Welcome to Dragon Rising, Bear Resurgent , a blog I am using to record my Post Cold War wargaming projects. These are focused on expeditionary operations by Chinese, Russian, American and NATO forces in the post Cold War era, modelled and gamed in 20mm & 6mm. The blog includes links to various resources useful to the 21st Centuary Cold War Gamer.

Thursday 25 July 2013

Modelling - Painting US ARMY ACUs in UCP



The US Army's Army Combat Uniform has been In service since 2005, it has largely been fielded in the Universal Camouflage pattern which is scheduled for retirement at the end of 2013. This pattern has been the distinctive if unpopular hall mark of the US army in 21st Century combat to date. The early years of the twenty first Century have been characterised by rapid change in equipment, weapon acutriments and helmets for the infantry soldiers of a large number of nations. This has been particularly acute amongst those NATO nations who have had troops deployed continuously on Military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan since the start of the millennium.



Representing camouflage patterns on 20mm figures is always an interesting activity as an accurate representation of the pattern on something so small is not necessarily what works. The pattern being represented here blends Tan, Grey and Green in a digital pattern but has been represented on the figure with just two tones of green and this works well in conveying the impression of the pattern when viewed from a distance. The Pattern is applied over both the figures uniform and webbing equipment. I first came across this technique as a tutorial published by Cyril on the Guild forum a few years ago,
it has a number of fairly simple steps


All the Figures shown in this post are from Liberation Miniatures
  • Black undercoat
  • Paint whole figure Vallejo Grey Green 886
  • Paint flesh tones Vallejo Sunny Skin Tone 845, Wash with dilute solution Vallejo Mahogony Sand 846, Highlight Vallejo Light Flesh 928, 
  • Dot on Pattern in Vallejo Buff 976,
  • Boots, Vallejo Desert Sand 977
  • Paint Weapons Vallejo Black Grey 862
  • Wash all over with GW Badab Black, less Flesh
  • Highlight with Vallejo Grey Green 886, this creates a light and darker green contrast, which covers the Grey and Green elements of the Cam, so unlike Cyril I have not dot patterned a darker green.
  • Highlight with Vallejo Black Grey 862 - Weapons
  • Highlight with Desert Sand 977 - boots




1 comment :

  1. Andy,
    I don't suppose you remember which Liberation figures they were as these would be great for games in our fictional setting of Andreivia.
    Cheers, Richard P

    ReplyDelete