Portuguese Ultramar Wars w.i.p : portuguese force

[Predatorpt]

good to know !

I thought it was after 1971.

It was adopted in 1968 but our Army used it with the MG42. We bought 1800 MG42s directly from the Federal Republic of Germany in 1962 and dispatched them to Africa as soon as we could, to replace the old Breda and Vickers machine guns. In '68 we bought the HK21 (they said the MG42 was too heavy for use in the jungle) but most of troops still wanted the MG42 (experience in the field said that the rate of fire was more important than the weight, and you couldn't beat the MG42)- that's why you see lots of pictures of Portuguese soldiers with that gun until the end of the war.

[sundayhero]

thank you for the explanation !

Today I was a bit lazy, and I only undercoated the 2nd squad in black. Here's the pics (in order : leader, radio, rpg, energa grenadier, rifleman, mg42 lmg)

Next week, I'll paint my few french modern figures remaining (about 12) and this portuguese dozen too.

[sundayhero]

Here's my first test painting figure (a quick painting job, I'll paint more carefully on the final minis). I used a spare (not used in the final force) miniature, to test my paint scheme.

I tried to make my work accurate compared to Osprey portuguese forces reference plates. I found an almost perfect match. Searching for real life archives photos, most of the pics I found were a lot more "greenish" (sometimes almost a mint green!), but I didn't like the tests I made (painting patterns on a piece of paper). This one "works" better in 20mm scale, at least I hope so.

What do you think of it ?


thanks

I'll also see how it looks tommorow on daylight.

[juergen c. olk]

Looks Perfect. I like it a lot. http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ModernAfricanBushwars

[sundayhero]

thank you a lot !  Especially since you know pretty well bush wars !


edit : by the way, the figures I have (from rhodesian range) wears chest webbings, but it appears that portuguese (as far as I know) mostly only wear belt webbings. WOuld it be accurate to still paint these chest webbings, or should I simply "hide" the pair of braces under the camo pattern ?

And what color should I use for the webbings ? I thought about an olive green color.


thanks

[Ash]

That's a fantastic match to the artwork, colours and scale of the pattern look bang on.
 
Not sure if its of any help, but I had a got at some Portuguese chaps in 28mm. The base colour to that Camo is a sort of unnameable washed out pale green. I think I used a mix of German field grey and Russian uniform (Vallejo).

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=65877.msg802286#msg802286

[sundayhero]

Thank you for the help.

I used also some german fieldgrey as a base, but only mixed with several amounts of white. I tried dozens (litteraly) mixes, and it's the one I prefered, finally.

thank you also for the comments : I have to admit that this painting project is a bit more complex than the french CE I made first (both colors and pattern). Or perhaps I simply take it more seriously (with books, documentation and all) 

But I have to relax a bit and just paint, because of this accuracy quest, I didn't paint anything new since I painted my african dozen test batch. 

[carlos marighela]

Vallejo Stone Grey makes the perfect base colour.

[Ray Earle]

Looks great. 

Lovely work on the camo.

[sundayhero]

Thanks

I'll stay on this paint setup, I'll post some update soon.

[Centaur_Seducer]

Looking lovely mate!

You've really made me look into my 20mm stuff. Luckily I got other stuff to do before that, but it might be that my stash of stuff might see a spin in a decade or so

[sundayhero]

thank you a lot !

For me the inspiration cam from Ash's work, because of it I discovered that "bush wars" were not related to the former american president, and "Rhodesia" was not a funny Imagi-nation name 

[sundayhero]

Vallejo Stone Grey makes the perfect base colour.

Since I still didn't start painting, I placed an order for this color. I'll wait it to test, and see what camo version I prefer.
In the mean time, i'll probably do a bit of scenery, and finish my french special forces.


thanks

[sundayhero]

Finally, an update ! These last months have been very busy, I'm just starting to have a bit more time to complete some unfinished projects, like this one.

Here 's the 2 commando sticks painted :

1st stick :









2nd stick :










And a few comparison shots with the heavily modified plastic africans I made before :

[juergen c. olk]

Superb job. really like the look of them.