_"Someone_ needs to play the bad guys." Anyone who wants to flip out after that can be shown the door.

"We don't want our camo pattern to actually work when we put him on the table..." I salute your self-control for not saying "because we'll never find the bugger again if it does." A well-considered project.

I lost family in Buchenwald concentration camp, I'm Jewish but often in my wargaming career have played as Germans, I have no problem with the models on the table, especially as gamers research their armies and know the history, which keeps it alive. I currently field a Fallschirmjager Bolt Action army and would love to see your take on late war uniforms for them

When you're making a real world model, logically you've to be the most realistically possible. This is one of the best tutorials for this kind of camo, this one could be used for other minis, as IGs or some WH40K'S orks.

Those who deny or forget history are doomed to repeat it. Considering that fasism and holocaust denialism is again on the rise it is good to talk about the history and more importantly remember. Thus, your introduction was spot on.

Great intro, excellent painting. This technique with a bit of colour adjustment would also work splendidly for the modern Russian "Partizan" / KZM camo. Pedantic observation - By changing the base colour for this to a sort of purple-grey you can get another variation (Burred edge with pale tan, Oak A with the purple-grey). German camo patterns of WWII can be a deep rabbit hole to fall down but if you are doing the 12th in Normandy, it can be worth it as they wore a crazy quilt of the variations as well as Italian camo. I view accurate painting of the subject (for both sides) as worth doing - the German war machine was an extremely tough enemy and the Allied troops who faced them overcame tremendous hardships in taking Europe back and finally stopping the vipers nest that had grown so very large. Cheers!

Thank you for this very thoughtful tutorial. You did a wonderful job producing it and explaining how to paint a difficult camouflage pattern.

Always enjoy your painting tutorials. All things considered with the miniature in question, it's nice to see a video on the painting of a historical miniature. Can be used to paint other soldier minis outside of the WWII setting, like guardsman or other sci-fi minis.

A cracking paint job and fabulous tutorial. 👍. Thank you as well for your thoughtful intro. Very neatly put, I think.

I've been a long time subscriber of yours as you do so many guides in areas I find incredibly useful. I really appreciate your intro which was so well thought out. I wanted to just add a little more depth into the discussion. With today's world being what it is with cancelling everything a certain demographic doesn't agree with it is so easy to lose history or worse still repeat its mistakes which is why history is so important. And boy oh boy is the world repeating mistakes. The recent middle east flare up and the rise of antisemitism is quite frankly alarming at best. Now I come from German heritage and believe me growing with that heritage with kids all from UK heritage wasn't a bed of roses shall we say. However it made me an aside student of history especially military history. It made me want to see both sides of a conflict and I have over many decades studied WW2 and had many first hand accounts from both allied and German combatants from that conflict. Myself being in the military and been in combat with the South African Defence Force. Its also been my experience that many would see me as many see the Nazis or the Waffen-SS. Now straight off the bat nothing the Nazis did I condone in any way but I do defend the combat soldier and the capabilities and achievements of the German soldier. Believe me no combat Waffen-SS soldier would have any time for his fellow SS man that chose to be a Guard at a concentration camp. No question the Waffen-SS were brutal and did some very bad things.....but i can tell you both sides in war do very bad things. I know I did...as did my enemies. On D Day there were very few German POWs taken.....why? Well if you had allnyour buddies mowed down you wouldn't exactly be dishing out donuts to the guys that were shooting at you. This is highlighted even in recent conflicts where civilian courts tried British soldiers for actions against the Taliban in A'stan. Nobody that has not served in combat can ever possibly understand what we go through, went through and decisions that had to be made to survive and protect our brother warriors. War is bad there is no good and bad side....its all bad. You don't want bad things to happen in war.....don't start wars then! But that is a ludicrous mentality as evil exists in the world and sometimes there is no choice but to fight. Apologies for the ramble on, main point I wanted to highlight, I doubt any man that joined the Waffen-SS to go into combat joined because they got told they could massacre civilians and Jews. The SS was the elite and likenall elites even today there is an attraction to that. To be the best. I know from my own grandfather who witnessed first hand the bravery of these men in saving his home village which was part of Germany but nowadays part of Poland. Many families got out thanks to the mad bravery of those men. Till his dying day he would not allow in his presence a bad word to be spoken about those Waffen-SS soldiers. I always am very selective about which units I put in the table and see them as representing the fellow warriors I knew fought by my side and I by their side. That aside once again a terrific video for a unit I'm currently painting up in this camo pattern. Thanks you for all you do on this channel.

Thanks for talking about the context. ❤

Great example of handling a sensitive subject. The painted result looked very good and cold be used elsewhere

Always preferred the splinter camouflage of the Wehrmacht. Or paint them black and red like Hydra troop's. 😁 Great job by the way. 😊👌

WOW. I think this is the best ever cammo paint job you have done so far even beating the British Para figures.ive always said if you choose the right colours then that's half the work done.This miniature really pops.well done 👍👏👏👏👏

10:18 is when it happens.

