Blogger keeps doing strange things recently - forgetting who I am and displaying outdated updates to my blogroll after displaying more recent ones, for example. Ach! Who cares? Drax is on Work Avoidance duty. It's either this or marking 20,000-odd words' worth of A-Level coursework drafts.
For tomorrow.
No chance: I'm knackered.
Anyway, here as promised are some quick thoughts on my Leman Russ camouflage. Please note, this is for info only - I'm by no means suggesting it as a scheme!
Camouflage.
As far as I'm concerned, vehicle camouflage is used for two main reasons: (1) to make the vehicle less obtrusive, (I wince at the phrase 'blend in'), and (2) to disrupt outlines of the superstructure, equipment and armament, in order to render positive identification more difficult. I know there are others, but that'll do for my reasoning.
To this end, and because I liked it, I got inspiration from the style of temperate camo used by the British Army on their light vehicles, such as landrovers. It's brutally simple and 'rough-and-ready'. Look at any of the old Landrover 'Defender' models and I'm afraid you'll find that over the years most of their fine detail has been obscured by paint...very much like my Russes, so it seemed to fit!
You'll hopefully note from the pics on this post that the camo on my Leman Russes - whilst not inspired - does at least generally follow the principles outlined above. The picture of all of them together illustrates this particularly well, in my view - note that it's a little tricky to tell at a glance what vehicles they are; certainly their variants are unclear:
Naturally, the Imperial Guard's penchant for identification flashes (see the previous post) negates some of camouflage's more traditional 'hiding in bushes' role!
Talking of hiding, I love this picture (below), which I had in a book as a kid and I'm pleased to say I found online. It's an Me109 in the desert, and it's a beautiful example of aircrat camo - something I've always thought Der Luftwaffe in WWII got off to a really fine art. If you're unfamiliar, there are doubtless other interesting examples online.
There you go then: vehicle cam, Drax-style. I'm tired now and I need bed. Corgi's drowsy too.
Station.
- Drax
I do have to admit I've spent way too much time thinking about camouflage as well. (q.v. this post: http://wfarcadia.blogspot.com/2008/12/go-guard.html)
ReplyDeleteWhen I painted my Leman Russes, I thought for a while and settled on a simple pattern like yours, but with Chaos Black and Dark Angels Green. This was before Catachan Green (aka olive drab) came out. Once it did, I started rethinking my camo scheme, but after wavering back and forth a bit, I decided to stick with the DA Green and Chaos Black.
Then other cool camo-like colors came out like Knarloc Green...and I constantly find myself thinking about trying a new scheme...but at the same time I want all my vehicles to have the same scheme since they're from the same unit...sigh.
Still, it is true that while models that are painted with effective camouflage schemes look more realistic, it is also true that armies painted in bold, bright colors look fantastic on the tabletop.
With that in mind, I still spend way too much time thinking about what I want to paint any new guard models I get... With Space Marines, it's easy. Their color schemes are predefined for the most part. For IG, it's not so easy! More freedom for creativity means more work for the imagination...
The Russes look great when placed side by side like that!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the A-level c/w marking - sounds like a hard slog.
The 109 camo does look interesting, I'd love to see that on a tank.
ReplyDeleteHow can you concentrate on the coursework when you have a game to look forward to?!
I say, grade the students on an arbitrary curve. Maybe one random paper flunks, the rest pass... or reverse it, matters not. As long as you free up time for the all important hobby!
ReplyDeleteThe tanks look grand. I do like how they are hard to identify when all placed together. Quite nice!
Very cool!
ReplyDeleteThanks, chaps,
ReplyDelete...and for those of you who haven't seen it, you really should look at Darkwing's link, above: pure genius!
Yeah. If I were starting my Russes afresh now they wouldn't be painted this way.
Thanks for both the comments and coursework encouragement. I'll get it done this weekend whilst Kate's away. Maybe.
And as for the 109 camouflage on a tank? It's really hard to make it look good. Mostly it comes out 'splotchy'.
- Drax.
So what color scheme would you paint them if you were going to redo them? Just a solid DA Green like your other vehicles?
ReplyDeleteMy lightweight landrover is looking very sad for itself - no matter, I just have to dig out the pot of NATO green and bob's your uncle - happy military landrover...
ReplyDelete