UA405 - German uniforms Brown Service Shirt

German uniforms Brown Service Shirt - the brown of the service shirt

This water-based acrylic paint from the German uniforms group covers the brown tone of the service shirt. At first glance that looks like a detail, but on a figure it decides a great deal: the shirt is visible at an open collar, under an unbuttoned blouse, on a figure without a coat and everywhere the sleeves are rolled up. And brown shirt fabric behaves quite differently to the eye than the brown leather of a belt or a brown pouch.

Three browns on one figure

A typical figure in this group carries several brown areas at once, wool cloth, leather and canvas. Paint them all in the same tone and the figure looks uniform and flat, because it lacks exactly the transitions the eye reads as different materials. The shirt brown is the softest and least glossy position in this set, because textile does not reflect light the way tanned leather does.

Use

• the brown service shirt at an open collar and under an unbuttoned blouse
• rolled-up sleeves and the collar on figures without a coat
• brown canvas parts of kit and straps
• a mid brown position between the light and the dark brown of the group

How to tell it from leather

The approach is simple: leave the shirt subdued and flat, and push the leather instead into a darker and deeper position with a more pronounced highlight on the edges. The difference in sheen does more on a figure than a difference in the shade itself; the viewer reads the material by how the surface gathers light, not by a nuance of tone.

Who the paint is for

For modelers of figures and busts who want the materials on a figure to be recognizable, and for diorama builders making scenes where the figures are not in full marching order and the shirt is visible.

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