Deeply appreciative of your intro. Thank you and keep up the good work!

Excellent intro to the video and very well thought out, you are my favorite painter on youtube and are the reason I got on board with bolt action. Thank You

Great video and techniques. Also, kudos for the introduction. Some people aren't always aware of where their miniatures come from...

Thanks for that intro, I think that was well handled. I think all of us historical painters do (or at least should) struggle with the implications and history of our minis. I think providing information like you have helps to prevent our models from glorifying or legitimizing, even unconsciously, the indescribably hateful and evil ideology behind them. I personally did a whole force of Canadian/commonwealth troops for flames of war, and am about to start a force of Germans, mostly so I can get more games by providing both sides. Still doesn't feel great to make them, but I am never shy on sharing my views on the horrors of the nazis and their cowardly modern imitators.

I find painting the Oak Leave spots very satisfying. It's a sort of meditation to me.

Osprey publishing have a fantastic book on how to paint German camo, it's in there modelling series. Although it's meant for 1/35 scale figures the method can easily be used in 1/56 scale.

What a interesting camouflage pattern obviously we can’t do perfect camo as you’ve often said as it actually works.

Perfect, thank you for this. Excellent from start to finish. I play an SS force too, and I’m actually happy when I lose.

Your painting videos are both relaxing and helpful. I bought a box of bolt action waffe ss secondhand two weeks ago and used your grenadier video as a guide. I struggle a bit on how to do the camo on them, but this explanation is going to help me out.

Sonic, please, don't stop! You are so great at it. There are still so many miniatures that require your painting. :D

Nicely handled, and the day I visited Dachau was very painful.

If you are looking at this for Flames of War or any other 1:100 or 15mm models, I would recommend using a toothpick instead of a paintbrush for the orange camo. I have found it easer to control and it comes out better in my opinion. Awesome tutorial though!

I'm just getting back into the hobby and found your great channel. Thanks for the thoughtful introduction..I've just subscribed. 👍

I would echo many of the comments here. History is what it is. Having served in combat i will tell you that i didn’t associate every Iraqi (or Iranian) shooting at us as necessarily evil or bad. Some were sadly caught up in a very difficult situation. I met many that were just trying to feed their families in chaos. I would also point out that accurate portrayals are part of history and they teach people who observe war games a great deal. Human history is full of terrible things. The Mongols butchered legions of civilians, the same for the Persians, Ottomans…but even our own Curtis LeMay remarked that after what strategic bombing did to civilians if the allies lost he would have been tried for war crimes. “Bomber” Harris would have been a coconspirator in that I am sure. Sherman was right up there with his desire to bring brutality forward to finish carnage faster. And that is kind of the point. Historical war gaming allows us to discuss the history of conflicts. Relating the removal of pieces off the board represents the great cost of combat. We can emphasize that it is far preferable to remember history by honoring it with accuracy and truth in gaming, than it is to forget it and repeat it in the real. Your work is brilliant. I told my wife I think of you as the “Bob Ross” of war gaming miniature painting. For Americans, being compared to Bob Ross is uniformly high praise. I am so glad you are willing to share your gifts with all of us.

Nice video! I painted up a handful of these guys a while ago- some for my German force and the others for my Polish AK force for the Warsaw uprising (as the home army used SS smocks captured from a supply shipment ment for the Wiking Division prior to the 44' uprising and worked it into their ad hoc uniform- really interesting to read into if you have time!). Something also worth mentioning about the camo smocks is that they were actually manufactured in the Dacau and Birkenau camps, which makes the idea of these things extra cursed and monstrous...

A very thoughtful, well balanced and presented video, thank you. Regards Lexi.

Army Painter moster brown for the base colour of the smock, then dark stone & Basikisk brown for the patter worked well for me.

Thank you , Troy

Can appreciate the intro. Gave me a lump in my throat

Totally agree with you there mate and I love the little history lesson before the video it’s very informative

Nice paint job and I wanted to say well handled introduction, I’ve been worrying how to handle painting and discussing these very models as part of a project I’ve been doing, painting up models from the Normandy campaign. Approaching this as an opportunity to educate is bang on and I hope to be able to do it as well as you when I get to wringing these posts :)

Hey man i just want to thank you for the videos. They are really cool and have inspired me to make my own little youtube channel.

Wonderful man! Really appreciate your content and efforts.

My grandfather liberated Flossenbürg concentration camp with the 97th ID. I still have some of his old photos and they are horrifying. It’s one of the more little known camps and it was surprising to hear you lived near there. Been a fan of your videos for a long time, and have used your videos for doing a British airborne, American airborne, and Waffen SS force for a market garden campaign. This really helped me take on the SS camo.

