"Recommended "Sky Blue" Color for Union Pants" Topic

Looking for recommendations for an accurate "sky blue" color of paint, e.g., from Vallejo or other acrylic lines. Some of the tones tend to be a little to light blue.

Thanks.

I have always added a tinge of turquoise and then a 1 to 3 ratio of lt. gray to lt. blue to get the right appearance for Union pants.

I used Vallejo Grey Blue, though it's probably a touch dark. I find the Sky Blue too bright for just about anything!

The very best color match I've found in the store bought lines is from Howard Hues #1647 Pants Blue. It matches nearly perfectly with just about every material swatch I've compared it with, and is superior to any other shade of "Sky Blue" available on the market. It has that slight greenish tint to it, and isn't too blue!!

Hi i find games workshop shadow grey nice for 25mm figures, and add a small amount of off white to it to lighty dry brush
glen

Foundry Storm blue or Night Sky work well – depends how faded you want them to look and how deep you like your shadows.

I use Games Workshop Shadow Gray and highlight with Ral Partha Slate on my 25MM. I think varying the color slightly is more appropriate if you want to get a realistic fading effect, though.

I used Vallejo Pastel Blue 70901 and washed it with Dark Prussian Blue 70899.

And just for fun.. my re-enactor friend says kersey gets
darker as it's worn.. The wool was dyed darker, and as the lighter (less color retaining) fibers wore off.. the pants
got darker..

That's crazy! Indigo fades like just about any other dye, it does not get darker.

I second the Howard Hues "Pants Blue" color.

The fibers absorb the color when dyed and become that color they don't lose the color and become darker. Bleach fades colors and it won't be repaired the more one wears it. It won't become lighter. If this were the case we could bleach all our clothes and wear it back to it's original color.

I'll third the Howard Hues color. It has the slightly greenish, light blue that is discussed in diaries and journals from the period.

Erik

I am at work now and do not have access to my library. However, I have the memoirs of an enlisted man named Ostrander who was on the Bozeman Trail at Fort Reno in the late 1860's. They were wearing, of course, civil war uniforms. He said when they lined up in formation, everyone's pants and great coats were a different shade of sky blue.
I have read that the color of cloth would not only vary from bolt to bolt, but also from one end of the bolt to the other.
Having said that, from surviving examples I have seen, I agree with the posts above that say a greenish or tourquois cast would be present in the light blue.
The biggest mistake, in my opinion, that I see in miniatures is that the blue is too light.
Tom

That is correct. The shade of blue depended upon how long the cloth stayed in the dye bath.

I think what they're talking about with the materials becoming darker is that the material is made of two different kinds of fiber that absorb different amounts of dye, making one fiber lighter and one fiber darker. It sounds as though the argument is that the fiber with the lighter color wears off faster for whatever reason (probably a softer fiber that doesn't stand up as well), thus making the cloth appear to get darker. I have heard of this before from Am Rev reenactors also.

I would say, though, that with heavy usage (as in the ACW) the constant exposure, washing with bleach when available, etc., would lighten the fabric overall. The difference is that reenactors are only getting part of the experience as their clothing doesn't get the heavy usage, bad treatment and exposure that real ACW soldiers' clothing received so they tend to misinterpret the results.

Tom's observation about the cloth being different colors is exactly correct – if even modern producers have a hard time matching colors from lot to lot, how much more difficult would it have been for them in the early/mid-19th century, when there was no standard, no color chits, no QC, etc., etc., etc.