Lee takes a look at painting US Infantry in Desert Battle Dress Uniform.
Desert Battle Dress Uniform is one of those of “signature” aspects of the US Army in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, along with the AH-64 Apache, M1A1 Abrams and the M2 Bradley.
Devised in the early eighties, the camouflage uses six colours (A sandy beige, a washed out green, swathes of two different browns then the “chocolate chips” of white dots with a heavy black shadow).
In truth, the camouflage wasn’t especially effective, having been devised for a desert environment closer than that found in the Americas than the Persian Gulf, and was set to be replaced by the simpler, three-tone, Desert Camouflage Uniform. Still, the majority wore the older camo nicknamed “Cookie Dough” and “Chocolate Chip” due to its resemblance to the ice cream.
As one of the most documented conflicts in human history at that point in time, the “cookie dough” camo worn by US Infantry is a very distinctive look that, equally, intimidates those wanting to replicate it for wargaming forces. Still, anyone sporting a USMC Rifle Company box set will likely feel like they need to take it on, and that’s where I found myself.
Thankfully, when you break it down, it’s not as difficult to replicate as it looks, and I found it little more difficult or time-consuming than Dension or Splinter smocks. The key thing was realising that the six tones in the camo often, well, look more like four tones. Look again at the photo from earlier:
If you squint, you can kind of see the washed out green swathes from the tan, but the browns really merge together. In other photos, the colours merge even more, leaving the camo looking more like a green tinged tan with brown swathes and then the chips.
Okay, so four colours. Two of those are easy Black is Black and White is, well, actually Ivory (as always, colours are Vallejo Model Colour unless otherwise stated) which I generally find works better unless I want a really dramatic white. The tan colour took some deliberation. Stone Grey didn’t look quite right, but German Camo Beige seemed much better. The Brown also took a few goes, with German Camo Brown and Flat Earth also being off (though some photos in bright light did look like Flat Earth) but Flat Brown seeming to better give the look.
So, with the palette decided, let’s talk through the process. I’ve painted my infantry assuming helmet covers, tunic, and trousers are in Choc Chip camo then done one platoon with Woodland Camo Personal Armour System for Ground Troops (PASGT) flak vest and one platoon with desert camo PASGT. Both camos seem to appear on the vests in the conflict, though woodland camo only otherwise appears on the NBC suits (unless I’ve been misinterpreting the photos and woodland tunics/trousers are appearing where I think NBC suits are).
Stage One – Preperation Prime
The new plastic infantry were generally cleanly cast, and the only area I found required attention was on the helmets. The radio operator and officer also seemed to have a habit of having a more pronounced mould line than the other figures and needed a little more attention. Thankfully, this is quick and easy with the return to hard plastics.
I had envisaged painting the figures on the sprue, but I became worried that the sprue would get in the way of the airbrush stream. Also, that the ink stages late would look off as the figures are arranged in different orientations. I trimmed the figures off the sprue and hot glued them to tongue depressors to make painting easier given the elaborate camo.
I opted for my usual sand/beige/dunkelgelb primer, Vallejo Surface Primer Green Brown, spraying a few thin coats to build up the colour from all angles without clogging detail.
Stage Two – Block out
I applied German Camo Beige all over the tunics, trousers and helmets of all figures, plus the vests on those figures fully desert camo’d.
I then applied Olive Drab on the SMAW, Dragon and LAW tubes, webbing, pouches and the flak vest on those with Woodland camo.
When that was dry, I applied Uniform Green to the Woodland flak jacket. This looks quite bright but will dull down on the next steps so don’t panic!
Stage Three – Wash
Agrax Wash Uber Alles. Just apply that all over the figure at this point.
Stage Four – Midtone (Vanilla Ice Cream)
Now we go back over the tunic, trousers, helmet and, if desert camo’d, the flak jacket with German Camo Beige, leaving the wash showing in the recesses. We do similar with the webbing, reapplying Olive Drab onto the majority but leaving the washed areas in the recesses.
Stage Five – Camo Brown (Chocolate Ice Cream)
Now we apply jagged swathes of Flat Brown over the Beige areas, with about 1/3 coverage.
Stage Six – Woodland Camo
Turning our attention to the woodland DPM, we cover one third of the green area in small splotches of Khaki, followed by covering another third in Flat Earth splotches.
Stage Seven – Choclate Chips (and twiglets)
We are going to cover a few things now as we break out the Black paint.
- On the desert camo we are going to add small dots of black, clustering the dots to make larger splotches. I find this gave a better look than one big splotch (when I could pull it off). Cover both the tan and brown areas.
- On the woodland areas, we add thin black lines in “twig” shapes covering all three existing colours.
- Block out the M16 rifles, metal and foam areas on the Dragon and SMAW. You can also paint the boots at this point though, I used speed paint (Citadel Contrast Black Templar for me) to save highlighting later.
Now we switch to Ivory and add small white dots in the black splotches. It’s okay for the white to overlap some of the black but try and avoid obscuring all of it.
Finally, we lightly drybrush both camo areas in Camo Beige to tie the colours together and complete the camouflage areas.
Stage Eight – Rifles and Boots
Still have your eyesight? That’s the hard work over. As mentioned earlier, I used black speed paint (Citadel Black Templar) to paint the boots. On the weapons, I painted a sharp Sky Grey highlight on the metal work and a softer London Grey highlight on the plastic furniture of the M16 and the foam of the Dragon.
Stage Nine – Faces and Bases
All that’s left at this stage is to paint the faces, however you normally do them.
For the bases, I transferred the models over to the recessed pits on the bases, filled gaps with a tube of plastic putty, then applied Galeria Medium Grain Gel over the base. This gave a fine texture to use as a base. I then added swathes of PVA and dipped them base in fine sand to add some variety to that texture. Once dried, I applied a base of English Uniform all over, then drybrushed up to Green Ochre then Dark Sand. Some tufts finished the bases off.
Gallery
Conclusion
This hopefully gives some aid in painting US Desert Battle Dress Uniform camo. The techniques shown here can also be applied to other US camo schemes of the period.
Woodland Camo
This was painted like the woodland flak jackets above. Paint the helmet and PASGT covers in desert camo to make it look like the figures are wearing MOPP suits.
US Desert Camoflauge Uniform
This uses stages 1-4. We then apply large patches of Russian Uniform, then outline some of the edges with lines of Flat Brown.
Or we can do something really whacky and do late 80’s anti NVG camo by painting little clusters of US Dark Green dots on a Field Grey base.
As always, experiment and enjoy!
Lee
*I lied about the difference.