Another great 'How I Paint Things"👍 And I agree with everyone else who commented on how you've sensitively handled the topic. I think if you drew a Venn diagram showing wargamers who collect SS and Confederate armies, you would find a significant (and somewhat disturbing) overlap.

Haven't painted up my Kill Team Krieg guardsmen yet and with it being autumn, may have a color scheme for their jackets! Rest of uniform will be Army Painter Army Green spray.

In wargaming, no one gets to shoot nazis, unless someone paints the nazis. Locally pretty much everyone in our historical gaming club has both allied and axis forces so we can easily switch off which one we play to keep our games somewhat historical. Playing as the axis is one heck of a challenge too. These SS guys got what was coming to them. Shiny, lets be bad guys.

I use a micro brush small, works great for small spotishs.

Didn't know you lived in Germany, greetings from the Saarland. Thank you for trying to handle this well, as it shows we germans are not the only ones having issues tackling these topics. I assume you are british, due to your accent.

Superb camo job!

Your technique could easily be used to paint modern German flecktarn camo, especially the arid variety.

I have been reading a lot about the Canadian Infantry Division's fighting in Normandy. They went up against the 12th SS hitlerjugend, that were mainly made up of 17-18 year old brain washed fanatics. A lot of Canadians were executed by the SS against the Geneva convention. So here's the conundrum: if I want to pay respect to the Canadian contribution in Normandy and the sacrifice they did, I have to include the SS in my games. To avoid the SS because of the atrocities they committed would lessen the Canadian efforts and ordeal in Normandy.

Honestly, decent take early on. Better than some people that label you a goose stepper and give you passive aggressive looks just because you have an SS/German army out. Far far wiser.

Kudos to you for the intro, Sonic. While the whole German army during WW2 is shady (to say the least, re: the clean Wehrmacht myth), the SS and Waffen SS is where I draw the line. I won't collect them, paint them or use them in my games, just as I wouldn't enjoy building a diorama of Auschwitz. That said, an excellent paint tutorial as always!

Well handled sir.

great paint job on the mini. however there were no trousers issued to the WSS that were made in the oakleaf patterns. the only camo trousers issued was the “peadot” camo. if there are trousers made from oakleaf patterns they were “field” made.

Excellent introduction. Very important to ensure that there is a difference between painting WW2 miniatures and glorifying hate. Thank you 🙏

Thank you so much for this guide. It's perfect.

The Nuremberg museum is so real. It's up there with Auschwitz as WW2 memorials/museums. I went way back in 2012 when I was taking 18 months off work backpacking about the world. Certainly brought me out of holiday mode quick smart. Superb paint job here. I did my first pea camo on a 1/35 scale figure a few weeks back. Not as hard as it looks, just takes a bit of time. So much more interesting than early warm german grey too!

A very well put together introduction. All in good taste / context. On a more upbeat note, lovely paint job 😅

Thanks!

Well done. Thank you for treating the subject so sensitively. I have a lot of Bolt Action minis and it's a hard thing sometimes to realize I'm "rooting for the bad guys" when I play Germans.

Love it wonderful stuff

As a Jew whos family died in concentration camps ran by the SS its good to see someone adressing this, as out of the thousands of posts ive seen on youtube and social media about bolt action waffen ss, barely anyone mentions how terrible they were.

Love the video and will be using this for my SS. Question about equipment colour- what colour should I be using for equipment? Things like panzerfausts, mortars and the howling cow?

you handled that intro with aplomb. It's important to remember that men and women of unparalled determination (aka fanatics) exist and they are not always on your side. I really need to break out a Primaris and give him this camo pattern.

That was just such a great intro to this video. Handled just right.

Agreed to your very well put comments. You have a great channel. I have German orange but the fire dragon bright looks perfect. The flesh was highlighted in Beige red or Basic skin tone?

So happy to see you have done a bolt action Waffen ss! Your work is excellent and thank you for sharing your process!!

Very very impressed on how you handled this sir. Thank you.

Wow great job!!!! I struggle with this paint job. Where did the miniature come from?

Thank you for the words at the beginning. Well spoken.

Great tutorial as always, I have Cadians painted in this pattern. Can I make a request? HECU marines out of half life, I'd love to see how you would do those!

Fantastic video, always nice to have more variations on how to paint camo. Great intro, anyone gives you shit send them my way.

great job :):) ... :) :) :) :)

Don't use a toothpick. The wood will absorb the water in the paint and it'll be try before you can even apply it to the miniature.

This model looks like my father going fishing

It was also used(according to Osprey) by the Herman Goring Division in Sicily and Italy, so not just SS

I always feel like weird finding the design of 'them' really cool. But it always keeps a sour taste afterwards what it was used for and by whom. The way you talked about it in your intro worded it perfectly for me how I feel about the subject.

