28mm late war British & Germans

[clanmac]

These have got a lovely look about them. Great colours, ace groundwork.

[wrgmr1]

Excellent work once again ash!

The Denison Smock was a light weight cover over the battledress uniform.
Beige cloth was laid on a concrete floor and women used mops the splash brown and green dye on them.
The white uniform was separately issued to special recon platoons but not the line companies.

[Ash]

Excellent work once again ash!

Thanks very much.

The Denison Smock was a light weight cover over the battledress uniform.
Beige cloth was laid on a concrete floor and women used mops the splash brown and green dye on them.
The white uniform was separately issued to special recon platoons but not the line companies.

Bear in mind these models are line infantry, not Airborne; so not modelled wearing denison smocks, which were a fairly tough heavy weight cotton twill.
These blokes are kitted out with the light weight windproof over suits. Most noticable diference, aside from the camo, is these have a hood and no crotch flap as not designed for parachuting.

[carlos marighela]

Excellent work once again ash!

The Denison Smock was a light weight cover over the battledress uniform.
Beige cloth was laid on a concrete floor and women used mops the splash brown and green dye on them.
The white uniform was separately issued to special recon platoons but not the line companies.

I suppose that depends on your definition of light. I had a mate who had an old Denison. Light is not a description I would apply. As Ash points out the Denison and the windproof are altogether different things.

Lovely painting on the rest of the range Ash!. Had Empress not lured me towards Vietnam, I would have been very tempted to start a British army for the period.

[Ash]

Cheers Carlos. I must say the siren song of Mr Hicks' Vietnam sculpts is resonating very loudly, but I do now feel comitted to at least finishing off a full platoon of these chaps, plus maybe some Germans if I succumb to temptation at Salute. I did add a pack of MG42s to my last order to try out the camo...

Re the Denison/parachutist/airborne smocks, my understanding is that there were various versions during WW2.
Firstly a sleevless green thing roughly copied from the German step-in design that fastened around the top of the legs. Had a full length zip and was worn over webbing to prevent snagging (there was also a long sleeved version- probably a few trial versions before adopting the classic 'Denison'). The zips from these were later used to modify the over the head camo smocks.
Early camo versions were indeed probably painted by mop or brush with non colour fast vegitable dyes, when issued to SOE types, as the colours could be washed out.
The later issued to airborne units would have been made of material that had the pattern applied via screen printing and of a permanent dye type, prior to being assembled. Knitted cuffs and press stud fastening crotch flap.

Those standard issue Denison smocks seen with a full length zipper would have been modified, most likely by a unit taylor in the UK by using the zippers from the sleevless green version.
I think the first camo type was from 42-44 and another version addopted in '44.
There was also a rather more up market version, often seen to be sported by higher ranking officers; made in relatively small numbers by Windak for the Air Ministry. Made of gaberdene with a wool lined collar, had a full length zip as standard, top pockets at a slanted angle and was longer in the body.



Then there is Montgomery's rather bespoke looking camo jacket that may well have been made to order by his taylor...

[Eclaireur]

Ash - the smocks in the picture you posted yesterday don't look camouflaged. And if you look in to this there are various different colours that seem to have been made
http://hmvf.co.uk/topic/24266-1st-pattern-british-army-windproof-smock-ww2/

I'm wondering whether you or others have unearthed any details about when the camouflage design came in and who it might have been issued to?
EC

[Ash]

Ash - the smocks in the picture you posted yesterday don't look camouflaged. And if you look in to this there are various different colours that seem to have been made
http://hmvf.co.uk/topic/24266-1st-pattern-british-army-windproof-smock-ww2/

I'm wondering whether you or others have unearthed any details about when the camouflage design came in and who it might have been issued to?
EC

Looking at the B&W photo it would be a hard task to make out any of the pattern, that and being infantry they have probably been liberally marinaded in mud!

The picture of Gen Browning (above), in his rather smart Denison, I can't really see the  camouflage pattern at all and if the colour is dropped from Monty's jacket it also goes a tad mono



The article you linked to refers to the camo pattern version as coming out in '43, which corresponds to what I've always heard it refered to. The early one pictured in the article shows that the general design of a hooded smock had been around for a while, just the materials and usage had been updated.
I assume that the intention, had the war progressed was that camo kit would have been issued to everyone. 
During WW2 the same camo was issued to armoured units in the form of camo tank suits often refered to as Pixie suits, they were still being issued until the 1960's when the colour shifted to black. No doubt cheaper to produce.




