"20mm US Panama style ragtops - painting advice please" Topic

I have just started modelling some 20mm late 1980s US Marines with Panama style ragtops (Yes, I know only the US Army wore these in Panama but my company commander knows a guy in the army and thought it was a good idea too).

I've sculpted epoxy putty over the helmet and painted that. Now they're just old pairs of BDUs ripped into strips so I've tried to keep the patterns in vertical lines but it doesn't look quite right to me. Itried adding more lines of light khaki (?) to represent the underside of some strips of BDU? It looked too light I guess to me.

Here are the figures currently:

Anyway is there any painting advice on getting closer to this effect?:

First off, very nice job on the painting. I'd say lighten them up, add some more lighter khaki green on strips to represent the underside and maybe add thin border on the sides of other strips to delineate and hilight the individual strips…this could also depict the fray from cut strips.

Thank you.

Very nice, thank you for the advice. I will try something like this I think.

The idea is my guys are fighting in wet jungle most of time time so I've darkened everything. Yet I still want the ragtops to stand out more.

Did this today, I'm satisfied with their look now. Thank you for your advice.

updated at my blog:

mccdevcom.blogspot.com.au

Yes, looks good ! And it rarely didn't rain while we were deployed there in the Canal Zone.

Many times pieces of a camo net was used for helmet camo. Plastic/rubber wavy strips something like you see in the pic. They were in various shades of green or brown. Your model does a good job accurately representing the helmet camo.

As a Mech Co. Cdr we cut up old camo nets and used it on our Kevlars. It is useful in any temperate climate, but especially effective in tropical areas. Like Panama, or even the swamps of the Southern US. E.g – Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, etc.

Thank you Legion4

Yeah I think the plastic/rubber nets your refer to are something like this? (from my favorite US Marine reference)

In my head my units gone for the ripped up sections of old BDUs like the US Army light infantry and airborne forces did in Panama:

I was thinking about going for the plastic net effect (which would probably be easier to paint?) but love that ragtop "look" too much. Takes me back to when I was an obsessive 11 year old searching for magazine and newspaper clippings of those Americans I saw in the news in Panama.

A year later I was glued to the TV over the summer break here watching Desert Sheild/Storm all day and all night if I could get away with it..

Yes, that is what I was talking about like on the cover of that Clancy book. And also along with ripped up BDUs, ripped up sand bags which were green nylon were used at times. But I think you have it right, with either the old camo nets or ripped up BDUs. Bottom line units use what they have on hand and what works.

If you remember with some US units in the desert, e.g. they used old green/tan issue socks to cover their "Sun, Dust, Wind" goggles. To cut down on the "shine" of the lens and blend in more with the local terrain. They cut off the toe of the sock. And "slipped" them over their goggles after removing then replacing the strap. Then wearing them on their helmets

Like you see on the cover of that book, but that Marine has not done that. As I said, some US units and as always things vary when on field ops, etc.

Good intel as usual Legion 4. Thanks.