How To Paint Leibermuster

Written by Rob Matthews

Rob Matthews shows how he paints the German late war camouflage scheme...

How to paint Leibermuster

The German WWII Wermacht and SS pioneered the use of camouflaged battledress. They were developed in a variety of colours and patterns to meet different theatre and seasonal demands. Some of the SS specific camouflage schemes were particularly novel and intricately designed.

Towards war-end an attempt was made to introduce a common camouflage scheme that would be suitable to multi-theatres and be common across both Heer and SS forces. This scheme was known as Leibermuster. Surviving examples and pictures of its use are rare as it was probably only introduced in the Spring of 1945 and the war ended before it was widely adopted. Recognising the recent introduction of primitive but novel infra-red sighting technology, the design was printed using special light-absorbing dyes that aimed to reduce the infra-red profile of those wearing it. Pretty amazing technology for 1945!

Most surviving examples are very faded, and as is so often the case there is ambiguity as to the exact colours used. It is possible that the dyes varied and garments exhibited different colours.

There are excellent pictures of faded original material and a computer enhanced image on the site below. This is an excellent site for anyone interested in any form of Camouflage scheme.

Kamoflage.Net (With thanks to Brad Turner for permission to link.)

One of the features of many German wartime battledress camouflage schemes (and many since - up to the modern day) is for the colours to assume a different colour tone in different light intensities. As with all war material – daily use and abuse would fade colours over time. This can make it difficult for the modeller to choose representative paint colours. There are many examples of reproduction garments on sale today that portray a variation in intensity of colours whilst all using the basic Leibermuster pattern...

Use of Leibermuster schemes to depict camouflage garments would be appropriate for early 1945, and there is ample documentary evidence to support its use by troops in Bohemia and the Czech lands. It’s also an ideal camouflage scheme for Post-1945 and 'What-if' camouflage clothing schemes. It was produced in the 1944 British-type battle dress - tunic and trousers and in winter parka form. Debate then ensues as to whether it was produced for helmet covers, hats, tents and Zeltbannen.

The overall design was certainly successful enough to influence future patterns and some including the Swiss adopted a near identical pattern. I vividly recall a few years back, being in a Swiss climbing hut to have Swiss ski troops arrive wearing a brighter near-copy of Leibermuster – some 60 yrs after it was first introduced!

In terms of modelling, many of the wartime camouflage schemes are tricky to reproduce. The Splintermuster and Oakleaf schemes are particularly testing. Some manufacturers have produced decals that are partially successful but bring their own problems.

See

Applying ACU Camouflage Decals

I contend that painting Leibermuster is easier to represent than might at first seem and set out to demonstrate that it should be within the ability of most average figure painters.

I’m going to produce 2 variants of schemes, one slightly more faded than the other. All paints used are Vallejo Model Color or Model Air.

Scheme 1

I used German Camouflage Beige and English uniform in a ratio of 6:1. I always dilute with distilled water approximately 50:50. I also add a dab of Tamiya Flat to reduce the sheen that Vallejo paints sometimes produce. And by a dab, I mean just that - I stick a cocktail stick 5mm into the Flat and then use this stick to stir the Vallejo paint/water mixture.

After several base coats it's onto building up the camouflage layers. First off is green, and for this I used Medium Olive and Deck tan in a ratio of 2:1. The consistency of paint is crucial - to use just one coat it mustn’t be too thick or thin. Using more than one coat for the camouflage stages complicates things and begins to look over painted. This is one occasion where I use Vallejo Thinner. I still make the paint solution up to paint and diluents 50:50 but instead of just distilled water I ensure that 50% of the diluent is thinner. This leads to less water marks. The paint should cover nicely but not be too thick. I use a Size 'O' brush which I constantly wash and clean in the Windsor & Newton Art Gel to stop paint drying and building up on the bristles. I work with a piece of kitchen towel by me to clean the brush but also to occasionally 'offload' excess paint from the brush...

The aim is to make horizontal fairly random lines - like so…

This process is repeated next using Orange Brown again with a series of random splodges and lines, some running over the green. Apologies at this point because the pics aren't quite as sharp as I would have wanted. I didn’t check them immediately after taking them; bear with me!

The next stage is to use Vallejo Model Air Black Grey. The beauty about the Model Air range is that they are thinned for airbrushing and it just so happens that they are thinned perfectly for painting camouflage patterns such as this. So, just using straight from the bottle you can begin to paint wavy lines over the existing green and orange brown...

I’ve pictured 'The Master’s' brush cleaner here, as periodically in a painting session I’ll use this as well as the art gel. This tends to further clean and re-oil the bristles.

I happened to have a Sinsengumi decal that I’ve written about elsewhere

Camouflage decals

...and this is useful for scaling the size of the pattern, especially the wavy black lines.

When you look closely, as well as the green, brownish and black lines the camouflage has some light green 'bubbles' that are occasionally lined with white. Check the Reproduction pics above. These are represented using Green Sky, and I also added some Vallejo retarder to this mixture to slow the drying time down - you can just make out the little green spots that add to the overall effect.

The trick now is to continue using the Model Air Black Grey but using a lot of care (and an Optivisor), you feather the black lines in an upward or downward direction - the few original pictures show uniforms with the feathered black lines going both up and down. Work slowly and keep cleaning your brush with the Art Gel and you get to this…

It’s this feathering, or jagged edges to the black component that gives this camouflage scheme it's distinctive look.

Scheme 2

This scheme is lighter than the one above, and to me seems closer to the original faded garment material. It's certainly quite garish though the original pictures do show a marked contrast between the black and the base colour suggesting that the base colour was quite light.

I’ve chosen Yellow Ochre as a base - once again painted with a dab of Tamiya Flat...

Also once again I've used Medium Olive and Deck Tan in a ratio 2:1...

The green splodges are applied liberally. On this rendition I switched to Light Brown rather than Orange brown for a lighter red-brown effect...

The pattern once again comes alive with the black feathering...

I painted a third pattern cutting the Yellow Ochre with Deck Tan 2:1...

And here are the comparison pictures…

All 3 schemes are within the colour range of modern reproduction garments. My preferred scheme is Scheme 2 - represented here in the middle. I think the Light brown works slightly better than the orange Brown and the yellow ochre whilst bold seems so very typical of German practice when you consider just how bright some of the SS camouflage schemes were.

Just to compare with the Sinsegumi decals – the figure on the far right is decaled...

So to finish the figure so that the Leibermuster scheme can be judged against the other figure colours. The final camouflage stage is to apply a very thin wash of Brown Glaze, though others can use Chocolate Brown. You should apply this rather as a filter and the consistency should be of dirty water. It 'calms' down the contrasts between camouflage colours...