I really wish I had bought the heer troopers instead of the ss... Painting the camo takes forever

Just letting you know that you've painted the chinstrap on his helmet in camouflage haha :P

I follow all your WW2 videos and your content is incredible, I follow them to the letter. May I ask, What colour/process do you use for the Panzerfaust?

I want to do a similar pattern // thanks for the content

Hey Sonic, great Camo tutorial, could I ask what colour you used to paint the Panzerfaust?

I really liked how you approached the sensitive subject about wargaming with Germans, even though we know the horrific things done during the Second World War. I had family in Poland (and Greece) during the war and my grandmother would sew money in the clothing she sent to her family in Poland while she was a red cross nurse.

A question that occurred to me: What camo pattern suits what campaign? Does the green one suit Normandy and the orange one suit Market Garden etc?

Mr sonic sledgehammer, I’m sad you’ve had to open your video with the whole nazis spiel. NO ONE grown up would ever think your views run parallel with the vile because you’re painting a plastic ss soldier. I didn’t watch your Russian WW2 videos and think: this guy thinks people belong in the gulag. Keep doing what you do and don’t apologise for it. It’s a war game, end of. We all know what the uniforms represent and I’m worried that you may have felt you needed to explain yourself. All the best, T.

I'm trying to post a comment regarding the Camo scheme and it won't let me post it. There's a website with accurate depictions of Camo called atthefront. I just wanted to ket you know the oakleaf autumn Camo for the darkest shade isn't brown/chocolate, but rather a very, very, very dark brown almost black hue. The Plane Tree is brown/chocolate though. That website prides itself on historical accuracy. The plane tree spring side has a black hue to it for the darkest Camo color though. It gets confusing

Hi mate I have been watching you for over a year now and I love all your teaching tips and tutorials. Can you please tell me where you get your bases? They look like they have a little lip on the edges. Also what size are they. Thanks so much. Matt.

Hey Sonic, do you have a video detailing the painting process for the Pea Dot Camo (Erbsenmuster)? Through my research I’ve found that the uniforms were either Field Grey or Pea Dot camo and the camo in this video was used only for the smocks like you say.. I was wondering if you have any tips for a paint scheme for the Pea Dot uniforms as I really don’t know where to start and I wanted to mix up the regular uniforms with guys wearing the camo instead of just Field Grey 😅

Is the model a Bolt Action Panzer Grenadier?

Hallo from Nürnberg 😁😁✌️✌️✌️

What paint did you use to highlight the Feldgrau? Thanks!

If you want the neat looking gear without the baggage, the Polish Home Army often stole and used ss infantry kit, so just greenstuff an armband to paint white and red and you can have the cool camo without the monster beneath it

When I tried the german orange it turned out like salmon..

What you think about no washing by agrax...

At the end of the day, it's a game. Not a political statement by the player. Worse case scenario , in my opinion, is you teach someone something they didn't know before.

however the reversible winter trousers were usually autumn pattern oakleaf camo.

ARE THE BOOTS BLACK ?

hello

Enjoy your channel. Just wondering if you signal as hard when painting Soviets?

The half a handful of eggs who complain about "politics? in MY wargame about wwii?", the intro literally has timestamps. If you have an issue with someone pointing out in a very objective manner that the Nazis who signed up for the war crimes division did bad things as part of their job that they volunteered for (I can't stress this enough - they could literally have chosen to simply not kill every single day for 20 years! There were so many ways of being a Nazi without volunteering for active war crime duty between 1925 and 1945!), might I suggest you think about why this very skippable intro annoys you so much?

What happened in the past isn't our fault; remember the past but don't forget over it; just play the game and enjoy the hobby

With all due respect, I do believe the introduction was a bit quaint. We are all (hopefully) adults, and it shouldn't be necessary to disclose that you don't share their views, but that's just me.

I'll be honest I did *sigh* about the intro, simply because of all the historical war painting videos you've done-now all of a sudden a statement has to be made. I'm not agreeing with the National Socialist Ideology, G.K Chesterton after all commented very finely on it and I will recommend you look up those writings of his to get the full picture; but my point is that if we are going to take the moral stand on this-well all the nations in participation of the war have to be also put to under such scrutiny. As I always find it hypocritical that the Nazis always get lambasted, but everyone ignores the massive war crimes the Soviets did to the enemy and to their own people-simply because they won. And I also don't speak of this as some form to attack or some defender of a bygone government, I speak of this as a long time fan, war gamer, painting enthusiast, and history buff. Regardless however, I still think you did a great job overall-I really love the scheme and in the future I might try this camo pattern, either with SS or any other faction I think would benefit from using these colors specifically.