Painting Guide - NATO British

This guide is purely my interpretation of the British DPM, which I arrived at by looking closely at photos of the uniform and then breaking it down into component parts. it is not definitive and you the reader may not think it a true representation, but it works for me and all my British troops will be dressed like this. I hope it is of some use to somebody who might otherwise think the painting of this pattern is daunting, or don't know where to start. Anyway for what it's worth, this is how I do it . . . .

I always stick my figures on bottle tops so that I have something to hold on to while painting. I mount my figures on "Penny Washers" bought from Screwfix Direct and then store them in a box folder lined with magnetic sheet. Right, enough of that, on to the painting . . . . .

Undercoat the figure black. I used to do a lot of spraying with Halfords black undercoat car spray, but then spent as much time again brushing all the areas underneath the figure where the spray didn't reach, so now I usually just brush undercoat on from the start and cover the whole figure first time.

As usual I won't go into how I do the flesh etc, as everybody has their own way of doing it and this guide is about the uniform. So, after undercoating black I paint the whole uniform and the helmet with Vallejo 921 English Uniform.

Now add green blotches of Vallejo 894 Russian Green all over the uniform, followed by brown blotches of Vallejo 822 SS Cammo Black Brown. Don't make the blotches of either colour too big, so as to totally obscure the base colour. See photos above.

Now I apply a highlight to the base colour, which in this instance is Coat d' Arms 225 Khaki and you can see right away from the photos above how the look of the figure changes instantly with this first highlight applied. Next I repeat the process with the dark green blobs, by applying a highlight of Vallejo 886 Green Grey. When applying these highlights, don't obscure the colour underneath, as this is where the depth of colour comes from. Try to keep the highlight surrounded by a line of the base colour on each layer.

Now highlight the brown blotches with Vallejo 984 Flat Brown and then add some irregular black swirls. Be careful not to make these too prominent or too thick as they will dominate the whole uniform if you do. Aim for single strokes of your paintbrush for each swirl, with enough paint on it to complete it in one stroke. At this point I painted the exposed parts of the helmet and roll at the base of the webbing with Russian Green as a basecoat.

Next up is the webbing, which I painted with Foundry Granite (midtone), (thanks for that one Dave) which I also used on the puttees. I blackened the figure's face with Miniatures paints Umber at this stage too (It seemed like a good idea at the time) and gave him some hair. I gave the webbing and puttees a highlight of Vallejo 886 Green Grey. The netting on the helmet got a quick drybrush of black at this stage too.

I repainted the SLR black, to cover any overbrushing at the earlier stages, then highlight it with dark grey (any brand will do and I don't always use the same one every time anyway). Start painting the scrim on the helmet with muted natural colours with red browns, greens, light khakis being the main constituents. Stick a few brown and lighter green blobs on the roll at the base of the webbing too to round of the look of the figure. To complete this process take a very dark colour (even black if you must) and outline pockets, joins between jacket and trousers, straps and belts etc to separate the parts of the figure and show off the separate items of dress and equipment. This final lining makes all the difference and really finishes the whole thing off.

Now terrain the base to your own requirements and give the whole lot a good spray of matt varnish, which helps to keep any foliage etc in place.

Cheers,

Frank Hammond