Hummers to Humvees - part 6

Hello guys,

I've been painting the humvees for past few days on and off (had to repaint the vehicles themselves a lot, which has pretty much killed my enthusiasm for a while). I've decided to break vehicles and gunners into two separate posts to keep my thoughts and colour choices regarding the uniform separate.

 Before I could completely put gunners together, I had to pain the men themselves, so they wouldn't be obstructed by guns.
 While uniforms could be quite straightforward project, there is a problem. We're just getting new uniforms and I got no idea how the helmet covers and vests will look like. I've decided to just go with what is happening now and paint slocam (yes, that's the name of the new camo :P) for uniform and use old amoeba pattern for helmet cover and vest. Plus, models in one color (or one color scheme) are really boring...painting one camo is just like painting black, cool at first but boring eventually. I know there's much desert fighting going on, but I am really tired of desert from my FOW projects. Plus, I'm anxios to paint some face paints on my troops, so they will fight in woodland areas - from Evergreen Fields to perhaps a neo-soviet armored spearhead through Slovenia to Italian northern plains?

Here is a comparative photos of old and new uniforms. Old desert pattern was essentially same as the woodland one, but with sandy colours.
This is a photo from early testing, so the cut of the uniform itslef is the same. New cut includes angled pockets, big velctro "panels" on sleeves for insignia etc. But this isn't really important in 28mm, so what we care about is the new pattern and colours.

As slocam is very simmilar to multicam (but not the same, mind you!), and by that, to new british pattern, I was looking for articles for those two uniforms. I don't have too many paints available, so I've figured I'd experiment on the gunners a bit.

I've used Vallejo colors and what I've found out...it would be perhaps better to stipple than actually paint patterns, as even most dominant colors are split in small dots here and there:

Uniform was based on mix of german fieldgrey and dead flesh to get this lightly green color. Mine is a tad to grey, I suppose.
I then made number of bigger patches in green ochre. Qute random, and not too big and not too many (that's the idea, not what I did :P)
Next was luftwaffe camo green.
After it I've done some smaller strokes of german camo medium brown. At this point I've figured they're really all too round, so its probably really best to take your time and use small brush...or stipple for fast work I suppose.
Last was elfic flesh, but I think any bone colour wold work.

Here are the colors for our old "amoeba" pattern I've used. I don't claim their right, its just my choice atm, based on available colors.

Base was done in german fieldgray, mixed with some elfic flesh to make it a bit brighter.
Patches were simply german grey (instead of black), german camo medium brown and luftwaffe camo green.

I've washed it all with a bit of green grey, but I think it as too thick. I've tried "gloss+black" paint again, but it didn't really work. As my camo blotches are all too big, it all came out a bit under my expectations, but on the other hand it made me think I should add an all round armored cupolas to gun mounts. This way I'd hide the horrible paintjob and it would look more realistic, I don't think any  humvees are without one by now :D.

Below is the rough result. It looks fine from far but not as nice if you look from closer distance. I really think I shouldn't rush it and should just use a smaller brush. The wash was really useful to tie it all together a bit more, but it was too thick in the end.
You can see I've sculpted some fingers on the left gunner and started detailing straps on his helmet some more. It needs one more perpendicular stripe. You probably can't see it on this photo, but the vest looks much like the jacket, so I think I totally blew it. I think I'll keep it that way and won't be repainting anything. If it will bother me too much, I can always come back and redo the sleeves - it is the only visible part, after all.

Well, sorry to keep it so "photo light", but I'll have more when I'll show you the current WIP of the Humvees themselves - which I think look quite decent at this point :P.

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo