Tutorial: WWI German Infantry

Still working away on WWI stuff with a view to getting enough forces to play Trench Raiders, my own skirmish wargame.  The Russians are done and dusted - see them in all their khaki glory here.

So I'm painting some German infantry up now, and it wouldn't be fair to teach everybody to paint Russians without doing Germans, would it?  These chaps make heavy use of the tecniques discussed in the Army Painter review.  So here we go.  Hang on to your stahlhelms...

This is the based model, complete
with a generic white undercoat.

The tunic areas are painted field grey -
I used GW's absurdly-named Skavenblight Dinge.

The boots, pistol, gasmask and other metal
details are painted black.  I also did the helmet
black, as it's going to have a camouflage pattern. 

Secondary Colours:  Dark Flesh for leather and webbing
areas, Catachan Green for the water bottle,
and Talharn Flesh for the hands.

All the above stages are pretty ragged, since now
we even it all out with a generous Dark Tone Wash
out the Army Painter range - or alternatively any
good black ink.

The tunic is highlighted with more Skavenblight
Dinge and the Dark Flesh with Bestial Brown.

Hands are highlighted Elf Flesh

For the helmet camo patern, I used Zambezi Desert,
Bestial Brown, Dark Angels Green and Graveyard
Earth.  A wash of Soft Tone (or light brown ink)
unifies it all.  I also used Soft Tone in the recesses
and along the straps to add a little shading

Detailing - red trim on the tunic for an infantry
regiment, white eppaulettes with a single gold pip
for an Oberleutnant, and a little metal drybrush on the
Mauser 'Broomhandle' pistol.  The Osprey book on
the First World War German Army was my reference.

Detail of the schulterstück ...

... and the C96 and cuffs.  (Note to fellow pedants:
this is a late-war officer, so I omitted the officer's tunic
and cuff decorations to represent him using a
private's tunic).

Hope everybody found that useful; I'm trying to build up a little section of historical tutorials on the First World War stuff.  Next time, a little more discussion on the rules I think.

Until next time...

Ed