade ground green - very similar to russian colours.

For Italy you insert black camouflage.

Ooops, I read it as if he wanted colours for the figures, not the tanks. Yes, English Uniform is too brown (because it is brown) for the tanks.

 

[tneva82]

Ooops, I read it as if he wanted colours for the figures, not the tanks. Yes, English Uniform is too brown (because it is brown) for the tanks.

Well actually both though for some reason I thought they would have same colour. Looking at some pics seems not the case at all! Humm. Darned armies can't even have some sort of common colour for infantry and tanks. Grumble grumble.

 

[tneva82]

Another question. The SS troops don't have any separate models or do they? 1/72 plastics preferably(cheap!). Or is it more of colour scheme(that darned camoflage)?

 

[Laffe]

Another question. The SS troops don't have any separate models or do they? 1/72 plastics preferably(cheap!). Or is it more of colour scheme(that darned camoflage)?

Yes and no. Some types of smocks were issued only to SS troops, Luftwaffe had their own type of overall (based on their jumpsuit or bonesack). The basic uniform only differed in the collar patches and the placement of the eagle (right breast for Whermacht and Luftwaffe, left arm sleeve for SS). Elite divisions had names instead of numbers and bands with their name on on the left sleave, goes for Whermacht, SS and Luftwaffe; for example Grossdeutschland, Liebstandarte Adolf Hitler or Luftwaffe Field division Hermann Göring.

Pegasus has two very nice sets for SS wearing their typical smock:
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.asp?manu=PEG&code=7201
and
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.asp?manu=PEG&code=7202

These two set can be painted as both SS and Whermacht; though some of figures have reversible winter gear.

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.asp?manu=REV&code=02502
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.asp?manu=ITA&code=6068

Remember that late war forces were hardly uniform. SS in particular had many various kinds of camoflague patterns and liked to mix them; so you can have a figure with peadot smock, oak helmet cover and italian camo trousers. (The italian camo was "liberated" by Liebstandarten AH in italy and was used to re-equip them and in the newly setup Hitlerjugend division in Normandy.) Also, SS had the basic uniform sewn up in camoflague, so you can paint "ordinary" figures in SS camoflague if you want to, while Wehrmacht only had smocks in camoflague.

 

[tneva82]

These two set can be painted as both SS and Whermacht; though some of figures have reversible winter gear.

Groovy. Guess which 2 infantry sets I ordered for German forces

 

[Iain McGhee]

Another question. The SS troops don't have any separate models or do they? 1/72 plastics preferably(cheap!). Or is it more of colour scheme(that darned camoflage)?

Italeri do an "Elite German Troops" set which wear camo smocks or greatcoats with a mix of MP40/MP44/K98 and G43 armed infantry. The set includes LMGs, mortars and AT figures. The camo isn't too difficult to do: just use green/sand/brown paint, pick one as the base and blotch on the others.