"Confederate gray and brown" Topic

Hi' at all. I'm starting to paint some confederate infantry in 28mm but this is the first time I paint something about the ACW,so I need some advice about the colours.
I use Vallejo or Citadel Paints, which shade of colours do You suggest me for the gray and the brown?

Many thanks, Claudio.

Just noticed on another thread that Vallejo has an ACW painting set.
It includes
- light grey
- golden brown

I also use
- basalt grey
- neutral grey
- brown
- beige brown

and mixes of different greys with black and white.

Hope this helps as a pointer until the professionals come in to give a hand.

Cheers
Eric

I probably used three shades of gray and three or four shades of brown when I painted my figs. I can't give a specific color recommendation for the paints you use.

For the Rebs, I kind of use whatever is in the "brown" bin of my paint box – as with my friend from Pennsylvania, I use a number of shades of both gray and brown. For late-war Rebs, I use a much darker grey than the mid-greys I use for early war

There is a great deal of lee-way when approaching confederate uniforms.

Gray uniforms were dyed in grays varying from nearly black to a powdery gray, almost white. There were times when a particular lot of clothing was issued to a body of troops that can be traced to war records and can be represented on a gaming table in mass – a great example of this is Longstreet's corps after the Gettysburg campaign. They were detached from the Army of Northern Virginia, and sent west during the latter half of 1863 to fight out there for a time, and fought at Chickamauga. Before or sometime just after(I forget the exact time)they arrived in the western theatre, their uniforms from the campaining in early 1863 were replaced with a large lot of new, very, very dark gray uniforms, dark grayish blue actually. (I believe this issue included both jackets and trousers of the same color). Many other confederate soldiers who saw them said that the uniform was so dark and bluish enough that it could be mistaken for the Union uniform in a battle, and perhaps on more than one occasion it was.

But generally, really any shade of gray is appropriate when representing issue clothing for confederate soldiers.

As for browns and tans, or "butternut", this too had no specific color, as the dying process used in the south during the war was not even close to being a uniform or exact process. Utilizing walnut hulls and copperas, clothing that was dyed using these methods could turn out anything from a dark, deep coffee brown to a very light and pale yellowish brown, or a brown with a very heavy yellowish cast, or could turn out any shade or variation in between these.

In addition to this, there were times when the confederate authorities were pressed at times to get men into uniforms as quickly as possible, so quickly in fact that the dying process was completely skipped, and woolen uniforms were issued in their natural, off-white color. They were left the same color as the underclothing(shirts and drawers). Some confederate soldiers who saw their comrades dressed in these undyed uniforms said humorously they looked like ghosts, the color of dusty white!

Mike

If someone were to tell a fellow painter or gamer that he "picked the wrong shade" or gray or brown when painting a confederate soldier, I would like to know how on earth the wrong shade could be picked! From my travels in museums and seeing collections, I recollect I must have seen at least 100 different shades of butternut and gray in uniform cloth.

Same goes for blankets, hats, overcoats, etc. Just too many shades in original examples, it's hard to paint a confederate wrong!

Campaigner1 thanks for that post..Stops me starting a new thread on Butternut…So anything really goes for the Rebels..From bleached out light gray through to darkish brown and even blue…Brilliant will now crack on with 6mm rebs!!!!