UA403 - German uniforms Field Grey 2

German uniforms Field Grey 2 - the second position of the field gray

This water-based acrylic paint from the German uniforms group handles the most common and at the same time the most treacherous shade of the whole subject. In practice the field gray never behaved as a single fixed tone: it varied with the batch of cloth, with the supplier, with the age of the garment and with how many times it had been through washing and rain. That is why the manufacturer offers two numbers side by side, and this is the second of them.

A gray that always has an undertone

The fundamental mistake when painting German figures is to reach for a neutral gray. The field gray is no neutral gray at all; it has either a green or a brownish undertone beneath it, and that is exactly what makes a uniform recognizable. Leave it out and the figure looks as though it were in work overalls, not in a field uniform.

What to use the shade for

• the blouse, trousers and field cap of infantry figures
• the coat and greatcoat, where the continuous area of cloth is largest
• field kit and pouches in the same shade as the uniform
• a base tone for variants that shift only slightly from the gray

Working with the tone on a figure

Uniform wool cloth has a rougher surface than sheet metal, so it does not gather light into sharp highlights but scatters it. In practice that means: the base tone in a continuous area, the darker position only into the bottom of the folds, the lighter one only on the edges that really stand out. Keep the contrast lower than you would use on a vehicle, or the uniform reads like crumpled paper.

Who the paint is for

For modelers of figures in 1:35 and larger scales, for collectors of busts and for diorama builders who need several figures in one scene and want to tell them apart by the shade of the cloth and not merely by the pose.

Stir the paint before work, work in a well-ventilated room and keep it out of the reach of children.