"Vallejo Panzer Ace Colours" Topic

I have just seen these (I presume) new Panzer ace colours from Vallejo. Being a sucker for anything new I ordered 8. They seem to be quite bizarre colours though. Let me explain.

New wood / old wood and light mud – three rather useful shades of brown, new wood in particular is rather rich.

I also bought 5 uniform colours

Italian tank crew
highlight italian tank crew
highlight russian tank crew
Afrika corps tank crew
highlight afrika corps (maybe not tank crew?)

Italian tank crew is a rather nice generic military green.
highlight italian tank crew is an extremely pale light green, I am struggling to work out how to use this with the MUCH darker tabk crew colour, perhaps as a dry brush colour? which I don't tend to do.

Same for Russian, the highlight colour is a very light pale green almost but not quite the same as the Italian one…

What really threw me was that the afrika korps colour was also GREEN almost same as the Italian colour but the highlight afrika corps is a rather nice sandy colour. This completely threw me, though I now wonder if one is afrika korps tank crew and one is afrika corps infantry?

Anyway as tank crew paints I am not impressed at all. Anyone out there got them and have a much better idea than me how I should be using each of these colours?

Ta

Andy

Here is a general caveat for all Vallejo colors: Never go by the name. I sell the range and some of their names are crazy! Plus, they change depending on who translated the bottle names for that production run. For example, I think their Japanese Uniform and British Uniform, while useful colors, are no good for those uniforms!

These have been around for donkeys and they're great. just add a little of the highlight tone into the base colour and continue adding 'til you've got the highlight you want.

Yupper – if you want to layer up colors start with your base…

then go with a mix (you can do a 50/50 or a 3:2 ratio – whatever you feel comfortable with) and just keep adding a drop or two until you get to a pure highlight.

This will make a subtler transition between the two colors and won't look as stark.

Ummm

I was so busy being grumpy because the colours were weird, i didn't think of mixing them!!

Yes that should help a lot.

I also agree sometimes the "name" is not very appropriate

Andy -

To add to the confusion, they sometimes use WW2-era German terms, so for example, the color I use as part of a mix with my WW2 Canadians to make their uniforms look appropriately Canadian issue, rather than British, is called "Brown Violet", and has very little to do with either of those colors;)

I don't know if it's any help to you, but Italian crews typically wore three types of uniform kit in vehicles.

First of all, most of them had standard uniforms just like anybody else in the Regio Esercito, and just like those folks, these uniforms would have been colored appropriately for the theatre under ideal circumstances. But ideal circumstances and the Italian Army in WW2? HAH!

Anyway, they also wore a black leather helmet and long coat over these uniforms in Europe, and you sometimes see it in early photos of North Africa. It's hard to describe, but if you've ever seen French or Polish tankers of the period, it's essentially the same thing – black leather duster and black helmet with goggles.

Finally, by 1942, virtually all of the crews were wearing dark blue asbestos coveralls over their uniforms. Occasionally you'll see photos of them wearing the coveralls with their black leather helmets from the other kit, or any of a variety of other pieces.

To add further complication, I've also seen guys wearing the "Sahariana" tropical jacket with any of the above items, so….

Yea, always fun with the Italians:)

-A.

The Panzer Aces range of paint was designed by the modelers of Euro Modelismo magazine. These were the colors that they felt needed to be made to fill a void in the paint market. The colors are designed as a Base, Highlight, Shadow color combinations. All of the colors are new to the Vallejo range.

I bought an armful of these at Historicon and like them, but as has been said they really bear no connection to the names. I just mix and match whatever looks good or whatever shade I need. The British Uniform base has (to me anyway) a distinct green tinge to it and would be good for Canadian or maybe some Russian uniform bits. I like all the sort of khaki shades as well like Japanese Tank Crew highlight…very useful!

Scott

This range is far more understable if you are a reader of the Euromodelismo and Panzer Aces magazines (Extreme Modelling magazine also has a lot to do with this range). As it's been pointed the highlights are thought to be mixed with the base colour.

If you have any doubts with a uniform and the paints you have I could check the articles on Euromodelismo, Extreme Modelling and Panzer Aces magazines, possibly it should appear something there.

Thanks everyone.

Aurelian, I am tempted to paint my Italians almost any colour on the basis it would have been used at sometime in the war :)

I do feel really dumb now, but it just never ocurred to me that the base and highlight were intended to be mixed, sorry about that, it is kind of obvious :)

I thought those Pz Aces sets (the newest that is) were 3 color paint scheme without mixing.

Base

Mid

Highlight

Strait out of the bottle. Is that not correct? I did not hear that you have to mix with this set though I'm sure you could as with any paints – just add white :>

I would not advise it, the difference between the base coat and the highlight is enormous, much more of a difference than I would be happy with.

I believe the idea is you don't mix the base coat with "white" you mix it with the highlight to get the shade you want. With a bit of practice it should be very easy.

gee,
paint thats not paint by numbers – 1 base – 2 mid – 3 highlight,how will people/gamers manage!!!!!!!!!!!!

I suppose people will soon suggest white undercoats …whatever next…shock horror.

<tongue in check>

Never use white undercoats, prefer brown or black.

I pretty much never use paints as sold, I always mix them up for every colour I want, results are pretty good, will upload you some italian 10mm pics when I paint them.

I am a pretty good painter, many aren't, but I try not to be rude to them, encourage them and maybe one day they will be great painters… Anyway there are many things I suck at, like actually playing the games :)

Troop of Shewe

That was a little rough, I thought they were doing something similar to the foundry system, that's all. Sorry if I offended you.

Hello Podette. Asfaik the only similar thing to Foundry system is GW system. These Panzer aces colours were created by "traditional" modellers for their tastes and they never use the Foundry system, I know several of them and they always mix their highlights and shadowing with the base (but one who start with the darkest shadow and highlight).

They usually meet at panzernet.com, and are a nice bunch of fellows (but mostly spanish speaking).

BTW, I use white undercoats when I want the mini to be more colourful (pirates for example), though takes more time being more careful with shadowing. Usually I prime gray and in some cases black (in 15mm and smaller). IMHO, that depends on personal style. :^)

Try starting with the lightest color or close to the lightest color and work down and your color transition will be much smoother. I tend to work with a white primer as the colors pop more.

Hi DD. Could have a try, looking the great paintings you have on your figures it's a worthy advice.

Thanks.

Sorry, wasn't supposed to be harsh, its just that there is so much more out there than expecting 3 step finishes, Darkson Designs has it, try experimenting its not as hard as you think.

Does anyone know the difference in the Panzer Ace range between the Fieldgrey I and Fieldgrey II?

Thanks!