Thanks Chazman,

I plan on having this first two figure set done by Monday (Feb 7). The second set will follow by the following Monday and then the USMC AAVP7/AFV Crew - O.I.F. by the Monday after that. Warriors still has to get them into rubber and do the production runs for all three sets, get them painted and photographed, have labels printed etc. So I would expect them in April or May.

Big Country, if you are listening, are you still up to painting the boxart???

And yes, the three Vietnam Marines piece was inspired by the beautiful Kevin Lyles artwork.

Yes I am listening and yes I have been following this thread. YES!!!!!!! I will!

Big Country

PattyBoy,
For some subliminal reason, I have the urge to do a s-b-s on "digiflage." Hmmmm ....... But first I want to finish up some of those other s-b-s's I've left hanging in the wind: Wild Bill Guarnere, the panzergrenadier, and the Ranger.

P.S - remember: "1/35 & 54mm are MANLY scales!!!" :lol:

I dont think thats really needed since the Digital cammies for the USMC are a different cut BDU, Plus they where wearing MOPP Gear till they got to Bagadad, which is still in the 3 color desert camo.

Might be able to do the K-pot cover in dig camo

I can't wait to get my hands on these guys either...

Greetings-
I am currently trying to construct digital camo on 1/35. Most difficult obstacle is the size of individual pixels. Little clusters aren't difficult, but when the individual "pixels" flake out and intermix, I have not been able to keep them from looking like little bubbles or warts on the uniforms. So, I stopped using paint brushes, and started using a needle head dipped in paint. The results are a little better, but not much. I think I am slowly going blind.....

Currently, the three major new uniforms - CARPAT (Canadian uniform) MARPAT (USMC) and the new ACU (Army copy) use the exact same patterns, but different colors. MARPAT and CARPAT differ in thier shades of green, but are quite similar. The Army ACU has no black, and is trying to be a jack of all trades. The ACU has no black or dark colors in it, instead using green-woodland, grey-urban environments and sand brown-desert. I assume that the soldier's Outer Tactical Vest (OTV) body armor carrier will soon follow these patterns, but I have not seen one yet.

"They" - the so called experts - claim that "Black is no longer useful on the uniform because it is not a color commonly found in nature. The drawback to black is that its color immediately catches the eye". Well, I've been in for twelve years, two wars, and I see the color black in my environment (which includes urban ones) all of the friggin time! I'm not a big fan of that idea, but I gotta wear what they give me, I guess......

Anybody try it and have more success? I am seriously considering laying a base of paint down and trying to shrink custom decal in the "pixels", since it's quite difficult to get them into scale. Been away from modelling for quite a while, and need some help and advice......


Thoughts?
v/r-
Henry Malinverni

When it comes to the new camo the USMC uses, and the Army/AF will be using, I think I'll stick with WW2 or the common 3 Color desert. I haven't even attempted to do any of the digital patterns.

Wolfpack 60: I understand about seeing black in the environment, but I know that "they" had a koniption when we first went to OEF. Some guys wore black tshirts under their flightsuits, or black flight boots, and with NVG, they were showing up like a bigdog! That may be why they are trying to get away from using so much of it.

And then again, I could be completely wrong!

AFSOC-
Your NVG observation is quite true. We went to great lengths to put IR "tags" in my unit to ID our friend from foe, and I forgot and just plain overlooked that aspect.

The IR break-up is the digi-cam pattern's greatest stregnth. I was in both OIF I & II. Former regime security forces, Iraqi ex-SF, and Arab/Serb mercs were usually the only ones with NVGs (not Al-Sadr and Shiite his bunch of clowns) - it really separated the enemy pros from the amatures. During the day, the ACU still seems lacking. Maybe a darker brown or green to break up the visible spectrum on a clear day....

The jarheads (and I use that term with the utmost respect) I worked with loved thier new MARPAT. Thier desert version was quite effective, even at night with NVGs - and I am not embarassed to atmit I had times I wish ours was as effective. If a Marine was laying still still over 50 meters from you, he was extremely difficult to spot. When I got back to Europe and the States, got a chance to check out the green MARPAT. Definately the same pattern, and probably just as effective.

I guess that means I owe you a beer...........

v/r-
Henry

Wolfpack:

Remember the night camo from Desert Storm? That dark green parka with the light green digital checks in it? That was kick ass and it was difficult to spot with NVG.

The USMC digital camo looks really good. I saw some ANGLICO guys with it, and it does look really effective. Not sure how the new AF stuff is going to work, but glad it's not the blue tiger stripes!

I feel your pain!

I am really struggling trying to recreate MARPAT effectively in 1/35th. I'm kind of beginning to believe that in 1/35.....it's really more of an effect than a pattern.

I'll let you know if I get any breakthroughs. I'm waiting to see how Bill paints MARPATS on his OIF figures.

Who was doing the Insurgents? I'm looking foward to seeing how they're coming along...

Mike

Mike-
I used a work-around for insurget figures. Took DML/Dragon's Kit #dr3304 (Viet Cong w/ Bicycle), and Verlinden kits vp2050 (Vietcong) & vp2128 (Vietcong Running) and used the bodies. Webbing, weapons, and most clothing could be painted to match. Also took Warrior's Universal Head Set #5 (kit#WA35456) for the bearded heads. Many of the insurgents covered thier faces with (cliche, I know) ski masks, or the smerga-towel thing they always carried around. The towel can be scratch-built, and putty over the dragon/verlinden heads can do the ski masks. Most of the AK gunenrs carried the old Soviet/Chinese ammo pouch rigs across the front, which is why I chose these kits as a base.

These are pretty good replicas of Al-Sadr's Mahadi Army volunteers we fought in the Spring Uprising last year. They started in black pajamas, sneakers, and sandals with green bandanas and headbands to try to gain popular support. After we killed 600 or so of thier fighters in Najaf in a five-week span, they started to wear civlian clothes, but retained a head covering of some sort to conceal thier identities. Iraqi civilian clothes was replicated just by changing colors. They either wore the classical arab man-dress (older secualr fighters), or western-style clothing with a black bag (even saw - cliche - ski masks) over thier heads. I'm sure that can be added with a little putty over the origional kit heads. Interestingly, many of the men we fought either did not have full beards (Chechen mercenaries in particular) and sported fuzz, or were too young to grow one.

Since I have miserable sculpting skills, that's a way to get the right effect with off-the shelf kits. Posting one photo below to illustrate what I mean (Al-Jezzera was actually useful for something).

That help?

v/r-
Henry

Here's another photo of the Mahadi Pajama Party..

-Henry

Chazman-
Bill has awesome skill......I can get paint out of the bottle 9 out of 10 times without dropping any. I think his efforts will reap better results. Besides, I am beginning to beleiv ethat you are correct. At 1/35, Effect is easier to achieve than actual replication. With my feeble skills, anyway.....

v/r-
Henry

That would be me! I have done 2 for Warriors so far, with two more in the pipeline, the next set will be a dynamic one where one is crouching running with an rpg while the other feller is crouched laying down some cover fire.

Yep, I've put my MARPAT Marines on hold...until I see how Bill does his. I've come up with some very interesting looking schemes.....unfortunately, they require a vivid imagination if you want to call them MARPAT.

Do you have a timeframe for us Bill?