PAINTING GUIDE: Cold War British DPM

I’ve been gradually collecting bits and pieces to play out a Falklands War campaign. One of the crucial things to get right is the look of British troops in their DPM camouflage.

WHAT IS DPM?

British DPM (Disruptive Pattern Material) is a family of military camouflage patterns formerly used by the British Armed Forces and quite a few other countries. You can still find it in use by militaries across the globe.

Introduced in the 1960s, DPM typically features bold, high-contrast shapes (usually in 4 colors) intended to break up the outline of the wearer. There have been several variants in pattern cut and colour in British use, but the version I’ll be aiming for is woodland DPM – green, brown, black and buff/sand.

Desert DPM (DDPM) is a variant utilising two-tone sandy beige/brown, used in arid regions like the Gulf War and during early operations in Afghanistan.

While DPM was standard issue for the British Army until being replaced by the Multi-Terrain Pattern (MTP) in 2010, many countries adopted DPM or local variants and still use it.

In time I’ll be painting a range of 20mm figures specifically for the Falklands, but have started with a test figure. This is one of the 1/76 NATO Paratrooper (quite clearly British) figures by Matchbox, in an iconic pose for British troops of the 1980s. Since I was around 10 years old this has been a favourite figure!

PAINTING GUIDE

As usual, I’ve cleaned up the figure and based it on a penny. For this test figure I didn’t plan to do highlights or do the basing – but will do on future figures.

Once cleaned up I blasted the figure with two light coats of grey primer – again as always, using Halfords Grey Primer.

STEP 1: Applied a diluted Nuln oil wash (approx 50:50 Nuln Oil and Lahmian Medium). This flows well into the detail and serves as a pre-shade, it also helps hugely with seeing where you need to paint! If you wanted to go for a soft ‘black line’ finish between colours/kit this might work too.

STEP 2: Webbing and kit painted Vallejo Olive-Grey, leaving a slight edge of the wash.

STEP 3: Vallejo Xpress Dwarf Skin for the flesh basecoat.

STEP 4: Vallejo Xpress Intense Black for the SLR (rifle) and boots.

STEP 5: Vallejo Buff applied as the main base for the camo pattern. I left a slight black line between smock and trousers, and wasn’t especially worried about coverage – there are 3 more colours to add.

STEP 6: I’ve used Vallejo Xpress Intense Monastic Green for the RM beret. It worked well on my 1944 commandos so I’ve used it again here.

STEP 7: Vallejo German Medium Camo Brown added. If you wanted to go for a Desert DPM you could stop at this stage. You could use any mid-brown, if you wanted an earlier pattern or tropical use a slightly lighter shade of brown.

STEP 8 : Vallejo German Dark Camo Green slapped on as the third dominant colour in the pattern. If you wanted an earlier pattern or tropical, use a slightly lighter or brighter shade of green.

STEP 9: Added fine lines of Vallejo black. At this stage it all came together!

STEP 10: The only highlight I’ve done, a 50:50 mix of Vallejo Olive Grey and French Tank Crew applied to the webbing. The eagle-eyed reader will notice I’ve painted the flesh too.

STEP 11: A diluted wash of Reikland flesh for the skin areas and of Agrax Earthshade everywhere else. Prior to this I thought the Buff was still a little bright, but this wash did darken down the figure. Next time I’ll do the wash after painting the Buff, so it doesn’t darken the following camo pattern colours.

Here we have him, DPM ready for inspection!

I’m pretty happy with my first proper attempt at painting a camouflage pattern on a 20mm figure!

A few learns with this one. I’ll do the wash earlier so it doesn’t darken the end result, and I might make the pattern a little larger – it fades into an indiscernible green camo at tabletop distance..!

Apart from that I’m ready to make a start on 45 Commando, those figures will get their berets, webbing, kit, and rifles highlighted. They’ll also get a proper base and a Matt varnish.

I hope you like the result and if you’ve been tempted to try – give it a go! I’m tempted to try out Denison smocks and Panzergrenadier patterns now too. What have I started?

Until next time, keep on wargaming!

8 thoughts on “PAINTING GUIDE: Cold War British DPM”

John@justneedsvarnish 10/Sep/2025 — 19:58

Looks really good, Dave! 🙂 I can remember two things about DPM in the early ’80s from my experience in the TA: 1) I remember the green in my DPM being quite bright, somewhat akin to Humbrol Grass Green, and 2) there was a lot of variation in colour depending on age of the uniforms and how they’d been washed (they were meant to be dry cleaned).

Your SLR looks good – I seem to remember some having dark wood stocks and fore grips whilst others were black!

But, a good start to this project!

LikeLiked by 2 people

1. lorenzoseventh 16/Sep/2025 — 15:32
  
  Dry cleaning John? What on earth did the mod think? I have visions of dry cleaning units with special vehicles near the front 😁
  
  LikeLiked by 2 people
  
  1. John@justneedsvarnish 16/Sep/2025 — 16:48
    
    I think maybe in the early ’80s nobody probably expected a war to last long enough to require any uniforms to be dry cleaned! 😉
    
    LikeLiked by 2 people
2. (Post author)
  
  wargamedespatches 22/Sep/2025 — 20:34
  
  Thanks John really useful insight as always! I’ve done some more digging on DPM, and am now painting up some SAS troops with a much lighter green. The SLRs on the rest of the figures will be getting a highlight too.
  
  LikeLike
  
tankfanboy 11/Sep/2025 — 06:58

I wasn’t convinced as you went through the different steps. Then when the final flesh colour went on, it really came together.
Nice job, it looks very effective.
Cheers, Frank

LikeLiked by 2 people

1. (Post author)
  
  wargamedespatches 22/Sep/2025 — 20:32
  
  Thanks Frank – to be honest I wasn’t convinced until then either. Perhaps I’ll go back to painting flesh first, which is how I used to do it. 👍
  
  LikeLike
  
lorenzoseventh 16/Sep/2025 — 15:34

That’s a great post of “how to….” And for a more obscure period as well. Just one question-do you varnish and if so when? And what with? Oh that’s kinda three questions!

LikeLiked by 2 people

1. (Post author)
  
  wargamedespatches 22/Sep/2025 — 20:31
  
  Thanks much appreciated! Yes I varnish right at the end with matte varnish, at least 24 hours after I’ve finished painting. I use the AK super matte varnish and getting good flat results.
  
  LikeLike