Space Marine Scout Ghillie Cloaks - Tutorial and WIP

[Denzark]

Evening Chaps

I thought you might like to see how I went about creating a Ghillie Cloak effect for SM Scouts - well actually Wolf Scouts in this case.

The first thing I suggest anyone does is research. Have a look at pictures of actual snipers, and work out what you want to go for.

I will now detail my construction method and add a few caveats afterwards.

Firstly - materials. The single best Ghillie suit wearing model I have seen was done using sprue shavings. Obviously you can use the old fallback of PVA-drenched bandage or tissue paper - but I thought this would be a bit convoluted. So, I first of all went for sprue shavings.



This first picture shows scale vs. an old boltgun. Now, I have tried (unsurprisingly) to go for a slightly more British ghillie look - a lot of the first google results show French or US. The method here is to cut out strips lengthways, not too high - then to cut vertically along to get smaller strips. Remember ghillie material is usually rough - hessian common for brits. Precise cuts with a craft knife will be too straight. Fortunately I have clippers with nocked blades so it was quite rough.

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The next pic shows my material pile. I also tried downward shavings from sprue. Note how they coiled. Be aware a ghillie suit will hang in accordnace with gravity, so I didn't want curls. I hoped a bath of liquid poly would make them lie flat. The method here is to liquid poly the cloak on the mini, then sprinkle on liberally, making sure they run in a direction with gravity.




This next picture shows the result. I was not happy - you can see the plasticard in white, and the shavings in grey. Not as effective as the sprue shaving I had seen. Need a new material...





So I found a coil of material of very rough, cross hatched string/gauze. Sort of thing you find in arty-farty shops for decorations, interiors, flwoer arranging. Annoyingly I can't find the coil I used to show you. Anyway... firstly, I snipped off the seams. I then tested on a straight line of sprue. What I did was glued the top horizontal strand, and then pulled out the subsequent horizontal strands, leaving the verticals free hanging.




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Next, use this methodology to cover the cloak, trying to only glue the top horizontal strip...




And then pull out the not needed remainder, leaving the verticals...





You build up in overlapping rows, which hides the horizontal. When you get to the top, it is hard to follow the cloak, as it tapers and you can't taper what you cut - the vertical strands would fall out. So you need to use smaller sections and follow the collar line. The next pic shows the finished effect, and compares to the sprue method (you could almost definitely execute sprue method better than me - this just to show side by side).

[Denzark]

Next shows the undercoated items. I went for Army Painter Grey.





This next shot is the painted cloak to the rear. The method for me was to drybrush with Ogryn Camo. I then gave a wash of athnian camoshade, then picked out the odd strand in a green or brown. Just to change the tone a bit.





Next is the front detail. Here I'll add some caveats. Firstly, I intended the whole effect to be somewhat styilised. For several reasons. Mainly, because in reality, you wouldn't see a sniper plotted up in the field - that's the whole point! Snipers change their cam depending on where they are and lets be honest - SM scouts on the tabletop will normally be in a building - not needing green/foliage ghillie suits. I have painted the rifle goblin green, washed athonian camoshade, with dark green tiger stripes. It doesn't necessarily go with the darker tone - but it was more to give the eye some relief from muddy green - and to give some squad unity about the weapons. The carapace and gloves were painted dark green - then a gentle drybrush of leadbelcher to show wear. Actually this is also a misnomer - any sniper worth his salt will dull any edges before a stalk. I wanted to just show they are a metal based material. I have also deliberately not added cam paint to the face - my fine detail work is not good enough to do a brit style and the French/US total face paint method would make him look like an ork. Less is more. The cam scheme on his trousers/sleeves - is Tamiya NATO green. Athonian wash. Then, painted an irregular 'club' (as in playing cards) shape of 3 rough circles. I then added a couple of dots of goblin green to give a sort of pea-pattern effect.





I hope this is of some interest/use - I will post the finished squad later. Its quite a rough look as I am not a steady painter - I sort of thin kof this as Blanchitsu rough but will hopefully look alright on a tabletop (and hopefully people people will forget they are on the table if I find a big enough bush).

[insaniak]

Nicely done! Looks really effective.

[theHman]

That's wicked!