Painting Ambush Camouflage
Painting Ambush Camouflage
Ambush camo is a great way to make your late war Germans look really stylish,
and best of all doesn’t need an airbrush.
First get your tank
You need something that came off the production line in the late end of 1944,
or you will look silly and all your opponents will laugh at you. Jagdpanzers,
StuGs and Konigstigers look particularly good in this costume.
Trim and glues as per. If you don’t know how to do that – go to
the Battlefront site for more details (I just have a go at it with a blunt
knife and a pot of thick superglue)
Base coat
Time for a nice even black undercoat – GW Chaos black spray works best
for me. This year this has been the most difficult part, as it does not seem
to have stopped raining in the UK since January.
Dunklegelb is your base coat – paler than the other colours, so cant
really go over the top as well, and gives the other colours a chance to shine.
So – all over coat of VMC middlestone. 4/5 times you will need to do
two coats.
For my normal German stuff this is where the ink comes in, but no, hold your
horses, its better later.
According to my research ambush camo was painted in set patterns. Sadly I
cant find any pics of those patters (though if you find any – late me
know).
My pattern tends to look a bit like a Union flag from above, but seems to
work.
So its time for the green bits – VMC German camo dark green –
nicely diluted and painted on with hard edges.
Then the brown bits VMC Chocolate brow – again diluted and going on
with hard edges.
Now its time for the ink.
Winsor and Newton peat ink – by the bucket load. A few drops of flow
improver to get it moving and away you go.
Highlighting time.
Middlestone and white (about 60% middlestone), lined or drybrushed onto the
yellow bits.
Same with VMC flat earth for the brown bits, and reflective green for the
green bits.
Looks ok, but somewhat lacking in ambush’ness.
Time for the dots.
Cocktail sticks are the gods of little dots.
For tanks I tend to bash the end a bit to make it a bit wider. I have tried
to cut it to a chevron for hard edged dots, but it really didn’t add
anything except to the time taken.
Dots of middlestone on the brown and green bits, dots of german camo dark
green on the yellow bits.
Thats your camo done.
Just need to sort out the details – tools, stowage, crew, tracks etc.
See my other guides for them
Ididnt take a final photo of this batch, but here is one I made earlier.
