| Stosstruppen | 06 Mar 2009 7:18 a.m. PST |
Was there any common color associated with artillery carriages for either side? Were they not painted? |
IGWARG1   | 06 Mar 2009 7:31 a.m. PST |
No colors associated with either side. You could paint them any color or leave them plain. |
| Regards | 06 Mar 2009 10:21 a.m. PST |
As IGWARG1 says, any color. For my armies, I did some red, a couple a red/brown (oak colored), a grey and a medium blue. For some odd reason, green carriages doesn't look right to me for the period. Can't explain that, but I have avoided that and yellow. Erik |
| Ilodic | 06 Mar 2009 10:56 a.m. PST |
I posed this question on a forum for cannontry. I was told that paints used were various shades of oxides…iron being the most common. Red and yellow were probably the most common pigments. ilodic. |
| mbsparta | 06 Mar 2009 6:40 p.m. PST |
I doubt plain would have been a choice. Without paint the wooden carriage would soon rot. Although muddy and dirty would apply. Mike B |
| Ilodic | 07 Mar 2009 1:18 p.m. PST |
One other thing. It is also my understanding that gun carriages were always painted to avoid rot, as said above. Another protector from the elements was tar. It got sticky in the summer, but provided the ultimate protection (also very flamible, which is sometimes became a problem, but I think that tar as a protectant was used very early on…14th. century, when often times prisoners were used to man the guns, as the early ones had a nasty habit of blowing up.) ilodic. |
| Timmo uk | 08 Mar 2009 5:54 a.m. PST |
Wasn't there some sort of preservative oils that could be used to prevent rot? Either way I have mine a ramdom mix: Dark brown, deep red, grey and one dark yellow. No blues or greens for me. |
| Ilodic | 08 Mar 2009 9:34 a.m. PST |
Boiled linsead oil was often used as a medium for the oxides, and sometimes terpentine with the tar. ilodic. |
| handgrenadealien | 09 Mar 2009 10:31 a.m. PST |
If the gun carriages were built from oak or chestnut, both of which are strong structural grade timber, they would not rot as they contain high levels of tannic acid which acts as a natural preservative. In the raw the timber has a rich colour but quickly oxidises to a silvery grey in contact with air. I suspect that the ordnance was painted to keep it looking ship shape and this would have been a natural mineral pigment in a vegetable oil medium. |
| mashrewba | 09 Mar 2009 10:55 a.m. PST |
I agree with Erik -I avoid green carriages.To me they look a bit Napoleonic.
Just a personal view of course -I don't suppose they would have looked Napoleonic at the time! |
