"WWI Field Grey" Topic

I painted up a practice element of Battlefront Germans. I find field grey is a colour which vexes me mightily, and being colour blind does not help. I thought I'd seek feedback on what I've got so far:
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Does it look right to you? Too green? Too grey?

Firstly let me congratulate you on the excellent paint job overall. Very nice detailing! It can be really hard reviewing the colours in photographs, which often distort colours depending on the lighting that is used. You can get away with a lot variation because of differences in dyes, length of service, etc. I suppose, if anything, the jacket colour is more towards the grey-side and, perhaps, not quite enough green tinge. Check out 'ww1 german enactment groups' in Google Images for lots of photos to compare with. The big message from these photos is feel free to vary the colours across individuals on the same stand even.

Robert

They look pretty good to me. The great thing about the infamous 'feldgrau' is that in reality it's colour varied so much.

I'd have said it was too 'cold' and not green enough but I can't say I'd be able to provide any evidence as to what the real colour should be. I think we worry too much about things that would almost certainly have varied a good deal and changed with time – looking 'right' in your own eyes is really what matters.

Also depends on scale, what looks fine on a 28mm fig can look too dark on a 15mm soldier.

I don't believe FG WW1 is the same color and hue that WW2 is. There is more green to post 35 uniform

You are going to have to go more grey mix with brown violet and a wash of German uniform (all Vallejo paints) in 15mm you have to be artificially lighter on the colours as they tend ot blend in too much wit background and the uniform itself. So a fairly lightish grey with a tinge of brown then tinted slight green, this stands out better against the collar and equipment, the helmet I'd use German grey and mix and match pants with oxford blue and the horizon blue I would think of a dark dip maybe and the again highlight to define.
Any way I did something similar for 28mm WW1 although I went 3 highlights.
Hoping this helps.
Cheers and happy gaming.

If you can find this for a reasonable price its worth it. Photographs of actual uniforms from the era.

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Your stuff looks great!

Thanks for the replies everybody.
I will use a bit more brown violet in the base mix and more light grey for the highlighting and see how that goes.
Stosstruppen, I have that book and it was what I was trying to match colours with, but even in the photos the uniforms are of different hues!

Don't forget that chocolate brown "trench trousers" were fairly common after 1916. I believe these were corduroy, info from Great War society.

I am just wondering how you know your having problems with a particular color if you are color blind? Your figures look great. I have trouble with early WWI field gray myself.

But that is nothing compared to the early British uniform color. I have seen it just painted WWII green. But it is not green. It is more of a brownish green. Very difficult for me to get right.

I made a similar error I painted mine a green on a couple of test figs, added earth to the green and looks a whole lot better, aaah khaki seems to cover a lot of shades

I like the way you did it but I've seen anything from plain grey to mostly green, both on mini's and pictures.

If in doubt, add more mud :)

Hi Rallynow.
My colour blindness means that there are certain shades that I have trouble distinguishing between. Greens, greys, blues, reds and browns are my nemesis. Put a red stripe in a green field and quite often I can't see it. Because field grey is browny-greeny-grey it falls in my zone of difficulty. But given that no-one can really agree I guess it may not be my colour blindness at all!

I am just wondering how you know your having problems with a particular color if you are color blind?

In my case, it's usually the color not looking 'right' and I cannot see why. So I have to show it to someone else and ask.

@Natholeon: What's wrong with Vallejo Model Color 830 German fieldgray?

@ Lion: I think it is too green and not grey enough. I know – no pleasing some people…

Well, I know that the WW2 Japanese Uniform color is nothing of the sort (nowhere NEAR the right color), so I was wondering about 830 Fieldgray.

Here are some German Pilots jackets from WWI. No, there is no one colour.