Painting German 'squiggle' camouflage

[matt56]

Zoe Brain suggested I explain how I did the 'squiggle camo' on my Dornier 217, so now that it's done (except for the prop discs), it would seem apropos to do just that!
The first two pictures below are the 'patterns' I found that I wanted to mimic - the first is a Steve Zaloga painting of a 217 launching the Henschel 293s, and the second is a picture of a model (either 1/72 or 1/48) with a more substantial squiggle pattern. I was shooting for something in between...





Here is my cup o' brushes (thanks again, Neil - it has pride-of-place on my workspace) - you can see the basic sizes displayed. I like to use as big a brush as possible, with a tip that comes to a nice point; but for fine detail like this required, I used a 10/0 with the opaque rubber 'handle' (another picture of that a bit further on).



One of my typical palettes - plastic and nothing special - with the Vallejo color I used for the RLM 76 squiggle color. I typically squeeze a smallish dollop into the cup and then add two drops of water (using the plastic pipette you can see in the brush cup above). I almost always thin my paints with H2O, especially for painting small surfaces and when I want there to be a smooth surface.



The nice thing about painting this bomber was that, when it was on a bomber stand with one bomber peg, it was at the perfect height to sit on my table and then allow me to rest my painting hand on my free hand to steady it as I painted the pattern. I am left-handed, so I paint with my left and rest on my right.



Here is the aforementioned 10/0 brush resting against the Dornier so you can see the size - it has a nice tip and holds a satisfactory amount of paint to be going on with



As always, thanks for looking - now on to Post #2 and the development of the pattern!

All the best,
Matt

[matt56]

So when I set about painting this pattern, I wasn't really sure how it might turn out. I had painted the splinter pattern and then sprayed Glosscote on the entire model, so that the decal film wouldn't be so noticeable once those were applied. Upon finishing the fuselage and tail sections, I was really rather pleased and decided to take some pictures. Sometimes I held the plane by a shortened bomber peg I used to protect the mounting peg when I primed it, and other times I held it in my hand, turning it whichever way it needed to be to paint the fuselage surfaces. The 10/0 brush kept its point nicely and allowed me to squiggle it as I needed to paint the pattern - it really was rather simple (or perhaps, simpler than I imagined it would be)





It didn't take all that much time to do - I tend to listen to music (Pink Floyd this time - it's my usual go-to painting music) and so lose track of time, but it couldn't have been more than 15 to 20 minutes. I use the same breathing practice when I'm painting fine detail that I use when I am firing a gun - inhale, let half of it out, hold it and paint, then exhale - repeat process It's always worked well for me...

The next photos show the painting of the wings - for these I left the plane on the bomber peg and rested my painting hand on my free hand to get a steady basis for the pattern. Something I hadn't paid attention to before was the smoothness of the surface I was painting on - spraying with Glosscote gave the model a clean, smooth surface that was very easy to 'squiggle' upon! In fact, I found that some areas of the wing almost didn't want to take the paint - it might have been residual oil from handling the model the night before when I did the fuselage (even though I usually wash my hands before working on these little guys). In any event, it almost played to my advantage because I was able to reinforce the squiggles when they at first didn't 'stick'. And some I left with a thinner coat of paint while others I went over again or used a thicker coat the first time through.





Right wing is complete and I'm starting the left below...



And here's the top plan view of the completed pattern.



I really like the uniform yet not-exactly-uniform way the depth of color turned out - somewhat by accident...it became kind of a pleasant surprise as I was going along, and is definitely a pattern that I won't hesitate to try again if I find a plane 'needing' such a paint scheme. All it really takes is a little bit of time and patience, and the right tools and paints help immensely!

As always, thanks for giving it the "Once Over"!

All the best,
Matt

[Jager]

Nice tutorial, Matt. And a good looking plane to boot!

Karl

[grumpybear]

Looking good . Thanks for how two

[Lt. S.Kafloc]

A must try, me thinks. Thanks for making it look easy and for the inspiration. I am also pleased the mug has a practical use too.

[Guntruck]

Excellent. Nothing else to be said

[Flying Helmut]

Clear, concise and extremely helpful - many thanks for that, Matt!

[milcoll73]

very nice!!! i wonder if my lack of steadiness would be a boon or bane of this camo style lol.

[Setarius]

Thanks for the tips and advice on painting. It was a job well done.

[Mad Charly]

Hy Matt

Many compliment for amazing camuoflage!

Just an info, where did you found a Do 217 K 1:200 minis?


Thanks a lot





Carlo

[flash]

Holy wotsit Matt, what great detail. I'd forgotten how small these things are until I saw your paw in the shot !

[Marechallannes]

Wow!

A lot of Detail work, Matt.

Impressing result and a shame that we didn't saw this ohne at The Contest.

[matt56]

I know, Dave, it's easy to forget how small they are! Although when you're working on them, they remind you of that constantly...

Carlo, the model is from Ron (Ragnar200) at HBM models - he happened to have it sitting in his extras box and sent it along with a couple of other things he thought I might be interested in - luckily he did have the He-219 that I wanted......it's in white metal too, like the Dornier, and I'm in the process of doing some more filing on it to get it ready to paint. I believe he is slowing down his production and transferring molds over to AIM (Armaments in Miniature), although HBM has a much more extensive list of what they offer(ed) than AIM. Ron really has (or had) a wonderful list of models. He's worth contacting to see what he might have available - a heck of a nice fellow

Thanks for the kind words, folks! I'm always happy to share knowledge and techniques, especially when they seem to work out...

All the best,
Matt