Painting Eastern Front 1943-1944 Camouflage on a StuG III

Basic tutorial in getting a fast 1943-1944 camo out on some StuG’s! Not a pro guide by any shot however nice for wargamers who just want the models to look good on the table.

What you need

I use only Vallejo paints as I think they have a very good price/quality ratio. So our suspects for today’s guide are:

  • 70.882 Middlestone
  • 70.979 German Camouflage Dark Green
  • 70.826 German Camouflage Medium Brown
  • 70.862 Black Grey
  • 70.863 Gunmetal Grey

And 2 brushes: 1 small accurate one and 1 medium rough one (i choose for the “rough” a brush that can handle being abused).

The painting process

We start with the basic Plastic Soldier 1:100 StuG III. A fine model for 15mm wargaming, as you can see.

unpainted StuG model right
unpainted StuG model rear
unpainted StuG model left

Next we use the big brush to do a coat of middlestone. I did with a brush but you can do it with a spray can or an aerograph.

basecoated StuG model front-left
basecoated StuG model front

Once that is dry we do a mix of 50% Middlestone and 50% German Camouflage Medium Brown. We dry brush the mix onto the tank in small snake lines. Use your imagination and go wild but save some space for the green paint.

painted StuG model wip

Next use 100% German Camouflage Medium Brown and dry brush it on the middle of the previous lines that you painted. If done right the paint will seem to slowly dissipate on the margins.

painted StuG model wip
painted StuG model wip
painted StuG model wip

Now it is time for the green mix. 50% Middlstone and 50% German Camouflage Dark Green. Use the same technique as with the brown camo. Space the lines in the gaps so that they cover the tank uniformly.

painted StuG model wip
painted StuG model wip
painted StuG model wip
painted StuG model wip

Thick green lines are next. Just stroke them onto the lighter green lines by using the same drybrush technique.

painted StuG model wip
painted StuG model wip
painted StuG model wip

After this we need to apply a wash to the model. A wash is simply getting some paint on the brush and mixing it with allot of water to the point where the paint does not actually colour the model but it does leave a shade behind. I am no expert in explaining it but here’s a good idea for another article. Use Black Grey mixed with allot of water to “wash” the whole model. The paint will enter the cracks of the model and will give depth to it. A wash usually takes a bit to dry also.

painted StuG model wip
painted StuG model wip

After the wash is dry we need to dry brush the model again with basic middlestone. This will attenuate a bit the difference in paint on the camo and will give the model a more realistic feel as it will seem as if the camo paint has slowly peeled off the middlestone basecoated tank.

painted StuG model wip

With this the main model is done. We have to work a bit on the tracks. First paint them with German Camouflage Medium Brown giving the impression of mud on them.

StuG model painting tracks wip

After that dry brush Gunmetal Grey on the tracks. If done correctly it is going to leave the mud on the lowered track links however it is going to look nice and metallic.

StuG model painting tracks wip

Finally dry brush Black Grey onto the tracks. I overdone it and covered most of the original paint but a good correct dry brush will just add more to the real feel of the tank.

StuG model painting tracks done

And here is the finished model.

painted StuG model done
painted StuG model done
painted StuG model done

Being wargamers we don’t need only one StuG III. So that’s why we painted 5 of them in the same time!

painted StuG platoon front
painted StuG platoon side
painted StuG platoon rear

The whole process, for the whole 5 tanks, lasted around 3 hours. I could see being faster in the future however I will probably want to also become better at painting them so I guess 3 hours is a pretty realistic target.

I do know that the paint job is not the best however from a wargaming point of view these models look awesome when viewed from around 2 feet.

I just hope this helped you with some information on how to actually paint that awesome unit that you just bought! I know it took me a while to figure it out.

About Baycee 404 Articles
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