Chocolate Chip Desert Camo

Today I shall be providing a quick ‘how to’ on desert camouflage, specifically the ‘Chocolate Chip’ camouflage used by the United States Military during the Gulf War and in the early 1990s.

In this example I’ll be using one of my converted Guardsmen (without his arms or weapon) created by combining the Cadian and Catachan sprues but the general tips still apply



Step 1 – Assembly and Undercoat



Assemble your chosen Guardsman and undercoat using Chaos Black spray (or similiar)















Step 2 – Basecoat



The first thing we need to do is coat the entire model in two thin coats of Khemri Brown, being careful not to obscure any detail. This will be our base colour for the camouflage and we will add one light and one dark colour to this.












Stage 3 – Skin



Using slightly watered down Tallarn Flesh, paint all the areas that will be flesh.














Stage 4 – First Camo Colour



Now we will start to apply the camouflage to the cloth areas of the model. The first colour is going to be Dheneb Stone, again slightly watered down. Using a medium brush begin putting dabs of colour on the clothing of the miniature, being careful to stop the colour at the seams of the cloth.











Stage 5 – Second Camo Colour



The second camo colour will be our dark colour, in this case, Scorched Brown. Again, as before, we’ll be placing small dabs of the colour in random spots of the clothing, trying to avoid having them cross the seams of the cloth for added realism












Stage 6 – Armour



I now paint the armour with Snakebite Leather, again using thin coats to keep as much of the detail as is possible.













Stage 7 – Webbing



I use camo green on all the webbing of the model – this adds a level of realism as in many cases when soldiers are deployed to desert environments they rarely have all their kit in desert camo.













Stage 8 – Wash



To add another level of realism I now wash the model completely with Gryphonne Sepia to create shading all over the model.












Stage 9 – Chocolate Chips



Using a 0.05 black pen dab little clusters of black dots onto the cloth areas of the model to create the ‘chocolate chips’ that gave the pattern its name.















Stage 10 – Completion



You can now finish the model as you wish, painting arms, guns, eyes and teeth in your chosen manner and complete the rest of the squad.