"Colour reference photos for Fallschirmjager in Crete" Topic

I've uploaded a few photos of my finished 28mm Fallschirmjager figures from Artizan to my blog: link

I think my days as a painter are numbered, but hey, it's a hobby, not a job, so I'm not that bothered. ;-)

If you consider your skills as having "deteriorated," I sure do wish my skills would "deteriorate" to a comparable level.

I have the same book and I also use it for matching paints to the colors shown in the book.

I saw a post, somewhere, during the past year and they said the combat uniforms worm by the Fallschirmjager were Luftwaffe specific and had a blue to them. They went on to say that was difficult to verify as samples were rare or non-existent. They had a picture with about one to two dozen WWII German uniforms whose colours ranged from medium grey to a rich feldgrau and a variation in the amount of green tint. The colours were very dependent on wear, time of production and manufacturer.

Here is the picture;

Now that is useful! I've struggled with "right" German uniform color. Guess I was right as long as it was close.

Thanks for posting.

Great job with the figures.

I noted your comments about the difficulties with painting. Two things have made a huge difference in restoring painting skills (and enjoyment):
- a very bright LED white light source
- head-mounted magnifying lens. Reading glasses just didn't cut it for the close work needed with detailed paint jobs.

And I don't worry about painting eyes now.

Robert

There are problems with that picture. Three of the jackets in the second row have fairly obvious discrepancies. The first on the left has the buttons to close together and too many of them and what looks like cuffs on the sleeve. The third one has an internal pocket and the collar doesn't match and too many buttons. The forth looks to be a waffen rock (parade dress uniform) with a wrong collar. Makes me thing there may be issues with the other jackets.

The first one you bring up looks to be an officer's tunic. Many officers had their uniforms custom made and they dont always conform exactly to uniform specifications.

Am sure there are other explanations for discrepancies as well.

And, indeed, found this very pattern blouse on page 8 of "German Soldiers of World War Two" by Jean de Lagarde, History & Collections press.

In this particular case it is on a cadet officer of the 3rd Panzer Regiment. It is a tailor made dress tunic with 8 buttons, closely spaced, down the front and the sleeves have turnback cuffs as is visible in the photo above.