"What colors for ACW Reb Infantry?" Topic

Not talking butternut.

What Vallejo color would you use for the gray rebel coat and what Vallejo color for those blue hued pants?

Thanks.

What scale figures are you painting?

For the blue I use sky blue with a small touch of blue green added in for the highlight.

IIRC Vallejo makes a ACW paint set.

In that set there is a blue/grey color for those blue hued pants.

As for the Coat -- hey, I'd mix it up. IIRC there's at least three gray colors in that set. The Rebs (or the Yanks for that matter) did not have a standardized uniform industry.

Take a look at:

link

mjc

mjc

crchilds.com

Vallejo do makes an ACW set (i googled it after quidveritas mentioned it… didnt know it myself):

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR (Ref. 70111) and will cost $39.95 USD or there abouts.

I second going to Charley Childs and using his colors as a reference point. Many 'how to paint ACW' soldiers web sites are just crap.

A few wise folks have told me that FAR fewer confederates wore light blue pants than many miniature painters seem to think.

"A few wise folks have told me that FAR fewer confederates wore light blue pants than many miniature painters seem to think."

Yes and many gamers follow the herd and paint whole Reb units with them. :(

And yet before the 1863 Mine Run Campaign, A.P. Hill's Corps was re-equiped with new trousers, as told to be be blue. The story continues that an attack was delayed so the soldiers could change back to theiir old trousers and preserve the blue ones. It might seem that painting a whole unit with blue trousers would be better than not, especially given the usual method of clothing issue.

Most ACW paint sets are totally bad or wrong colors. Some are too light or too bright or just bad color matches for the actual uniforms. Yes, in early war Confederates did not wear a lot of sky blue. For that matter, neither did Union soldiers in the beginning. The standard color pants for the Army was Dark blue just like the jackets. Sky blue became standard issue later. I don't know when exactly. But apparently a lot of sky blue or royal blue pants came from England right before Gettysburg and were issued to many Confederate troops.

I would have posted a link to Ben Tart's stuff as well, he uses as close to period dye recipes as anyone, but his site is rather devoid of pictures alas.

Off topic: I found I've adopted a thing I call the Law of Halves. When I need variety be it hair color or Reb uniforms or horse colors, I do half of them with what would be expected, then I half the remaining with the second most expected; then half the remaining with the third most common until I get to the one ginger haired guy at the end.

So in the case of a 20 man unit, 10 would be in medium gray, 5 would be in some other gray, 3 in butternut then 1 or 2 in browns or some other color.

I disagree with FireZouave. He says most ACW sets have "totally wrong" colors. This assumes there is such a thing as a "correct" color – that, for example, we can reasonably say "This is Union Blue" about one shade of blue. In fact even through the 20th century uniforms display an astonishing range of color. This leaves aside weathering etc. I'm talking about the dye. German Feldgrau runs the gamut from bluish gray to gray to greenish gray.

Then add in weathering, fading, contractors cheating the government and using cheaper dyes than what was shown in the sample and you'll get quite a variety of colors even where a standard existed at the time.

Next you need to discuss scale – a good butternut in 6mm will be too light in 54mm.

You also need to include the painter's style and intent. I paint my Union boys in a much brighter blue than is "realistic." If you black prime, in 28mm or smaller there's really no need to paint the jacket at all – realistically it would appear black and a realistic shade would be indistinguishable from black on the gaming table. I want the boys from Maine to be easily identifiable at 4' so I puch up the blue quite a bit.

In short I don't think there's any such thing as "wrong colors." Any really dark blue will do for the Union. Pick one you like and let fly!

Mark "Extra Crispy" Severin
Owner, Scale Creep Miniatures
scalecreep.com

Check out the new rules directory at
DeepFriedHappyMice.com

I wear Ben Tart's stuff in the field and its top notch. Comming from a confederate campaign unit, the only blue trousers I've seen in the brigade were hints of indigo. Maybe SOME late war troops would have grabbed some union trousers, but for the most part the problem with uniforming troops wasn't as bad as most people think. My present uniform started life a mid grey color but has since faded to a more tan\khaki color.

This is a question/discussion that goes on forever. There are several divergent views and each of them can back up their positions with some evidence. If you stick to several shades of gray, and only occaisonally throw in a little lighter blue or tan brown you are close enough to avoid error. The Eastern CSA is often thought to be more uniform in appearence then Western and Trans Mississippi CSA outfits, and this seems to make sense, even if the evidence is not massive to back it up!

Gee,

This is starting to sound like a Napoleonic Uniform Discussion.

Arguing over shades of gray (especially when the gray faded and weathered) is a rather futile discussion methinks!

mjc

Extra Crispy,
I am very much in agreement with you! What I am talking about, mostly, is that the colors are too bright or vibrant! They have to be toned down! And if you do shading and highlighting, they are still the wrong hues! And you almost always won't have two colors that can be matched up to together for a deep tone and a light tone. To me, nobody makes the colors correct! You have to mix your own to get them right. That is my own opinion! Everybody paints to their own liking, so to each their own.

Sorry, I meant to say that the ACW Painting SETS are almost always wrong. I can buy individual bottles and get much closer to what I think is correct and works best! I'm not talking about blacks and browns, of course, but the blues mostly. And some other colors not to mention some bad flesh tones!