Hornet 8th Army North Africa - Reference

[Franco]

Greetings,

I am in the process of starting to paint the Hornet 8th Army North Africa figure, World War II. As I am an ancient and medieval figure modeller I am a little clueless about World War II subjects. I simply love the pose and attitude of the figure that I decided to paint it. I have the basic colour instructions but wanted to know from any experts out there - what should I be looking out for regarding colour of shirt, pants, socks, boots, webbing, equipment, flashes & insignia.

Once I read (I think it was a Phil Kessling article) that the British Kakhi was more yellow than the American WWII Kakhi colour. These are the types of tips and suggestions that I am after.

I paint both in oils and acrylics - guess a mixed medium approach - but will be inclinded to paint the clothing on this figure in oils - however I would appreciate colour mixes and suggestions for this figure from both oil and acrylic painters then I can make up my mind which one to proceed with.

Thanking you all in anticipation.

Cheers
Franco

 

[Kreston]

Franco, the color you are looking for for 8th Army uniforms in Africa is called khaki drill. It differs from regualr British khaki. It is a light, almost sand color. The key to painting any khaki uniforms is to vary color of the different items. Pants and shirt should not be the exact same shade of khaki. The equipment should be a different shade, as should the socks and helmet.

Find a color reference and try to come close to matching it with an oil mix. Play around with your oils, I find part of fun is discovering those mixes!

Kreston Peckham

 

[amherbert]

Hi Franco.

As Kreston says, you need a very light tan color. And from the looks of various photos, the color is lighter than the skin of the tanned soldiers in some cases.

Cheers
Andy

 

[KeithP]

As an fyi, humbrol has a khaki drill enamel that is pretty close to what I have seen in dwgs and photo's. If you are going to go with oils, this may be a good base for you.

Keith

 

[Pete_H]

A good acrylics undercoat would be Vallejo's "Buff". You can even tint it down a bit by adding Vallejo "Khaki."

For oils, try unbleached/buff titanium with a very small amount of gold ochre (just enough to give the buff a yellow tint). If it's too yellow, try adding an extremely small amount of Payne's gray. I know this sounds crazy, but it's given me some good results. Shade with a bit of burnt umber, and highlight with straight buff titanium (For higher highlights, just add a small amount of titanium white).

Take a look here for other mixes: http://members.cox.net/captnpete/PaletteMain.html

Hope this helps ...

 

[Franco]

Dear Prston, Keith, Andy and Pete,

Thank you very much for the input. This was exactly the type of info I was after. Another great thing of this Forum, you post one day and within 48 hours you get some information back.

Pete a big thank you for the link - most useful.

Thanks all
Ciao
Franco :lol:

 

[Franco]

Sorry for the spelling Preston - apologies for this - too early in the morning!!!

Apologies
Franco