The windproofs were widely deployed during the Korean War & Kenya (Mau Mau) lots of full length zipper mods.


A lot of the camo ended up issued to the French in Indochina in the '50's both as made up sets and just the printed material used to their own designs.
See a fair number of pics of the camo smocks used by SF blokes in sandy places in the 60's & '70's.
The sand coloured ones were still being issued during the first Gulf war in the '90's, probably still are.

[Eclaireur]

Thanks Ash - hadn't seen the tank suit before. Your point about B&W versus colour is well made.
We need some definitive info on the issues of these smocks, I guess. The pictures of desert sand, plain khaki, and olive 'monochrome' types are clear enough, even if the camo smock + trousers became the standard. It's interesting also that White's 'With the Scots' does not mention camouflage pattern, even though he does refer to windproof smocks a few times.
Thanks in any case and keep painting the new Empress releases - you've set the standard!
EC 

[Ash]

It's interesting also that White's 'With the Scots' does not mention camouflage pattern, even though he does refer to windproof smocks a few times.

EC

I'm so into that book at the mo, got about 120 pages left.
He does mention the windproof smocks, quite matter-of-factly, as though it was nothing special; which makes me think it was just a standard issue piece of kit by that stage. If one infantry battalion had them then I suppose the whole division would, and so on.
It's a shame there are so few photographs available, although the B&W previously posted is apparently of the KOSB. Also of note, if you take a close look at Peter White's sketches in the book, he has made a point of shading in the camo pattern on some of the smocks.

[Eclaireur]

if you take a close look at Peter White's sketches in the book, he has made a point of shading in the camo pattern on some of the smocks.

very good point Ash, had a close look at the drawings again after your post. The Forward Observer team are clearly wearing a camouflage smock. The other thing that's clear from most of those drawings is that Mk II helmets are appropriate ...
EC 

[commissarmoody]

Had to save these images for later use. Will be awhile before I get an order for in for the these guys. But I have some long neglected French Paras who I can practice on.
I can't remember if you mentioned what paints you used. If you can tell me, I will write it down this time. 

[Ash]

@ commissarmoody: I really must start to make notes! I tend to just mix colours as I go with a lot of a 'that'll do' or 'looks the part' approach.
Which generally necessitates making it all up again the next time around. However thank to this forum I did type it out this time!

Though I'd better make a note of this before the grey matter looses the info:

Skin was 'flat flesh', washed with some thinned down very old citadel purple ink. highlighted 'flat flesh' & ' light flesh'.
The webbing was base coated 'Russian tank crew' or 'Russian uniform', and highlighted with 'khaki', then washed with 'olive green', the respirator bags were washed with 'Luftwaffe green'.
The battle dress was 'English uniform' shaded with 'German.cam black/brown'.Highlighted with 'English uniform' & 'khaki'.

The smocks where 'dark sand' with a little 'red leather' then a very thin wash of 'red leather'.
The green blotches were a mix of approx 60% 'olive green' & 40% 'ocher brown'.
The brown blotches were roughly 50/50 'hull red' & 'German cam. medium brown'

Pretty much the whole thing, uniform & webbing was dry brushed with 'khaki'.

I bought a pack of Germans with the last order, had to have a go; still very early stages...

[mrcleh]

Very much looking forward to the finished Germans!

Would you mind sharing the colors you are using for the German camo?

[Ash]

Very much looking forward to the finished Germans!

Would you mind sharing the colors you are using for the German camo?

I bought the 'German Infantry Paint set' from Vallejo.
So far I base coated the smocks with 'German Cam Beige 821', the brown geometric shapes were 'German Medium Brown 826', the green bits a mix of 'Olive Green' & Ochre Brown' and the little rain fleks 'Luftwaffe Cam Green 823', the trousers were 'German Field Grey 830' and the helmets 'German Cam Dark Green 979'. I don't know if they are correct, but so far it sort of looks the part...

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Thanks for the colours, they will be very useful.