The Commander Series Forum

All,

I finished up another NATO brigade, representing my West German contingent. I'm a little ashamed with my laziness, but I'll get over it. What I mean is, the vast majority of the vehicles were given a dark green-gray spray prime, then heavily dry-brushed with a lighter green-gray. But, when I primed I forgot an M-577 command track, a Gepard AA vehicle, an ADATs SAM vehicle (standing in for the Rolands I don't have), and two helos, which had been primed khaki. I didn't feel like going and spraying them (if I even have more of that green-gray spray paint). So, these guys got a NATO three-color camo scheme. Which turned out well, it just doesn't match the rest of the force. But it gives it character, right?

Anyway, let's get to it:

The whole force: Command stand, two battalions of tanks, two battalions of mechanized infantry, a battalion of self-propelled ATGMs, two platoons of Recce, two platoons of air defense (one AAA and one SAM), and two ATGM-armed attack helos. The tank battalions are Leopard IIs, the mech infantry ride in Marders, the SP ATGMs are Jaguars, the Recce are in Luchs, and the helos are BO-105s.

I did not do up engineers or artillery for this brigade, they will 'share' from other forces (that I haven't finished yet, though I suppose the Canadians I've finished could stand in in a pinch).

Man, those NATO 3-tones really look garish, but I promise it's not that bad in 'real life.' Here's a shot without the flash:


Anyway, swing by the blog to see about 15 more pics:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2015/03/6...

Well, as you can probably guess by the fact I'm posting photos of units I completed (meaning I painted instead of played), I am still yet to get 5Core Brigade Commander on the table... But I did get in a monster game of “Generic Yet Action-Packed, WWI through Modern, Dogfighting Like Top Gun Rules” (GYAPWW1TMDLTGR), AKA, the dogfighting rules I've been playtesting. I'll look to get it written up and posted this week, but bear with me, it's massive (four hours, 109 photos).

Stay tuned.

V/R,
Jack

They look very good. My attempt at three tone was rubbish so I went for a green finish without so much weathering/dry brush. Your three-tone looks like a good go. The real ones seem to get a strictly painted pattern of this. I would have to work on this and in a sense "lazy" towards this aspect of the job

It's something you have to take a real "broad brush" approach - it's got to look good at arms length and feel "right"...

I've never really been happy with any attempt

I was so lazy I forgot to read what I posted

Thanks guys.

I'm pretty happy with the 3-tone NATO, and it's not a lot of work for a couple vehicles, but to do a whole force, as above? I don't know if I can stand it...

I'd not had success with 3-tone NATO previously, but I was looking at Google images and had a 'eureka' moment: I finally noticed how much black was in there (relative to the brown), and so I did black before brown and it looked a lot better to me. I know you guys are probably laughing at how simple/stupid that sounds, but for some reason doing black before brown totally changed how they looked (sorry, I don't have pics, I painted over the camo of the ones I did brown before black).

V/R,
Jack

Yes, sometimes it just clicks and it works. I get my eye in and see how to go on. This didn't happen with my three-tone scheme though. I try schemes on the odd leftover tanks I have, like the hulls of tanks without turrets, you sometimes get extra in your order. I always have to test the paint to make sure it doesn't dry glossy.