"how to get the french coat colour right for SYW WSS" Topic

Looks like a grey-blue. I use foundry and GW paints. How would you advise getting a nice effect for 10mm?

I use a medium gray (grey?) for a base coat and drybrush a pale gray over it. If you want, you can also do a light drybrush in an ivory for highlights. It works in 15mm and 6mm, so it should work in 10mm as well.

I'm not sure about bluish-grey. I think its a somewhat warmer shade- very pale grey with a creamish tinge, being natural wool treated with some kind of organic bleaching agent- probably horse urine or something equally unpleasant to modern sensibilities.
The coat preserved in Les Invalides is this kind of shade, although in fairness there would be big variation with batch and age. Varying the grey by regiment does help relieve the monotony a bit.

I find Fortress Grey from GW works well. I thin it a little with water. I like the look of it. I use a darker grey for the Austrians.

I use gray 10 and gray 5 from Cel Vinyl on 10mm figs.

WSS French wore a pearl grey coat. I use GW Codex grey followed by a heavy dry brush with GW Fortress Grey. officers get a final highlight with Anita's Dove Grey.

Have you tried Vallejo Pearl Grey? I use it on Danes and Wurtemmburg too in 10mm

Pete

well they seem to have a blue look to them here

picture

As i understand it the consensus amongst the reenactor community is a cream/yellowish white – definitely not a light grey. Gris-blanc should not be translated literally apparently.

Blucher: you did know that's not a photo from life didn't you?

I've researched the color of French coats off and on for forty years via original paintings, the off-white coat at the Army Museum in Paris, reproductions by reenactors and by modern sources providing color renditions from Osprey to paintings I bought from the Army Museum in Paris.
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Though the actual name of the color is gris blanc (grey white) this is a name only. Bear in mind that in language white is the main color in this name. Thus gris is a shade of that white. No grey. None. Never in the mid 18th C.
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There is nothing grey about the color at all. The Front Rank artist who painted the minis for the FR website got it totally wrong. 100% wrong. He is not to blame. It is an easy and understadible error, but we here need not continue the error any more.
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The modern researcher of French garments and gear, René Chartrand naturally uses the correct term of gris blanc but in his books there is not one grey white coat in any of them. I spoke with him about reenactor off-white coats about a decade ago at Fort Niagara where he came to speak. He agreed they were properly off-white.
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Go look at sheep sometime. No grey white sheep. Off white or ivory yes. Mix a little medium leaather in your off-white or ivory paint and you've got it right. Put some grey in creases for larger miniatures solely to represent shadows if this is a must. Also, never mind about black sheep or parts of a sheep that are black and thinking this got mixed in with the white. The expression he is the black sheep of the family might convey what Europeans thought of using black wool. Perhaps.
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At the very least think of the same color as Austrians and you've got it right too.
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Oh. Everyone with grey or grey white coats! Please repaint them.
Bon chance,
Bill Protz

"Oh. Everyone with grey or grey white coats! Please repaint them."

Shan't! I love the way the French in my Funckens look in grey coats and it makes a nice contrast to the Austrians. In fact, I am going to do the next lot darker grey!

Wow. Is that vein that just burst?!

Bill,

Since the question deals with the WSS as well as the SYW, IIRC Chartrand's Osprey on the Armies of Louis IV shows the infantry in light grey coats. I agree about the SYW. Any reason for the the apparaent "lightening" of the coats?

Also, I spray my 28mm French white and the "magic wash" them with grey. The result is a very slightly grey cloth with shadows.

Very interesting information, Bill. Thanks for telling us.

To each their own, Adster. If it makes you happy, then go ahead and use the wrong color. It's just a game.

Even contemporary accounts gave different descriptions of the colour. Everything from brownish to (even) greenish casts of grey

Each batch would have been different to some extent, and would show different degrees of fading and weathering.

I personally use a white undercoat on my 6mm WSS, then paint the coats light grey (GW fortress grey), then ink dark brown and a quick drybush with either the fortress grey or the next lighter shade (Ghostly grey?).

Works for me.

I have heard that the Flemish (or perhaps German) term "grau" is also a clothier's term referring to unbleached raw wool – exactly the sort of wool that would have been used to make 18 Century uniforms. From the photos I've seen, it is a very light ivory shade that has no grey in it whatsoever.

Just to muddy the waters further, there's a painting done by Watteau (around 1710) called the "Gate at Valenciennes", I think. It shows French troops on guard duty. The coats have a distinctly brownish caste. ;-) But they could be militia types. Also perhaps a bit of artistic license on Watteau's part, the painting is rather moody in effect.

Another interesting thing about this picture is the range of coat colors between just five or six soldiers, from nearly white to medium brown. That's something that rings true: for example, in Vietnam I recall vividly US troops wearing fatigues anywhere between dark, shiny green to a very faded pale green depending upon how long you'd been in country.

Anyhow, I paint my French in gray, dry brush with a layer of Reaper White Leather, and highlight again with this color. I like this paint for the French, an off-white with a brownish/gray tint to it. Here's a couple shots of my custom 40mm so attired (the officer is about how I like to paint it, the fantassins look a bit darker in the picture).

picture
picture

Wow. Nice job Corp.

Thanks ! Sorry the image quality isn't so great. I'm painting more at the moment. I bought some Vallejo colors today which look about right, will experiment with them over the weekend. Problem with Reaper is nobody seems to stock it anymore, seemingly bumped entirely from the game shops by GW and Vallejo (although it can be found online).

By coincidence, I visited the excellent "De Luzarra a Denain" French army WSS site last night. What do you know, the entry point is the very Watteau painting I posted about previously. Once you "frappez le tambour" to gain entry, there's also a nice illustration of a youthful fantassin in the Infanterie section. His coat is just a shade darker than the white stockings.

link

Regards,
Steve

OOPS – sorry guys – wrong thread!