Acrylics Pain Mixes for common WW2 Military Colours

[PaultheMilitaryModeller]

Hi all

Mainly for reasons of economy but also to make it easier to mix different variations of colours to make shading and highlighting easier, I am thinking of going over to tubed artist paint for my modelling.

So to get me started I am in need of some basic colour mixes for the common WW2 military colours that I mainly use.

Any help with these would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Colours needed are

German Field Grey, the later war green/grey
German Dark Yellow, Dunkelgelb
US/UK Olive Drab as used in the late war
British Khaki
British Khaki Drab
Russian 4BO Green

Thanks again for any help with this, just the basic colour mixes needed to get me started.

Paul

 

[Gary D]

I know this link is for Vallejo acrylics, but it'll help give you an idea on what you are aiming for. Gray Creager at Colorado Miniatures has put together this:
http://www.coloradominiatures.com/infovallejopaints.aspx#splinter1

 

[Einion]

Mainly for reasons of economy but also to make it easier to mix different variations of colours to make shading and highlighting easier, I am thinking of going over to tubed artist paint for my modelling.

Great idea, it's well worth the effort and the economy thing is no joke as in the long run it might be x20 or x30 cheaper!

You picked a palette yet or are you going to base it partly on the suggestions?

You might already know this but it bears repeating: there are numerous ways of mixing most colours and the duller the colour the more possible routes. So within reason what colours you need to mix doesn't dictate your palette - this is why with so many professional painters have palettes different from others, sometimes nearly every paint (including the white!)

Feldgrau - best way to mix this IMO is to start with a grey and a green mix and then blend them together. It makes the process less seat-of-the-pants, which can lead to many problems, which is actually a good habit to get into.

Dunkelgelb - first you need to decide on what colour this is! There's lots of debate on what colour it was/should be, see this thread on CoolMiniOrNot for a bit more on this:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?36521-German-Field-Grey-in-GW-Paints

As for the British colours, which type? I think khaki in particular was extremely variable, from dark near-chocolate examples to lighter "bronze greens". Khaki drab can be approached generically though, as a tinted dull green; I think the best way to do this is to start with a yellow earth with a bit of black (this makes green), lightened with white and then tweaked with a little red earth if necessary.

Russian 4BO Green - the best way to mix this might be to start with Chromium Oxide Green if you're going to include it in your palette, then simply modify it as necessary (COGs vary, so can't say in advance how you'd need to modify it). In addition to making the process a little simpler COG is one of the most opaque colours so the coverage will be extremely good.

Einion

 

[PaultheMilitaryModeller]

Many thanks for all the help

I have been to the art shop today to pick up some useful looking colours to get me started.

Had a bit of luck as well as the brand of olive green I bought almost looks like olive drab out of the tube so it won't need much playing with to get it right, (hopefully), also got some grey to try a field grey mix with some of the green, also got some golden ochre which out of the tube looks a good starting point for the dunkelgelb, which was always described as having an ochre hue to it, plus a few other likely colours plus black and white, yellow, green, blue and red to get me going.

Thanks

Paul