I'm about to start work on Dragon's German Grenadier (East Prussia 1945) 6057 set.

Before I begin, is anyone able to give any info on the figures depicted, and which units they might have been from?

The zeltbahn is quite eyecatching. From the cover art, it looks like the tan water pattern is depicted, as seen here:

http://www.zeltbahn.net/wh_camo.htm

Does anyone know how I can depict the long strokes in 1/35? I think even with a 000 brush it might be quite difficult to get fine enough.

WEll there are two questions, One 'realism' and one 'artistic'

For the realism crowd.
Those 'rain marks' are not very large (wide) in real life, even if they are 1cm wide in real life, then find 1/35th of that... they're pretty small.

They were designed if I read correctly to make the colors and edges blend at a distance.

A 1/35th scale figure viewed at 1 foot is the same as a full sized man wearing the uniform viewed at 35 feet, yes?
I don't believe the rain streaks were visable on the manakins at the museum where AMPS was held this year when I stood across the room. But I did not measure the distance.

Artistically, I've seen some figures with the marks painted in that look fantastic.
What about using a mechanical pencil sharpened to a fine point on sandpaper and lightly sketching (lightly so you dont scrape the paint away) in the lines..

Mike
Who cannot paint figured worth a damn...

That's a quote off the above zeltbahn site, Sausage. Heer zeltbahn came ONLY in Splinter. SS used several patterns.

As for the 'falling rain' lines, its debatable whether they'd be visible to the naked eye even in 1/16, never mind 1/35. However at 1/16, I'd paint it as it helps ID the pattern. I've seen 1/35 figs painted with the lines too (there was a good one by Calvin Tan posted recently. If I were you, I'd leave it off a 1/35 fig. You'd only see it on close up photos. Better to use a sharp pencil (as MLD says) to lightly shade the areas covered by the 'rain'.

They can be depicted as being from any Heer (Army) unit from the date of issue of the sturmgehwehr 44 which was I think early 44 (feel free to correct me anyone?) on either the western or eastern front. The zeltbahn was issued to every soldier and widely worn as a camouflage outfit.

Was there a seam running down the entire length of the zeltbahn when worn? All the dragon figures have this seam and I was wondering if I should fill it.

Here is what I mean by the seam.



Should it be there?

I'd fill that seam to make it less pronounced. Check these sketches, in the first one you'll see that a seam is shown but it'll probably be less visable than on those figures.

Zeltbhan plan view

How it's worn

Used as a tent

Sketches and photo from "German Army Uniforms and Insignia 1933-1945" by Brian L Davis, published by Arms & Armour Press (mine is the 1971 edition).

As mentioned by the guys, the water drop mark or line is pretty thin and more so at 1/35. I've managed to get them in with an #000 brush for 1/35 but it can be a bit tedious. As to how realistic it would be at 1/35 I'll leave it to the experts.

Here's a Fallschirmjager fig I did some time back from 1/35 DML Ardennes set I think which I painted with splinter camo and tropical pants. The percentage of green and flat earth splinter patterns should have been a bit higher and the light tan backing less.



Hope it helps.

http://www.militaryhobbies.ca/custom/Product/dml6057sm.jpg

Thanks for all the help. I have some color questions for this set of figures now.

I'm using vallejo paints. Can anyone recommend colors for


1. the helmets? DML's paint guide shows 2 different helmet colors, 1 the typical green, and another looks like sand yellow. But why is sand yellow used in east prussia?

2. the sturmfausts? DML recommends 'sail color'. Is there a vallejo equivalent?

3. the stick grenades? The handles are wooden, but is the grenade sand yellow as shown in the instructions? I've seen some photos where they look like they're field green.

4. The uniform (not the zeltbahn). DML recommends 50% of dark grey and dark green.

5. accessories - the water bottles, beltpack, G43/K43 magazine pouches, MP44 magazine pouches, rifle slings


Thanks.