At CRISIS in Antwerp I, of course, couldn't withstand the temptation to get my grubby fingers on the new Volksgrenadier sets by Empress Miniatures. They're sculpted by Mr. Paul Hicks again and suffice to say they're lovely.
Also I haven't done another WW2 painting guide for quite a while, so I thought this might be the chance to cover yet another infamous German camouflage pattern.
The "Sumpftarnmuster" or swamp/ marsh pattern camouflage scheme was introduced in 1943. It was a variation of the older and more well known "Splittertarnmuster". It came in two main types namely the M1943 pattern with hard edged spots of red-brown and green, as well as the M1944 pattern blurred edge version.
After the war it was used by the Federal German Bundesgrenzschutz, in short BGS, from 1952 till the late 80's. It was exported to several countries abroad and for example some Libyan units wore it as late as 2007.
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-Post War BGS Sumpftarn sample-
As with most German equipment, especially late in the war, there is no hard and fast rule for the exact colours and patterns used. The details of the camouflage pattern sometimes varied from manufacturer to manufacturer.
Since my last Painting guide I've switched from a black to a dark grey undercoat using Vallejo Surface Primer Panzer Grey. This has no other reason than me buying the wrong bottle.
A coat of VMC US Field Drab is applied leaving the dark grey primer show in the recesses as black lining.
This is followed by a glaze using VMC Chocolate Brown heavily diluted with Glaze Medium. The glaze is only applied to the deepest folds of the uniform and not all over the model. In effect it's more or less like a wash but applied in a very controlled manner so as not to build puddles.
The uniform is highlighted using a 50/50 mix of VMC US Field Drab with VMC Iraqui Sand followed by a final layer of Iraqui Sand.
Next the green spots are applied again using the Glaze Medium to thin down VMC Refractive Green. I wanted the splodges to be almost translucent. Make sure to paint the spots with hard edges just like in my "Splittertarnmuster" guide.
What I did here was trying to replicate the M1944 blurred edge camo by painting in a darker green, VMC German Luftwaffe Camo Green in this case, into the previously applied semi-translucent spots of VMC Refractive Green. But frankly I don't think this really works in this scale.
Now follow the red-brown spots. Again I use Glaze Medium to apply semi-translucent splinters of VMC Cavalry Brown. Make sure to NOT let the green and brown splinters touch, or worse overlap, but keep a fine line of the beige base colour.
Still trying to create the blurred edge version I paint only slightly thinned down VMC Saddle Brown into the previously painted semi-translucent brown splinters.
Now I paint the rain drops just as characteristic for this Camouflage pattern as it was for the "Splittertarnmuster". Using a small brush we paint fine vertical lines using a 30/70 mix of VMC Black and VMC German Camo Extra Dark Green. I don't apply the rain drops all over the uniform but only a few groups of two or three lines. As it's not in scale anyway we only want to give the impression and not replicate 1 to 1!
The camouflage smocks were reversible with a white side for use in snowy terrain. The white side became dirty and thus far less effective very fast. Thus the camouflage suits were often worn with the camouflaged side outwards trying to keep the white side as clean as possible for when they were really needed.
First I paint the inside of the smock using VGC Stonewall Grey, followed by VGC Off White.
-here you can see how the dirt affects the camouflage effect of the white side-
Below you can see the finished figure. The lighting unfortunately eats up much of the highlights but over all I think it's actually quite close to the actual thing. At least for a 28mm version that is
I also took the chance to give you a comparison shot to show how the Empress Volksgrenadiere fit in with existing ranges. They're a rather perfect fit and should go with most medium sized ranges out there. They're not as chunky as Warlords offerings but more detailed than the Artizan figures.
From left to right: Artizan - Empress - Warlord.
I also added this Painting Guide to the World War II Colour Guides site of
my blog. I plan on doing some more stuff in the future, but you probably shouldn't hold your breath.
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