Hello - new to the forum and new to the Western Desert. I am after some advice around painting both Commonwealth and DAK figures - any advice really from best colour undercoat (I was thinking brown?) to basing (I was thinking modelling gravel in emulsion with anything else I can find thrown in?)
Many thanks
Mark

Hi, Mark.

As that was your first post....A very warm welcome to the forum.

I'll bow to my colleagues here on the forum for advice you seek...
I'm just waiting for the 'oiks' that post here, for the "No....I'm Spartacus" comments.

Cheers - Phil

Thanks for the warning Phil - I considered about 4 other names first and discarded them as I absolutely knew I would get filleted for them so this was the one I thought might attract the least attention - maybe that was a mistake.... I can take it...how bad can it get...?

Hi imspartacus, welcome to the forum!

Because colours on smaller figures tend to look darker I tend to use white or light grey for undercoat on 10mm and smaller.

That said, I have used white, grey, black, white washed with black, black drybrushed white, red, blue and brown over the last year or so, for specific items so I suggest going with what seems right and working from there!

For desert basing I "paint" the base with wood glue, dredge it with fine sand (Pendraken now do some), wash that with brown wash and then dry brush it increasingly lighter until I have a colour I'm happy with then add flock, fine gravel as rocks, etc..

Example below - a better shot of the basing than the figures!

Been a few years, but
Dak armour early,
Start with field grey,
Highlight with Desert sand
Highlight again with pale sand
Chip with field grey.

Flames of war website actually has some very useful painting guides

British armour- good luck with early, that's Caunter...
Inf: faded khaki and desert yellow lids.

http://www.warlordgames.com/painting-guide-deutsches-afrika-korps-kradschutzen/

https://www.paintalltheminis.com/paint-all-the-minis-news/2018/11/24/afrika-korps-panzer-painting-guide-r922k

One vital tip. IF you ever paint British vehicles in the Caunter scheme (pre-late '41) make sure that you never, NEVER, NEVER use light blue. 

Thank you everyone - some useful info - plus you've talked me out of the Caunter scheme!

Don't get me wrong. I love Caunter. But for some reason Bovington and then Tamiya decided light blue was a component colour. It wasn't.

Wotcha.

Caunter - depressing isn't it?

Tell you what. Don't bother with the Western Desert - it's all sand and deep yellow and beige and *yawn* - go French 1940! 




Stonking great Char B1's ... or Char 2C's if you're feeling up to it; sleek S35's and cheeky little H35s and H38s; half tracks and those super Panhard a/cs.  Go on, put some colour in your life!

BTW, welcome to the forum.   

Go for France 1940? 

But which week, I mean there are at least 5 to choose from!

Welcome IamSpartacus to the forum.

Western desert colours.

Firstly, the sun bleached everything. The most noticeable was the DAK uniform which went from a green colour to almost sand, and any shade in between. I read an account of British prisoners being marched across the desert in "White" boots.  The sand/rock/grit has rubbed all the coloured surface of the leather away.  

It was not unusual for items of clothing to be worn by either side. The Germans liked the British shorts apparently.  So with the fading you can get away with almost any colour.

Using the paints below I did the following

British
Uniforms - Most in Iraqi Sand, New uninforms would be Khaki and then fade pretty quick.  Socks and Jumpers, I did in Khaki for variation as jumpers would normally be won when the sun had gone down and thus be less likely to fade
Vehicles  - Dark Sand (847), wash in sepia ink and then drybrus again in dark sand


DAK
Uniforms - New ones Green Brown (879), then add varying amounts of Iraqi sand to tone it down. Veterans could be seen by the field caps that had been bleached white by the sun.
Vehicles - Pick the predominant colour for your year for most vehicles. Use earlier colours for a few.. Again Brown wash and highlight.  early vehicles were shipped to the desert in Grey and repainted by their crews. To save effort they often left a bit of the original grey round all markings.

Tracks - Original vehicle colour, I then washed them in Badab  black or whatever the wash is called now. Paint track Dark camo brown (826) and dry brush with steel/chainmail

Trucks were in such short supply that all sides made use of captured vehicles. Normally in original colours, although marking would be over painted.   The  stone grey is very useful for bleached canvas covers

Basing, I use watered down PVA and drench with sand. Then paint my preferred colour. A very very small amount of green grass can be added for the odd shrub or go the whole hog and buy, scrub colour grass tufts and put one on the odd base.

These paints are from the Flames of war North Africa set - Leon Does them cheaper - codes should be correct. Its a fairly comprehensive list

Black Grey (862) - Early Afrikakorps vehicles & painted metal
Buff (976) -  Dust, highlight colour
Dark Sand (847) -  8th Army vehicles & painted metal
Desert Yellow (977)- Italian uniforms
Green Brown (879) -  Afrikakorps vehicles '42
Green Ochre (914) -  Italian vehicles, Bersaglieri helmets
Iraqi Sand (819)    Afrikakorps vehicles '43, dust & British uniforms
Khaki (988)  British uniform base colour (they faded to Iraqi sand)
Olive Grey (888)  Italian Puttees, Italian uniform & tanks in Scily & Italy
Stone Grey (884)  British webbing, Afrikakorps webbing and canvas hoods of vehicles.
Tan Yellow (912)  Afrikakorps vehicles '42 late
Yellow Green (881)  Afrikakorps uniform, Italian webbing

Welcome to the Forum

The usual prompt useful responses, I'm assuming you spotted the Oik

One option if you don't want green flock is to go for some different brown rocks

Welcome - my desrty stuff -

Brits - Desert Yellow for the Vehicles, with green blobs or white outlined red brown - there is plenty of evidence for both, think I've left the valentines in plain DY.

Germans - since I want these to work on both the eastern front and in Africa they are Valjro Dark Yellow with thin green stripes, might be right for Tunisia and fine for Russia.

No Italians

US - Olive drab Lees - with the yellow turret stripe. Rest of the stuff is plain olive drab, so can be used in any theatre.

IanS